Dancing dads at LoveBox

Went to LoveBox in Victoria Park today and had so much fun. I have been very sensible recently, going to lots of work and cultural activities, such as an exhibition at the British Library (really, this is something completely out of character) and getting very excited at the prospect of going to see documentaries about Burma.

I had completely forgotten how much fun it was just to drink beer and fling your limbs around to music. When Gary Numan came on to the main stage at about 5.30pm I tried to dance and then realised I couldn’t remember how. I am not sure if it is to do with turning 30 or it’s just lack of practice, but I moved my feet and my arms and I looked like I was doing a Dad Dance. To be fair, Gary Numan wasn’t amazingly inspiring. Not sure the audience was loving it and I thought he looked faintly embarrassed, although that could have just his expression due to the  eyeliner.

But later – after a beer, a Lynchfield Lemonade (Jack Daniels, Triple Sec, Fill in the blanks…), a Caucasian (ostensibly a White Russian) – the limbs became easier to manipulate into shapes that didn’t remind me of the aforementioned dance.

First of all came the dancing with an Elvis impersonator. My friend had already racked up a dance with not one, but two Elvises, and I was feeling left out.

They were getting pretty fruity with her, showing that even after disappearing from this mortal coil, Elvis’s pelvis is still in good working order. I got up on the platform and one Elvis promptly disappeared, but the other stepped up to the challenge and climbed over a wire to place his groin close to mine. He told me his name was Brian. After recovering from the trauma of realising that he was not the man from Memphis, I revelled in the fact that I looked far less like a dancing dad when dancing with the real thing.

But I was properly liberated when Groove Armada played their set, the final show of the evening and indeed of the weekend. I don’t know them, I don’t particularly like them, but I did get involved; and the big beats and the jumping crowd with the occassional glow stick chased the old man in me away and I was suddenly young again. My sensible bottle of Evian was placed carefully on the floor, my coat folded neatly in my friend’s bag and I moved my limbs in a young female way and jumped around a lot. It was brilliant. The first bit of gig was quite rousing, the middle was quite boring, but was saved again by the last couple of songs including Superstylin’ – my friend was shouting requests for this track for most of the gig. (I don’t think they could hear her.)

During the course of the day I took photos of a bloke doing cartwheels, walked into a portaloo where a man dressed as a wizard was having a wee and found a pair of red knickers on the ground. My mantra now is: must have fun.

LoveBox was way better than I anticipated – it’s basically a posh festival where the fish and chips are gourmet, the food is “sourced” and you’re more likely get sloe gin cocktails and margaritas rather than a pint of lager (although, to be fair, you can get that too). Nice fairground rides give it a summer fete feel, and it’s topped off by a bowling alley. Loved it, definitely going back next year.