So many people in one place, all in the same mind frame, all here for the same reason. There are so many happy smiles, so many signs of affection. Festivals are known to be extremely buoyant places, yet we don’t truly take in the scope of them. More long than wide, with palm trees in sporadic placement, many different booth and stands, a scattering of small stages and then the largest one. People flock towards it like they are possessed in some way. They are waving their hands, yelling loudly, shouting incoherently; in life, this is not always acceptable behaviour but there is beauty in how uninhibited almost every person is. It is infectious. It is impossible to focus on one person in this place and time as there are thousands of them in one place. With thousands of people in one place, there is a certain effect that you cannot help but be dragged into. Everyone is at their happiest level, they are peaking and they are peaking at this current moment when everyone else is too.
There’s a cast of grey over the entire sky, which is an odd juxtaposition next to the palm trees and ecstatic people yet they do not let it get them down in any way shape or form. Then the rain came, and it still did not get people down. They’re still jumping to the music, they’re still mesmerised by the lights and they’re still grabbing their friends in pure elation. The artists tell people to jump, to yell and scream and people do as if they’ve been holding it in for years. Then directly afterwards they smile a smile that makes me think they’re the happiest they’ve ever been, which who knows… they might be.
There are thousands of people squashed up against each other and barricades, all facing one black and red stage, with one person on stage facing them, an intangible relationship that people feel as if they can connect to. One person, connecting with thousands of others, in one place, in this very time.
