Last year I went as a spectator and this year I went as a worker, either way it has been a memorable weekend. Call of the Wild Festival was filled with friends, laughs, sun, booze and bands plus a dinosaur, what more could you ask for? After trying to write this piece three times, I’m going for a more personal blog post because there is so much I missed but so much I saw and more importantly felt.
Home for the Weekend
Until last year, I had never been to a festival that was outside, let alone camping and I loved it. Sadly this year I wasn’t expecting to be attending due to my lack of funds (from lack of paid jobs) so it was a wonderful change of events that I could attend.
Anyways, it was great to return to the showground and set up home for four days. I still didn’t learn my lesson from last year and just slept on a roll mat and my sleeping bag, next year I am determined to get a camping bed (hopefully I will be driving by then too, so I can bring more stuff). Of course I brought my battery powered fairy lights to provide me with a) some light at night and b) to look cute in my pink tent with blue, white and yellow which is definitely hard to miss. Once home was set up (with supervision from Liam) and made some kind of liveable, it was time to hit Lemmy’s Bar! Of course there I bumped into friends, photographers and bands. To kick off the VIP Party was DJ sets from Raz, Jon and Lee (bosses of the festival) followed by an amazing set from Metallica tribute band “Metallicish“. Not that I am a massive fan of Metallica, but these guys were on fire and I loved watching them. Continuing into the night was a DJ set by the Sisters of Spin (Caz and Tina) where I danced into the wee hours with Sabian, occasionally drawing inspiration from Finland’s “Cha Cha Cha” dance!
Time for bed but not before heading to the burger van for fries with mayonnaise… which never got finished but sure smelt funky by the next morning once the sun came up.
Time to Get Started
The birds were singing, the sun was up and it was time to get this festival started!
Sabian and I opened up the Merch Stall Friday morning, feeling slightly delicate but before long, merch was selling fast, so much so that we missed out on free beer in the VIP Garden. Imagine that as a perk, free beer from 10.30am to 12pm in the VIP Beer Garden! The VIP area is just utterly gorgeous! Picnic tables, under the trees which is decorated with fairy lights to give a warm glow feeling which is so beautiful at night. The VIP area this year had an awesome edition of a cocktail bar which sadly I didn’t get a chance to sample but from what I heard was delightful!
First band to kick off the whole festival was Mercia from Stoke on Trent and from what I could see, there was plenty of fans ready to party. Of course the camping chairs were already out and in position for spectating later. It occurred to me over the course of the weekend that bringing out your camping chairs into the arena is the festival equivalent of bringing your towel down and putting it on a sun lounger while on vacation.
All of the COTW vest tops were sold out by 4pm and by 6pm, next years tickets were on sale. It was a slow start but the build up was amazing. For some random reason (later turned out they were connected to a band playing on Sunday), a bus filled with school kids came to roam the grounds and witness how the rockers like to party. In all fairness the kids were well behaved and seemed genuinely interested in the bands (especially Ashen Reach) and a few were spotted by the Tattoo Tent (supplied by the fabulous Black Anvil Tattoo Company). I don’t ever remember having such a cool school field trip.
Kris Barras Band closed the night off with an amazing performance. Plenty of happy people jumping around, beer flowing, cheers roaring and it was a great to be a part of that atmosphere! The cool night air just soaked into my skin under the twinkling stage lights and like moths to a flame, most of us went to the food trucks. Basic bitch here had fries with mayonnaise again and headed to my tent for a few minutes of peace. The plan was to remerge and head to the after party in stage three but I got punched in the face with tiredness and crashed out listening to Bon Jovi’s “Raise Your Hands” drifting across the night sky.
Sizzling Saturday
Saturday was the most perfect day a festival could ask for! The weather was hot, the booze was cold, the bands were thunderous and the Dinosaur was loose!
Yes, that’s right! Ritchie the Raptor was roaming the grounds on Saturday and I have to say it was amazing! More people seemed to be in the grounds that day, especially children. I got bitten by Big Ritchie after he snuck up on me at the merch stall. I had my head down folding up a t-shirt to look up and see a raptor in my face! I went to rub his snout which clearly he didn’t like but found it funny to snap at me. It was all in good fun and baby Ritchie later on was just as bad.
Festival Mama Bear Lesley was on top form all weekend and wow we had some laughs. Just so you know, she fell over Thursday night, completely sober and broke her hand, she then continued to rule the roost with swollen fingers and immense pain. The one handed bandit did amazingly well!
To see all the children running around, playing with each other, chasing the dinosaurs and rocking out with the bands was rather heart warming. Even for someone like myself who (as you guys know) is not the biggest fan of children. Correction, I like children if they are well behaved, have manners and are not crying which nine times out of ten (at least around me) they are not. The ability for the children to roam the grounds, not causing problems and just enjoying the festival was a huge highlight for me. It gave the whole festival a sense of family which essentially it is, one big rocking family.
I think the heat just topped off the whole day! There was plenty of shorts, sunscreen and sunburn! Two blokes dressed head to toe in gold, a man dressed up as a police woman with two blokes in orange jumpsuits (later found out it was a stage do), another orange dinosaur was roaming around, plenty of Scandinavian rockers in leather jackets and honestly, a lot of laughter, glitter and booze! It was the ultimate festival vibe.
Terrorvision closed off a scorching Saturday! Lesley was jumping around like a teen, as were many people in the crowd and as always, it was time to head for food and the after party. Yet again I didn’t make it to the after party which included a Foo Fighters Tribute band, as I got chatting to my neighbours in the campsite and we just chilled listening to it all rumbling in the distance. Must have been at least 2am before I got settled in my little tent, wrapped up in my little cocoon as the temperature plummeted. A sign of the day to come.
Sunday Sunday
Cold. Cloudy. Windy. Did I mention it was cold? It was a complete overhaul of the day before. It was like someone had flicked a switch and packed the sun away. The turn of weather certainly didn’t deter the punters who were still rearing to go for the last day.
Everyone was wrapped up and as predicted, the hoodies soon became merch item of the day! I’m pretty sure the coffee stand made a killing that day too! Despite the wind, the clouds and the cold, the bands were on fire and the talent was unbelievable! There was glitter, there was Krakens, flashbacks to 80s Iron Maiden, plenty of face paint and even some gothic rockers from Sweden thrown in there.
Sweet Electric got everyone in the party mood with their rendition of LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem and Tailgunner gave everyone a dose of nostalgia, they sounded just like early Iron Maiden and I am sure they are going to go far. Gothic rockers Sister had plenty of fans cheering along as did King Kraken and Fury.
To close the night was the welsh wonders Those Damn Crows and plenty of people just came to see them, let’s just say the queue for the signing tent was rather long even though there was no new merchandise to sign. Since it was the last night, it couldn’t close without one more after party! We danced the night away, and had plenty of cheese towards the end (for those who know, they know). After chatting to a few friends it was time to call it a day and go lay down in my own little bubble.
Time for Reflection, Well Sort Of
Not that a four day festival should need a lot of reflection but I need to express what it meant to me to be there.
As many know, this is my final year at university but what a lot of people don’t realise is that I have come so close to dropping out, I am surprised I made it. People see me on socials or in person and/or hear me on the radio and think “wow, she’s confident”, when in actual reality I am not. I am my biggest critic, I can be quite introverted, I am not comfortable in my own skin and to be honest, a bit of a plain jane shell. But with live music, I feel alive, especially when I have friends performing!
This year I had King Kraken, Kickin Valentina, Ransom, and Baranovich playing, and to be honest spent quite a lot of time with them all chatting. It was nice just to not really think about anything else other than being in this little rocking village.
For four whole days, I was in my own world, the sea of tents and glamping tents became little homes in this village. We had shower blocks and toilets for everyone which weren’t vandalised or anything (yes, the glamping toilets were a bit icky but ah well). The arena area became downtown if you like, it had food for every taste including vegan. A lady selling handmade jewellery, a guy selling clothes, a tattoo shop, a coffee shop and of course the local boozer was Lemmy’s Bar. The security staff were amazing, the medical teams were always roaming around the grounds and to be honest, I’ve never felt so safe in an environment before.
There was so many highlights for me, including the dinosaur trying to eat me, introducing Sister onto the stage, seeing my friends fill the third arena, catching up with my welsh lovelies King Kraken, hearing Beth Blade sing Tina Turner, dancing the Cha Cha Cha with Sabian, trying to line dance with Steve (Baranovich), seeing Tailgunner playing football with the kids, seeing Raz (festival director) skim around on his scooter, Lee and Dave swanning around keeping a eye on everyone, Tosh being the loveliest cherub making us giggle (I have never met a more welsh man in my life), hanging out with Festival Mama Lesley and watching Big Papa Jon beam with delight every night. It was more than a feeling.
Nothing mattered outside of those grounds, I felt at home (besides missing my dog), having my own space and being surrounded by like minded people. It didn’t matter what you wore, how you talked, what you drank, who you were in love with, none of that mattered, the music and the vibe is what mattered.
It was the break that I needed mentally from the familiar environments of home, university etc, to be somewhere else with different but yet familiar faces, made me feel calm even though there was times I felt overwhelmed. I had to take time out, call my best friend CC (who has on numerous occasions talked me down from anxiety flickers), or go back to the tent and nap or watch something for 10 minutes just to reset my battery.
Overall I felt at home, I was surrounded by music, friends but still had my little tent to recalibrate myself and get set for another bout of socialisation and I need to get back to that. The bands were exceptional across the weekend, the team was phenomenal and the festival goers were marvellous. I wouldn’t have had it any other way and I am determined to keep being a part of Call of the Wild, no matter what side of the barrier I end up being on.
If you want to be a part of the biggest little festival in the country then follow Call of the Wild on Facebook or check out their website for the next year’s tickets, which will be going live very soon!
GlamRat 