#nfr

Happy fifteen year anniversary to the album ever

The early morning of the 27th my friend, her friend and I departed from my friend's house for a three hour long car trip. We listened to taylor swift, sang tøp songs, almost collided because a guy in front of us slammed the brakes and my friend saved our lives there. Car Radio had just started playing. I asked to pause the song for a sec when she restarted the car.

We arrived at the festival's place and I ran to take the numbers, 46 for me and 47 48 for them. We were in a small park really close to the venue and there were al least a dozen tents planted there, under the shade of maritime pines, it was a proper camp only missing fires. There were tøp flags on some tents, too. It was cool! And no mosquitoes, I didn't get stung once. We had a supermarket nearby for food and toilet stops. I rolled down my 3x4 tarp, which became the communal tarp for my friends for the rest of the camping time. My friends and the friends of my friends sat there, ate there, played cards there, slept there, everything. Left their stuff there. I swear to God, on that tarp it was a communist micro-state. There wasn't even a concept of "my water bottle" "your water bottle", we all drink from whatever bottle was open and closer to our hands. The food too, at some point, ended up kinda being shared like this.

There was a girl with a broken foot who would go around on her wheelchair pushed by two other girls on turns, she's been the coolest. Imagine camping 3 days with a broken foot in a wheelchair in a park. She even managed to take a sort of bath in the sea when we went to the beach at late afternoon. I didn't go further than my half thigh, I was wearing swimtrunks but I was using them as shorts, I had boxer underneath and didn't want to get wet in that brown, matted water that looked more like a swamo than a sea.

So the day went by, more people arrived and I gave away the first half of my bracelets (everyone was super happy to take one and I got a ton of compliments ^ ^) and got freebies, bla bla bla. There was a big issue: the queue. I'll keep it short: festival security ended up telling us to make the queue once the gotillaz crowd had left the venue, so around 1am. Which meant sleeping in the queue, between the metal barricades already. Which meant on the road, with dirt and dust and cars peeping to bother on purpose. This was in order to start the real queue organized with the numbers, in accord with the security.

Well, some friends and I ended up sleeping in the park anyway, despite it having mostly emptied both from people and tents. Actually, other than us, there were most of the queue starters (seriously?) and maybe a couple more people. We slept on my tarp, two in a tent connected to it, like 7 people in total? 8 at some point? I only had my backpack and two towels to use as blankets, one wasn't even mine. Three girls slept tight like sardines under an open sleeping bag.

I slept maybe 1h30, because at 4 we were still awake and it was past 5.30 when I woke up. Slowly the other woke up too at 7.30 we went to the supermarket bar to have breakfast and go to the toilet. Afterwards we went back on the tarp and stayed a little more, until it was time to pack up and take lunch. By 2pm we were in the barricaded queue.

The situation was almost nightmarish, and us with the low numbers got even lucky. Because there were two sections of barricaded queue: the first that had numbers 1-80 and the second 81-147, which were all the people who had been given a number by then. This is another long story that I won't tell. The first queue was spacious enough, people had out down towels to sit and made covers from the sun with metallic blankets, there was the space to walk up and down, like I did. The second section... people were all standing up packed like sardines from 1pm, and entrance was at 4... I heard someone came to spray water on them. Had I been between them I would have collapsed 100%.

And then 4pm came. And we packed up. And got our tickets checked and bags... touched, mine didn't get opened despite being full to the brim. And we ran. Hard. I saw a friend of mine slip, fly and land badly on the gravel- got back up on the spot and we run together to the barricade. And we got it. Not central but we fucking got the barricade. We would have been almost in front of Josh, like I was in Bologna.

I had him, his she-friend, our she-friend and her grandma close to us (yes a grandma. Another cool girl let me tell you. The courage she had to endure all that). I sat down with my back against the barricade.

And bursted. Ever since the morning, every once in a while I'd feel my eyes sting and the need of crying, and thought "once I find a peaceful place to settle ill just just this cry and get over it" but never had the time to, and then I sat against the barricade. I full on bursted. Started crying out of control in my bucket hat covering my face, people started asking if I was hurt or feeling sick and I could only shake my head because I couldn't speak, I started panting too. Like a panic attack but it wasn't panic, I suppose the stress I had accumulated that day and half pushed out once the relief of realizing the thing I had done all that for had happened.

I had the bucket pushed into my face trying to make the least sounds possible, I heard a girl telling me "I'm studying psychiatric rehabilitation, do you want to make a breathing exercise with me?" and I nodded, she asked if she could take my hand and place it on her chest, I nodded. In that situation, under the raging sun and packed so tight, barely any wind, we were all so sweaty. Like wet and dripping sweaty, and it was surreal when she took my hand and placed it on her chest, and told me to breath with her. Shining sweaty, each and everyone of us. A little at time, I was able to slow my breathing down. Someone offered me water and i said yes, except they poured it on my head- it worked anyways, even though it made my bag and everything inside it damp.

So I calmed down and stopped crying, more or less, despite a few microbursts here and there in the following hour, and with handfans and my metallic blanket keeping us alive, we waited. Security periodically gave us water bottles and a guy in a superman tee sprayed water on us from a tube a few times, we waited.

Until around 6pm which is when the first opener band got up on stage. Aurevoir Sofia, Italian guys, I liked them a lot. Not to the point of listening to them on my own, but I'd do ti their free shows. Second opener, Midnight Generation from mexico- oh the vibes. Everybody loved them. Go losten to them. Third opener, Wet Leg... I was seriously disappointed. The last two songs and half, I was sitting down.

There was a big issue tho: the basses. They were too loud, powerful, to the point that- I found out at the end of the show when my friends told me - people were getting nauseous. They also made the singers vocals barely comprehensible and ruined the sound of songs. I had my ear plugs specific for shows and I still had to cover my ears a few times. I've been told by my friends that they had to ask to a tøp guy (their manager? Sound technician?) to lower them, and he did. Personally, I didn't feel much disturb to Tyler's vocals, on the other hand, or maybe they fixed his mic after seeing how bad it was for Wet Leg. I enjoyed the basses a lot during tøp's section but again, I had ear plugs.

And then the show happened. I'll skip this part. Maybe for another post.

After the show, right after it ended- a wave of heat, horrible, I truly thought "I have to get out I have to get out now", got out and found my friends, then we went to the beach at 1am. I was dying, I'm telling you. 6 hours of sleep in 48, and consider the whole afternoon spent like that and all the jumping screaming for the show. I was feeling drunk. Someone went to use the shower on the beach, I and others took advantage of the loungers from the beach club - absolutely illegally. It was a private club. But at 1 am who's there to guard, who fucking cares, we rested and moved the loungers around and showered. I didn't want to because I didn't have a change of clothes so I asked a friend to pass a wipe on my back. Then we walked back to the cars, said our bye byes, I sat in my friend's and buckled my belt... Died.

Next thing I remember we're pulling in a travel plaza and enter the sketchiest gas station stop I have ever seen. We take snacks, back in the car and we chat about stuff, finally we arrive to my friend's place. One at time we took a shower, there was a guy too with us this time. Him and I slept on the couch, he left early without waking me up (I appreciated). My friend and I spent the rest of the day recovering, literally. We had no food and were supposed to take groceries but we were devastated, and the heat outside was horrid... we ended up ordering chinese take out. It saved us.

Gifts from my friend. The first two are originals, the rest prints, the small ones stickers.