Reading Festival

Safely back in the cheerful clutches of England, I managed to get myself sorted with a flat and a car in Oxford, I also found time to once again attend Reading Festival (my third festival festival of the summer).

I went to this festival with my Welsh mates Dave & Jonny, and a whole raft of other people.

One of the best aspects of this festival was the '90's rock line up – recently reformed headliners Rage Against The Machine were the definite draw cards for me;other bands like Metallica, Tenacious D & Queens of the Stone age were the icing on the cake.

On the first night Cage The Elephant, an American band asked if they
could (and did) perform a live set in the middle of our campsite, we
got a free gazebo out of it too!

The wolfman turned up and tried to eat a roadie

Me, Georgia & Dave

A ginger-kid trying to steal himself a soul

Dave rocking out hardcore

We got creative and made a glowstick fire, it didn't keep us warm

Team photo

The aftermath

Despite the fun times had at this festival with our diverse group of people I have to say that the organisers could learn so much from Roskilde and other European Festivals! Simple things like having wider walkways through the campsite remove the problems of the scrum-like crowds that plague Reading.

Is that me being picky? yea - I'm such a Europhile!

Big Swede, little Swede

After saying goodbye to the sunny, sandy climes of Kefalonia I made my way back to Athens from where I launched myself across the continent to Göteborg, Sweden. The purpose of this part of the journey was to meet my recently new niece Penny, and my mum sister & brother-in-law of course!
Soon after arriving we made our way to the summer house to catch up with Clas' family, his brother Henrik is also a newly crowned proud father and it was time for the new cousins to become acquainted.

The proud mum

The proud mum

The proud uncle

I managed to time my visit impeccably such that I could go to Way Out West, a local music festival at which the Flaming Lips were performing. The Flaming Lips are a band I have wanted to see live for quite some time and I could not resist this opportunity.

The set opener, Wayne the lead singer crowd surfing in a giant blow up ball...

They also had a whole lot of people dressed as Teletubbies & a big green alien

I saw many other decent bands there, including the most excellent Neil Young.

Göteborg was the final stop on my European summer jaunt, unfortunately from there it was back to England and the looming concept of gainful employment...