Because the festival is spread over an entire week each day it starts at about 4ish, with the better acts coming on later. I wanted to see the John Butler Trio (an Australian band and the only artist playing that I'd heard of!). We (me, Mel and Gulia, Mel's sister) headed out to catch the train to Nyon. We were a bit pushed for time so we set out at a fast'ish pace.
We got to the station just as the train turned up. I had my Eurail pass so was fine but the girls needed to buy a ticket quickly or else we risked missing the train and having to wait around for an hour until the next one arrived. For some reason the vending machine Gods were against us and it kept rejecting Gulia's coins.
We started to get nervous.
Gulia tried with different coins and had the same result.
Now we started to panic a little bit. She turned and told me to keep a train door open as it looked like the train was going to head off at any moment. I tried but the doors refused to open. Shit! I noticed that there were some guys on the last carriage that were holding the doors open but that was 20 meters away.
Unfortunately the vending machine was STILL rejecting everything we put into it. Then the train started to move off. Shit!!!!
Instinctively I ran towards the train as it was moving off and jumped through the door that the guys were forcing open. Gulia was in after me. I was helping to keep the doors open as well - they were surprisingly heavy, similar to forcing the doors of a lift open that are trying to shut but we eventually pulled Gulia inside. Mel was next, by this stage she was running at an almost sprint as the train was gathering speed. This was a pretty dangerous thing to do, but in the end we were able to pull her inside, in one piece. Fortunately there were no ticket checkers in the train otherwise we would have been in a lot of trouble (for one, entering onto a moving train, and two for not having a ticket!)
That episode set the tone for the night.
When we arrived we saw stages and acts everywhere (honestly, it was just like the Big Day Out).
[pic: Paleo]
We walked past a band called the Giant Killers that looked terrific.
We bought some alcohol at one of the stalls, and after meeting up with Gulia's friends saw the end of the John Butler Trio's set. They were pretty cool.
[pic: The John Butler Trio]
Afterwards, we got some more alcohol (I'm sure you can see a theme starting to arise?) and went all the way to the front for Paolo Nutini (a Scottish singer who has the hit "Hey Jenny don't be hasty!").
[pic: us waiting for Paulo Nutini, me, Mel and Gulia (getting squeezed, in the middle)]
I have never been so close to the front in a concert in my life. There looked to be about 12,000 people there and we were so close to the stage we were within spitting distance! We also got on tv a couple of times when the camera's showed pictures of the crowd. Paolo Nutini was hilarious, he came out and he was quite obviously drunk or high or both. Fortunately it didn't affect his singing. He was really superb.
[pic: Paulo Nutini in full drunken flight!]
At the end of his set we checked out another band (called the Klaxons, I think) and then decided we were in need of some more to drink. Gulia's friends had invited us back to the camp site they were staying at (about a kilometer away) and we thought they were bound to have some more alcohol there. The camp site was a lot of fun, even if they were staying in the most dirty site I'd ever seen and had named it something appalling (but fitting - see the picture...).
[pic: this is perhaps my favourtie picture of the trip so far, the camp site in all its glory. Gulia in the background in the grey cardigan and Mel just behind her]
By this stage Mel and I (but more Mel, if I'm being honest) came up with a plan to try and swap Gulia for some more alcohol. The plan was for Gulia to flirt with a guy we knew had something to drink and for us to request alcohol as well after he offered it to Gulia. This was dastardly.
It was a sad moment in my life, perhaps the moment when it dawned on me that I am in need of professional help (joking), when we tried to elicit free alcohol out of a bunch of 18 years olds! Even more depressingly, it didn't work!
In the end though we were able to find and tuck into some 15 CH wine. I felt a bit weird hanging out with all these 18 year-olds. Mel decided it would be funny if she dropped me in it and asked what I did for work in a voice that got everyone's attention. I lied and said that I was a Hollywood stunt man and was often used as a body double when an actor had a scene where he took his shirt off. Mel and Gulia were in hysterics when I said this but I got a few bemused looks from Gulia's friends. One guy laughed and asked whether I was a body double for Brad Pitt. I looked at him and with a completely straight face said that I haven't yet worked with Brad, but I had worked with Ben Affleck anbd Colin Farrell.
This put Gulia and Mel into even more hysterics but I think some of her friends couldn't quite tell if I was joking!
It was a really fun night (even if freezing cold at the camp site) and we got home at about 3am.
Believe it or not we also felt okay the next day - no mean feat when you spend a night knocking back cheap wine!
First of all, it was not only my idea and anyways you loved it and joined in encouraging Giulia into it! And can't believe they believed your story about being a stuntman...seriously!
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