Indietracks 2015 was a lot of fun – although the rain was a bit more of a theme than I was hoping for. I haven’t really been one for going to festivals as an adult. My experience has been pretty much limited to one ATP weekend, day visits to things and some all-dayer or weekend events where I have stayed in hostels/kipped on people’s floors. I went to indietracks for the first time last year and I had such a good time that I pretty much decided I would be going again the next year (and booked my annual leave as soon as the dates were announced)

I travelled to Derbyshire with Joe and one of my best friends, Kate on Friday morning. Kate has a car which means we could lug a lot more stuff than some of our campmates so I took advantage of this to pack every possible thing I thought may be of use. A light packer, I am not.

We arrived at Golden Valley campsite at around 1pm and met up with Sarah who had also just arrived. We put up out tent while it was spitting with rain but thankfully didn’t get too wet. We spent a few hours lazing around and making a nest of sleeping bags on the big double airbed in an attempt to get warm while waiting for the others to arrive. Aside from the School, I hadn’t heard much of any of the Friday night bands but they were all good.

Saturday morning we woke up pretty cold but to sunshine! I headed off to get a shower and then lazed around on the grass with the others drinking coffee and chatting. I wandered back up to the site to see Lost Pets who I had seen play in London before.

There was a lot of good bands playing on Saturday – we saw Desperate Journalist who blew me away, Coleen Green who I enjoyed despite not being able to her her set every well, Tigercats who were great fun and made me want to dance and Steven James Adams who closed the Church Stage on Sunday and lead us all outside for a final sing-along on the climbing frame. I also got some life coaching advice from Niall from Spook School in his workshop which involved celebrity appearances and throwing skips at people.

The pains of being pure at heart were lovely to watch as the sun went down and I had a bit of a dance at the disco before heading back to the tent to have a maple bourbon night cap before bed.

Sunday rolled around and a few of us went to get a cooked breakfast at the campsite café. So good and just what I needed at this point. Sadly, it started raining while we were in there and didn’t really stop for the rest of the day. I was pretty determined to make the best of it all the same. We headed back up to the site and took back in the quiz – we came somewhere mid table which was pretty respectable and I even got a few questions right. Here’s our quiz team – “the sea is a good place to think of the next line”

I didn’t see as many bands due to the “inclement weather” but Colour me Wednesday were great and worth braving the increasingly heavy rain for. I was sad to miss the Tuts as they were great when I saw them in Coventry but I did go to the indiepop speed dating workshop that my friends Sarah and Emily ran and that was fun. I met someone who has just moved to Coventry! thiw was actually the second person I met from Coventry over the weekend as I got chatting to someone while in the queue to the loos who turned out to not only also be from Coventry, but to work at the same place as me.

My favourite band of the weekend was of course Martha. I think this may actually have been the first time I have properly seen them play (last year I saw them play an impromptu set in the merch tent) they did not disappoint. Seeing them all decided to crowdsurf at the end made me stupidly happy. The train shed second stage was pretty much rammed by this point as everything had been pulled off of the outdoor stage and moved inside. After their set, we planned to stick around and watch some/all of the Go Team! but exhaustion and rain got the better of us and we headed back to the campsite to take down the outer part of our tent in the pouring rain and headed home around 11pm

Favourites parts; drinking shandy and eating dry roasted peanuts on the train bar, lazy Saturday morning in the sunshine, the Gopals curry I had on Saturday evening, dancing in the disco on Saturday evening, Niall from Spook School’s workshop (and later onstage performance with Martha) hanging out with pals, watching bands on the Church Stage, putting on snuggly socks at night in my sleeping bag and staying warm, singing along to Party Hard on the way home with the heaters blasting us dry.

See you next year!