Man, is it christmas already?!?? (How many times have you heard THAT so far :P)

Ahhhh, sweet sweet Earthcore. Another one done, and this was my best one yet 🙂

This year was another one spent with Martin, and this time, his missus Saro. A lot of planning went into this year, and all the plans were excellently laid and executed 🙂 The only thing we didn’t do was take photos or videos 🙁

We left around 2pm on Friday, after jamming a whole heap of shit into Martin’s tiny Excel (he is a god at tetris). The drive up was different this year due to some bridge roadworks, and that only turned out to be a nice change of scenery for the usual drive.

We setup camp moderately fast, including erecting Martin’s grand tent plan (which worked pretty damned well!) It was about five metres deep, and protected us well.

Friday night was mostly spent sitting around, talking shit, watching the lands slowly fill with other doofers, and a bit of drinking and checking out the nights entertainment (which wasn’t all that flash).

Spent most of Saturday just veggin’ and talking and relaxing, with my occasional motiviation for us all to walk around and check shit out. The night soon enough came on, and it was on 🙂

Highlights for me I think were lil miSbreaks, Gavin Keitel, Hallucinogen, Astrix, Sub 6, Protoculture, Lab 4 and Juno. I’m sure there’s a lot more that I can’t remember.

We had a little issue at the campsite from about midnight (I think it was, Regurgitator were on), so I had to take care of someone for a while… I then grabbed the other two for some air and just rocked at all the stages from 2 to 9… it was so incredibly cold I just wandered around with a blanket wrapped around me, boogyin’ away.

I ran into an old mate from a past job in the market area at some point and hung with him for a while and talked; that was really good, and a surprise to see him there. I eventually left to go and get the other two and bring them back to the market to chill. At one point, they began to really look like they needed sleep, so they split. I hung out for a while and then got back on my feet for a sunrise set by Juno on the main stage. I’m not religious, but I saw the creator 😉 I made my way back to the campsite to see if the other two were awake to experience the amazing sight that is sunrise at EC, main stage, with 100 others all shuffling, but they were dead.

I eventually ended up back at the site around 9, and just sat and listened and relaxed, all the while watching the scene unfold as seen in this photo 🙂 Walking back, I had a beautiful moment with a girl that was walking nearby… she asked if I liked her bubbles (those soap ones), I said yeah… we walked another minute, she went a different way and with the most gorgeous, infectious smile said, “Seeya later brother!” She was wonderful, and is the epitome of Earthcore.

The only moderate downer was having an icehead approach our campsite when we were packing up — this guy was in a real serious mess. He was talking all fucked up about food types, and then bursting into crying spontenously, huddling into a ball on the ground. Even asked us to take his glass pipe from him because he couldn’t handle any more.

Thinking I should take on this problem, I told them to keep packing and I’d take him to a chilltent to take him in (apparently he missed a bus home or something), and he flipped out not wanting to go to ambo’s or the cops. I reassured him and walked a little while with him. He suddenly bursts into tears again and says, “Why did she leave me?” I found myself thinking “I hear you brother, know your pain right now…”

And then, in a moment of realisation, I think “Dunno why it happened to me, but I clearly understand why yours left you.”

Shortly after, he bugged out again and claimed that his friends were just over there. I watched him walk to a site and be taken in, thereby “handing him over”, and went back to packing up. Needless to say, I reiterated what I’d oddly said a day before: don’t, ever, touch crack or ice, and certainly don’t smoke those, meth or almost anything else — that’s how you’ll most certainly end up.

All in all, apart from some quiet moments where I found my mind wandering trying to sort out some recent personal shit, I had an amazing weekend. We came back on the Sunday instead of staying at the hotel, and ended up at Mulch’s having a very fulfilling and tasty BBQ dinner. They both came over last night for food and a mix from me.

Finally… an Earthcore with no regrets, no incidents, and a great time. I wonder if I’ll do any more… wonder if it will ever happen again.