BBC Radio1 Big Weekend

Vaynol Estate, Bangor

Dydd Sadwrn Mai 22ain 2010

(Sat. May 22nd 2010)

What can I say. It was the big weekend. The weather has certainly made it big across the country. British summer is here at last and we hope here to stay for a little while.

I was at the Big Weekend for the Saturday line-up. It was long-time dream came true. I have applied for a couple of years now but never managed to get tickets til this year. I love going to summer gigs. The line up, as usual, was contemporary and fab! That's what we love about Radio 1.

This year it was hosted in the Vaynol Estate, Bangor, Wales. Hence my previous post about going back to Wales :) Main stage for Saturday was Scouting for Girls, 30 seconds to Mars, Chipmunk, all of whom we missed as we were still too busy with the outdoor stage w/ DJ Westwood. Kelly Rowland was also there with her new single "Commander"... A great comeback song. She's still as tall, slim and pretty with gorgeous big hair! Loved it.

I had wanted to try different tents but we didn't want to miss the Main stage line-up. I did manage to squeeze in Hadouken!, who was rock'n'roll and so good looking. We were listening to them while re-energizing for the main stage. We decided that we would go in to see Justin Bieber. I hadn't even know the boy until the line-up and I'm awfully surprised he made it there. That was probably the ten minute of satisfaction for the teens. To be honest he was the only act whose banners I saw (DJ Westwood had one from a cute twin). I was standing next to a lady who was holding up her kid so the babygirl could see her idol better. She wasn't a tall person but certainly did hold her babygirl up high for at least 10 minutes non-stop. Moms will do anything for their babies. Bless. I can't remember those days of mine.

Cheryl Cole was sweet, cute, sexy and extremely popular! She's truly the British sweetheart. Only afterwards when I saw the videos, did I realize her voice was really weak during the performance, something we didn't really notice then. But we all know from ages that her voice isn't her strength. I enjoyed her performance anyway esp with all her catchy pop songs like Parachute, Fight for this love, 3 words...

Lostprophets, the sons of Wales, had the biggest reception and energy ever! I have never really listened to their rock album properly. But they were great! Fab energy!

Alicia Keys was one of my highlights. Disappointingly her grand piano wasn't working so she came on stage late and had to played on the keyboard for the Empire State of Mind number (I wonder if it was really her grand piano shipped all over the place for performances?). Alicia was wearing a jumpsuit with low V-neck and somewhat baggy around the waist. From the beginning I could tell she was pregnant as you could really see her belly was sticking out! And come on it's Alicia, she usually doesn't wear something like that. I love her new album "Elements of Freedom" and she did various numbers from there. Her voice, despite the bad technical sounds, was amazing! True diva. Cheryl Cole is the little town-girl star next to Alicia.

After Alicia, it was hitting 7pm and it was another 2 hours to go before the next much awaited act Florence and the Machine. We couldn't stand anymore (it had been 4 hours by then), so we decided to enjoy it in the sunshine from afar. Dizzee Razcal was next. He was so full of energy. Not a huge fan of his but the boys were going crazy about him.

Florence and the Machine was the most magical. Flo was fab on stage, so theatrical. I love her music, her style, her voice, her songs... She's one of a kind. She opened with Dog Days are Over, which got the whole packed tent went wild!!! Surprisingly she did her own rendition of Halo (Beyonce), followed by numbers from her Lungs album. It was such a highlight for me! Not to mention we all went wild with Razcal on stage with her @"You've got the Love". Raz got into his rap ...


Everybody wants to be famous
Nobody wants to be nameless, aimless
People act shameless
Trying to act like entertainers

... then all of a sudden he lost his element and stopped the band and announced something like he couldn't go on. haha. So funny. Flo gave him a bit of encouragement and they restarted the whole thing. The last act was a lovely ending to the first day.

We missed out on a lot of great acts like Tinie Tempah, Ellie Goulding, MGMT, Faithless on the InNewMusicWeTrust stage and didn't check out on anything in the Introducing stage. But I already caught up with it on the Radio 1 website here Big Weekend Videos

If there is anything I have learnt from this festival, it is that I do not want to be close to the stage. It's nice to see the artists up-close in person but the heat and the pushing was so not worth it. As long it was live music it was fine by me. I'd rather be able to dance along with it.

Unfortunately, that was also it for us. We didn't have tickets for Sunday, the line-up of which was also fabulous. We made our way back to Caernarfon. On our way back we were approached by some lovely locals who were pissed but friendly and very entertaining. Again I cannot stressed the beautiful spirit of people in this country of Wales!

Fantastic day!

Photo credit to my fab travel companion *h.o.a

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