In 2009 I finally made it to my first ever REAL festival where I lived off cereal bars and wet wipes: Wakestock. Wakestock being set in Abersoch in North Wales, meant that it took myself and mi amiga, an all round trip of five hours by train to get there. Serious dedication. But it was worth it as the festival organised a free shuttle bus to the festival site, which was tucked away in a beautiful set of rolling hills and directly opposite the chilly sea. This meant that whenever the sun actually decided to make it out (which was not often as Wakestock wins hands down “Muddiest Festival”), the beach was a stones throw away, and the festival allowed punters to go out and take advantage of the natural beauty that surrounds this festival.

With a fantastic setting to take advantage of, as well a range of diverse artists, Wakestock is already a preferable choice for those festival goers who want to really party away from their roots. But what sets Wakestock apart from any other festivals is its Wakeboarding and Boating competitions. As the festival is set practically by the sea, professional wakeboarders flock from all over the world come to compete in the buzzing exciting atmosphere of Wakestock. You can pass time by watching these pros flip and twist on the waves, whilst waiting for your favourite act to come on, meaning day and night entertainment is to be had here at Wakestock.

We met a group of lads from Manchester (my first introduction to Mancunions) who were hilarious and we were told that we were the only southerners they had met so far. This is confirmed by the distance as many Londoners would don the journey a “trek”, so this festival is mainly full of boisterous northerners and camp fire singing welsh people (we did actually see this happen) which I found really refreshing.

Wakestock was jampacked with awesome artists, I saw Dizzee Rascal live- who is excellent at getting the crowd pumped and someone even let off a flare in the middle of his set, Chase n Status – not the last time I was to see them, London Elektricity, Pigeon Detectives, Jack Penate, Just Jack, Calvin Harris– who is shockingly awful live, and the legendary Moby. My highlight of the festival was when I was on some drunk guy’s shoulders for Moby’s “Lift Me Up” whilst it was lightly raining. However, Moby did get a wellie thrown at him- which was very odd, but also whoever threw it had incredible aim, and at first he walked off stage but then soon returned after the crowd egged him back on, saying “Don’t throw wellies at me”. Classic.