#D2DFest2013

What a fun Bank Holiday it's been so far, and there's still a whole day to go!
There's a bit to follow, but I figured I'd do it in order. So, as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, Saturday saw us head over to Bristol (firmly made it's way into my top 5 cities in England) for Dot-to-Dot Festival. We perhaps didn't take advantage of the festival itself in the same way that our friends Kirstin and Dan did, and staying inside the O2 Academy when it was such a nice sunny day was a little disorientating, but seeing 5 bands for £20 is pretty great value all the same.



They had a fun food festival on in the park, sadly, we missed out on their tapas (twice).



Late lunch was the best burrito I've ever had courtesy of My Burrito, perhaps a little controversial given good ol' Mission's following.

We managed to get through Beans on Toast, London Grammar, Tom Odell, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Dry the River, and we only weren't happy with one of them. Only having Gathering to go on as a comparison to other one-day festivals, Dot-to-Dot does seem to be organised a little better. Although there were a couple of full to capacity venues, the 'headlining' venue seemed to have a good turnaround - meaning Bristol is either full of hipsters who love music nobody's ever heard of, or they sold the right amount of tickets for the space available.

I found the sets a little short, with London Grammar and Tom Odell only just getting started before they were finished, but I guess it's better to be left wanting more than to be stood there feeling bored. My favourites were, of course, Dry the River, they played three (fantasic-sounding) new songs and I'm now even more excited to see them again in a couple of weeks; sorry I'm not sorry for the soon-to-be DtR overload, everyone needs to know about them, hear them and appreciate them. The sound was a lot better than at the O2 Oxford, where we saw them last, and they were so on-point, despite a new, unfamiliar beard and the lack of familiar vest.




Beans on Toast


London Grammar



Tom Odell (and his wonderful hair).


Note to Benjamin Francis Leftwich: Pretty sad day when your sound-check guy has more charisma and stage presence than you do...


Benjamin Francis Leftwich – I'm sorry, man, I really wanted to like you but you swore far too much and it sounded like you were just singing one long 45 minute song...




I think this is my favourite photo of the festival.




Dry the River


This stagehand was channelling far too much Steve Zissou to resist taking a snap.



Food Fashion Bristol on the walk home.

I am really pleased with some of these snaps, now I'm a little more familiar with my J1, I feel like I have a better handle on how to get what I want from it. I'm a little sad that it needs sent off for fixing, especially since I haven't had it all that long but it did a really good job yesterday all the same.

Today was about being in the sun, having rolls for breakfast and lunch and really embracing Berkshire country living – this is the best bank holiday!

Bank Holz.

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I feel like this last week has been about a year long which I think is down to being so tired, so I'm pretty pleased to have 3 whole days in a row off, even if it's just to sleep in until 8am.
We have some pretty great plans for the Bank Holiday, not quite as elaborate as popping over to Ireland like the beginning of the month but I'm really looking forward to everything.

Tomorrow we're heading to one-day festival Dot to Dot in Bristol. I'm mainly going to see Dry the River, the same reason I went to Gathering, but I still think it's great value at £20 and I'm looking forward to seeing a few other acts too so it definitely sounds like my kind of thing. I've been psyching myself up by listening to a few new finds from the line up in the last couple of weeks, I'm a little gutted to be missing Matthew & Me over Dry the River, as it will be my eighth time seeing the latter, but I'm sure with Matthew & Me's recording with bigshot Bruno Ellington, there will be more opportunities to see them in the future.


We're also thinking of making plans to head over to the Berkshire Country Fayre, so maybe we're the country bumpkins many of our friends claim we are, and perhaps catching a film. I'm so pleased to be at home to enjoy this long weekend, hopefully the lack of activity planned for Monday will mean I'll be able to return to work fully refreshed and less exhausted than I've been feeling lately.

Have you got any neat plans for the Bank Holiday?