L I F E S T Y L E - / / C O M M O N P E O P L E - S O U T H A M P T O N - 29/05/2016

Very dense picture post, mainly of Will!

COMMON PEOPLE - SOUTHAMPTON 29TH MAY 2016.

At the age of 22, I've had a lot of 'Firsts', First big break up, first house party, first hangover *the worst!*, first pension fund, first driving lesson and now my first ever festival! I was super lucky to receive a press pass to attend this years Common People in Southampton. Sadly, I had to work on the Saturday, but the Sunday more than made up for it!

Common People is ran by Bestival - A nice little festival placed in Southampton Common, It took over the Common during the May Bank holiday weekend and had an awesome line up! #Duranduran4lyf!

I took my best friend Will, who like me had also never been to a festival before. We headed down early Sunday morning from Cardiff to Southampton to miss the traffic. A nice little 2 and a half hour drive blasting Beyonce down the motorway was the perfect start to our busy, busy day!

We arrived at the Common around 10am, It was really easy to find for two kids that have never been to Southampton before, and we were lucky enough to find a parking space on the street around the corner from the Common, around a 2 minute walk from the event! 

Picking up our wristbands was a doddle, all we needed to do was head to the box office, show our ID and we were on our way! The organisation was great, not a single queue anywhere! Organisation is key! All the staff helping to guide everyone into the event were polite and really helpful, everyone had a smile on their face. It makes a massive difference when you're greeted by happy faces, and really put us in a good mood after a long, tired drive!

We got our site map out and had a mini tour of the site, I instantly fell in love with the Uncommon Stage. I like all genres of music, but Post-Hardcore/Electronic Rock bands are my favourite type! We caught a band called Reventure on the stage, with a good crowd in front of them they put on a top show! I specially liked how they interacted with the crowd and were so humble about playing at the event. They had an Enter Shikari feel to them, which let the 14 year old Stephanie loose! 

http://www.reventure.co.uk/ 

I loved that Common People invited smaller/Unsigned bands to play at the festival, it gives the artists a larger audience to showcase themselves, and also helps listeners (like myself) discover new music. 

The stage played a offered of different genres;

 I also enjoyed Bigtopp, These guys were amazing! They had a Reel Big Fish Ska vibe, with a rock/jazz twist, they have a really oldskool feel to them, I'd definitely suggest a listen! http://www.bigtopp.co.uk/

Even William, who's into Charts/Cheese loved a bit of the Uncommon Stage! (Look at that smile)

We also caught up with a little guilty pleasure of mine, in the form of Mr Motivator! He was the first act my mother saw on the list and told me how jealous she was! Me and Will took part in his (not soo little!) work out. We were sweating buckets at the end! But as you can tell by my face I loved it and it was perfect to get the crowd going for the rest of the day!

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My main worry when I go to events is food, I'm a vegetarian and poor, so the thought of food at festivals always scares me. I can honestly say I was overly impressed by the variety of food at Common People. Right in front of the main entrance to the field were a number of different food huts, including Smokehaus style burgers, Mexican burritos, fish and chips and even paella! Each stall had a vegetarian option, and the prices were really justifiable!
I brought a little picnic for myself because I didn't know what to expect, but bought myself a batch of Nachos (if you know me at all, I could eat nachos for every meal for the rest of my life)
I paid £5 for nachos, and they came with two extras *Salsa/sourcreme/chilli/cheese* The choices were endless, or for an extra £3 I could of had everything!

There were more food stalls scattered around the venue, one that caught my eye was the vegetarian and vegan stand! If I had noticed this stall before I bought my nachos! It had so much choice, the option of a vegetarian breakfast hit the nail on the head ! Which sooo many different dietary problems effecting a variety of people the festival had something for everyone!

Stuffing his face with a banging burrito!

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As a loving and devoted aunty to three (almost 4!) beautiful kiddies under the age of 10, I'm always looking for ideas of days out that are appropriate for them all to enjoy together! I loved the kids area at the back of site. They had something for everyone. 

 They had a big circus with acts on every half hour or so giving different performances, but outside they had a number of activities for the children to try, including hula hooping (which the adults also loved!) Plate spinning and a tightrope.

They also had a crafts corner that my tribe would of been all over! Isaac(3) and Shaquille(7) would of loved to have made their own sword out of wood, carving and binding it together with coloured strings, and India(9) could of made her own flower crown using real flowers from the festival grounds. (we're experts at this now)

Here's an image of Jenna and her gorgeous little man enjoying the circus skills on the ground.

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My second favourite place of the entire venue was this beautiful bug bar! We first spotted it around midday. Started by playing old school cheese like Whitney Houston/Britney Spears (my kinda jams) but it didn't seem to get the crowd going right away... but fast forward to an hour later while we were heading back to the common stage...

The atmosphere soon changed, with the Bugbar playing oldskool dance classics the crowd were loving it, me and Will loved it a little too much and spent around 3 hours dancing to tune after tune after tune! Everyone had smiles on their faces, always laughing and not a sour pout in site! The sun was shining on us, drinks flowing and just happy vibes all round.
(A little bit too much sun, which burnt me quite badly! but, there was a stand next to the vegetarian/vegan shop that had free sun tan lotion for the festival goers) They serious thought of everything!!

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Our last little visit before heading to the main stage for the headliners was to the Reggae stage! This was the most chilled area of the festival, everyone was calm and enjoying the show, the artists were endless and the set up was super clean! It didn't matter where you stood in the area, you could see the stage. I loved the cute little deco around the area too!

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The main stage was the place to be! With artists such as The Magic Gang, Jamie Lawson, Katy B and of course Duran Duran I couldn't ask for anything more! I loved that me and will could sit down and enjoy our picnic without anyone blocking our views of The Magic Gang and Jamie Lawson, everyone was super happy and just enjoying the show. 

The second chilled - out Jamie Lawson's session had finished, the crowd dispersed for food and toilet breaks I guess, so William and I headed as close to the front of the stage as possible! I haven't listened to Katy B for a few years, so it was a nice little treat to hear some songs from 5 years ago ago like Lights on and On a mission! She gave a real show! She chatted to the mass of people in the crowd, her DJ was not only BEAUTIFUL but super talented and full of good vibes. The dancers were also full of energy and Katy joined them with 99% of the routines while singing along which we all know is blimming hard to do! I take my hat (well shades) off to her!

(only photo I got of Katy B because I was totally into it!)

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Now for the big one, this was a real dream come true to me, I'm a massive fan of the oldies, with Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Phil Collins and Spandau Ballet being my favourite bands/performers of all time, I wanted to stay in the moment forever when Simon Le Bon walked onto the stage. 

The crowd went wild! All the 30/40 somethings trying to push through to get closer to the men! (but I wasn't backing down, I'd waited since birth to see my men) The boys put on an amazing show, playing all there old bangers! (APART FROM REFLEX!!!) and a few tributes to David Bowie and Prince (Not a dry eye in the house). The visuals were something else, the screens were possitioned really carefully, I loved the small screen that went along the stairs which changed textures during songs, Small things make a big difference!

It was literally perfect! The sun shined right up until the last half hour of the set, no one stopped, everyone knew the words, all ages enjoyed the show! Again, I didn't grab too many photos because I was in ore of these legends on the stage! But I did grab a very touching moment where the crowd turned their flash lights on (gone are the days of lighters when we have smart phones) for the Prince Tribute before they left the stage *but of course they came back for RIO!*

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Overall, I loved Common People! I'll 100% be going again next year! Everyone was soo happy, there was no drama, no fights, no crazy drunks, I can honestly say I didn't even hear anyone swear?

There was something for everyone, of all ages with all tastes and needs, my tribe will love it next year.

The weather was perfect, the location was soo user friendly and easy to reach, with local buses/park and ride services that drop you straight to the common and plenty of car parks within a 10 minute radius.

Food was amazing, so much variety, tasted lovely and great value for money.

The little extras such as the bugbar and GIANT bouncy castle were great additions to the team, a lot of silly fun for those who don't want to take the day so seriously.

Everyone was to helpful, before, during and after the event, I have been sent a selection of helpful links, to maps/images and much more.

A massive thank you to Molly for answering all my questions and being a top team member of the Bestival team! You made the event slide so easily!

I suggest you add http://www.commonpeople.net/ to your bookmarks and keep your eyes peeled for updates for next years festival, They're constantly posting on Social Media sites.

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/commonpeopleSO

Twitter - https://twitter.com/commonpeopleSO

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/commonpeopleSO/

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jmE19TK4spWjBLzRhcQeg

Thank you soo much for allowing me to document the day, I had an amazing time and couldn't of asked for a better first festival experience. I'm hooked and I'll be seeing you again next year! 

 I'm sooo looking forward to hopefully joining the Camp Bestival/ Bestival team later this year for some more fun! 

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Did you go to Common People 2016? 

Would you be interested interested in joining for next years celebration and any of the Bestival events around the UK?

What did you think of the event?

Let us know in the comments below!