When I woke to warmth, I was surprised how early it was, only 7:30am. I contemplated sleeping some more, but the heat made it difficult and I figured I might as well do another yoga session before breakfast. Kaila was already off-camp having a shower so I used the bathroom, scruffed up my hair a bit to try make it look presentable (which didn’t work) and walked off towards the hub. I paid attention to avoid the spew patches along the grass and marvelled at the size of the garbage bags that had been put out overnight. People sure know how to go through grog at an alarming rate!

At yoga, the Red Bull guys recognised me and welcomed me to the 8am session, me the only patron. After another ten minutes or so, another guy joined the fun and sat on a mat nearby. With just the two of us, the class started and we got into a bunch of flows that were happily different to yesterdays. It was nice having a semi-private class. The morning sun was nice on my skin as we stretched our bodies this way and that. By the end of the class most mats were occupied, people having been drawn in when they saw us in such a private setting.

Feeling even more sore than I had when I woke up, I walked back to camp while getting a bunch of messages from Kaila. She was in the beauty parlour line to get her hair done so I offered to bring her some breakfast while she waited. After having a refreshing cold shower, I made a couple of bowls of strawberry, banana and muesli and walked off to deliver. I found Kaila towards the front of the queue, almost inside the beauty parlour tent. It’s a free service offered to campers to have their hair done for the festival in any sort of style. A complete waste of time if you ask me, but whatever floats your boat! Kaila was grateful for her breakfast plate and even more so when I lined up at the water station to fill her water bottle. After her shower, she’d been in line since 7:40am. She would not return to camp until past 11am. Wow.

After getting my ID band for the day, I retreated back to camp where I opened my laptop and wrote for the whole morning as Megan and Andrew came and went. At one point our left hand side neighbours turned on their car, sending exhaust fumes directly into camp. After a few minutes, I went around to ask if I could charge their phone for them with my solar panel, but the owner explained that he was just starting his car to make sure it started and turned it off straight away.

When Kaila returned, I did less and less writing and more drinking, getting ready for our festival day. I even offered my services as a hairdresser to Megan and then Andrew. I braided Megan’s hair expertly after a few tries, having to do both sides twice to get it right in the end. After that success, I tried my hand at putting Andrew’s hair in a man bun. That also took a couple of goes, but in the end he had a sweet looking man bun.

We didn’t go in as early this day, not really having anyone we wanted to see until about 3pm. Andrew and Megan’s friends Kevin and Clara joined us as morning turned to afternoon and I was introduced to the game of “Slap the Bag”, a pretty simple American way of drinking wine out of a bag.

When we went to the front of my car to draw Astro Tracks advertising on the windscreen, we met out left hand side neighbours properly and thanked each other for being such courteous camp mates. One thing lead to another and we were standing out in the isle playing a game of shotgun. Another American form of drinking I hadn’t heard of before where you punch a hole in the bottom side of a beer can then drink from the hole after opening the top of the beer. With the two holes it makes it go down faster. I ashamed my country by finished last, taking forever to gulp the whole beer down. I hadn’t played drinking games like this since bloody university so I was clearly out of touch.

Our neighbours were off to the festival so they disappeared in a flash and we followed shortly after. Megan, Andrew, Kevin, Clara, Kaila and I all made it through security and contemplated where to go first. When I went through security, I was chuffed to find a cool bandana on the ground. When I showed it to the team, Clara was amazed to discover she’d lost her bandana off her shorts and that I was holding it!

All of us proceeded to a beer garden close to the main stage to listen to The Head and the Heart. Another good band to sway along to. When it was over, the group split up, me and Kaila heading to the Outdoor stage to see Bastille. It was a great show and being on the side of the Outdoor stage, we had a prime position sitting on top of some palm tree boxes. We got right into the music that we both knew pretty well. Again, seeking greener pastures, we left halfway to catch Two Door Cinema Club on the main stage. I’m a fan and I wasn’t disappointed, they made me dance along to everything they sang, it was another highlight. Kaila even found someone to dance with in the crowd, twirling herself and her new partner to every song.

After trying to get in to see Mura Masa but failing because of the crowds, we went straight into Gobi stage to wait for Dreamcar. This was one of Kaila’s choices and a relatively new band that had only played together a few times before. They got the crowd going but they honestly didn’t really do it for me, a bit weird in the lyrics and definitely what the lead was wearing, a full pink suit. Just before they started, Megan and Andrew joined us, finding us by luck, so we rocked out with them for the whole set.

Knowing it would be impossible to get into Royksopp, we all retreated back to camp. On the way, we visited a couple of EDM tents, one of which was full of some sort of mist that smelt a little different, maybe it was weed of some sort? Either way, each tent was rocking hard and we rocked along with everyone else before finally walking back out through the entrance. It was a fifteen minute walk back and I got straight into cooking up some bacon and eggs as soon as we were back, I was bloody starving and needed to kerb my drunkenness. Kevin and Clara returned to camp and they hung out as we ate and drank. I hurried Kaila so that we could get back into the festival for Bon Iver, someone I was really looking forward to seeing. We’d already missed the start of the set so I was hustling along the grass to make it there as fast as possible.

I could hear Bon Iver’s beautiful voice before I saw the band and I was already in awe. We got far enough forward so that his sounds drowned out the noise from other stages and just sat down to listen. It was tempting to close my eyes and just listen to the beautiful sound, but I forced myself to keep them open to see what was happening in front of me. The music brought tears to my eyes. It was hard to get back into the mood for DJ Snake after such a slow, relaxing set, but we got geared up for it as we walked across to the Outdoor stage.

We stopped mid-way between the stages to watch a collection of drones flying in formation behind the main stage. This is something Andrew had talked about and it was spectacular. There were probably at least 100 drones in the sky, all lit up differently making different shapes in the sky. Everything moved slowly and smoothly, a perfect orchestration. In the end, the drones all turned green and slowly flew back to base. What a cool installation.

At Outdoor stage, DJ Snake was already rocking, flames in front of the stage and all. Just one man at a turn table and he was making thousands of people jump around and dance like mad men, including us. The slow motions of Bon Iver were soon a distant memory as we jumped around.

Wanting to nab a decent spot for the main event, we exited stage left back to the main stage. When we found a spot to the side of the sound stage and sat down, the sleepys hit me and I ended up having a power nap with my head resting on my knees before the sound of Lady Gaga awoke me from my shallow slumber. Right! Back up and dancing to keep myself awake. Despite not knowing many of the songs, I took queues from those around me to jump around at the appropriate time and got right into the show. Gaga is no singer, she’s a bloody performer. She and her dancers lit the whole stage up with their energetic movement, her singing at the top of her lungs. The songs followed one after the other until she reached the finale, “Caught in a Bad Romance”. I knew this one and jumped sky high with every beat. There was confetti, there were fireworks, what a way to end the performance.

At her last beat, we and 100,000 other people all made for the exits. It was 1:30am and we turned into zombie sheep, moving in steady motions towards the same point. Once we got into the campground the crowd dispersed and we were able to walk easily back to camp. Oh, was I happy to see my bed. Another ten hours of jumping around and I was feeling it. Teeth brushed, we were in bed quick smart.