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Womad festival in Reading provided us a base camp for the weekend. After getting inside the arena, the whole afternoon and evening was spent there. Eat Static, being the highlight of the bands playing, got all my mates grooving into the night. A really nice atmosphere in the festival.

We left the festival, and made our way towards Oxford, down the back roads out of Reading. A few parties were happening up on the Ridgeway - Junction 10, Adrenalin and Fushion soundsystems, providing the tunes for the unofficial Womad afterparty at Cholsey Down. We made the decision to head to the POD, Darkstar, Panik party, which very close by. I'm not gonna reveal the actual location, cause it was a beautiful place, but lets just say it was pretty close to the other party - you could see their lights in the sky.

To get to the POD party, we drove through a small village, and then up a tiny road into the hills. Stopping every so often to check for speaker bass. We managed to confuse ourselves by getting the two parties mixed up. Another car pulled up behind us, and tagged on the end of our small convoy. I carried on down the track, and after a while I was convinced we were heading the wrong way. Everyone turned around, and drove back up the track. Meeting another lost party car, they phoned ahead, and confirmed that the party was indeed far far far down the track. We turned around again.

After I was just about to give up on the track, the party materialised from out of nowhere. We parked up pretty close to POD's system. Loads of people were there, but not many cars. Turns out we were in the middle of a crossroad, and most people had come the less bumpy way up, and parked down one of the other tracks.

POD always play quality banging techno and the occasional trance set or two during their night. They had a huge system out with them, and a couple of sky tracker lights on top of the stack. A few generator problems hindered the repetitive beats.... someone put diesel in the petrol genny. It was drained and wasn't long before the tunes were back on. The dancefloor remained packed all night.

Elsewhere, other systems arrived and setup. Closest to POD, was Darkstar, with the drum and bass flavor, whose rig packed a bass heavy punch into the surrounding countryside. Down one of the crossroad tracks, a small system, whose name I didn't catch, played hip hop, funk, loads of strange tunes all night. Nice and alternative for a free party.

Panik finally turned up, and positioned themselves down another one of the crossroad tracks. Fast Techno was played when I stopped by them, and they managed to keep all the people in the temporary car park entertained.

The location was especially nice in the morning once it had got light, shame the sun never came out, but the surrounding view of green hills made up for that. We made a move about 8am, and headed back to Womad for the Sunday morning and afternoon. Really nice night out in the hills.

Bugs




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