well the beasty boys were a little bland, not as good as i rembered them a few years ago, left about 10 songs, but im pleased i left when i did, on the way back discovered a fantastic rock/punk band that sounded like they were streight out of 1978, full of energy and vibarancy - i will admit it i feel slightly dirty bouncing around to punk but it was soo good - there called peter & the test tube babys - so refreshing so humerous and just what i needed after a slightly flat and stodgy peppers gig!

well im sat on the vip terrace over looking the danube listening to some beautiful sounds, who seem to be doing for heavy metal what acoustek did for ambience!

exit day 1 cont.

Had breakfast/lunch at a place around the corner, caught up with some other british journalists based out of Prague chatted about festivals, had a beer in the sun, talked politics, i remember the war the first war, the atrocity's, The EU is a hot potato here, there is resentment over romania's acceptance into the European family and Croatia's place in the line, but there are other major issues here from crime to privatisation.

What i hadnt realised is the difficulty that young people have trying to travel, i know im lucky with two passports that allow me very easy access to the vast majority of the western world, but the youth here cant travel to Europe without tedious levels of visa application etc. with that comes the burden of proof of wealth. Is it punitive that Europe still punishes Serbia over the 'missing' war criminals of the Balkan wars over ten years ago? If so it is punishing the wrong people, the youth arguably the future of this region have little connection to the crimes of the past.

Back to the festival, its big, there must have been 60,000 in front of the prodigy i couldnt get within a 1000 yards of the stage, i gave up in the end, and retired to a stage with a view over the Danube.

The site of the festival isnt that big, and tbh the numbers of people are around the size of Glastonbury, its just the intensity of the crowds and the vigour they're going for it. I have to face it im old now, jumping up and down to the prodigy isn't my thing, esp if i have to fight 50,000 for the right to do it, maybe im just tired and cranky?

Going to head out and find some brunch and wifi – am posting from same place i posted from yesterday.

the balkans to get easier access to europe!

http://needvisa.net

exit festival

Exit festival day0,

the site is huge but is totally different from what i expected, it is full of small stages and 2 large ones, i was encouraged to find many smaller stages including latino & world music stages.

Novisad seems geared up for the event, but the population seems surprised by the amount of brits. As is typical u headed to the irish pub – lots of diddly diddly music – but at least they had Murphys red & there is a rather intoxicating local dark brew that im becoming fond of, there were 2 girls in their mid 20s from Manchester their second year at the event, who are heading to budapest next year

Im still confused as to timings of the events, but the headliners include the read hot chillis, the prodigy, snoop dog, & lauren hill.

Novisad seems to be a strange mix of 18th century architecture & 70s communist architecture – the communist architecture seems to be crumbling badly, the hotel putnic seems to be of the same ilk, smoked glass and a 'classic' interior, Hessian wallpaper, badly worn – its a shame – with some tlc this place could be great – strangely i dont seem to have any curtains either – must talk to reception tomorrow.

Any number of a thousand venues tonight were blairing out beats on the evening of day zero. Enticing customers with cheap beer and food, enticing the young festival crowd in, on this the first un-official day of the festival event the local arts festival putting on an event for local b-boys and girls on its steps, the young crowd seem to mingle easily with novisads traditional residents on its classical cobbled streets

now in novisad at the hotel putinc - a model 1970's comunist hotel - nice and retro!

at zagreb autobusni station, about to get the bus to novisad, hotel central gets my thumbs up 50 euros, in the center of town smack nexto the train station about 1km from the bus station, very clean, free wifi, breakfast included. comfy bed, asleep by 10pm.

Monday evening: Andy & karen gave me a lift to zadar where i caught the bus to Zagreb – 4.5hrs – slept most of the journey, have checked into the hotel centrale, opp the train station not far from the bus station where i catch my grewling 9hr bus to novi sad tomorrow, im going ot to find something to eat and somewhere i can get online check my emails etc from you lot.

Garden festival monday; another great day, slept till 2 hung out in a cafe with ava, claire, gillian, paula, et al then a boat party from 6pm out round the islands and beyond. As the sun went down. Hit the club from 11.30 Dont want to head out could quite happily spend the next few weeks here.

garden day 3

Well its Monday morning, Sunday was probably one of the best days ive had in a very very long time, everything came together in a very good way,

1my luggage arrived, so now have cloths to wear
2there were all the elements that anyone could want from a halcion day – an afternoon boat party around the Adriatic islands with beautiful friends and great music, a lot of jazz funk and classics from the chill genera – and the sun was out in full force a nice 30 degrees and a nice breeze, winding up at around 8pm

greg wilson and mr scruff playing as the sun went down, then aome beautiful beats in the nightclub till dawn , watched the sun come up over the mountains with Sarah, Karen's friend then headed to bed