Hopping down in Kent with a t-i-oh, a t-i-oh, a t-i-e-i-ohh.

Oh my god, Hop Farm was SO GOOD. I want to go back so bad. Ima do a brief thingy of the whole weekend, mostly for my own reflection later on, so ignore it if ya fancy :)

So we didn't know we could camp on friday until about half 11 at night, so we had to leave in the dark and were actually the last people in before they closed the ticket place. We also forgot the tickets and had to go back ahaha. Got a lot of comments while walking to the campsite like, ' the music's already finished, you're a bit late' and stuff, which was funny. We got quite a good spot on the campsite, cept it was right next to a bin. The tent next to us had these two men in it, and they were proper funny. Everytime one of them spoke, everyone else was like, 'shut the fuck up Brendan' even when he wasn't talking. Then their whole tent collapsed, ahaha. Then they all kept reciting that John Cooper Clarke poem, 'the fucking chips were fucking cold'.. and imitating Bob Dylan, and taking the piss out of him. So funny! He also asked us to wake him up on the saturday morning, but then at half 6 he was like, wakey wakey..you asked me to wake you up. We were like, no that was you.. The arena wasn't open until 11 so we went back to sleep anyway. Then when we did get up we ate some jelly with our hands and had a chat.
Then the arena opened so we walked around it until the music started and then watched Foy Vance, and he was actally pretty good. Mum likes him. Saturday morning was a bit hazy tbh as I'd had a bit to drink, but I think we just sat around for a bit, until Magic Numbers were on. We also got some food, I think it was chinesy. Umm, yeah, Magic Numbers were good, they did all their old stuff so everyone was dancing and stuff. The stage was bigger than I was expecting which was cool, and there was also another big tent, but we didn't actually go in there at all. There was a small tent as well, where the bar was but it had a stage in and we watched a lot of stuff in there, but that was later so I'll do that in a bit.
So, after magic numbers was Johnny Flynn, and we watched a bit of him, but then went back to the tent cos it was too hot and we needed water and stuff. After Johnny was Laura Marling. She was so good, I cried a little bit. Her voice was brilliant, it sounded better than the album. She also did a really good mixture of songs from both albums, and she did Alas I Cannot Swim which is one of my songs. She got the words wrong though, on the first line she said boy instead of house, and then changed it on the next one and laughed, it was good. Peter Doherty was laying after Laura so although their was a 15 minute gap we stayed near the front and were about 3 rows back but to the side, and could see really well. At the front they were handing out water so we had a few of them, it was so hot!
Then Doherty was on and he was absolutely brilliant, he was totally on form and also did all the classicy ones from all of the albums, including libertines and babyshambles, as well as his new stuff. I think he was actually my favourite out of everyone, I absolutely loved it. He was way better than when I saw him last year, cept he didn't do as many songs obvs, so that was a shame. After that I think it was Seasick Steve, but we went to the smaller tent for a bit for food and drink, and cos it wasn't as hot in there. We could hear Steve a bit, and he sounded pretty good, and we could see him in the screens as well, but it was way too hot to be in the crowd outside. After him I think it was Mumford & Sons, but thinking about it I may have got the order wrong, cos we went back to the tent for the last half of Mumford & Sons as well, but the bits we did see were brilliant, his voice is so good live.
Umm, then after them I think it was Ray Davies, who we watched but we were sitting on the field, not in the crowd. He was good, but did too much new stuff, so no-one knew it. He did do some of the old Kinks stuff though, which was good. Thennn after that it was a while until Bob Dylan was on so we went back to the smaller tent and got chairs. We stayed in there from about 9 until 3ish, cos it had loads of little bands and then comedy including Lee Nelson and Abandoman, which is like a improvisation hiphop act. There was also other comedy acts, but I don't remember their names.
The whole weekend was hiliarious, and I saw some really great bands and it was just such a good experience overall. I would do it all again in a second.

So, that was my weekend, thanks for listening :)
I will upload pictures/ videos when Ruth uploads them to facebook or something, but I can't atm :)

x