Sound Island Festival 2013

Hello there dear blog readers.

A bit of a different blog today. So a few weekends ago now I was lucky enough to go to the Sound Island Festival down here in Kent. These past few years some major artists have come down to Kent to perform at Quex Park in the summer. And this year Quex decided to take it up a noch and throw on a 2 day festival - Sound Island. 

I'm very into music and learned to appreciate it from the mere age of about 9 when my mum took me and my brother to our first ever concert - Busted!! Since then i've been to see the X Factor tour when Matt Cardle won, I went and saw Professor Green earlier this year with my brother, and I've also seen The Wanted live too.

This year I was lucky enough to go both days at Sound Island... And be right at the front each day too!! So I thought I'd share some pictures with you guys.

The line up for the 2 days was as follows 

Saturday:

I went with 2 of my friends on Saturday and we decided that we would turn up an hour before the gates open to secure a good place near the front and our plan worked. Turning up at 2 o'clock and walking through the first few fields towards the gates there was hardly anyone around before we knew it we were around 5th in line queuing up to be let in - Result! After the gates open we walked at quite a fast pace (as running wasn't aloud...) and landed a very secure place 3 from the front and the 2 hour wait for the acts began (which soon passed by playing many games of guess that celebrity or eye spy!)

The first act on was Bebe Black:

(sorry if the photo's aren't that great)

If there's one thing I love more than anything it would be finding new artists and new music to listen to and Bebe Black was no exception. Being first on stage not only that day but to be starting off the whole festival is a scary task I think, but she rose to the challenge and was great! She has such a beautiful voice and her songs were a joy to listen too and I cant wait to hear more from her in the future.

Next was Little Nikki: 

Little Nikki is a rapper/singer as well as a very good dancer. Her music definitely go the crowd going and she even bought her own dancer on stage and together they pulled some amazing dance moves. 

After Little Nikki was X Factor winner James Arthur:

I have to say since Simon Cowell left the X Factor I haven't been watching it. However I did buy James Arthur's version of Impossible when it came out and I was excited to see him live. He played many new songs which will be released in his new album coming out soon, which I for one will defiantly be buying! The new songs he played were outstanding and of course everyone joined in during Impossible which was re mastered so that at the end there was an epic guitar solo by James himself.

Next was Giggs:

I have to say I had no clue who Giggs was to the extent that before he came on stage he popped his head around the stage and a few people in the crowd screamed so myself and my friend Lily waved at him and he waved back to which we looked at each other and asked who he was! I'm not a very big fan of rappers so I didn't really enjoy his music as much as I could've but either way he was great at handling the crowd and everyone else seemed to enjoy him.

After Giggs was Rita Ora!!

I was so excited to see Rita Ora on Saturday and she did not disappoint. In my opinion Rita Ora was the best act of the whole night and it was a shame she couldn't stay on and sing some more songs. By the time she came out it started to rain.... and not just a little bit TORRENTIAL! But it didn't stop her from jumping off the stage and coming over to all the crowd giving them hugs and high fives in only a sports bra and the skirt she's wearing above. She even waved at me and my friend Lily and gave us a lovely smile which made standing out in the pouring rain well worth it!

Last on Saturday was Plan B:

Now I only know 1 song from Plan B which he sang halfway through his set list so I was pretty much lost to what he was saying most of the time while he was singing/rapping, but saying that I really enjoyed watching him and joining in with the crowd waving and what not.

4 fights later (involving countless numbers of bouncers struggling to drag them out of the crowd over the barriers - rather them than me), being soaked, not only the rain but some random man who kept throwing cups of water over us and having my foot ran over by a wheelchair user at 10.30 in the pitch black and after standing up for 8 hours straight we made our way home, not before deciding to grab some dinner and use the porta loo's (big mistake there)!

Day 2 arrived at lightning speed and before we knew it we were on our way out and queueing up again meeting up with some more friends for the day. 

Myself and Della Loves Nutella. 

Kick starting day 2 was a bit of a surprise in the form of 4 rather beautiful lads formally known as Union J - I say surprise, as much as we knew they'd be there we didn't know they'd be first on so safe to say we were pretty excited! 

Just look at them! It was Josh's 21st birthday that day so the whole crowd go involved in singing Happy Birthday to him. They sang mostly covers of songs they done on the X Factor and then finished it off with Carry You, their new single. They certainly got all the attention and even pulled off their first song with no backing music due to technical difficulties. Did I mention Josh waved at me?! *Insert Fangirl Scream Here*

After Union J came Joywride: 

Joywride were a band consisting of a drummer, base guitarist, lead guitarist and a lead singer who also played the keyboard. Honestly Union J was a tough act to follow and unfortunately for Joywride that bar was a bit to high to reach, so the audience werent really that captivated by them, however they were still quite good and the lead singer had an amazing range of vocal chords! 

Next up was The Vamps:

A young boy band who became quite well known by covering many songs on Youtube and exceedingly well too. I've never heard of The Vamps but after they came on I was pretty much sold! They were great and everyone loved them especially 4 very over enthusiastic 

girls right next to us!

After The Vamps were MK1:

Mk1 were an act on the UK X Factor consisting of a rapper and a lead singer who could also rap too. They were a lot of fun to listen to and not only did they give a preview of what's next to come from them they did some of the well known covers they performed on X Factor which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Up next was Lawson!

The Drummer Adam Pitts

Lead Guitar Joel Peat

Lead Singer Andy Brown

Base Guitar Ryan Fletcher

*Cue Fangirling* I am a huge fan of Lawson, I saw them last year at the O2 when they were one of the warm up acts for The Wanted and I was instantly won over. As well as being amazingly good looking they are all so talented in what they do and it pays off in their songs which always get the crowd singing to their hearts content. This year seeing them up closer was surreal and apart from a few technical glitches they owned that stage!! This just makes me even more excited to see what they will be coming out with soon and I cant wait to hopefully see them again.

And last but certainly not least......

JESSIE J!! 

I am a MASSIVE fan of Jessie J and honestly it was a dream come true not only seeing her live but being so close to the stage as well. She has such an amazing stage presence as you can imagine the crowd went wild the whole time she was there. Not only did she sing some of her well known songs she took us back in time performing some of her favourite songs from "back in the day" as she said, meaning the whole crowd joined in singing "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" by Aerosmith which led into "Who You Are"  When Jessie J went off to get changed her backing singers then had their own time to shine, each singing a different song to get the crowd going, which was so good as well.

So that's all the acts over the 2 days. It was honestly one of the best weekends of my life and I'm glad I can share the experience with you guys. If you've seen someone live write it in the comments below.

Hope you enjoyed this blog. Till next time blog readers