Yesterday I spent the day at the Common People Festival in Southampton (
http://www.commonpeople.net). I haven't previously been a big festival person, the only other music festival I can remember attending is Victorious (
http://www.victoriousfestival.co.uk) in Southsea.
The Victorious Festival grew last year, moving from the Dockyard to Castle Field and the surrounding area. This meant there was more space and much more going on. That reminds me, I need to buy my ticket for this years Victorious.
Anyway, yesterday was Common People. I parked in the city centre to avoid traffic on the way in and out, so I had a 25 minute walk to the venue. On arrival I was welcomed onto sight by security arguing with a ticket tout, an interesting start.
I had chosen to buy my ticket at the gate, having only decided in the morning to go along. I was able to get a ticket quickly with no queue to wait in. Fortunately I had taken out extra cash in the morning so I avoided the £2 surcharge for using my card to pay. It was then onto the bag search line, despite not having a bag. I ended up here for about five minutes, it wasn't a long time. But, it felt like it. I didn't have a bag! Through the gates, well it's was more like a gangway, and I was in.
Once inside I made for the main stage, I could hear the Jackson 5. It sounded like a DJ session with a few breaks for talking. So I took the chance to sit down and check out social media, my signal and the programme for the day. At this point my signal was fine (that lasted till about 5pm).
After about half an hour the good music turned into a guy talking and swearing a lot, so I decided it was time to walk around and see what else was here.
Walking around I saw bar, bar, food place, food place, food place, bar, Ferris wheel. Not wanting to go on the Ferris wheel, or spend all my money in the first hour, I moved on. There was a large tent with basey music, so in I went. There was a good atmosphere with a few people dancing along, so I grabbed a cider and joined in for a while.
After maybe another half hour I decided to check out another area. I made my way round to the uncommon bar where there was some good music, but no real space to sit or stand, so I moved on quickly....to the circus! There were a few circus skills things on the floor; hulahoop, diablo, juggling balls that sort of thing. There was also tent with a show in progress, so I made my way over to the edge of the tent. At this point I should confess, over half the audience is under 7. But I actually enjoyed the show. It was family friendly, in contrast to some of the music and on stage hosting I'd heard around the corner. Even as someone without kids I appreciated that this was here, especially for the younger ones (but also for me).
The performers where good, there was the occasional mistake, which just made me enjoy it more. After watching, a Hula girl, a juggling unicyclist, acrobatics, plate spinning, diabolo tricks and some comedy sketches I was ready to see something else. I was here for the music after-all. I attempted to send a couple of tweets and messages, signal not so strong now. I did however bump into two separate people I used to know and had brief chats with them. So I did have some 'social' time.
Soon after I made my way back to the main stage and worked my way to the front. I loved the trumpet playing in Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, great music. The only bad point was that I didn't go over earlier. Next up Slaves, I only recognised one song, but I think it's fair to say this isn't my go to music. A mosh pit started up, which I didn't join (I'd just got a drink, not wasting that). It was...well I'm really not sure. There were a few people like myself on the edge of this that didn't want to participate. Was this our fault for not knowing the music style, I don't know, but I think not (in my modest and humble opinion haha).
Anyway next up Years and Years, the songs where good, a couple where better than good. But not great because we couldn't hear most of the vocals. A real shame as I could have quite happily missed some of the Slave vocals. Anyway after a bit of a dance and sing-a-long to Years and Years, I decided to grab some food. After surveying the area and the offerings, I decided to go for pizza. The queue was about a 30 minute wait. But not a problem, all of the queues where the same length. There was one letdown for me, I was behind two girls, one of whom had a gluten-free diet. She walked to the front and asked if they had / could do gluten-free and received a positive response so stayed in the queue. After 30 minutes (possibly 25) we are at the front, where she is informed that they are very busy and can't provide something gluten-free. The two girls disappointed leave to find food elsewhere. I was pretty disgusted, as they had asked specifically if they could provide a gluten-free pizza before queueing up. If that had changed, I felt they should have come out and told the girls while they were waiting.
While been disgusted, I'm still pretty hungry so I still got my pizza from the same place.
I then discovered the front room (or lounge) tent. This intimate setting was quite interesting and an enjoyable experience. I could have stayed longer but I wanted to see some of Clean Bandit, and so kept an eye on the time. It was around this stage in the day/evening I heard from a former boss who was at the festival, so I went over to say hi. Yay for intermittent signal.
Rachel was there with her sister and two friends, after quick introductions we made our way to the main stage for Clean Bandit. The music was good, and still no rain, it had been a good day weather wise. As day turned to night there were some beautiful views across the horizon. Soon the stage closed to set up for headline act Grace Jones. I, and my new dancing buddies, made our way to the camper-van bar (or something) after a mixture of dancing on the floor, and on tables, we made our way back over for Grace Jones.
At this stage you could tell people where leaving, there was also the gradual shut down of everything but the main stage. I believe there where a few after parties around Southampton that may have affected Graces audience size.
I'm not sure what I was expecting from Grace Jones, but, well, actually, thinking back I'm still not exactly sure what I got. Other than some very interesting dance moves from Rachel and her sister Helen. I enjoyed it whatever it was (Grace Jones and the dance moves haha).
The day/night ended with fireworks, nothing says leave now like the end of two minutes of fireworks.
I enjoyed Common People, there was a good spread of music and entertainment. The queue for the toilets was never long, if you avoided the ones near a stage. Service at the bar was ok, not very quick considering there never seemed to be that many people waiting. It was clean, until about
8-9pm then litter was everywhere.
This was the first year I've heard of the Common People Festival (a horrible name), and if it can grow and develop in the same way Victorious has then the South Coast will have two great Festivals to rival others, and ones which I would definitely attend again.
