Hello! I wanted to tell you just how good Soundwave was and urge you to buy a ticket for next year. So that’s what I am going to do.
It was AMAZING. I’ve never been to a festival as beautiful as this one before. Sun, sea (no sand) and seafood.
We got to the airport at half ten at night and we were greeted by Adam Ball, one of the organisers who drove us the half hour drive to our apartment, where we crashed out and woke up in the beautiful sunshine the next morning. We had previously looked at the weather forecast which read something like this…
Thursday – Shit
Friday – Shit
Saturday – Shit
Sunday – Slightly shitter…sorry.
But we had high hopes and we were not disappointed. It was glorious. Adam, Abi and I cartwheeled our way down to the festival site and claimed our spot which turned out to be ours for the entire weekend. The sea didn’t take long to entice us in. I do wish it has been slightly kinder on me though as I managed to fall over quite a few times and graze my left buttock on the rocks before I managed to get in. There are sea urchins you see and their sole purpose in life, I am sure, is to get bits of themselves into your feet, so its best to go in with jelly shoes. I went in with flip-flops. Don’t go in with flip-flops. Even though mine had 3 straps to ensure they didn’t come of, they did. Once we were in the sea I could not have been any happier. It was crystal clear and so salty that treading water whilst you listened to the DJs and punched your index fingers into the air (ironically of course) was real easy to do. Unless you are Abi Sugden who had to straddle a buoy to do so.
The music wasn’t bad either! Aly Gillani did an exceptional job of introducing us to Soundwave life with his DJ skilz. Ross PTH, The Nice-Up boys, Hoya:Hoya fellas and WrongTom were most excellent at getting the party swinging into action at the Beach Bar whilst we sipped our Pina coladas and on the main stage Laura J Martin did not disappoint, Bonobo was rammed, absolutely rammed and Jack Baker and Mike Lesirge blew most of the audience away with their sick improv tussle which was only bettered by the drop back into the tune (of which I am more than embarrassed to have forgotten the name of. I don’t think I am too good at writing reviews).
When it came to our set on the Sunday you’ll never guess what happened. It rained! It did! It bloody rained! So instead of playing the main stage drenched in sunshine and probably sweat, the entire festival was ushered into Barbarella’s, (a 1970’s, Italian discotheque) and play resumed. Although, it was a different kind of play. By the time we had set up our equipment the whole dance floor was populated and a rave was well and truly underway. Not the ideal warm-up for an acoustic act that consists of 1 guitar and two vocals. We asked the DJ to bring it down a little so he dropped some Nostalgia 77 and watching the dance floors reaction to this was hilarious. It was like they had all been woken up from a state of hypnosis and caught themselves doing something really wrong. I did enjoy that bit.
When it came to it, the audience were amazing! We had a sea of people beaming at us and dancing along. I couldn’t believe how much they appeared to enjoy it considering we had just wrenched them out of a rave and thrust them into some soft vocal lead, acoustic soul. Every song we played was met with a wall of hand claps, wooops and eager faces awaiting the next. I sound like I am bigging myself up here don’t I. I’m not, I am bigging the crowd up. Ive never been to a festival where the festival goers are so open to everything. They were there to have a good time and so that’s what they did. It really was a joy to be a part of and testament to a wonderful festival.
So, all that’s left to say is thank you Soundwave. Thank you for your good times. I like you very very much.
Stac x