The feel good hit of the summer

Well, here we are. It’s the butt end of summer and what do we have to say for ourselves? I decidedly had a quieter summer this year, camping only at one festival, the always glorious yet somewhat meteorologically cursed Another Love Story. I did day trips to both Beyond the Pale and Electric Picnic, in and out to see CMAT and Kylie at the latter, and I think that’s just about it for me now.

Another Love Story is the few festivals that isn’t overrun with branding and it has chosen to remain small, therefore creating a community of people who know how to have fun but also to respect the space. From my brief visits to other sites, I know that I can’t say the same thing.

All you need to understand this is by checking out how much rubbish is on the ground. An equal mix of lack of bins and a lack of personal duty, I think that that’s the perfect litmus test to see if a festival and its guests have their heart in the right place. These festivals serve their purpose - sometimes I think some of the attendees just want to be drunk at Funderland - and that purpose just ain’t for me.

I had great fun DJing at ALS too, as seen in the photo above. It is the utmost honour to be welcomed into the fold of the infamous and ever evolving Shift Shack/Yard/Hut, where friends and family of the festival get to play for an intimate gathering. You can listen to a sample of what I played here. A little gift for you there. Save it for a rainy day. But as lovely as my times have been at those festivals, I kept being hit with the same old hymn shit of people who don’t know the difference between indoor thoughts and outdoor thoughts.