I'm sad to be writing that this will be my last festival diary of 2015 (perhaps the reason I've put this post off for so long - sorry I've been so busy with uni!) but at least
Festival Number 6 ended the season with a bang. Thanks to the lovely people over at
Funkin' Cocktails, I got to party the weekend away in the mountains of Portmeirion with my best friend and blogger pallys,
Kayla and
Jo!
The journey up was pretty long, but 6 hours of travelling was totally worth it when we arrived at a massive bell tent, with a huge bundle of Funkin' Cocktail mixers to sort us for the weekend! We all had air mattresses with a foam layer on top to make them super comfy, complete with pretty bedding, so all we had to bring was our clothes and ourselves - so much easier than lugging all your camping gear there!
The arena had a gorgeous view of the mountains, and was large, but still pretty intimate. All the attendees were super chilled and there was a friendly atmosphere all round. Below it looks a little cloudy, but we were blessed with gorge weather most of the weekend which I was very chuffed about!
The first thing we checked out in the arena was a big tent filled with independent brand's stalls - some selling handmade goods, others with vintage, it was an incredible variety, and everything was just so pretty!
We spent a hearty amount of time at the Old Mout tent; drawn in initially by the trampolines, we bounced on over to free samples, which obviously lead to buying a couple ciders, they are pretty damn delish! A gospel choir led a karaoke session and I was
this close to having a go myself, but hadn't got enough liquid confidence yet - thank the lord it was a cider bar and not a wine bar or my awful wailing would have taken over!
Festival No. 6 has definitely topped all festivals I've been to this year in the realms of food. There were so many independent stalls offering amazing looking food - I feasted on the likes of gourmet mac 'n' cheese, premium scotch eggs, and my favourite festival food of the summer,
Pieminister pies!
Mark Ronson was a stand-out act on Friday - his DJ set was filled with hits and we danced the night away. I saw Catfish and the Bottlemen at Latitude, but their set was spilling out the tent so it wasn't too great an experience - this time we got close to the front on the main stage and they killed it, definitely one to listen to if you're into Arctic Monkeys. I also loved Everything Everything - despite being to a few festivals they played this year, they've always clashed with another act. They played a mix of old and new material, and the new stuff is so catchy you didn't need to know it already - I've been listening to their latest stuff since and absolutely love it!
Of course I can't go without gushing over Portmeirion village. Walk through an archway in the arena and you are transported to a pastel paradise - all buildings designed by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis to look like a quaint italian village. I especially loved the big pink unicorn building (future home please??) and if you ventured into the forest there were hidden stages everywhere, and glades with DJ set-ups, with huge art installations in the branches. We climbed up to the very top to find the most breathtaking view of the beach - I'd love to return to Portmeirion someday when it's not filled with festival-goers!
Of course we had to frolic about on the beach, and we picked the perfect weekend to do so. After wandering through the woods for quite a while, we found a rope that took us down to the beach. A little sketchy (especially in tiny shorts), but throwing our shoes off and running into the sea was so much fun - how many festivals are there where you can take a beach break right?? It was so sunny that it seriously felt like we were sunning ourselves in Spain or somewhere exotic, the only giveaway that it was Wales was the surrounding green hills!
All-in-all it was a magical weekend, and it's making me so sad that the summer is over, bring on summer 2016!
A mahoooosive thank you to
Funkin Cocktails for making the weekend possible - it was truly a festival like no other, hopefully see you next year, FN6!
AMY X