From Ravenhead Foyer; Me, Alex (resident) and Vicky (staff), drove to Coops Foyer in Wigan were we met staff  and chosen residents from both Coops and Bridge Foyer. We then boarded the train to Preston which was heaving with other excited weekenders travelling to Preston for the final day of the BIG Weekend. As we arrived at Moore Park (venue), we could see 1000’s of people queuing to enter. Tension was building as we queued for our special ticket winners tickets and entered the arena. In the huge venue we could see two big blue tents set up and 100’s of small stalls, food trailers, and various other tents set up for the day including a 100ft bar!! As we entered one of the two main entrances, there was an outdoor arena stage ready for the DJ sets. As it had been predicted rain, 100’s of people had came in wellies to avoid being ‘stuck in the mud’, but much to our delight the sun was cracking the flags meaning a nice hot day ahead of us.

We then split into smaller groups to explore the venue and check out a few bands. I went to visit some stalls and to have a peek at the main arena with members of staff. Some of the stalls we seen were selling some fun stuff like neon-coloured socks and cowboy hats and others were just outrageous, like the oxygen mask stall (which pumped coloured oxygen into the brain). As the park filled up, the bands started and the DJ set pumped lots of loud music into the open air for all to enjoy. We decided to worm our way through the crowd into the front of the outdoor arena, were we met the rest of the group jumping in time to the music. The cameras were rolling and the DJs had everyone jumping up and down to the music. The atmosphere was great. After a while we decided to stop for lunch before splitting up again to explore a bit more and check out some of the smaller tents, which is were when found a tent called One Life. Inside we left love messages and placed it into the ‘love bomb’ which would explode later on in the evening. There was also a wall covered in peoples handprints, so we used the paint provided and left our mark, and also decided to mark each others faces tribal style.

As we entered the Main Stage to watch Just Jack, it was already chocker with other fans, and as we could see the stage, or get any closer (it was that packed), we decided to leave and go back to the outdoor Arena were other DJs had set up. Throughout the day we kept on watching a little of the bands and a bit of the DJ sets in order to see as many as possible.

My main highlights for the day were seeing MIKA, Vernon Kay and Pete Tong, and seeing Vicky’s eye on the big screen. We decided to get into the Main Stage to watch MIKA before all the fans came, but it was already packed with 1000’s of fans. We managed to get a good spot and took some photos while we waited, one of which Andy (Bridge Foyer staff) sent in to Radio 1 for a competition. When MIKA entered the stage, the crowd went wild screaming and singing along. MIKA put on a really good show, with props and dancers, and he can really move, it was fab.

Vernon Kaye and Pete Tong played on the outdoor arena, and before they came on, our group decided to get a bit closer to the stage before the army of fans came rushing in. They played some really good dance tunes, old and new to get the crowd jumping. At one point in the set, Vernon Kay pressed the wrong button and the whole system shut off for a couple of seconds which was funny, but they managed to regain things pretty quickly. I decided to use that moment to take a look at the crowd and stood on my tiptoes…and as far as I could see were fans, just 1000’s upon 1000’s of fans dancing in the crowd it was quite a sight.

Various other big named bands were playing throughout the day and as the day wore on we tried to visit them all but there was jus too many to fit into one day. A lot of the time, because o the heat, a few of us spent a lot of the afternoon sitting on the grass enjoying the DJs music, rather than being squashed watching the bands all of the time. By the end of the day, crowds had disappeared in their 1000’s making the long journey home. We were all tired, anxious to get home and rather sunburnt, but we didn’t want to leave and miss anything. In the end we finally let and started to make the journey home. We just caught the train in time and all boarded on and talking excitedly about our amazing day out, and comparing sunburn. It was a fantastic day out and really was just an amazing experience. It was also really nice to see residents from other foyers, to get to know them, and to get to know a bit about their foyers.