Andrew Dubber     

We’ve been back from Shambala a few days and it was, once again, a very laid-back and relaxed affair. Good music – mostly by bands we’d never heard of, but occasionally there’d be one or two that one of us had heard of (or, on occasion, met).

Here’s a quick glimpse of some the bits I managed to catch:

[Video link]

As with previous years, we booked a tipi, crammed half a dozen people into it, stuck a New Zealand flag on top, built a campfire in the middle, and then used that as our base from which to go exploring.

The crew consisted of me, Bobbie, Brendan, Jo, Suzie, Juliet, and Louise sleeping in the kiwi tipi, plus Jake, Hannah and Ethan in the teen tent – and Jo’s cousin Geoff, who had his own (luxury) tent.

During the day, mostly we just hung out around the campfire, chatting. However, some interesting stuff happened, as it always does.

Juliet was significantly delayed by train shenanigans; some friends in bands played gigs and were really great; I played disco records (and some people even danced) in a Wild West themed tent; we all had naps – especially me; Brendan chased away noisy drunk people at 5am; eight full cans of baked beans made the trip to Shambala and came back untouched; we took a brand new (cheap, plastic) swingball set which managed to break without any of us playing it; Bobbie made enough biscuits to feed the 5000 – but we ate them all by the middle of the second day; some lovely friends came to visit us in the tipi; we made a bucket of Pimms and Jo made faux sangria out of cask red wine and lemonade; and we didn’t try very hard at the fancy dress.

On the whole, another very good year. It’s a great festival to go to and just hang out, sample what’s on offer, and generally just relax and enjoy the vibe. It’s one of those things where pretty much everyone’s in a good mood all the time, there are probably as many families as there are party-aged concert-goers, and even with a spot of rain along the way, it’s a good holiday with good friends.

Here are some photos I took.