Boardmasters '13

Firstly, I should probably warn you there will be lots of posts tonight, as neither of us have written a blog since last October but have done a lot of baking! However, this post is nothing about baking at all...

Last August we went to Boardmasters at Watergate Bay, which is a surfing and music festival in Cornwall. It was a 'medium sized festival' (although I would have classed it as small) and relatively more chilled out than some of the other festivals on the circuit. I was initially worried it wouldn't live up to the expectations I had from going to Leeds fest as a teenager, but while it was a totally different experience, I enjoyed it just as much as Leeds. 

The weather was beautiful all weekend, bar some rain on the Saturday night during Basement Jaxx set, but this certainly didn't dampen the atmosphere... heh heh. It was headlined by The Vaccines, Basement Jaxx and Ben Howard. The Vaccines and Basement Jaxx were incredible, and dancing to Basement Jaxx in the rain with a large quantity of cider on board with hundreds of other people was the best. Ben Howard was disappointing, but this could have been due to the smaller crowd, quieter, more laid back set and style and the fact that we were knackered. One of the highlights of the weekend was discovering an unsigned band from the Channel Islands called The Recks. They played a bluesy/swing inspired set (or so I've been informed by the musical half of this relationship), which was really infectious and had the small crowd proper bopping. 

Music aside, there was a Cornish style market on offer, along with a lot of cider, and the usual festival stalls selling merch, facepaints etc. The other big draw for Boardmasters is the surfing competition held in Newquay on Fistral beach. Fistral is a legendary surfing beach, but sadly over the weekend the surf was fairly small and the compeition didn't reach the levels it could have. It was still enjoyable though, and if nothing else we both managed to fall asleep on the beach for several hours. 

The only downsides were the irritating group of teenagers camping next to us (mainly due to the same lad cracking the same joke ALL weekend) and the 8 hour drive home with delayed onset hangover. That was awful.

This year we're going back with some good friends of ours, and I'm really looking forward to this. Announced so far as headline acts are Chase and Status and Bastille, which I am super excited about! 

Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

More information about the festival and tickets can be found at Boardmasters. If you like surfing, sunshine, the beach, music or cider then this really is worth checking out. 

Birdy x