Ramfest 09 - Through metal eyes

Me beautiful significant other is all about making camping a comfy and cozy experience, so he'd spent the better part of the day gathering our "creature comforts"; the tent, the blow-up mattress and the fluffy duvet. I, on the other hand, was happy to just grab a toothbrush, money and shades and see where the road took me, although admittedly I thanked him later! It was an absolute crazy rush because I didn't want to miss a single note of the screaming electric guitars, but once finally in the car we were forced by traffic to relax and let the anticipation build.

Mr. Francis had kept us a good camping spot as promised and the Biz ladies had already started the party when we arrived. It was almost impossible for me not to jump out of the moving car, to get through the gate and run like a raving lunatic to the metal stage. I couldn't wait to start head- banging like a crazy mother, but sadly my significant other is all about teamwork, so the tents were put up first and then only did we start missioning.

All the "cool people" :-) went to the rock stage and I was almost left to face the viking war lords on my own when Mr. Francis decided to join me!

Talk about insane!!! I was bummed because at that time we had just missed Azrail, who apparently completely kicked ass, but Day Turns Night completely made up for it. We were bursting at the seams wanting to start jumping around like crazy mothers! True to form, I proceeded to get injured immediately by a big troll that jumped on my foot, but then again, you better know you in for a helluva ride if you're close to the moshpit! Mr. Francis nursed his thermo and practically force-fed me "water", arr me hearty! Mind Assault took the stage, but driven by hunger, we decided to do couples compromise and go look for the cool people at the rock stage which were far, far over the mountains it had seemed. Mr. Padayachee, me significant other and meself then had a leisurely stroll through all the stalls and I thank my lucky stars that at that time I was still coherent enough to not impulsively tattoo myself there and then...phew..that was close...

Yes, yes, I faded early and sneaked off to camp as the day had begun to catch up with me. My rest was short-lived as our fellow camp-dwellers soon came and yelled us out of our tents for some more partiki'ing!

We were almost treated to a good ol' camp brawl by our neighbours, who would from then on be known for the whole weekend as "Tristan". Thank goodness he got a hold of his testosterone in time, I didn't feel like jumping in for the underdog just yet! Slowly our camp got to rest and faded into an alcohol-induced slumber, floating downhill on wobbly blow up mattresses....

Saturday morning came all too soon and we got moving quickly to try and get showered - pretty pointless, considering that as the morning progressed, we became dirty pretty quickly. First stop was coffee and breakfast. Soon after, the first beers were opened to kick off the day!

The girls and Mr. Francis went fishing whilst I pottered into some Rasta's called Levi and Simeon who proceeded to try and convert me to full vegan! I finally managed a dignified escape to head off to the river with me Barbie lilo, which was promptly christened as Helga, the German masseuse - ah, man, what an awesome spot, everyone was just lazing around, floating under blue skies, absolutely beautiful, handing Helga around. At 1pm we headed back to the rock stage for the much anticipated Air Guitar Show. At that point, the day had morphed into quite the scorcher with all the shady spots under the trees filled with hungover rock fans, and the odd loony running around in front of the stage.

After some more metal hopping, we had a bit of pool time before a well-deserved rest to be fresh for the evening's festivities. NOT!!!! Bed on Bricks kicked ass, but I kept thinking, "I am getting too old for this" because after numerous Red Bulls, I couldn't for the life of me jump the way I used to. All I could muster was a poor side to side swaying while sitting down.

There was just no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to see some more metal so we went to watch Contrast the Water from Durban, who completely rocked the earth!!! They made a fan for life out of me. Talk about synchronised headbanging whilst trashing your guitar, it has got to take skill! Erebus took the stage just as I was about to fade out, so we floated back to camp. The gang headed to watch Fokofpolisiekar but I decided to call it a night. Camp was broken up early and the drive home was spent reflecting on the weekend and fantasising about a hot shower and a clean bed.

All in all it was a memorable weekend. I fully intend to become a Ramfest groupie and have my annual fix of good ol' home grown metal!

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