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I couldn’t imagine doing festivals without drinking. Pulling it off filled me with relief – and pride | Laura Snapes
Festivals and alcohol had always seemed synonymous to me. But a downward spiral prompted me to attempt one sober. It was a revelation, albeit not an easy one, writes Laura Snapes
My best friend’s mum kindly – bravely – drove us two 15-year-olds from Cornwall to Reading and supervised from a distance while we queued at the signing tent to meet Goldie Lookin’ Chain, Razorlight and the Hives, joined in the euphoric yells of “bollocks!” that swept across the campsite and eschewed the homemade food she had brought to rejoice in eating kebab-van burgers as flat and flavourful as CDs. I can stitch a whole quilt of these moments from my two decades of festivalling: dancing with mud-filled Crocs as the Pet Shop Boys headlined Primavera Porto last year; watching Alabaster dePlume enchant Le Guess Who? in Utrecht in 2021 as the unplanned last act of the night after the Dutch government imposed a last-minute Covid curfew; fulfilling a teenage dream of watching from the side of the Pyramid stage when the National played Glastonbury in 2017.
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