Having not long since turned 18 I thought I would splash out and go with my friends to a music festival now that I could drive and legal to attend. I have always been a big fan of dance music and having read the stage line ups for the 2008 Gatecrasher festival I was tempted to buy tickets. Tickets were fairly expensive yet by comparing to other festivals for similar things(camping etc) I wasn’t being doddled out of too much. Instructions on the website about every detail including maps, directions, what they offered etc were very clear and easy to follow. When we arrived by car we got there about 3 hours after the site opened yet managed to get in and park quite quickly as the staff were very efficient. However I warn you now you have a trek of death to get your camping stuff from the car to the site and find a spot! As the site is so huge it is quite an exhausting stint carrying all your belongings(or what feels like your actual house after a while) in attempt to find somewhere you can put them all away again. Security was very lax compared to how they described it on the website — evidence of this came in numerous forms as you can probably imagine. However there were large amounts of loos(essential if your a lady camper cos we frankly can’t manage a bush!) yet I would have gladly donned male parts as to avoid them they were that disgusting! Food availability and essentials such as water and first aid were plentiful and visible wherever you went. Paramedics and police were constantly on standby and patrolling the main site. The fairground was a bog standard travellers set up yet makes a fun evening with your friends as you are all buzzing from the atmosphere. The atmosphere in each tent is fantastic — even if the weather outside is terrible you still end up enjoying yourself(even just by laughing at the ravers in welly boots!) Each act I saw which included Dizzee Rascal, The Prodigy, Pete Tong, Hixxy, Zane Lowe etc all put on an amazing performance and made the weekend for the thousands of festival goers. The only problems that came about was the weather cancelling a few of the live stage acts due to health and safety — although they could of managed this better and planned in case of the inevitable weather. The lack of security meant you had to be on strong guard exactly what was going on around you. I must include in my review: R.I.P to the gentleman who died during the event of natural causes and could not be revived by the paramedics.
