Big Day Out!! :-@

I have survived my first Big Day Out festival, which happened to be on my first Australia Day! Everyone in NZ and Australia have said that this event was massive but I really couldn't have imagined the scale of this mother.

Here's some vital stats:
- approximately 50 bands, including Tool, Rammstein, Iggy and the Stooges, Deftones, MIA, Lupe Fiasco, CSS, LCD Soundsystem....
- 60,000 concert goers, about three times the population of my hometown
- Indoor and outdoor venues, silent disco, ferris wheels and rides, fountains and spraying devices everywhere
- Bottle of water $4, can of beer $8
- 10am to 12:30pm, the most massive party ever
- 42 degree, partly cloudy skies

The day before we did a lot of preparation errands; got a case of beer, got me an Oz SIM card so I can make emergency calls if I get lost, washing of favourite clothes to wear such as Ryan's Aussie BBQ board shorts and my neon shirt (or "flouro" in Australian). Apparently Ryan and his pals went to BDO in previous years wearing shirts that said "Flouro sucks" because it was so cliche and cheesy for concert goers to wear neon, but I figure it was worth it to stand out in a crowd in case we all get separated.

Ryan's dad made us a big breakfast of yummy sausage, eggs, and toast and then gave us a lift on his way to work. Went to Wade's place and got the coolers (aka "eskis") and party favours organized. Walked to the Warilla Pub, the local hangout lovingly referred to as Heaven, and met 45ish other folks there waiting for the BDO bus.

As we cruised up from Wollongong to Sydney driving up the highway with dozens of other party buses, we stopped at several pubs along the way for shots and pee breaks, applying sunscreen and zinc on each other between beers. Kind of made me think back to  my days on the Kiwi bus, only the people on this BDO bus were all my age or older, everyone was drunk and/ or on drugs and I was the only non-Australian on there.

Entering the stadium was an epic maze of security gates and checkpoints, sniffer dogs, bracelet and ticket checkings but it wasn't long until I had two beers in my fists and was happy dancy dancy in front of The Vines.

The rest of the day is kind of a blur hahaha...... Ryan puked pretty much right after we arrived in the morning from too much medicine, and again later in the evening for the same reason only then it splashed on his mates' legs which was hella funny. :-P

It was so hot during the day that I literally thought I was going to die. It was like in Mario 3 where you're in the desert world and the sun is trying to kill you.

42 degrees and SWEATING INCESSANTLY, just so gross. The only way to stay alive it seemed was to constantly guzzle water, douse yourself in the showers and fountains everywhere as much as possible, and share ice rubdowns with ice stolen from coolers. Overheated, dripping with sweat and water, dirty dusty filthy, dancing like an idiot totally smashed. :-D

Highlights include passing around some aussie peace pipe in the stadium in the late afternoon, and seeing CSS who were SO RAD live - had the time of my life dancing dancing to them in the boiler room, an indoor venue with a ferris wheel and a bunch of people hiding from the sun.

We caught the bus back at about 1am and everyone was totally exhausted and out of it. Ryan had the brilliant idea of grabbing the foamie and sleeping in the living room for the night, the only room in the house with air conditioning. After literally baking myself in my own juices all day it was so so so nice to sleep in a cold room. We've been laying in the fort-bed all day, watching Discovery Chanel and movies, drinking water. aaaaaaah

It was my first ever music festival of any kind, my first Australia Day and my first Big Day Out and I survived it, scary toilets and deadly heat. To be honest I'm totally shocked that I did so well - there's just no way for me to convey how hot and messy the day got without implicating myself too much on here. I'm so proud I didn't get lost, I didn't puke my head off or get way too drunk, I didn't get sunstroke (or even sunburned!! a fucking miracle!!) and I woke up safe and sound.... only I had several new bruises on my legs and blood in my hair from bumping my head and not noticing until the next day. :-P