Oh man, what can I say? Lowlands was bloody brilliant. The weather was beautiful – the perfect festival weather that’s not hot enough to scorch and dry and warm enough to make it lazy and chilled out… the music was alternating between nice and gorgeous… the spirits were high and I partied more than I thought possible. I got to that point that I ended up using reserves that I didn’t really think I had. 
But to start at the beginning… here’s a story (with pictures!) of the awesomeness that was Lowlands. It all started on Thursday of course. Olli and I did some last minute poncho and grocery shopping, cleared out the computer room for the electricity dude, and then loaded our stuff in the car and left at about 3-ish. Of course we ended up in a traffic jam of doom before we could even be let onto the camping terrain, do we didn’t arrive until after 6pm. From there on the long trek to the festival began, because they’d dumped us on the parking lot in the most backward of places. But we were in good spirits so we didn’t care. In the end we had to wait only a little bit for the rest of the group to catch up with us – time we spend wisely with beers. We also ran into Jos at some point and hung out for a while, eating Tijs’ lovingly prepared egg sandwiches and drinking some more beer before we would brave the line before the entrance. That took the better part of another hour and thus it came to be that we entered Lowlands at about 8.30pm. Which means that the campings were full to bursting by that point. It was quite the bitch to find a space to set up camp, but we managed eventually. Shortly after Nathalie and Marijn arrived as well, for which we begged a spot from our way too antisocial oversized campingplace of our neighbours. But soon enough our tents were standing proud and tall.
I met up with Rick as well, and took him and Nathalie to meet up with Jos so they could actually see face-to-face. We had a fun time at Jos’ camp chatting the night away and I think I went to bed about 4-ish eventually.
Friday dawned bright and early – with brilliant weather that we had not expected but loved muchly. Lie arrived around 10-ish, glad that we’d set up her tent for her already. And after waking up Olli it was time to go to the festival terrain! The festival kicked off with Henry Rollins, who did a sketch/speech on life and lowlands in general, during which I mostly lazed around in the grass soaking up sunlight. Quickly thereafter though, it was time for Killswitch Engage!! 
What a way to start off a festival, hehe. It was a lot of fun. Not mindblowing, but full of energy and fun and shouting the lyrics along on top of your lungs and sharing brilliant grins with other fans. I had the camera in my face a few times as I was standing way in front before the stage, so maybe I was on tv as well. Anyway, after the concert I emerged dripping with sweat and doped up on adrenaline, so the festival was off to a good start.
We goofed around a bit, checked out the festival terrain and the market, and then Lie and I went to see The Wombats, which were a lot of fun! Exactly as I expected, just lots of cheerfulness, good gig, and everybody going crazy during “Let’s dance to Joy Division”
After this we roamed the festival terrain some more, Olli, Lie and me. Lie got a spray tattoo of moons and stars on her arm, we had cocktails, Olli bought me an Editors t-shirt and we generally had a good time Then we caught up with the others again to go and see Junkie XL but it was so bloody BUSY there, that the others went elsewhere and Lie and me ending up with the two of us. It was a great show, though. Although by then I was so knackered and my feet were aching up a storm, so we didn’t make it too long.
Already I’ve completely forgotten what we did that first night after Junkie XL, isn’t that horrible? I think we went back to the tentcamp to chill out for a while, but the bad thing is that I remember going to bed at 4-ish once again, but it’s already fading what we did that night. Oh wait, now I do. We went to watch the sneak preview movie! It turned out to be Hellboy 2, which I thought was not all that good. It had some pretty pictures though, and I have to cut the movie some slack because I exhaustedly slept through the first forty minutes of it. It might have been really good in the beginning and I missed it 
Saturday was bloody brilliant. We started the day off with a fun gig of Korpiklaani, who were terribly cheerful. After that we had a few beers in the shade with Jos and his friend. After this we checked out Volbeat and N*E*R*D in the Alpha tent, which were great as well. I do admit that by this time I was pretty inebriated and slept through parts of NERD while lying in the grass. I did hear how they got the audience to sing along, which was cool too see.
After this most of the group went back to the tentcamp. Olli, Lie and I chilled out at the Lima tent. Then it was already time for dinner, and then…. Underworld! They started off a bit slow, I have to admit. But once they got going,it was a real party. I danced myself into a sweat, but once I heard those first notes of “Born Slippy”, I suddenly had gooseflesh all over my arms. That was SO beautiful. Also, they had balloons. The concert took place during a lunar eclipse, which was very visible outside the tent and looked really cool.
We went back to the Lima tent to chill out for a while and played bongo’s for shits and giggles (which you could do there) and regained our strength, until Lie proposed we go and check out the Alpha DJ’s – who were pretty much DJ’s playing good music in the Alpha tent. Best. Idea. Ever.
I thought at that point that I was completely spent after Underworld, but the opposite turned out to be true as they started to play music from bands ranging from Flogging Molly to System of a Down to the Fratelli’s and the Foo Fighters. They even played that song from the movie Blade – the blood party song. I believe it’s by Orbital. And of course the Chemical Brothers. Needless to say, it fucking rocked. I was completely wasted with fatigue, but I couldn’t stop dancing. We had a lot of fun!
When that was done, it was about 2.30am and we stumbled back to our tents.
And then there was the Sunday. The day started a bit later, because it was slightly overcast so we didn’t cook out of our tents. That was good, because I had some sleep to catch up with. Olli, Lie and I bragged about the awesome party in the Alpha tent during breakfast and then we went to the festival terrain, where we mostly boozed up the whole afternoon during We Are Scientists and Danko Jones, who both sounded good. Oh, and the boys played Rock Band and performed (surprisingly) well Eventually we moved to the Alpha tent to watch Gogol Bordello (which sounded like a lot of fun!) and back to the Grolsch for the Fratellis, who were pretty boring.
After this the group kind of split up. Olli, Lie and I opted to go and watch Tricky perform, also because the clouds started drifting in and looked damn worrisome. We figured that when it would start raining, at least we’d be in a tent. That turned out to be a great plan, because the torrential downpour that started soon after was pretty devastating. What once was nice festival terrain turned into a mudpool. By that time Lie was going home, so Olli and I went with her to the camping to pick up her stuff and bring her to the Kiss n Ride, where Sjoerd would pick her up.
And after that I said my goodbyes to Olli as well. He would go and check out Sigur Ros (which apparently was bloody awesome), and I was aiming for a spot in front at the Editors gig. Je ne regrette rien. I walked out with misty eyes and full of love for the world. “Escape The Nest” made me teary eyed… and the rest was either a party or beautiful. They played so tightly, were sympathetic, played all my favourite songs, and I was right in front of it. It was in popoterms literally a perfect show. When they announced their last song I was hoping for “Fingers In The Factory” and nearly fell over when they started playing those first notes. So they ended it with a party. And I walked out in a daze, all partied out, all satisfied. Not half-horny like after Killswitch, but just very afterglowy and wanting to hug people.
So afterwards we went back to the camping, hung out at the tentcamp for a while, but I was so exhausted that I went to bed pretty early. And that concluded Lowlands.
The Monday started out rainy, but we had enough of a dry patch to fold up our tents and then spend our last Lowlands coins on a very decadent breakfast. And then we went to the car, and drove home through new rain. And it’s been raining on and off ever since. Lowlands is definitely over.
But man, it was beautiful. I had a great time <3