Somersault Festival 2014.

When: July 17^th-21st

Where: Castle Hill Estate, Devon

Website: somersaultfestival.com

I went to Somersault festival with some trepidation as to what it would be like as it was the first time ever that it had been on, and I thought that it would be small and maybe a bit unorganised. However, I could not have been more wrong as it was a smooth running festival, with a huge site in the most beautiful location in Devon.

Somersault itself comes from the same stable as other UK festivals like Wilderness and The Great Escape. Somersault was more of family-orientated festival, where there were opportunities to go off site to the beach, and to do activities such as kayaking and surfing. However, there were also many activities and happening things on-site such as a rapping competition in the Variety Tent, holistic healing, yoga and massages in the Wild Wellbeing Centre and lots of crafts and games in the kids area.

As for the musical acts, highlights were Nick Mulvey’s brilliant set on Saturday as well as the famous Jack Johnson, who, while being brilliant and bringing a huge crowd, did have an extremely long set of over 2 hours, which got a bit tedious after a while. Half Moon Run also attracted a big crowd with their folk/indie style pop on Sunday followed by the haunting Ben Howard who had the group of boys near me all crying as they sung their hearts out! Jack Wills were there with their own acoustic tent where I particularly enjoyed the lovely Rae Morris in the afternoon.

My friend Jessye and I watching Half Moon Run.

The food on offer was vast and looked beautiful with two areas full of hundreds of stands such as a stall selling smoothies made by bike-power and a café that put garlic in everything. Kopparberg cider had their own bar, selling delicious chilled strawberry and lime cider at £5 a pint. As for other alcohol, there were 4 Somersault Bars stationed around the site with fairly reasonable prices (cheaper than Glastonbury anyway).

I got a free ticket as I worked with Green Stewards at the festival. This was an excellent experience as we got our own camping area away from the main areas, and only had to do three 6.5 hr shifts the whole weekend. Whilst working most festival-goers were understanding if I had to prevent them going into an area etc. and very chatty so the time flew by. I was lucky as I got shifts that usually didn't interfere with the main musical acts I wanted to see, but even if I wasn't, there was still plenty going on such as the Chai Wallah tent which had some brilliant DJ's on after 10 o'clock.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the festival and am definitely going to attend next year, hopefully stewarding again. The atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly, with plenty of security and nightlife to keep everyone going!

Ballet.

I have just finished my Grade 8 ballet exam. It feels like the end of an era, entering a world where I don't go to ballet class every week. It's going to be strange, and it is already very sad. The tears afterwards were not because the exam went badly, on the contrary, but because we will dearly miss the dancing, the laughing and the friendship. We will miss our lovely teacher, the principle, who continues to put her heart and soul into teaching after all this time. And we will miss out other teacher who has had years of doing our hair and preparing us for exams as well as teaching and consoling us when we feel down. I will also miss the pianist who always makes sure that we are on the beat and ready to begin. He shed a few tears himself today, as he said goodbye to us all. I will also miss the ballet studio that has the two frustrating pillars in the middle of the room that you have to space yourself around, and the old photographs of performances that hang on the whitewashed walls. 

I will miss the gratification of trying hard and completing the grades. When you complete a ballet exam each year, no matter what the result, you always feel a great sense of pride and achievement that you got yourself to this level, and that you have performed for a London examiner and proved to her that you can do it. Thirteen years down the line and I can't imagine my life without it, but I'm sure I'll get used to it...eventually.