This was the first year I had been abroad to an out and out hardcore festival, and obviously also as a direct consequence of that fact, my first time at Fluff Fest. I was a little bit unsure of what to expect. We arrived there on Thursday in the sweltering heat, having had very little sleep the night before and flying and travelling for most of the day. After moaning about the temperature for a while we got set up for the weekend. The camping facilities were pretty good, toilets were of festival standard i.e. not great, but there was a massive water tank near where we were camping, although that was virtual swampland by the Sunday. Overall I must say that this was far better organised- or at least seemed to be from my experience, than many of the major festivals I have been to. There were the odd queues for the food- which for vegan festival food was actually alright, but beyond that, it was more or less without hitches. In terms of who was there, there were a fair share of croosh kids getting their spin kicks out to xRepresentx and the like, a load of stinking crusties, and then the other kind of people that go to hardcore shows which fit into neither of those categories. Add in the odd middle aged pissed up Czech bloke who seems to have wandered in by mistake, fist pumping to some STRAIGHTEDGE rhetoric and it’s a confusing mix. Despite the relative diversity, I personally did not notice any conflict between patrons and generally there was a pleasant atmosphere. Generally I think tolerance was the order of the weekend, as even though views might differ inside- for every person enjoying the cheap beer there was a kid with an X on his hand- people seemed to realise that for the most part we were in this together, a hardcore festival existing with limited influence from the mainstream, as lame as that might be to read.
