You'd be forgiven for thinking we would be over festivals by now, but they are all different. They all have their own style and atmosphere. Loveland was no exception. Where Tomorrowland is your international big budget blockbuster movie, Nature One is an intense gritty Sci Fi, and loveland is a laid back romantic comedy.
Although Reuben felt quite at home being on the younger side of the audience at a dance music festival for a change (not something he ever expected to see again), it was not quite our normal cup of tea with it's relaxed house style.
Not to say we didn't enjoy the festival with it's free party boat, face painting, origami classes and speech bubble making tent but its numerous bean bag chair areas should have been an early warning.
There was a decent set by Felix da House Cat and then Fedde Le Grand, but we realised at 9pm, when we were considering going back for seconds to sit in the Tee Pee and listen to the Dutch School Madame (with horn rimmed glasses and a tight blonde bun no less) read hard core porn in Dutch, that perhaps it was time to cut our losses and cycle our second hand dope smoking selves back to our fancy futuristic hotel.
Festival parking done right
Banana (phone) for a dollar? I'll take 2
A is for Anne-Marie
And then he Vijixsckled his Mkjrstblickjested in Veronica's Klijmingfalderholdenkaj
I'm on a bean bag, on a boat
Dancin girls, not sure what they where selling
Some music and fun was had
The prettiest of the 8 stages as Fedde pumps out a good set
We had a lovely sleep in and a tasty breakfast at our German guest house, trying our best to keep things neat and in order as not to upset the funny German chef. We took the day easy as not to tire ourselves out for our 9pm music festival. Just a 40km ride from Sankt Goar to Koblenz. The festival, Nature One, was held in an old military bunker in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. The bus took an hour to drive us there from Koblenz and then it was a 45 min walk to the entrance but it was all worth it. The Germans certainly know how to party hard, lots and lots of atmosphere and energy. The sound was the loudest we had ever heard it.18 stages, about a third in concrete bunkers, the others spread around the site, some on top of hills, it was a maze full of military hardware. We had to be careful not to fall over or down one of the hills in the dark (we opted for low alcohol consumption to stay on the safe, alert side).The bunkers were about 5m across and about 40m deep, solid concrete walls, so so so very loud. The main stage set was so impressive. We had both never danced so hard, about 3am we were exhausted but pushed on until 5:30am when the first shuttle was heading back. Hard to believe people stayed until after 9am when the last DJs stopped playing.
About to depart at a healthy 9am
Anne-Marie showing off an enormous cuckoo clock (and bear by the original teddy bear makers).
Reuben is too busy taking pictures of castles and rides straight into a flower bed (who puts a random garden in the bike path anyway? I ask you (and then fills it with sharp volcanic gravel just for good measure)), bike lands on his head. Anne-Marie the ever dutiful and loving wife immediately whips out the camera to take plenty of photos prior to helping the poor injured husband with his numerous injuries. (seriously the 40kg bike landed on my head (remember all that wine we bought yesterday?)).
In the background is the wonderful castle I was taking pictures of (here washing my cuts out).
Nature one tickets YEAH (Dreamworks grin)
Dreamworks grin for reference LOL
Stepping between bunkers
Anne-Marie dancing with the light men
Reuben gets down in the black light
All smileys
Can you say Hardcore? Bam Bam BAM. Seroiusly back to '92 here I come!
Forgot the camera today, just a few shots from the nearly flat GoPro. We made it to the festival feeling like we had already partied two days straight, go figure. We dragged ourselves to a dessert tasting by world renown Chef Roger Van Damme, Roger introduced the dessert personally to each table. Set to music and looking like DJ decks the molecular gastronomy delight was a complete sensory overload.
Back to the music where the huge selection of world class DJs and producers on at any one of the 16 stages at any time was once again overwhelming. We gravitated back to the main stage where the enormous music and crowd was matched by the scope of the sets and theater. Fireworks, smoke, streamers and confetti galore. Words cannot do the performance justice. Just to say, watching Steve Aoki bring the crowd to a rapturous culmination of the whole three day extravaganza was a highlight of the holiday.
Phewww.
A collection of highlights from over 45 minutes of crap GoPro video footage taken today.
Chaos and Cannons at the main stage.
Smile you're on Fish eye view.
Selfie's are difficult with a GoPro
Hard to see but a good example of international conflict.
We roused ourselves at a healthy 10am in time to get dressed, have some breakfast and make the midday bus back to Tomorrowland. Feeling a little exhausted we pulled out our waterproof picnic blanket and sat on the grassy hill in front of the main stage and chilled, trying to recover from the previous day.We realised we where the only people out of 180000 that had thought to bring a picnic blanket. Hmm maybe we are getting old.
A delicious steak at the steakhouse at 4pm roused us with, if it's even possible, a better view than Maison Bru. Then back to the party with a wild and unmatched vengeance. We met up with Uri and Uric again and rocked on till 12.
So impressed by the sets, sound and organisation. So many stages all very different and unique; some built over the water, some up high and some hidden partially underground. Even though it had poured the previous night it wasn't muddy as they had managed to cover most of the ground in planks and plastic tiles. It was awesome to just enjoy the festival and not have to worry about missing a DJ or queuing for toilets and drinks for hours.
Having to tear ourselves away from the last act an hour early was hard but the bus and exhaustion called. An hour and twenty minute walk only to have to wait forty five minutes for our driver to leave, whence he quickly became lost and our thirty five minute drive home stretched on to four thirty am. Agggghhhh. It was still an unbelievable day.
Anne-Marie under the bubbles
A couple of the awesome characters that help make Tomorrowland what it is
Our seats at the steak house, Cheers
Reuben has to work on his outfits obviously
Some Luxembourgers we befriended
Uric and Uri in better shape than last night
Sneaky
Uri is tall
Uric earns a hug
Just horsing around
It rained again
Such a cool crowd
Anne-Marie photobombs a Swiss couple
The Tomorrowland fairies where something to behold
The end of the night was a bit like this, loud, bright and a bit shaky.
The bus (soon to be nemesis) picked is up at a cheerful 12 midday and dropped is safely at the main entrance of Tomorrowland to pick up our missing tickets. Two hours of standing in the sun with close to a thousand other sweaty frustrated wannabe festival goers and we where in.
Huge, just huge, we spent around six hours exploring stages, admiring sets and making friends. Everything and everyone was beautiful. We had lunch at Maison Bru a restaurant run by a famous chef from Brussels that overlooks the main stage.
Two guys from Brussels Uri and Uric provided boundless entertainment as the skies opened around nine pm. We staggered to the bus (about an hours walk) by the required midnight cut off to get back to our hotel. Sunburnt, drunk and already exhausted we crashed.
Anne-Marie relaxes while Reuben organises a chauffeur to pick up our lost tickets.
Anne-Marie at the Carl Cox arena, what a lady
Anne-Marie at the B2B stage, mushrooms and light everywhere
The view of the main stage from Maison Bru, Festilicious!
A close up of the crowd. It's a plague of Aussies, No seriously there where thousands of us. By the end of the festival I was saying I was a Kiwi to avoid people going "Not another one". The cook islanders threw a lot of people as well with their flag.
After the rain Reuben with his new friends Uri and Uric crazy awesome guys
One last dance before heading home at the little Radio Modern stage out on the water. Too much fun was had today.
We first headed off to a French restaurant for lunch and enjoyed a bottle of bubbly. The festival was dramatically different to Rockness, we went from lush green grass, blue skies, colour and dancing, to rocks, mud, rain, lots of black and standing around nodding. We still had a ball, Anne-Marie's highlight was Enter Shikari, we enjoyed seeing Queens of the Stone Age, Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and lots we had never heard of. We can understand the English folk much more than the Scottish. *New Camera*
Reuben transporting our bike packing bubble wrap for tomorrows trip to Pisa.
Obligatory Download sign photo
Anne-Marie gets down with a more interesing couple of ?Downloaders?
