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Dragon Festival, S. Spain, FREE, late March 2007

Guest William of Walworth

By Guest William of Walworth,
in overseas festivals

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mollymoo0oo0 Newbie

mollymoo0oo0

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what a good idea!CANT WAIT TILL THE DRAGON!!have you seen the line up for the rocket this year they have got bad manners playing ! must be the best live band to see ever!wi :P ll have to see if i can work it this year!hopefully will see the work in progress and get my artistic head on!
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mollymoo0oo0 Newbie

mollymoo0oo0

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yes live here in estepona for 7 years first lived in orgiva lovey place lovey people but too much temptation....

im have never been to madrid has it got a good mix up there?so are you now going too the rocket festival all ways so a good laugh!? my freinds run the green field so will have to meet up

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pink sarah Newbie

pink sarah

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I went to El Dragon for the first time last year and it was WICKED!!!!

Very Mad Max, dry red dust and gangs of feral kids and dogs.

Definately not your ´boutique festival´ but really good fun.

Was set up by English hippies too so the language thing isn´t a big problem (tho its always good to try of course)

Jus better hope it doesn´t rain cos it is held in a dry river bed....

s

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William of Walworth Newbie

William of Walworth

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I went to El Dragon for the first time last year and it was WICKED!!!!

Very Mad Max, dry red dust and gangs of feral kids and dogs.

Definately not your ´boutique festival´ but really good fun.

Was set up by English hippies too so the language thing isn´t a big problem (tho its always good to try of course)

Just better hope it doesn´t rain cos it is held in a dry river bed....

s

Edited by William of Walworth
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hereheisagain Newbie

hereheisagain

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it never rains at the dragon....................but the weather here is glorious 20 degrees in the shade cant beat it,but if clear in the day chilly at night but the festival beats the blues away any way?????only 5 days to go?! the cider has been brought!come on............

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William of Walworth Newbie

William of Walworth

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Malaga 5 day forecast (BBC)

The current wall to wall sunshine set to come to an end on Wednesday ....

The forecast now goes up to Friday with the dreaded r**n featuring -- a bit -- on Thursday (the day we arrive in Spain) and Friday :D

Hope that alters -- local forecasts welcome ...

Edited by William of Walworth
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William of Walworth Newbie

William of Walworth

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The traditional W of W pre festival weather check says YAY! :):D

Metcheck for Granada -- shows no rain after Thursday, and ignore those comically low temperatures ... Metcheck ALWAYS underestimate significantly. Light winds, particularly on Sunday and Monday, plenty of sunshine ... best day looks like Sunday :)

BBC 5-dayer for Malaga

From Friday it's

1.gif

and 22C all the way :):P:)

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Boris Collaborator

Boris

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Molly hope you get in touch- I have messaged you. Will of course we'll see you v. shortly.

Everyone else...see you there!..... the time is nigh!... the pAAARTY begins! :D:)

Latest forecast for Orgiva

http://www.accuweather.com/world-forecast....VA&metric=1

Not bad but suggests rain wed-thurs PM....

I doubt it'll be any bad...

Edited by Boris
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hereheisagain Newbie

hereheisagain

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Molly hope you get in touch- I have messaged you. Will of course we'll see you v. shortly.

Everyone else...see you there!..... the time is nigh!... the pAAARTY begins! :):)

Latest forecast for Orgiva

http://www.accuweather.com/world-forecast....VA&metric=1

Not bad but suggests rain wed-thurs PM....

I doubt it'll be any bad...

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William of Walworth Newbie

William of Walworth

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Yay! First Orgiva forecast I've seen.

Those temps aren't extraordinarily high are they? :) But Sunday looks best. Quite windy Saturday, what on earth is 'kmh' compared to mph? Rain on Thursday is mehhh :D , but less than 5 mm is pretty light.

Glad I've packed a lot of layers, looks quite chilly nighttime! :)

Quite glad we won't get to the fest til Friday am now!!

I have all my bags here .... I have everything I think .... tonight we stay in romantic old Luton prior to our flight EARLY tomorrow .... thankfully we know a decent pub, the only bearable looking one in Luton (wahey, ale!), and it's easy to find from the station and nearby ...

Then tomorrow we arrive in Spain for the first time ever ... even in the drizzle Granada will be :):)B)

EXCITED!!! :P

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Boris Collaborator

Boris

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Just got back after epic drive whilst dangerously tired. Journey of 5-6 hours took about 8!!!! We did stop probably four times... mainly because I was scared of crashing due to excessive knackeredness.. Thanks to WoW and Debs for easing my concern & letting us drop them in Orgiva for the bus... as Granada is a horrible place to drive around especially when frazzled! Also causing our long journey was a painful traffic jam leading up to Murcia. Major thanks for a letting us share your accommodation- which was amazing!

Now how about the festival? I think it was wonderful. Thousands of good festy-going people just doing their best to make sure everyone else has a great time. Nothing but friendly folk everywhere. I think we spent the most time at the chilled out Green Dragon field, not only cause it was a very nice place to be, but also because of the ace food!.... I never expected so much choice of food at this festy and this cafe was just one example... tried their Tortilla Wrap, their fresh pizza, their breakfast their nut roast and their cake I think. There was loads of lovely food everywhere and all at seriously reasonable prices. Possibly my best meal was the last night treat I had in the Lux tent of an Indian mix including 2 types of curry, rice & an onion bhaji that was a bit more costly but still fair enough. I even had freshly cut & cooked chips for €1.50! And greeat Falafel from somewhere, with Chili sauce! ;)

Enough about the food.. how about the event? At least 5 main tents playing an impressive variety of music. I must admit we didn't go to them all but wherever we went was quality. I loved the miniature dome tent we crawled into last night in search of the source of the ska! A few hours earlier this tent was serving Pittas, Drinks, nice Chai, etc. We found somewhere ace for our tents btw, despite arriving after lunch on Friday... a nice grassy chilled field with a plentiful supply of bamboo & wood for fires. Talking of fires, one erupted suddenly in the far corner of our field... went up like a rocket. I must admit in my wined state I decided it was already way beyond control at that point. But people started rushing in with water and just stamping out what they could, so we joined in. We were frantically tearing down the surrounding bamboo to stop the fire spreading. Somehow, with about 30 or 40 people involved we actually suceeded! True people power :O And 15 minutes earlier I was trying to decide how long to wait before grabbing our tents and making a run for it.

No hassle from the police really... just an annoying road block outside the festy. Apart from that they left us alone.

Great to meet the contingent of eFestivallers that we bumped into, such as Molly MooOoo and purlpower who has a lovely voice and did an excellent set with The Hicksters.

All I can say is hats off to the organisers and to everyone involved for giving us such a fantastic wonderful weekend! :(

Edited by Boris
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William of Walworth Newbie

William of Walworth

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Boris's post above says much that I would have said -- fantatic festival all round, Deb and I seriously enjoyed it. Pix to follow next week. Warning : these may include vehicle porrn ... the site was a haven for live in vehicles (very many of them, especially on the permanent Travellers area of the site) of UK origin and some very nicely painted up.

The vehicles and the DIY aspects of so many of the stalls and signage, and the chaotic and free and easy :P atmosphere (yet generally safe and friendly) was a bit of a nostalgia trip for this ageing festographer -- it all brought back strong memories of Stonehenge 84 -- updated with multiple sound systems. I have not been to such a wild and old school free festival for many many years in the UK.

Was great to have Boris and Mrs Boris's company and that of Molly .... :) also to meet purlpower, I was a amazed to find that as half of the Hicksters, she was the musical partner/friend of a very good old friend/musical collaborator of my brother, when they both were very active in Cambridge's thriving acoustic/folk scene. That was a very nice set by the Hicksters, purlpowe'r's voice was excellent and Rick is a very accomplished guitarist.

That was in the Green Dragon Field, our favourite spot however was the Aqua Libre area next door, with a CIDER bar (in fact a bus!) to make us feel more at home, various interesting ciders (including English Traditional perry and a local Spanish cider) served out of barrels at amazingly cheap prices, and the sounds from the cider bar's sound system included lots of old style rock and roll, ska, reggae, roots, punk, cheesy pop tunes, all more danceable than the more in yer face techno further down the main drag :)

The live stage opposite was generally pretty good, very Avalon Stage like in atmosphere and band style -- our favourite one was a great Irish folk band, name never caught, on Sunday evening.

Lots of English people about, I'd guess as much as between 30% and 40% -- not unexpected cos many of the organisers are English folks from the Travellers site or from Orgiva and nearby villages. Most signs bilingual. With zero Spanish between us, Deb and I were relieved by this ease of communication -- nice to be able to get a fried veggie breakfast and a cup of tea too! The Green Dragon field Geko Cafe was the best of many good food outlets. My only regret was that I never tried the Paella Vegetal at a different stall. And if you see Falafelicious at any UK festival, try them, their Falafel wraps were the business and very filling!

Hereheisagain : good to meet ou and we really appreciated your lift offer, but you probably got my text on Monday.

Boris : will email you later.

Assuming this festival returns next year (there may just possibly be erm legal issues, we were told by someone who's been there several times) I'd recommend it thoroughly, but make sure you do all the responsible stuff with litter, recycling, using the compost toilets, care with fires! etc. Take or buy lots of water, it got quite hot at times ... take lots of layers, it got pretty cold at night. And be prepared for a wilder atmosphere than you might be used to at more conventional festies .. tis all pretty safe though.

Weather was lovely a lot of the time, warm and sunny, but also fearsomely windy/dusty on Saturday afternoon, and very cold at night especially Sunday night.

Edited by William of Walworth
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William of Walworth Newbie

William of Walworth

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Forgot to mention that the site was absolutely beautiful, a river valley surrounded by mountains, with the snowcapped Sierra Nevada peaks towering over the Northern side. We had a lovely walk on the Saturday morning up to the lake and dam at the head of the valley, and in doing so saw some caves where some of the anarchists had holed up after the Fascists won in the Civil War. The front line between Malaga (South, Falangist) and Granada (North, the legitimate government! :P ) was in that very valley. So plenty of history around.

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hereheisagain Newbie

hereheisagain

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yep just recovering from the week of fun :):P the music finaily went off by tueday i am informed....what a great time was had by all the aqua libra stage was by far the most fun with bands starting by 6 and carring on till 4 in the morning!the green field was the best chill out area in the afternoon what a good job done by all the people that spend weeks leading up to the event just aranging skips for rubbish and just for doing the thing that they do just to make the festival the best free festival in europe!!! :)

great to meet all the old faces that i havent seen in a while as well! seems that the dragon has a thing about bringing people togeather!

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