Eden 2017 Through Younger Eyes - A Festival Report - Sophie Conway

I've been lucky.
I've been to a few festivals with my parents and the weather has always been fine.
Sometimes little bits of rain, but not enough to matter.
My luck ran out with Eden though.
This was my first year and it felt like it rained the whole time. I've never seen so much mud.

Best part was the night that had Jamie and Shoony, then Mickey 9s, and The Stumblers.
Because I'm not eighteen I can only really see the bands at festivals and it felt like a long time since I'd seen Jamie and Shoony.
My mum was taking photographs so we squeezed down to the front and I seen the two new members for the first time.
The whole band were just as good as I remembered.
My favourite song is 'who are you' and the crowd were all jumping about for it.
Jamie even pointed me out in the crowd as I was dressed as a panda bear. Lots of people were dressed up and lots of the yellow movement people were there too. They were the first band that made it feel like the festival had started.
When they finished my mum and me went backstage and I got some photographs taken with them and then they gave me their set list which was very nice of them, but even better was when Jamie gave me his own Jamie and Shoony hoodie.
They are really nice people and a great band.

The Mickey 9s were on after them and the busy crowd got busier.
I've got their last album and hadn't seen them play anything off it live yet so it was great fun hearing the newer stuff.
The whole crowd was bouncing to them and everyone was going mad.
After all the rain and mud it was brilliant to have so much fun and forget about it for a wee while.
I hope it's not too long before I see both of them again.

After they finished my mum and dad took me to see The Stumblers playing the Rabbies Tavern stage and they were great too.
It was very busy and everyone was dancing to them. There wasn't many younger people because it was late but maybe next time they should play twice. One early and one late show so more people can see them. My dad says it was the best he has seen them.
It was after one in the morning when we left there and it was the perfect end to a perfect night.

On the Sunday the best band on the main stage was Colonel mustard and the Dijon 5.
It was really muddy by the time they were on and they still got lots of people to come and see them.
They played new songs that I hadn't heard before and for a little while the sun came out for them too.
My mum and me got on stage with them to dance a bit with everyone else. I've been on stage with them before and it is always fun.
Everyone in the band are really nice to the people who come and see them and it makes them a special band.
It felt like a long time since I had seen them, but I'm hoping to go to one more festival this year and see them again.

And I just what to thank my mum and dad off taking me to my first eden fest. Maybe next year there will be less rain.

Thanks to Sophie for the excellent article, here is hoping we can get her to do more writing, as it's always great to get a younger perpective on festivals and events these days!