A festival road trip...

I have had ideas about this, as the time comes near for two three-day festivals in quick succession. On Monday I read an interesting, albeit statistically flimsy (only 504 interviewees, for one thing) article on the BBC website.
I'm not one of those polled and not least because I have never bought a ticket via Eventbrite. I could argue with a few other 'facts' too. There are  actually many hundreds of UK festivals - the figure mentioned is probably just that for which Eventbrite handles ticketing and therefore has data.
Nevertheless, although I would not self-identify as a 'super-fan' (their description but maybe there is a ring of truth) I do share several of the traîts highlighted: I am male and I quite happily attend festivals alone. I am also inclined to rail against the tendency of festivals to become more 'corporate', that is dependent on brand sponsorship.
One thing I certainly do not do is spend my money on is luxury camping. My basic tent is there for just one reason - shelter whilst sleeping - and its contents therefore only what I regard as vital and can therefore be bothered to carry from the car park to the camp site. The car acts as a repository for everything else, should it be needed.
Another point that I will mention is that attending a festival solo does not in any way correlate with loneliness. I find that the opposite is true and think about that when I observe groups of friends that spend most of the festival in the campsite. Each to their own; if you attend alone but are gregarious then there is only one option - and that is engaging with strangers. 

I admit that the prospect was scary the first time but on arrival (at Latitude 2007) the matter was almost immediately rendered void. In a queue with lots of strangers, waiting at the wristband exchange, the obvious thing to do is that you talk to one another. It happened again, but in a rather different way, a few weeks ago at Truck Festival 2016. I was there, with not a care in my own little world, but in front of me was a group of teenagers at their first ever festival: totally stressed and already arguing with each other, about nothing remotely important, before they had even got to the ticket exchange.
"What's the problem?" A short silence... and then every one of them was suddenly talking (to me) all at once. There was no real problem except that, even as a group, they felt adrift in an alien environment.
Once at a festival it is another world - I got back from Truck Festival still entirely unaware of the coup attempt in Turkey.

Before I head off to South Wales in ten days time here are a few things that, while not necessarily at all relevant to where I am headed, would form part of my virtual road trip. The first has been released but the other two have not, which is a slight snag I guess. I'll see what I can find as regards track releases from the forthcoming records.

Amy Goddard - Secret Garden (self released, 18 April 2016).

This is from the album launch...


The Maiden's Leap -  recorded live, 22 April 2016.

Amanda Shires - My Piece of Land (BMG Music licensing, 16 September 2016).
Here is the track 'Harmless' from the forthcoming LP.


This next is somewhat tricky, for I have listened to the album throughout several times already. I'll just have to see what I can come up with...

M. Lockwood Porter - How To Dream Again (Black Mesa Records, 16 September 2016).

... from How To Dream Again, this is 'Charleston'.

Continuing the theme of dreams, this is already released. Haley Bonar is a Canadian artist who is long resident in Minnesota.

Haley Bonar - Impossible Dream (Memphis Industries, 5 August 2016).

'Kismet Kill'.