Sonisphere Festival: Getting To Camp & Friday Line-Up

I took a few of days of holiday from work over the past week for something I had been looking forward to for many months: Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth, Stevenage. Now that I'm back from a music-fuelled weekend, I thought I'd share my experience with you, just in case you aren't able to make it to a festival yourself this summer.

This blog post is part one of three, as I figured it would make more sense to cover each of the days separately to have a proper look at the line-ups. Here I'll talk about the day we arrived (Thursday) and the first proper day of the festival (Friday)...

Thursday

Morning

First thing in the morning I had the glamorous task of heading to Specsavers for a contact lens appointment before I was able to return home and finish getting everything ready to camp for three nights in a field. I really made the most of my shower, knowing that it was the last one I'd get for the entirety of the weekend. This is also why I made the decision to put French plaits in my hair; something that makes me look about 12 years old but is a completely practical approach to camping.

Afternoon

Once Mr. B and I had finally packed our massive backpacks, we filled up the boot of our car and made our way to Tesco. We picked up some last minute ingredients for our dinner, which would be a barbecue on the campsite. The delicacies we chose included hot dog buns, sausages, an orange bell pepper, and super cheap plastic cheese slices which never seem to melt (this is probably an indication that they aren't actually an item of food).

We then made our way to Knebworth from south Oxfordshire; the drive didn't take too long and we arrived there just as the main entrance had been opened. Unfortunately there was a massive queue to actually get in the grounds, so we had to stand in a line for around an hour in the blazing sunshine. This wouldn't have been so bad if we weren't carrying most of our camping gear at the time!

Luckily our side of the queue eventually diminished and we finally had our bags checked before getting our wristbands. This meant we were free to put up our tents and claim our plot of the 'quiet' campsite. We found a pretty good spot and put up our two tents, just because we are a bit selfish and wanted to guarantee that we would have enough space to sit outside with our camping chairs.

Evening

After putting up our tents and heading back to the car for our last few bits, it was time to relax for a bit with a spot of dinner. It was barbecue time, and Mr. B decided to light the disposable grill whilst it was still in it's box, something we have ended up doing so many times. Luckily we realised the mistake quickly enough to fish it out of the cardboard before it burned too badly! The grill heated up really fast so we put our sausages and bell pepper on, only to find out that they were burning almost instantly. There must be something odd about the wind conditions at Knebworth!

We enjoyed our charcoal hot dogs nonetheless, and they were made quite delicious with the plastic cheese and sweet pepper. It's a really easy way to have a form of relish without bringing condiments with you; you just need to blacken the pepper on the grill and peel the skin off. Underneath it will be soft and delicious.

After dinner we decided to go on a tour of the other campsite and the arena. I bought a Sonisphere t-shirt from the merchandise shop as well as a silly mouse hat to keep my head warm in the evenings, which definitely came in handy later in the weekend. It was then time to get some well deserved rest before taking on a full day on the Friday.. OK so we ended up getting about three hours of sleep at most.

Friday

Morning

With the sunlight illuminating the tent in the morning, I thought that it would be around 9am when I woke up. It turned out to be 7am, and the tent got warm very quickly - our cue to escape into the fresh air to search for caffeine. We found a van selling lattes, and I also spied porridge on the menu so I ordered one to give me a boost of necessary energy. Because we are classy, we ate our breakfast on the grass.

After breakfast we took on the important task of sitting there doing absolutely nothing, aside from drinking some beer/rum and doing some crosswords. At some point we changed our clothes and brushed our teeth so we weren't living like complete bums.

Afternoon

The afternoon pretty much consisted of more nothingness (i.e. sunbathing), until we went to see Malefice in one of the arena tents. It was hot, hot, hot, so we got a chance to wear shorts and sunglasses. Don't worry, we had plenty of sun cream with us too.

Evening

With the arrival of the evening, we decided to stay at the Apollo stage for the duration. This meant that we would be watching Him, Limp Bizkit and The Prodigy. The less I say about the first the better, but Limp Bizkit was amazing (and made me really want to wear a cap backwards on my head). I definitely woke up on Saturday morning doing the moves to Rollin' in my sleeping bag.

The Prodigy was a blur of classic (OK, retro) tunes and newer tracks. We took the opportunity to have a nice cold beer (warm tent beer = not so refreshing) and dance like a couple of idiots. That's what festivals are for right? Headliner over, it was time to get the torches out to find our way to our tents without tripping on the rest of them. And then we settled down for a nice sleep. Which was about two hours long.

What would Saturday and Sunday have in store for us at Sonisphere? Make sure to check back here in a couple of days to read part two!