Festival Number 6, 2013.

Oh, life. August was such a good month for me; I managed to blog pretty much every single day and now here I am on September 24 and it's my first post of the month. I'm pretty annoyed with myself to say the least.

However, sometimes we can't help when problems arise and we need to take a little time to ourselves, so I was over the moon when I heard that I had won the Pearl and Butler competition for two camping tickets to Festival Number 6 (thank you, thank you, thank you!), and last Friday I found myself equipped with a tent and my sleeping bag, on the road to the gorgeous Portmeireon village in Wales

It must have been at least four or five years since I last visited Portmeireon and I definitely felt that I appreciated the scenery more now that I am a little older. It's truly stunning, like a fairytale village with it's winding cobbled paths, pastel-painted buildings and water-side cliff location, and it was certainly a nice change from the usual Bramham and Donington Park festival backdrops. The weather wasn't on our side when my friend and I arrived, and we were feeling rather soggy as we walked down towards the main arena in our wellies and stylish plastic cagoules, after finally winning the battle against our tent and the pouring rain. This hardly hindered our spirits though; one thing I love most about festivals is that the atmosphere seems amazing whatever the weather, getting muddy is all part of the experience and we were still looking forward to seeing Everything Everything perform that evening (who, might I add, absolutely blew me away; they are AMAZING live). Admittedly, I hadn't heard of a lot of the bands on the line up prior to the festival and after seeing that Manic Street Preachers and My Bloody Valentine were headlining I was half expecting the festival to be something geared more towards the older generation. Which, in some ways, it was; there were definitely a lot more dad-dancing 40-odd-year-olds than you would come across at Leeds/Reading or Creamfields, but I think Festival Number 6 has that magic touch of catering for all ages and genres. I was pleasantly surprised by the talent and definitely discovered some new music which I have not stopped listening to since, some of the highlights being the angelic vocals from London Grammar, the heavier trip-hop vibe from Tricky, and being transported back to those cheesy family wedding do's in my childhood 90s days with Chic and Nile Rodgers, who brought a party to the Number 6 main stage with popular 70s hits such as Everybody Dance and We Are Family.

I also have to take a bit of time to talk about the food. Oh my. I had totally intended on being as healthy as possible over the weekend, packing myself some cereal bars, cupasoups and a bunch of bananas before I left my house. I was defeated within an hour of my arrival, however, when I was faced with the smell of hot waffles, churros and chocolate, pizza dough and the ultimate rainy-day-comfort-food, paella (chicken and chorizo and vegetarian half-and-half; ah-mazing), wafting over from the on-site food vendors. Not to mention the produce market which sold freshly-baked bread and the most amazing chocolate brownies and cupcakes from One Sweet Day. Needless to say, I'm glad we arrived quite late on the Friday afternoon as this meant that we had to walk quite a distance to find a camping spot, and I am convinced that walking back and to between our tent and the arena three or four times a day is the only thing that saved me from gaining a few extra inches on my waistline.

Overall, I had an amazing weekend, and Festival Number 6 is definitely one that I would return to again and I would recommend it to anybody who is up for a different, more relaxed festival experience that is full of culture. There was so much to see and do that it was impossible to experience everything, such as the morning yoga sessions, the aerial dance performance, the 60-strong Brythoiaid male choir and even the showing of Shane Meadow's film Made of Stone which was being screened in the No.6 cinema, all of which I regretably missed. For the people who are more into the clubbing scene they also held multiple woodland raves with DJs like Horse Meat Disco, Audio Farm and Drunk At Vogue, so people could dance away in to the early hours of 2-3AM.

 

It was also a much-needed break away and I returned home feeling refreshed and motivated, ready to get back in to blogging. Expect lots of posts coming your way! :)

Have you ever been to Portmeireon or experienced Festival Number 6?

*DISCLOSURE: A huge thank you to Pearl and Butler and Mission PR for providing me with weekend camping tickets for this wonderful festival!