Last weekend I took the family on a day trip over to Summer Sundae Festival in Leicester. We were lucky enough to win tickets in the recent Alpro Soya Festival Photo competition on Facebook, and I was really excited about it as it’s a very family-orientated event and I wanted to see how Ryland would get on!
We arrived at the festival at around 11am. Now to me, that’s super late but casting my mind back to my teenage summers spent at Reading and Glastonbury I seem to recall I was barely out of my sleeping bag by that time! So it wasn’t surprising to arrive on site and see hardly any folk at all apart from some young girls covered in green handprints.
We headed straight for the big Alpro tent, which was brilliant and had a free prize draw to win a spa break (you can also enter this online here). As well as providing visitors with delicious free breakfast of granola and Alpro soya yogurts, they had a giant BREAKFEST bowl which you could climb into and have your photo taken by an overhead camera and uploaded straight to Facebook. On climbing in, I hadn’t realised precisely how deep the thing would be and promptly disappeared underneath all the balls…eek!
Alpro also gave out goody bags of puddings and yogurts to everyone on their way home which I thought was a nice touch. I’ll be honest, I’ve not really had any soya milk or products since I dabbled in veganism whilst I was a student (well, everyone in Bradford was a skateboarding straight edge vegan back in the 90s!) but they actually taste really good. Ryland is a huge fan of the chocolate pudding, which unfortunately has left its mark on several items of clothing. And the walls.
So, back to the festival… we spent much of the day in the kids area where there were craft tents, circus workshops, flower sculptures, hat making, an indoor ‘inventions’ zone and soft play area for the littlest guests. Ry got to decorate his own hideous yellow biscuit, and we made loads of bubbles with those plastic bits from 4-packs of lager and a big tub of soapy water (genius!)
The kids could also help to make this giant foil covered bicycle-aeroplane hybrid – Ry didn’t look too impressed at sitting in it but seeing Rob in his pilot’s hat reminds me of a lovely photo we have of his dad posing in a plane from years ago!
Music wise, the kids were treated to the ‘Dead Victorians’ and the ‘Sonic Manipulator’, both acts probably far more appealing to grown ups due to immense weirdness. Here’s a little film of the Sonic Manipulator at work.
After the kids area had closed for the evening we watched the Young Knives and the Cuban Brothers on the main stage. Hugely inappropriate yet hilarious stage banter from the Cuban Brothers included complimenting the girls in the front row on their breasts, and then appearing onstage in skimpy pants – and let me tell you, these guys aren’t young! I think all the kids waiting at the front to see Example must have been mortified when one brother’s penis ‘accidentally’ popped out of his undies. I’m glad I was standing too far away to have seen that happen!
By this time Ry had nodded off, so we sat on deckchairs watching the sunset and listening to the hideous backing track shambles that was Example. I’m a little sad because McFly were headlining, and they would have suited sunset much better! As it was, rather than wait to see them we headed indoors to watch Warpaint and Everything Everything. Indie Gods! Ry’s ear defenders meant he slept soundly through it all – hurrah!
So, that was our warm up day at a festival- next month we’ve won tickets to Alex James presents Harvest and will be camping. I haven’t even won a tent yet so I’d better get a move on – anyone seen any good comps?
I do seem to recall that ‘Touch Yourself’ message from last weekend – but boy did they say a lot of filthy stuff ha ha! It hadn’t crossed my mind that they might not actually live in Cuba…..!
Looks like you had a brilliant time. You know The Cuban Brothers are from Edinburgh, Manuel is my friend’s ex-flatmate!. We used to go and see them every week in the late 90’s in a tiny Jazz Bar and pee our pants at the breakdancing and filth. One night we all grooved along to an improv song about me called ‘Kathryn has mahogany nipples’! I’d love to see them again. Do they still shout ‘Touch yourselves, touch each other – it’s ok!’? Christopher is a mazzive Alpro Vanilla pud fan but goes mental on the choccy one, so is banned from it. shall defo try the bubble making. Oh, and the Alex James Fest will be excellent – stuff your face!
Love the pic’s, great information
Would love to see Warpaint live 🙂
Fab write up Di and great piccies 🙂
I do seem to recall that ‘Touch Yourself’ message from last weekend – but boy did they say a lot of filthy stuff ha ha! It hadn’t crossed my mind that they might not actually live in Cuba…..!
I’m not street…I meant *maSSive!
Looks like you had a brilliant time.
You know The Cuban Brothers are from Edinburgh, Manuel is my friend’s ex-flatmate!. We used to go and see them every week in the late 90’s in a tiny Jazz Bar and pee our pants at the breakdancing and filth. One night we all grooved along to an improv song about me called ‘Kathryn has mahogany nipples’! I’d love to see them again. Do they still shout ‘Touch yourselves, touch each other – it’s ok!’?
Christopher is a mazzive Alpro Vanilla pud fan but goes mental on the choccy one, so is banned from it.
shall defo try the bubble making.
Oh, and the Alex James Fest will be excellent – stuff your face!