the first night at Global Gathering proves quite a learning curve

This was my first visit to Global Gathering, so I was walking into the festival completely blind on what to expect apart from what I'd heard from friends who had gone when it had first started a decade ago.

My partner in crime and photographer had not been since 2003 when it was still a one day event (It expanded to two days in 2005) so he was looking forward to seeing how the festival had evolved in the eight years since he had last been. The site is just outside Stratford-upon-Avon in the heart of the midlands, and sit's on Long Marston Airfield which has hosted other music events such as The Phoenix Festival and the Bulldog Bash over the years.

The weather gods smiled on us and we headed up the M40 towards Warwickshire in very hot and muggy conditions with the forecast for sunshine across the weekend. Having arrived at the site, we trudged up the car park towards the wristband exchange noticing the large amounts of people sitting in or just outside their cars drinking and listening to music. Having got our wristbands we made our way towards the security checkpoint. Three stewards blocked our path and as we went to show them our wristbands one of them noticed I was carrying a crate of cider and bellowed "No alcohol on site" at me.

I looked at him a little confused and said that we only wanted to take it into the campsite not the arena when one of the other stewards said "unfortunately the organisers have stated that no alcohol is to be brought onto the site at all and it will to be left in the car" the first steward then shouted at me "it's on the website you should have seen that" in a very aggressive manner. So that explained everyone sitting in the car park drinking then!

So we then walked back to the car, unloaded all our supplies, and walked back again to the entrance before then having our bags searched for any alcohol and drugs with police and sniffer dogs and security all standing round watching us. Suddenly this felt like I was entering prison rather than a summer music festival.

Upon going through the gates and straight into the market area, we enquired as to where the campsite was as there were no signs directing you anywhere, after asking three times we found our camping area and pitched up. After all the fiasco of getting in we finally finished putting our tent up some 2 ½ hours after arriving in the car park despite arriving with virtually no queuing for the car park or at the entrance.

With that we dashed into the main arena to catch some music and get a much needed drink down us. What I liked about Global Gathering was that rather than having just one or two big beer tents they also had smaller ones in each of the eight tents that were hosting music. I got to the bar very quickly, although I soon realised why when I was charged £8 for two cans of Gaymers cider. This was now to become either a very sober or very expensive weekend.

Having been delayed getting in, we went over to the main stage to catch what we could of Pendulum's headline set. The Australian rock/metal/dance/dnb or whatever you want to term them have become very commercially successful in the last few years, and I was hoping for an improvement on a lacklustre set I'd seen at Glastonbury just over a month before.

I wasn't to be disappointed with a much more vibrant and energetic set, with tracks such as their cover version of the Prodigy's 'Voodoo People' and their own hits such as 'Slam' and 'The Island' energising the crowd complete with firework show at the end. They defiantly seem to work better in the dark at a dance festival rather than in the daylight in Somerset.

One troubling thing you find with Global is that after dark it becomes slightly difficult to navigate yourself around the arena as apart from the main stage the rest of it is basically seven stages in a big circle with the market and food stalls positioned in the middle of it. One tent begins to look like another and on more than one occasion we walked towards a tent before realising we'd got the wrong one as we approached it.

After catching part of Annie Mac's set in we made way to see the final half of Underworld's set in the Global tent. Unfortunately a lot of what you want to see clashes with something else so we made the decision to catch parts of each set on the first night.

It was surprisingly quiet for Underworld and we make our way to the front barrier, and enjoy a seminal set from Karl Hyde and Rick Smith the wonderful track 'Two Months Off' really brings the crowd to life before they close the set with the 1996 anthem 'Born Slippy'.

We finish our evening with Richie Hawtin who draws a big crowd with his heavy techno set, which lasts till 3am. We return to our campsite and I am introduced to one of our very friendly Scottish neighbours called Dougie who in his rather worse for wear state has lost his camping chairs. Leaving the Scotsman politely enquiring to the surrounding campsites as to the whereabouts of his chairs I retire to the comfort of my tent.

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