Dancing in a field is good for the soul

After 3 days of dancing in a field at The Isle of Wight Festival, I have come back exhausted (with very sore feet) but feeling fresh and ready to take on the world.

There is something about the outdoors that makes you appreciate living. Eating, drinking and dancing with 60,000 other people is good for the soul.

What is also good for the soul is talking to complete strangers who you will never see again and having the most bizarre conversations.

Seeing grown men and women covered in glitter and wearing the most outrageous clothing is great. We saw about 20 “Where’s Wally” costumes, all together in a sea of red and white stripes – so much easier to find at a festival than spending 15 minutes on one page of the puzzle book.

There was also a group of lads dressed as Sumo Wrestlers, taking up far too much space in their over inflated costumes – which probably in the real world would be a bit annoying, but at 4ft wide and 6ft tall they made everyone smile when they walked past.

There were Astronauts, Scooby Doos, Gorillas and Super Heroes. Saturday is dress up day (well, every day is dress up day) and the theme this year was the Summer of ’69 – flower power all the way! I think my favourite costumes were a gang of 4 dressed as the Beatles from the cover of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club album cover.

Festivals are a feast for the senses with the costumes, the fairground (which received loads of complaints – Jess Glynne received more for not showing up because she got drunk with the Spice girls the night before – good excuse if you ask me!) colours and music, incredible smells from all the different food vendors.

There were dancers in a cage on top of a little van selling cocktails (way cheaper than the Alchemist!), stilt walkers, clowns (I’m a grown woman, but they’re still a bit scary) and LOADS of live music and DJs.

Musical highlights at the festival for me were singing “Wonderwall” and “Dont look back in Anger” with thousands of other people as Noel Gallagher took the stage.

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than 50,000 people (at least 10,000 wearing FEZ hats!) singing along to “It must be love” by Madness, they were awesome!

AND closing the festival with  Richard Ashcroft. Every song he played. But mostly “Bitter Sweet Symphony” arguably one of the best songs of our time.

But why does it take a festival though, to allow people to express themselves?

Why do we feel so restricted in our everyday lives? Bound by ‘tradition’ and ‘normality’, or what we believe is normal?

Wear the loud clothes, talk to strangers, sing and dance all of the time and laugh always! It is good for the soul.