Trip Report August 07 (Days 5-8)
Posted: Thu 30th Aug 2007 03:48 pm
Photos : http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/jkavaney/ ... sAugust07/
Day 5 - Thursday 16/08/07
Early(ish) start to get our stuff packed and say good bye to the apartment, on the way up towards centrum we stop in at an Albert Heijn to get some food and drink for the festival (www.lowlands.nl), including some awesome ready made salads.
Damrak was as busy as I'd ever seen it and dodging through the crowds with heavy backpacks was a pain in the arse so we popped into De Kuil to reward ourselves with a couple of grams of Super Silver Haze to take with us. From there we called into a headshop to get some joint holders (the test tube things) and stock up on papers, before heading upto the station which was heaving with festival goers, many of which were British which suprised us as last year we barely heard a British accent all weekend.
After a short journey on a crowded train we arrived at Lelystaad where the shuttle buses would take us the rest of the way to the festival. We thought we'd got there fairly early but there was already a huge queue. Fortunately the organisers had it covered with a seemingly endless supply of buses and before we knew it we were at the festival entrance where yet another queue awaited.
Fortunately we were more prepared this time as I'd spent the bus journey making a couple of grey mist joints which made the queue far more enjoyable and took away any paranoia I had at being searched on the way in (you're only allowed 5g per person and we had closer to 10). Our (my) fears were not justified and we went straight through security, not that I think they'd of cared about an extra couple of grams anyway, and we made our way to the camping grounds. We decided to go for Campsite 2 which was the closest to the main entrance, which seemed like a great idea however once we'd set up our tent and finally sat down we realised how clearly we could hear the 24 hour dance tent... oh well, we certainly weren't gonna repack the tent and haul it another couple of hundred metres!
We rolled a celebratory joint and had the great satisfaction of wandering around (bag free) watching exhausted people arriving and trying to squeeze their tents into ridiculously small spaces! First job was to convert our Euros into the festival currency - Munten, which are little plastic tokens which you pay for everything with, meaning theres no need to carry a wallet. Unfortunately they also help you to forget how much you're spending! Having said that the festival is reasonably fairly priced, especially in comparison with British festivals I've been to.
With munten in hand we headed to the on site "supermarket" to pick up an 8 pack of grolsch for the evening and headed back to the tent to relax, drink and smoke...
Days 6, 7 and 8
The next 3 days were spent at the festival watching bands, DJs, stand up comedy, movies and generally relaxing with like minded people. It became clear very early on that our fears of a British invasion weren't justified and the Dutch outnumbered us 10:1 (phew!).
Musical highlights for me were Arcade Fire, Interpol, The Shins, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Goose, Justice, Editors... I could go on and on.
Lowlands is so much better organised than any festival I've ever been to, all campsites have clean toilet blocks with proper flushing toilets and hot running showers; coffee is delivered to your tent if you want it; a daily newspaper is printed (The Daily Paradise) with photos of the previous day, line up changes, reviews etc; outdoor cinema screens showing everything from main stream blockbusters to arthouse and world cinema; the selection of food is INCREDIBLE, literally everything you can think of from ribs to pancakes, vietnamese, pizza, indian, asian, fruit salads... all at fair prices!
I could talk about it all day but without seeing it in the flesh, its pretty hard to imagine. The best I can do is imagine glastonbury, with half as many people, no pretentious attitudes, better organised, friendlier, safer and of course you can smoke wherever you like. We tended to make up several pre-rolls in the morning and just take them in with us to save any hassle. Can't wait til next year...
Days 9 and 10 soon
Day 5 - Thursday 16/08/07
Early(ish) start to get our stuff packed and say good bye to the apartment, on the way up towards centrum we stop in at an Albert Heijn to get some food and drink for the festival (www.lowlands.nl), including some awesome ready made salads.
Damrak was as busy as I'd ever seen it and dodging through the crowds with heavy backpacks was a pain in the arse so we popped into De Kuil to reward ourselves with a couple of grams of Super Silver Haze to take with us. From there we called into a headshop to get some joint holders (the test tube things) and stock up on papers, before heading upto the station which was heaving with festival goers, many of which were British which suprised us as last year we barely heard a British accent all weekend.
After a short journey on a crowded train we arrived at Lelystaad where the shuttle buses would take us the rest of the way to the festival. We thought we'd got there fairly early but there was already a huge queue. Fortunately the organisers had it covered with a seemingly endless supply of buses and before we knew it we were at the festival entrance where yet another queue awaited.
Fortunately we were more prepared this time as I'd spent the bus journey making a couple of grey mist joints which made the queue far more enjoyable and took away any paranoia I had at being searched on the way in (you're only allowed 5g per person and we had closer to 10). Our (my) fears were not justified and we went straight through security, not that I think they'd of cared about an extra couple of grams anyway, and we made our way to the camping grounds. We decided to go for Campsite 2 which was the closest to the main entrance, which seemed like a great idea however once we'd set up our tent and finally sat down we realised how clearly we could hear the 24 hour dance tent... oh well, we certainly weren't gonna repack the tent and haul it another couple of hundred metres!
We rolled a celebratory joint and had the great satisfaction of wandering around (bag free) watching exhausted people arriving and trying to squeeze their tents into ridiculously small spaces! First job was to convert our Euros into the festival currency - Munten, which are little plastic tokens which you pay for everything with, meaning theres no need to carry a wallet. Unfortunately they also help you to forget how much you're spending! Having said that the festival is reasonably fairly priced, especially in comparison with British festivals I've been to.
With munten in hand we headed to the on site "supermarket" to pick up an 8 pack of grolsch for the evening and headed back to the tent to relax, drink and smoke...
Days 6, 7 and 8
The next 3 days were spent at the festival watching bands, DJs, stand up comedy, movies and generally relaxing with like minded people. It became clear very early on that our fears of a British invasion weren't justified and the Dutch outnumbered us 10:1 (phew!).
Musical highlights for me were Arcade Fire, Interpol, The Shins, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Goose, Justice, Editors... I could go on and on.
Lowlands is so much better organised than any festival I've ever been to, all campsites have clean toilet blocks with proper flushing toilets and hot running showers; coffee is delivered to your tent if you want it; a daily newspaper is printed (The Daily Paradise) with photos of the previous day, line up changes, reviews etc; outdoor cinema screens showing everything from main stream blockbusters to arthouse and world cinema; the selection of food is INCREDIBLE, literally everything you can think of from ribs to pancakes, vietnamese, pizza, indian, asian, fruit salads... all at fair prices!
I could talk about it all day but without seeing it in the flesh, its pretty hard to imagine. The best I can do is imagine glastonbury, with half as many people, no pretentious attitudes, better organised, friendlier, safer and of course you can smoke wherever you like. We tended to make up several pre-rolls in the morning and just take them in with us to save any hassle. Can't wait til next year...
Days 9 and 10 soon