Parachute 09!

Friday
Woke up nice and early to get the bus and get to Parachute as soon as possible and ended waiting for an hour until the bus finally showed up at about 8.00am.
The bus ride was pretty sweet, we just hung out, walked around, played cards, jammed on guitars (me & Ben). We were almost there (just before Cambridge) when one of the tyres on the bus popped and we ended up waiting for an hour on the side of the road. But despite that we eventually got there at 6.00pm.
When we reached our campsite, most of our tents were already up thanks to Nick and his mates who went up earlier with our tents.
I just had time to deposit my gear in the tent before going to see some bands.
First on my list was All the Big Names, starting off with The Final Countdown and playing a mix off popular songs and rocked up old school church songs like Ancient of Days and This is My Desire.
Then I had about half an hour to grab some quick food before heading off to Mainstage to see Arms Reach who won the Wildcard Competition. They mainly played their new dance stuff which was good, but I still prefer their old stuff.
Following them was Late 80s Mercedes who were a great show as usual, and actually played The Final Countdown as well, andBeat It by Michael Jackson which was pretty epic.
By then the crowd had grown a lot for the one and only Mumdollar. As usual they were amazing, playing songs from their new album as well as favourites like Sunrise, One Day and Hooray For Bad Boys. Then out came the acoustic guitars for Rescue Me which was the best.
Then I had a break to actually check out the village, meet some peoples and go back to our tent site.
Just before 11.00pm we headed to the Palladium to see one of the main acts of the whole festival, crunk rockers Family Force 5. They put on a really good show and played a lot of popular songs inlcluding some of my favourites Drama Queen and Numb.
I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Berni, Rachel and Graeme and eating donuts until I went to bed at about 2.30am.

Saturday
I was awoken around 7.00am by the intense heat that consumed the tent which quickly became unbearable as the day moved on. After I had woken up properly I went to the village with Aj and had pikelets for breakfast and then went to sit down by Mainstage and listen to the speaker for the morning meeting.
The rest of the morning was just passed by hanging out, walking around and checking out the shops in the village.
At 1.20pm, me Ben and Leah went to the Palladium to see the much anticipated Lt. Funk who were great, I love brass instruments, they sound so cool.
Next was the Esther Melody Squad at the Debut Stage, I don't think I saw them last year but they put on a really good show.
Then I went back to the tents to see Nick so he'd know I was still alive and we organised for our small group (Nick, Rheon, Gerben, Aj, Ben, Frenchy and I) to have dinner together at 5.30pm.
I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon just chilling, wasting time and spending money on food until it was time for our dinner date. At 6.15pm when I went to Mainstage to see Kingston who were good but I only knew one of their songs...
Stayed for a bit of Nathan King then left to do something I can't quite remember, quite possibly exchange my jandals for shoes in preparation for the upcoming bands.
I got back in time to see All Left Out who I hadn't really listened to, but I enjoyed their show anyway, and then went to mosh with Gerben to Family Force 5.
Once again they put on a fantastic show, and I was forced to leave the most pit after a few songs so I could actually pay attention to them rather than concentrate on not getting killed.
I didn't see all of Kutless, but had fun doing crazy dance moves for the bit I did see and then hung out with Jess and Gerben for Dave Dobbyn. Despite not originally planning on going to see him he was pretty good and had some mean guitar solos. I spent the entire set waiting for the only song I knew, Welcome Home, and he didn't play it right until the end.
At some point after that I met Berni and Rachel and we went and sat down with Frenchy and just hung out and played guitar. We did that for a while until they got tired and went to bed, so I went and had a nice long shower and then went back to the tents and hung out with the people there for a while.

Sunday
Woke about 8.00am this time, probably due to going to bed a little later. I ended up spending most of the morning and early afternoon in the same manner of Saturday but with a slight increase in the number of fruit slushies I bought (I think I bought about 7 on Sunday...).
At 2.50pm I went with Leah and Ben to the 80s Disco in the Palladium since I was in the mood to dance. I didn't know all the songs but it was still a lot of fun. Afterwards me and Leah ended up going to see Arms Reach at the Deluxe but ended up dozing on the floor, I still listened though, I got excited at one point because I thought they were playing Lies & Lipstick but it turned out it was only Stars and Satellites...
Then we met Ben again and went to see Lt. Funk again before having dinner and returning to the Palladium to see Mumsdollar again. I didn't really mosh this time as I just wanted to enjoy the music, which I did. Afterwards I decided to go to the their signing session with Antony and Jordan, so we pretty much ran there and got right near the front of a insanely long line. I ended up missing out on Fletcher because of it but I got my Mumsdollar shirt signed.
After that I just hung out with the crew for the rest of the night. Apparently there was a rave on in the Deluxe that no-one told me about, I was pretty gutted about that.
At some point during the night there was a dance party at the Subway in the village, even the Subway employees were dancing and doing the actions, it looked pretty fun.
I saw Stuart! I forgot how warm he is...
I ended up going to sleep in my sleeping bag on some camping chairs at about 4.30am after hanging out at the tents some more. I kept waking up feeling really disorientated 'coz I had no idea what had happened...

Monday
I woke up still on the camping chairs trying to figure out what had happened since I last closed my eyes, and eventually managed to wake up. I was then granted the pleasure of waking everyone else up by playing Reveille on my bugle. Apparently you could hear it all the way in the village. Then we took down all the tents and packed our stuff onto the bus before it was time to leave the site. When we got to the bus we had to wait almost an hour for my sister who had decided to go off to the village when were supposed to be leaving...
Anywho we left at about 10.30am and began the long journey home. It was pretty much the same as the journey to Parachute except there were a lot more people sleeping. When we stopped in Tokoroa me and Ben went to the Warehouse where we bought sticks and had an epic stick fight which I won.
I managed to figure out the chords for Mumsdollar's Brothers in Arms and The Wedding Song on the way back.
We got back about 7.30pm, unloaded the bus and went home.