last saturday's adventures will remain a highlight of this blogging lark for the rest of time. i've been doing this about four years now, and have had some cool shit come my way thanks to this plot of mine on the internet, but this one: definitely a top three moment.
ages ago now, i remember seeing advertised on twitter that a day of the dead festival was being thrown by wahaca at tobacco dock, and tickets were selling fast. i love wahaca; i love mexican food; i love a reason to reason to wear a flower crown in winter; i love a themed festival. looking at ticket prices then (£45), there was no way i could afford it, but i'd chatted with some friends about it and we were all keen to go, so we thought we'd wait for pay day and buy them then. but they sold out. 3000 tickets sold out, and that was the end of that. or... was it.
while i was in bournemouth and instagramming my solo adventure, one particular user seemed to be really enjoying my snaps. then, while i was on the train home, an email popped into my inbox bearing the same name of the user from instagram. the email: an invitation to attend the wahaca day of the dead festival... as an official instagrammer, with three mobile. official. instagrammer. what's more, they were going to lend me the new samsung galaxy 6 edge for the day, complete with 4g super-voice (runs on a special low frequency that's able to travel further into poorly-receptioned buildings - like tobacco dock, so there was no chance of being stuck for signal!) and beauty-shot mode so i could capture the best 'grams of the multi-sensory festival that i possibly could.
there was no hesitation from me; no playing hard to get - at all. i replied with a big fat yes, and that was that. i had been looking forward to the festival for so long, then so disappointed when it seemed i wouldn't be able to go, and yet here was this incredible opportunity just falling into my lap. i'd have been stupid not to, and so it was. on saturday i met up with becca and anna from three, as well as leanne, kasha and chris, india and may, - the other 'grammers for the day, and off we went.
first stop was the make up table where we transformed from plebs to absolute legends, with a lick of paint, and a crown of paper flowers in our hair. i've always love the sugar skull image - considered it as tattoo-fodder in the past, and always loved the print when on other things, but to be able to rock a full face (without disrespecting anyone's culture, that is) was pretty fucking cool, man. from there, it was taco time! fish tacos to be precise, and pretty bloody delicious ones at that too. food in, we went in search of entertainment, and found - wouldn't you know it - musical bloody bingo!
they had their own room at the festival, with incredible live acts and entertainers right through the day. can you tell me you've ever seen a real mexican mariachi band playing la cucaracha before? didn't think so. we played a couple rounds of musical bingo (where i actually ~won a line for the first time in my life), leanne and i danced a bit on stage (where i had no idea what i was doing!), did too-many shots of tequila, then realised that four hours had already passed and we were pretty drunk on beer, tequila, cocktails and tacos, and... well, we were all alright with that.
with some incredible bands playing on the wahaca live stage, we decided to leave our comfy seats behind, and go and check out some more of the festival. we stopped in on savages and the horrors, before hitting the mexican market for - you guessed it, more tequila, and some other maxican delights. like salt and pepper grubs, apparently. i didn't have any, but the girls were tucking right in and telling me they were pretty top notch. i mean... i'd take another pork taco any day, but each to their own.
the one thing i'd missed seeing all day but kept hearing rave reviews about was the wrestling. well, lucha brittania to be precise. ever see jack black in nacho libre? yeah. crazy mexican wrestling. i know it's all a bit fake, and a bit of fun, but generally speaking i'm not one for wrestling. when in rome though, right? at eight pm the semi final kicked off, and within minutes, i was again agreeing with myself that wrestling.. is just not my cuppa tea.
there's entertainment, and then there's really obvious acting. and this show swayed heavily to the overacting side and when you're ring-side, it's pretty easy to catch those lame punches and easy falls, and not really see the entertainment value in it. don't get my wrong - those boys were taking blows for sure; there was blood. there's also a bouncy stage and well-practised moves, and i kind of prefer my acting to be on a screen. so, i'd waited hours to see it - and i'm really glad i did, because it was ~still well worth checking out, but with a slice of disappointment in my heart, it was time to call it a day.
eight hours of tacos, tequila, and terrific company was just the tip of the iceberg really. for me, being invited to be part of such an amazing day because of something that i abuse with loads of outfit photos, was totally the highlight. i love to write, that's why i have a blog. i love instagram as a way to share more of my life than i ever could here; instant snippets of my day-to-day, but never really as a platform to develop. for someone to have taken notice of my photos, my life, my stories on there and want to give me the opportunity to attend something so awesome that i would naturally want to share it too with my followers, well... that's pretty fucking cool, and i am one super lucky human.
so a massive thank you to the girls over at three for their undivided attention all day, and to wahaca for throwing one kick-ass party. would i go again? heck yes i would.
