What can I say about Rock En Seine? Well, I wasn’t sure I would make it through 5 hours, no pee breaks. But I did! It helped that the weather was a comfortable 21 degrees and overcast.

A note about the fashion

I rocked up in my usual festival-ware: a singlet top, cut-off shorts, cardigan and a scarf. Little did I know that this was one of those fashion parade festivals! Everyone in skinny jeans or short shorts with stockings underneath. Hair all done up, boho tops, nice shoes… this isn’t Glastonbury, people! I guess that’s Paris for you!

Simple Plan

I managed to get a spot at the end of what would usually hold a catwalk, so right in the middle but a bit further back from the stage than the left and right sides. I was behind a tall guy and an old guy but could see between their shoulders without tippy-toeing!

And for the second festival in a row I managed to touch Pierre Bouvier. This time I got a good ole grab of his arm The downer to this was the old guy in front was very territorial. The reason behind this was coz he was recording the audio of the whole festival, presumably bootlegging. His Mrs, who showed up late to the game, got arsey when we were surging to touch Pierre. She ended up pressing up hard against me to shove me out of the way. I don’t take that from anyone, especially a latecomer who doesn’t even like the music. So when she kept shoving after they had left the stage I had a little rage at her. She fobbed me off in French and I went on the other side of the two girls next to me so they couldn’t ruin the My Chemical Romance set for me.

My Chemical Romance

Something just wasn’t quite right about this festival. It was fun but not as fun as I thought it would be. I had a good spot, I could see the bands… what was wrong?! Everyone around me was kind of subdued so the atmosphere was lacking. Gerard Way then piped up and said to form two moshpits. I saw the size of them on the big screen (about 10m across) and then saw that one was about five people ahead of me. So I pushed through and joined in. That was more like it!! Then we all surged forward and I ended up pretty close to the actual front. I couldn’t see a thing and I was sweaty as hell and touching way too many people at one time but dammit, this was a good time! I was feeling so good that I even shared my water with a girl next to me who looked minutes away from fainting.

The rest of it

I could’ve easily have gone home after that but it seemed like a waste of a ticket so I walked around for a bit and finally went to the toilet. The first one had a massive queue. The next one I found had hardly any queue… I soon found out why. The doors were made of corrugated cardboard and it was a makeshift longdrop – you just can’t make this stuff up!

I wandered some more, got a kebab and frites and plonked myself down to listen to Deftones. They got loud very quickly so I went and listened to Tinie Tempah. Then I got cold and bored so hopped the metro back to the hostel.

Such a good day and totally worth coming over just for it.

Now, to get the heck out of France and over to Germany where I actually feel like I belong!