Leeds Festival

It is currently 21 days and 19 hours until Leeds Festival is set to take place. It would only be the fourth time I'll have been in attendance however the fact I am unable to go is something I am still struggling to come to terms with. Why? Because I love Leeds Festival.

The thing about Leeds Festival is that it's special. It brings a huge variety of people together in a way that is quite unique. Walking around the hundreds of tent circles that make up the camp site of Branham Park, there is a real vibe and you can't help but be sucked in by it. The smell of burning wood, alcohol and the outdoors in the air, the faint sound of the guy that always brings his acoustic guitar in the background and the overwhelming feeling of happiness that sweeps over every attendee is something that is very rare.

I would always arrive at Leeds Festival as one of the early birds, around noon on the Wednesday, exhausted from struggling to carry my many bags from A to B for the last few hours. Every year on arrival, it's guaranteed someone in close proximity to you will require assistance with something and it is also guaranteed that the average Leeds Festival goer will be more than happy to help. I've had to lend out air bed pumps, programmes, time tables, fire lighters, and sometimes just a little bit of time to help someone assemble a tent, but that is just the spirit of the festival. It's also something that helps create a bond with the people around you, you scratch their back and they scratch yours. You begin to feel comfortable, sharing stories, sitting around a campfire on a night with them, asking if they mind watching your stuff while you go grab a cup of tea. It's a pleasant change to the hectic and difficult nature of everyday life which is something that is very easy to love.

Of course the biggest thing about the festival is the music. Every year Leeds and Reading manage to put together an amazing line up that appeals to so many different people. Past headliners include Guns N Roses, Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, Oasis, Pearl Jam and so much more. This year it is the turn of My Chemical Romance, The Strokes (Reading), Pulp (Leeds) and Muse who are all sure not to disappoint. There is something truly magnificent about standing in the middle of a heaving crowd, feeling the excitement rising in everyone as if you have all suddenly become a part of one functioning machine as you wait for the the appearance of that band you have all been waiting for.

After all, it is the music that brings the crowds in their thousands back to this place every year and it is the music that ties them all together, the extra stuff is just a bonus.

So I've Been Kind of a Stranger

For 3 whole years.
But here's my story. I've grown up, I've moved away, I live in Leeds, I have a house, I go to university, I have a beautiful girlfriend and I'm still THIS PETTY.

Okay, I go to Leeds festival, have been going for the past 3 years. And I thought 'hey, wouldn't it be good if there was an alternative to dry shampoo?!'
Well guys, drumroll please ... THERE IS! Kind of.
There's this lovely website called One Stop Festival. (you can find them ----> here) So anyway, I go onto their website and find this product called No Rinse Shampoo.
I bought some and when it came I thought I best use it before the festival just incase.
Let me just say, it's a fucking good job I did! It was appauling, my hair was even worse than it was before. So I went on the site, wrote a review about how bad it was, gave it 0 stars and posted it. I went back on today and guess what? They've changed it completely! They've given it a delightful 4 stars and changed everything I said.
Brilliant, thanks one stop festival. I love being entitled to my opinion.