Sunday 1 July 2012

Memory of a not-so-free festival

'Is it an interesting list' he asks?
'Na, mate.  I'm just scribbling, it's a pleasing task.'

Impressions of a festival: That is..... just a list.

Of you, me, them, us and...

All of this.

Glorious!  All these expressions:

The middle-aged-somethings, tapping thighs and nodding heads, 

Gettin' dahn wiv da musik - 'Me is kool, geezer!'
Innit, though?

Toddlers with ear mufflers
Asleep on parents' shoulders.

The crazy guy with beer boxes taped to his arms and legs.
"He's made up, mate - he's got it sorted"

And everywhere, the hippies -
With crazy hats, facepaint and tattoos
Wellies daubed with daisies 
and psychadelic walking sticks
Kids with diablos, kites and rebounders

Old and young
Ugly and virile
Cool and crass
Stoned and sober

A phantasmagoria of movement and colour

Hands up in the air.  GET YOUR HANDS UP IN THE AIR!

Friends and foes, fuckers and assholes
Go low, get high
The wastrels and the wankers and the wasters and the bankers
And the bankers trying to pretend that they're wastrels and wankers

....but they're only ever bankers.

Fascinators, fakers
Flabby and floppy
Taut and stroppy
Laid back, flaccid and erect and preppy

Waiting in line to pee in piss-filled portaloos
Dodging dubious puddles
And loo roll stuck to your shoes

And despite it all, puttin on the lippy.

It's the piss and the loo and the list and the queue and the me and the you.

It's all of it.

It's the asking and the no-ing
The hippy and the dude, the him and the her.

Banker and wanker
Watcher and waiter
Doer and sayer and.. 
The singing and the clapping
It's the trip and the fall and I saw it all
The laugh and cry and the wonder why

But nowhere is there a you and me
Just the beat, song, dance and throng
The clap and the awe and the singalong

Boys doing head stands and bikers being head bangers
No heed of age, sex or job
In front of Prince we're not even a squiqqle
All a shimmy, clap, sing and wiggle

Glorious memory of a free-form festival.