Party!

Party at Knockanstockan

Not to give anyone the wrong impression, but aside from all the work at Knockanstockan, I had some pretty damn good time partying with some of the coolest people I've ever met from all over the world. For three days straight, we worked during the day, and listened to music on giant stages while jumping up and down and making up our own super cool dance moves. It wasn't quite as crowded as I was expecting, which almost made it nicer because you couldn't go 2 feet without running into a friend or someone you had already met.

Ida and Sinead dancing

We were sooo excited once the festival began because that meant that the one porter potty that the 20 or so of us had been sharing all week multiplied into 20 or so, except that within about 5 hours, they were all even dirtier than ours had been. The mud on the farm also got increasingly difficult to get through, but surprisingly it never got completely out of hand, and there were never any naked mud dances like I had heard there were last year. Tear.

Sinead and Antonio Dancing

Mostly everyone's favorite part of the festival was when the eco-showers arrived. We had been going a week without a shower and finally they set up these absolutely beautiful and enclosed eco-showers that ran at a temperature of somewhere around 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Even though I couldn't really breathe while I showered, it was still a vast improvement to my last cleaning adventure. A couple of days earlier I had stupidly followed Jared and Sebastian with a few other people up a mountain and over thorny bushes up to my arms just to get to a freezing cold and dirty river. So an eco-shower in our own lovely muddy farm was quiet an improvement! And then add an eco-loo which I helped build (essentially a giant hole in the ground with a raised wooden box that had holes cut out of it in which to shit covered in a tipi) and we were all grand.

Eco-Shower

So overall, the entire camp experience I'd say was a huge success. Although there were definitely mixed opinions about it all (some thought it was horrible conditions, others had a lot of fun) I had a blast. I only wish I hadn't spent so much damn money, but I guess that just means I'll be eating €1.77 chicken baguettes from Londis for the next few days and no more pints for a while. The fun can't last forever, especially in Dublin when I had to spend €7 for one damn pint of cider at Temple Bar last night. It's getting time to head back to the country and get back to work! For now, I have a 2-day vacation just chilling at my friend's place and then back to the farms come Sunday!

Kevin and Sebastian (Seabass)

Antonio having too much fun

My favorite stage: The Fish Stage