Continuing on from our awesome few days in Edinburgh, Em and I headed straight down to Brighton for Wildlife Festival. I persuaded Em to come with me months ago, and she agreed after I pointed out Sam Smith would be performing. Long story short, he wasn't after the whole throat surgery thing, but we still had a hell of a weekend! (Plus technically we did see Sam Smith in the crowd, we just didn't actually hear him sing...)
First things first, we checked into our room in a Travelodge. I know, it was pretty much what you'd expect, but not the end of the world. If you can get past the feeling that it sounds like the person in the bathroom is literally right next to you when you're curled up in bed, then it's fairly decent. We got the lovely surprise of finding out our past selves had pre-paid for breakfast, which we totally forgot about. Word of advice however, never stop at the first place you find for food. Especially if said place is a kebab shop and you're not drunk. I had to walk back through the hotel holding a pie, which genuinely felt like I'd hit rock bottom.
The festival was onsite at Brighton City Airport, literally not that far from Brighton City Centre, and they put on a bus service for the occasion which was decent. The whole weekend was brilliantly organised (minus the hour long wait for a bus back on the first night, needless to say after thousands of complaints they stepped up big time on the Sunday night), and just a whole lot of fun.
Although there were loads of people playing, here are just a few of my highlights from across the weekend.
- Jess Glynne - Somehow we ended up right at the front on the barrier for Jess Glynne, and she was incredible. Her voice is so powerful, and she played all the songs we love her for, such as Hold My Hand, Real Love, and Rather Be.
- Mark Ronson - Whilst we were still at the front, we decided to stick around for Mark Ronson, and it was such a highlight of the weekend! He played Uptown Funk (for the first time ever at a festival he told us!), and we all went mad. His last track was Valarie, who he dedicated to his old friend Amy Winehouse, and again, we all went mad. Such an amazing set, plus we realised we both have weird crushes on him...
- Black Butter Tent - A.K.A our spiritual home for the weekend. Here we were offered a plethora of drugs (haha as if!), got a bit drunk, and loved life to the max. Everyone was dancing like an idiot and nobody cared, and of course we joined in. It was so exhilarating not to be judged for looking like a complete idiot swaying around holding two bottles of cider, because everyone else was doing exactly the same. My favourite moment in the tent was 'Dancing Man', a guy with moves so incredible, I filmed him. Enjoy...
- George Ezra - I can officially saw I've seen my future husband in the flesh now, even if we ended up in a really bad bit of the crowd. Emily got clawed in the ribs, and called it quits, leaving me in the thick of the crowd. I guilt tripped, left to find her (cue a two hours search wandering around the site for each other because there was no phone signal!), and missed him sing Budapest. What I did see though was bloody marvellous, and I'm definitely still in love with my G. Ezra.
- Rudimental - The whole place went mental for Rudimental! They played all the classics such as Feel The Love, Not Giving In, and Waiting All Night, and Em and I jumped and danced around like crazy. This was also the beginning of a very brilliant dance routine which I'm sure will become a part of every night out from now on..
- Jimmy Napes - Producer, song-writer, and friend of Disclosure and Sam Smith, and now musical artist in his own right. This was his first live performance, and yet again we were at the front, and he was brilliant. A pleasant surprise from an act we'd never heard play before, I've gone and downloaded his EP and am looking forwards to hearing more from him soon!
- Years and Years - I am a HUGE Years & Years fan, I love their music so much it's ridiculous (although not as much as the Y&Y fan club who were next to us at the barrier, who were so intense it was slightly terrifying). I've had their new single Shine stuck in my head ever since. I'm going to be seeing them again in October, but this set was brilliant, as was lead Olly Alexander's dancing/slut dropping...
- Annie Mac - Confession, I was actually pretty drunk during the majority of Annie Mac's set, and I think we walked off and missed quite a lot of it. However, what we heard was pretty impressive, and got the whole crowd hyped up and ready for Disclosure later that night.
- Disclosure - I am so in love with Disclosure it borders on ridiculous. Like genuinely, their music is just insanely good, and I could listen to it forever and ever. I figured that had it not been for this festival, I probably wouldn't get the chance to see them live again, and the crowd was loving it. They played so many songs, bought out guests such as Gregory Porter who sings on Holding On, and rounded off with Latch, which they dedicated to Sam Smith. My mind was completely blown during the entire set, and it's up there on the list of the happiest moments of my life. My absolute highlight of the entire weekend. (I'm also very much in love with Guy Lawrence from Disclosure, and if things don't work out between me and George Ezra, he's next on the list...ha!)
The next morning, we were so wrecked and defeated by Wildlife, that we actually chose to skip the free breakfast from our past selves just so we could sleep in! It took a bit of recovering I won't lie, I was exhausted from having too much fun. One thing is for sure however, I will definitely be signing up for next year after how incredible it was. I'm converted from loving gigs to going crazy for festivals! Hopefully one day I'll get tickets for Glastonbury, and maybe even Coachella if I'm lucky enough.
Much love ♥
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