A Festival of all things Hop

Another year, another Hopfest at the Irish Village in Dubai. To say that this event has become a victim of its own success would be an understatement. Every year for three days a medium sized tent with the capacity to hold around five hundred people (increase this by a couple of hundred just to make sure it gets super hot and sweaty) is erected to showcase over 120 beers and ciders (for those who choose not to partake of the brewed variety) from a round the world. There's an elevated stage for the amazing bands to perform and superstar DJ extraordinaire Chris Fisher to spin his tunes from. Many of the picnic tables were removed this year, to allow for more standing space, just to cram an extra few people in for good measure.

The first day (Thursday) is always the best for me. Purely because I can get there early, whereas most people are still at work so the venue is only at 70-75% capacity until late on in the evening. The atmosphere is always great and the main emphasis for attendees is to have a good time in a relaxed environment. It's always a giggle though seeing the various groups of people rock up. Some in fancy dress, others on a mission, some girls completely inappropriately dressed upto the nines with six inch heels where flip flops are far more the norm for wading through the sawdust scattered on the floor.

It always starts off very civilized, until a few bottles, pints, jugs down when inhibitions come down, people loosen up and the fun really begins - or I become a bit 'special' as I was enthusiastically reminded by a few of my friends. Or 'aggressive man hater' I think were the exact words. Really? I don't remember being that bad, surely my so called friends are just making these things up! Especially as I managed to rescue one close male friend from making the same mistake he always does, by getting hammered and cosying up to a certain psycho maniac who finds it amusing to mess him about like there's no tomorrow. Oh wait maybe it was the fact that I tore strips off her and told her what I really think - yeah hmmm that could be it!

Thursday was a great night out - loved it, couldn't have had more fun bouncing around like Zebedee from the Magic Roundabout on Speed.

Friday however was a whole other story. Because you see on Fridays virtually everyone is off and it was a race to get there early before the queue nightmare of the year before became an awful reality. So I rock up pretty early and end up pin balling around the venue saying high to various groups of friends (as you do). However after a couple of hours and the two bottles of cider that I'd fallen in love with the night before, having the reverse effect of making me feel good and forgetting that I am still actually sick with cold and flu, and instead making me feel quite nauseated, I decide it's time to bail, cut my losses, go home and chill out for the evening. That and the fact that it is now so packed, hot and sweaty, that nothing in the world is now going to make me feel like I'm having a good time. So I say my 'goodbyes' and toddle off into the sunset.

Today is Saturday and the final day of the Hopfest and I'm giving it a wide berth altogether, clearly as I'm sitting here writing this blog! :-) But it is a nice thing to experience every year, however the trick I think is not to over do it. Some people will go all three days and spend their time quite literally in a drunken stupor, or have a good day and a bad day, like my poor friend C who texted me quite upset when he'd got into a fight, been projectile vomited on and had a bird poop on him! (Isn't that supposed to be lucky?) Sadly in his case I think it was the icing on a crappy day.

Ah well until next year, or the Rugby 7's! But for now we have a month of quiet reflection, detoxing and chilling out as Ramadan approaches, before we all get back on it again.