The (not so) Secret Garden Party

Can you believe we're now in March? Madness. For me, March is always the month when summer planning gets cranked up another gear. This summer's main excursion (or should I say, potential life changing experience) is at the end of August, when Teapot, myself and two fellow "Playa Virgins" Goateenie and Twerky venture across the pond to the Burning Man festival.

However, before then I have to weigh up whether my metaphorical festival vagina can take a separate pounding from Cambridgeshire's hottest adventure...The Secret Garden Party.

The sculpture last year:mental.

Now don't get me wrong, for the last two years in a row SGP has teased me with it's breathtaking scenary (the festival centres around a lake with a huge sculpture in the middle), thrust itself deep into me with it's outrageous atmosphere, before making me orgasm on multiple occasions with its ridiculous activities. 




However, can I justify parting with between £170-£190 of my hard earned money to attend this year or should I save up to go towards my other trip? Just how much MORE could the organisers possibly plan to ensure the 2013 Gardeners leave as impressed as we did in 2012? 

After all, despite having to drag myself (and Teapot) through literal mud fields for an entire weekend, I came away genuinely depressed that another SGP weekend was over. 

And that's really because SGP is much more than a line up of quality bands, DJs and entertainers. Its a line up of sensational artwork, outrageous activities and surprising discoveries hidden behind every corner of the festival. 

For instance, a typical day could consist of the following:

Mud wrestling at the temple of boom is quite a sight

Wake up, head to Soulfire restaurant (that's right an actual restaurant) for a relatively well priced and delicious Eggs Benedict and Bloody Mary (cost circa £7). Then spend the day speaking with Aliens in the Culture Lab, listening to experimental beatboxers in the golf ball tent or crying with laughter at the mud wrestling tournament in the Temple of Boom...

An afternoon game of crazy golf or lounging around in a canoe on the lake will then inevitably be followed by a nap...

There's nothing quite like the pagoda during sunset

At around 7.30pm, get dressed up in some ridiculous fancy dress wear and head to the Pagoda (a wooden platform on the lake) to celebrate the sun setting and official start to the nightlife with a few hundred of your new found friends. 

Nightime at SGP- when the festival comes alive

Next, leave the pagoda and simply walk and discover...Get stuck in a video-game dance off  before talking to a couple of pixies under the fairy lights of a willow tree. Discover a secret Jazz/Soul tent deep in a hidden forest and then have a bit of a folk dance in a circus. Finally, after heading to a 1950's tea and cake restaurant to chat to some method actors about the war, finish the night off on a ferris wheel to see the sun rise.


SGP 2013 is already well under way. The top two tiers of tickets have already sold out. So whether you go really boils down to your faith that a year on year track record of pushing the festival boundaries means the organisers know what they're doing.

Shit...think I've just convinced myself to book a ticket for this year


If you want to as well, just go to:

http://www.secretgardenparty.com/#!/information/theme-2013/

1luv

Finey

x

The Future of Cinema

There we were, four friends getting slung into a prison cell on a Saturday night whilst being told to 'shut the f**k up' by the incredibly intimidating prison guards. I stood there, shocked at how scared I was. After all, this isn't a situation a boy like me is used to finding himself in.

Fortunately, I wasn't being locked down in a real life prison cell...I was in the middle of one of Future Cinema's simply legendary productions, which a group of us decided to partake in at the weekend.

With Secret Cinema and Future Shorts as well, Future Cinema is gaining cult following

For those of you who haven't heard of Future Cinema, they are an Experiential Events Company who put on live and interactive productions of popular films, which you (the audience) participate in, before finishing the evening off with a cinematic viewing of the chosen project.

They are well known for their Secret Cinema events, as well as their Future Cinema productions (the only difference being you don't know which film you are going to experience with the former). 

        Not quite how I felt when we left our Shawshank prison...

In our case, we knew what it was going to be...IMDB's number 1 film of all time, The Shawshank Redemption. So the pressure for the company to transport you back into the  scary world of Shawshank prison, without scaring you so much that you couldn't enjoy yourself must have been immense.


Nonetheless, I have to say the team behind the event came up trumps. Without wanting to give too much away, the night kicked off with a court hearing, followed by a 1940s bus ride to our converted prison adventure. With hundreds of method actors playing fellow prisoners and prison guards, and so many things to do and see, the following few hours of your 'life' in prison was completely unique from the other guests of the event.

The prison guards weren't the friendliest of people

At the end of the evening, all prisoners were marched into the auditorium in single file, where we watched the iconic film (with impressively crystal clear sound and picture quality) our evening was based around.

Its not cheap at c£45pp, but every single one of us came out thinking we had received serious value for money.

The next Future Cinema event (Casablanca) will be completely different but presumably equally epic.

I've already bought my ticket...if you want to join the cinematic revolution, you can get yours at:

http://futurecinema.co.uk/tickets.html

1luv,

Finey

x