The Daisies have been Rocked!

Good morning from my extremely comfortable bed (compared to the floor of a tent) in Stellenbosch! We arrived home yesterday afternoon and I am finally caught up on unpacking and posting photos. Still have quite a bit of laundry to do, though... It can all wait until after I tell you all about this incredible weekend!

We intended to leave Friday at noon. I got back from VCE around 11 and finished packing, but then Emmi and I needed to print our tickets. It was SUCH a bad idea to wait that long. We tried to use the computer at Concordia, but someone had been on it all morning and wasn't exactly willing to give us a few minutes to print our tickets and the computers across the street were out of order. We convinced everyone and the driver to take us to the Arts building so we could print, which was okay because we still had two girls to pick up and no clue where to find them. We printed our tickets, found the girls, and headed to Lynedoch to get Lisa and Rebecca before finally hitting the road. It took about an hour to get there, but when we saw the dirt road we were all really excited! We went through the gate, got our wristbands, and headed to our campsite. Most of the sites were full and we actually lucked out by getting a tent close to everything. The only downfall was that it was close to the stages so we heard constant bass until 3 or 4 in the morning most nights.

After we unpacked and set up the tents, it was about 4 o'clock, so we made a late lunch and sat around talking. Finally around 5:30 we headed out to explore. We found the main stage and decided to check out the band. We didn't know the line-up and it wasn't posted. We all got separated but Maura and I ended up making our way up to the front of the stage, where we found Casey by surprise! Then an even better surprise-- the first band finished, and the next came up and said "thank you! We are Gangs of Ballet!" I was FREAKING OUT! It was complete luck that we found our way to the front when they started. After listening to them we found our other friends and listened to a band called Good Luck. We found Ruanda, one of our friends from South Africa, but we didn't get to see any of the others the rest of the weekend, which was a bummer.

The girls' purple tent! 

The girls! 

Emmi and Damon

Molly & Me! (: 

Casey and Me and our flower headbands! :)

Gangs of Ballet!! 

Maura & Me 

Lead singer 

The crowd at Gangs of Ballet  

The crowd at Good Luck 

Emmi and I watching Good Luck

The next morning we ate breakfast at the tents then went to explore. The weather was actually really cold and windy, but we all expected it to be warm so we brought shorts and tank tops. We knew Al Bairre was starting at noon so we went to the stage around 11. We were able to make our way up to the front before they came out and the crowd got huge. They played their best songs and did a cover of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. We had an amazing time!! :)

Nick the next morning! He slept outside haha

Breakfast! 

The boys taking a nap 

AL BAIRRE!!!! This is how close we were! 

Molly, Rebecca, Lisa, and Maura

The crowd during Al Bairre 

Emmi, Me, and Molly

 Next we ate lunch and looked around the different stages, then took a nap before the night bands. Emmi was really excited to see Alt-J at 8:35 so we went to the stage around 7:30. When we got there the crowd was already huge so we knew we probably wouldn't make it to the front. The boys wondered off to get food but we knew we wouldn't find them again. Lisa, Rebecca, and Maura said they'd wait in the same place while we went to find them. We wondered through the food court and found Damon but not Nick. So we went to find Nick but when we couldn't, we went back to find Damon in line and he was gone too. So we looked around the court twice then gave up. One of the stands was serving something called chipsticks, like ribbon fries at festivals at home, so Emmi and I each got one then decided to find the girls. But when we got back to the stage, the crowd was twice as big and they were nowhere to be found. We gave up and went to find our own spot before Alt-J came on.

The next morning the weather finally cooperated and it got pretty warm. There was a dam right up the hill from us which was meant to be a swimming hole for everyone but it was always too cold to get in. We decided we still wanted to so we changed into swimsuits but everyone else chickened out except Damon and I. We went in and it was FREEZING. It was so cold that it was hard to breathe when you surfaced. The good part was actually being warm when you got out because of all the blood rushing back. We decided to get lunch then packed up all our stuff and the tents. The van showed up a little after 1pm and we all slept like babies the whole way home.

It was an incredible weekend!! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures after Al Bairre because I didn't like taking my camera out into the crowd, but Emmi took a lot. Once others post their pictures I'll add a few more! Cheers from South Africa!!