Albufeira and The Big Chill

It seems like ages since I last wrote anything, as the last two weeks have been extremely busy and I've had no access to a computer! I have however had what have been the best weeks of my life.

 Two weeks ago I embarked on my first holiday without the rents! I know risky and you would expect that what will now follow to be a list of disastrous events and tales of what went wrong. However, surprising as it may seem, everything ran smoothly! Me and four of my friends went to Albufeira in Portugal and had an absolutely incredible week. We had a apartment with stunning views and access to a massive pool. After going for a wander on the first night merely to see where everything was, we managed to stay out until two in the morning due to most bars offering free shots with every five euro cocktail! So this continued to be a pattern of the holiday, out every night till five, up at midday for a full English breakfast, then lie next to the pool until it was time to go out again. Now, I am making this sound like a bunch of hateful binge drinking teenagers on holiday for the first time, but we did visit the beach, the old town and do souvenir shopping as well not just consume a ridiculous amount of alcohol! We made lots of friends too and as we became regulars in the one bar we got around eight free shots on the last night! Not bad I'd say! So all in all it was an amazing week full of countless glasses of sangria and tonnes tequila shots!

Now that would've been enough to keep me happy for the rest of the year but the day after we got back it was The Big Chill. It has been dubbed the original boutique festival and it just so happens to be round the corner from my house. After the start of the first day I just wanted to come home. Putting up a six man tent in heavy rain is never fun, but after I'd dried off and had a few drinks I was very excited for the weekend ahead. Many fellow big chillers have, in my opinion, been unfairly critical of the Chill this year accusing it of selling out and becoming too commercial. I do think it has changed, maybe to appeal to a wider market but the relaxing, family values of the original Chill remain, especially with the hillside hammocks and enchanted garden. The atmosphere was unchanged and although there were bigger acts this year, I'm not complaining as everyone I saw was incredible.

Friday: I managed to see one of my favourite bands ever on the first day. None of my friends really liked them and they're not exactly massively well known but Empire of The Sun were amazing. The show they put on was mind blowingly good as were their costumes and their dancers. After that I saw Friday headliners, The Chemical Brothers. They were absolutely amazing and again although most of my friends gave up after half an hour, I stayed for the full set and it was incredible. Despite missing Aloe Blacc because of them I managed to catch the end of Chipmunk's set and actually he was really good! His covers of Beautiful People by Chris Brown and Fix Up, Look Sharp by Dizzee Rascal were highlights as was his closing number Champion. The last act I saw on Friday night was Plastician who was amazing. By the time his set finished at two in the morning though I was pretty much ready for bed!

Saturday: Christened the day with all the acts, I was up at eleven to take my younger sister to see Dionne Bromfield, Amy Winehouse's goddaughter. She was so good. Her voice was incredible for a girl of fifteen and the similarities to Amy's voice were striking. She was clearly emotional about the death of her godmother when singing Mama Said but when she closed her short set with Love Is A Losing Game in tribute to the star her sadness was evident and she couldn't sing the last line because she broke down in tears. It was actually really moving. After a couple of hours midday rest we were back again to see The Midnight Beast who were absolutely hilarious! Their parody of ET was so funny but the TicToc parody for which they are probably most famous was amazing! Then on the way back to the tent we stopped to watch a bit of Janelle Monae who looked beautiful in her trademark tuxedo! Then the first 'big act' of the evening was Katy B who was way better than I could've ever imagined. After that I saw Jessie J dressed in a leopard catsuit, cat hat and purple hair. She was amazing and I couldn't get over how incredible her voice was. She was also just really sweet and kept chatting to the crowd describing herself as a wailing cat! Later that night after the headliner, who I will get to in a moment, I saw Calvin Harris who was also really good.

So yeah, the big man himself, Mr Kanye West. Now we all know his an arrogant 'insert appropriate expletive here', but lets be fair to the guy he's also Kanye West. Obviously he came on three quarters of an hour late, but we all expected it. Also his entrance made up for it. He was on top of the VIP tower singing Higher, clever right? Then he made his way on stage to join his amazing dancers who really were incredible! And aside from this slight divaish performance and the hour long speech about how everyone gives him such a bad press, in which he did compare himself to Hitler (admittedly that was probably too far!), he was awesome. There is no denying it he put on a show which was undoubtedly the best thing I have ever seen! I may be a bit bias in that I knew every word to every song but all his classics like Stronger, Good Life, Touch The Sky and Gold Digger and Diamonds from Sierra Leone were so good its ridiculous. I mean he's Kanye West and I'm sorry to conform or whatever but he was awesome!

Sunday: The final day now what could compare to the night before. There were a few bands that I had heard of (and Robert Plant!) but none that I really wanted to go out of my way to see. Like I said what could compare to the night before. This was the opinion of most of the people I was with as well so we decided it would be better just to get drunk and find a random tent with good music which is what we did and it was really good! I did stop in and see Annie Nightingale for a while who was still excellent!

In general the weekend was amazing and despite having to be lifted over the railing by the main stage after nearly getting crushed it was so good and I loved it! All in all an amazing two weeks in what is sadly my final summer at home as I move into the real world in September! Everything seems to be moving rather fast with results in less than a week so I'm going to carry on enjoying the summer, however I'm not sure how I'm ever going to top Kanye West!