Summer Break is not your ordinary festival. It’s advertised as being a 96 hour long party, and that’s not far from what week 1 delivered. Unlike your average festival, except for the few that have chosen the camping option, there’s no tent pitching to be done, but rather collecting the keys for your static caravan. By festival standards, this is pure luxury living with all the facilities you could want. You can definitely see why the site is referred to as the ‘student village’ with a real feel of uni halls.
After everyone had settled into their new homes for the week, it wasn’t long before the fancy dress started, along with the music and drinking. And of course the drinking games! This was followed by a short walk to the on-site club, known for the week as ‘Sundown Field’. This first night had a real union club night feel with most people in fancy dress and starting to make new friends among this big group of students.
The following morning, once everyone had soothed their hangovers a little, it was time to head to Fistral Beach. The weather was glorious with bright sunshine – the ideal weather to enjoy Summer Break’s own area of the beach. With DJ sets on the beach throughout the day and many games of football and volleyball and a sandcastle building competition. And of course a trip to Fistral Beach wouldn’t be complete without some surfing, swimming and skimboarding. Most students had signed up to take advantage of the bus transfers on offer, which provided an easy way to travel between the holiday park and the beach.
The buses took on a whole new atmosphere when it came to the evening. The second night took place at Sailors nightclub in Newquay town centre. Having enjoyed pre-drinks and plenty of drinking games in caravans throughout the early evening, everyone on the buses was really excited for the night ahead and there was a lot of singing and chanting! Sailors nightclub was packed and everyone had an amazing night with DJ sets from Urban Knights, Jaymo & Andy George and the week’s special guest DJ, Mr Hudson. The crowd went absolutely wild for Mr Hudson with the dancefloor packed during his set. Everyone had an excellent night partying through to around 3am before getting on the bus back to the campsite.
The next day was another trip on the buses down to Fistral Beach for even wilder beach antics. These included beer can races, pegs on faces competitions, blind sack races and marshmallow eating competitions. And of course, with another day of wonderful sunshine, there was more surfing and splashing around down on the beach as well as rugby, Frisbee and cricket.
That night’s activities took place at another popular Newquay club, Bertie’s. With MC Majestic pumping everyone up all night, the atmosphere was great. The nights DJs were also great including sets from Jakwob, R3wire and Cutline.
On day three, the weather took a bit of a turn and we woke up to rain. This put a bit of a stop to the planned activities on the beach, which should have included bikinis contests, ‘Mr and Mrs Summer Beach’ and a tug-of-war. No-one seemed too bothered by this downturn though, almost welcoming the opportunity to have a slightly more chilled day relaxing in their caravans and soothing their sunburn.
By evening though, everyone was ready to make the most of their final night, which took place on-site at the Sundown Field. The club was roasting hot, but everyone was still pumped up and ready to party. The atmosphere built up more and more with sets from lots of DJs including Urban Knights building up to a highly energetic set from Kissy Sell Out and MC Cobra to finish the night off.
Overall, the first week of Summer Break was filled with lots of crazy antics both on-site at the ‘student village’, at Fistral Beach and at the clubs in town, with many people living up to the ’96 hour party people’ motto! Rather than a traditional festival feel, Summer Break is more like a large scale student holiday with crazy beach days and energetic party evenings!
Click here to view Summer Break 2012 Sunday photos
Click here to view Summer Break 2012 Monday photos