2011. The Year of Festivals.

As has summer drawn to a close I can't help but look back on the amount of music festivals I've attended this year. Glastonbury, Wakestock, V Festival and Bingley Music Live. I've seen more bands and musicians than I could have ever hoped to see in such a short space of time. On reflection one of the challenges is keeping track of who I've seen, like some sort of weird collector of musical experiences; I like to wear each one like notches on a musical belt. Or maybe I just don't like to forget.

To name a few… Elbow, Mumford And Sons, City and Colour, Laura Marling, Wu Tang Clan, Two Door Cinema Club, James Blake, Wild Beasts, Cee Low Green, Paolo Nutini, Tinie Tempah, Primal Scream, Chase And Status, Nero, Friendly Fires, TV on the Radio... I forget some. Damn!

Glastonbury was the overall highlight, obviously. There is no festival like it. You'll hear that said over and over, but it's true. I had some great experiences there. Seeing Elbow perform on the Pyramid Stage was probably one of the best performances I'd ever witnessed. Reverse Mexican waves, stories about phantom poo's, around 80,000 people forcefully chanting to Guy Garvey so that he'd down a pint in the blistering heat (he did it) and finally finishing their set with "One day like this" as the sun set in full view.

There were some weird experiences too, like seeing Radiohead's Thom Yorke walk past while I received a neck massage from a burly guy named Steve, as my girlfriend sits in the tent opposite, getting her palm read. The palm reader turns to jelly at the sight of Thom and chases him down for a conversation, totally breaking any mystique the £15 palm reading promised. Going back to the neck massage… I'd sustained a pretty bad neck injury from the previous night's sleep. Sleeping in a tent can do that to you. Let's leave it at that shall we!

I can probably safely say that I won't want to go to another festival until Glastonbury 2013*. And if your thinking, "what about 2012?"… It's out of the question as Worthy Farm is taking a break to let the grass grow back again. But I'm sure shall return!

*Subject to change. So don't hold me to that… it's just how I feel at the time of writing this. :)

Added 23/09/2011.