August Bank Holiday Weekend 27/08/21-30/08/21

For the Friday night of the Bank Holiday weekend, we hosted a cheese evening: N put up the marquee in the garden and a bunch of his friends came over and we had about 22 cheeses spread out along the tables, which we set about sampling accompanied by plenty of wine. It was a lovely evening, another snatched reminder of what we've been missing over the last 18 months.

On the Saturday N & I headed out early to the V&A for their Epic Iran exhibition, which had been a struggle to get tickets for, despite N being a member, but was totally worth it: I would have loved a separate exhibition on each era, to be honest, as we raced through Elamites, Achaemenids, Seleucids, Sassanids, Zoroastrianism and then Islam and up to the present day. Afterwards we wandered down to the river and along to Vauxhall, before getting a boat round to the Bankside Gallery where we met up with E, who had brought her son T up to see the Nero exhibition: she and N looked at the watercolours while T talked me through his Magic cards, then we had cake before they headed off back down South. In the evening I caught up with Gaz B's livestream and the cricket.

Sunday was another early start, as I caught the train down to Portsmouth to attend one day or Victorious Festival, which had a great location on Southsea Common, overlooking the sea. My main reason for going was that K's eldest son was playing with his band, Electric Nerds, one of two acts performing through his school on the AMP Stage; K had assembled a good crowd of supporters, L & family frantically rushing there just in time to catch his last song, and they really impressed. After that I passed back and forth between them, as they headed over to the kids area, and catching bands I wanted to see.

King No-One were on at the Castle Stage, Zach employing his familiar showmanship, then I saw local boys Harvey Jay Dodgson and (sans bassist) Flowvers at the Book Events Stage. K and all her family had left fairly early but I met back up with L & family to catch the end of Grupo Lokito then Gypsy Hill at the World Music Stage, which definitely had the happiest vibe about it. I get nice and close to the action for Fontaines DC, on the main, Common Stage, then went for a bit of a wander and spent too much on expensive food, before coming back to the same place and watching Supergrass from more of a distance. I fell a bit between two stools: I'd booked the latest train I could back to London, so was committed to staying when I was probably ready to go after Fontaines, but also had to leave before Beans on Toast headlined one of the stages. I had to get a bus home from Waterloo at the other end, so was pretty tired by the time I got in.

Monday was the August Bank Holiday and I spent it very lazily, chilling out at home, doing some domestic tasks and properly relaxing.

Wide Awake Festival 31/08/21-03/09/21

I had some quiet days following on from the Bank Holiday weekend, then Thursday headed after work to the Underbelly in Hoxton: I caught the end of Emilia Tarrant, once again coming before Flowvers, who I'd seen a few days before at Victorious; there were a couple of bands after them but work had left me pretty shattered so I didn't stay for them.

I had Friday off and headed down to Brockwell Park for the much-rearranged inaugural Wide Awake Festival: which is basic the festival for Goldsmiths students and was stuffed full of bands that Joey would have liked if he could have made it. I started with our favourite Lazarus Kane at the Moth Club Stage: the singer seems to have dropped his faux-American schtick, but their tunes still have plenty of groove.

I think it was determined by other commitments, although may also have served as a sneaky tactic to get people in early, but Idles, the biggest band on the bill, were playing at 1.30 on the Windmill Stage (about twice as large as the whole of the Windmill itself) and brought their usual energy. I stayed there for Squid, one of Joey's bands, who had a singing drummer and were pretty cool, then headed over to the Bad Vibrations Stage where I discovered Mandrake Handshake, who were the kind of sprawling, mellow band that festivals were made for: there were about ten of them, two of whose sole purpose appeared to be to play the tambourine, and you couldn't help but want to dance.

There was no-one I wanted to see for a while so I spent some time chilling out, the sun had come out and, although it wasn't s huge space, the festival had such a great feel to it- nice food, drinks not too pricey, a little bit of woodland you could sit in. I also tracked down T&A, who were there with some friends, and spent some time hanging out with them, then dragged them along to see Snapped Ankles on the Moth Club Stage, who pretty much lived up to my description of them as "playing dance music while dressed as trees" (although they seemed to have wisely downgraded from full-body suits to head-masks).

We went our separate ways and I watched some of The Murder Capital back at The Moth Club Stage, then all of Black Midi at the Windmill Stage, both of whom seem to capture people's imaginations but don't especially grab me, then I was ready for Shame to round the day off on the Windmill Stage and another chance to jump around before heading home.

Soma Fest 04/09/21

N & I had brunch near Angel on the Saturday, before I headed round to Shoreditch for my third one-day festival experience within a week: this time was SomaFest. Whereas the other two had been outdoors, this was around four venues close to each other in Hoxton. It never felt too crowded though, and to be honest seemed a little underattended, until it got towards the early evening most bands we saw probably only had 12-20 people watching them, which was a shame as the line-up was stuffed full of bands I really like. Two guys who I'd met before at Camden Rocks, M and P, had come down from Yorkshire for it and I spent nearly the whole time with one or both of them. It had a nice feeling to it too and, unlike when I had been to Rewired, I felt much more comfortable saying hi to the bands I'd seen lots of times before.

I started at the Queen of Hoxton, which I think was catering to the slightly heavier/punkier end of the line-up, and saw Red Light Acid Test to open, who were new to me and pretty cool, then Slobheads, an in-yer-face duo I'd enjoyed once before and never managed to catch up with since. Then we headed up to Colours, where nearly all of the bands I was planing to see were playing: we saw Five Kites first, then The Novus, who seem to get more and more accomplished and deserved a bigger audience. We stayed for Average Sex and rock'n'rollers Dirty Orange, both of whom I've seen around the place before, then went back to the Queen of Hoxton for M's recommendations Aerial Salad, an endearing Manchester-based punk band.

Back at Colours I was excited to see the grungey Sick Joy again, then we popped out for a quick sandwich and so saw about half of Novacub. Then a real purple-patch started of Himalayas, King Nun and Broken Hands, who were headlining the venue, all of whom it was great to see playing live again. M & I moved on to the Strongroom and saw the end of The Motive, then I'd been excited to see The Jacques again, although M wasn't feeling it, which I get as they have a more low-key sound than much of the line-up. The bands finished off with Cheekbone, who were good fun: there were DJs after that but we were both pretty dead on our feet so decided to call it a night.