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Godskitchen Global Gathering 2005 Review
July 2005, England; the weather in the week preceding Global had been dire completing possibly the wettest July ever. It was overcast and gloomy so I resided myself to the fact this event was always going to be a wet-wash. Bearing in the mind the fact I’d spent the past month in Ibiza, followed by blinding weather at the Dour Festival in Belgium, it seemed only fair.
 With Godskitchen venturing into a new league of dance event, a two 2 day, 2 night camping extravaganza with the world’s DJing elite at our finger tips, there was certainly no shortage of excitement amongst the troops… The drive up there seemed fairly swift, which is much more tan I can say for the security procedures… We arrived and collected our passes being warned the queues for camping might be too lengthy to check in now, we thought we’d risk it to get the tent erecting over and done with.
To our disgust there was a queue of maybe 30 people wide and hundreds in length, thankfully we graced passed but many clubbers were there for up to three hours… By the time we got inside the camp site appeared completely full, not a space in sight. We went through the first field, passed the food stalls and dodgems and still there seemed little or next to no available space. The fire truck lanes were being kept free by the fire-marshals (with some degree of difficulty it must be said) and we pitched up with permission in line with the other tents right next to the fire-lanes.
We mission towards the dance arenas, bemused by the fact there’s no direct through way - meaning you have to exit the campsite and enter the venue, alongside hundreds of other people (some which wouldn’t even by staying on-site), the queues yet again were very long-winded. Sniffer dogs greet you at the end of the queue, carting off individuals to confiscate any illicit substances. Finally we’re in.
 We head for the main arena and head backstage for a fly-on-the-wall look at Radio 1’s Dave Pearce and the crowds GGathering… As always the trancey hands-in-the-air crowd grin from ear to ear throughout. From their we chipped over to the Essential Selection for Mr Dance Music, aka Pete Tong to take us on his fabulous melodic set of top quality tunage… Synchronise watches; time for Oakey, we pop to the Global Arena for a tasty selection of deep and powerful house grooves from another headline corker.
After a credible stint we popped back for the tent for some relaxation techniques (yoga/cooldown stretches etc), and chatted to various lost soles stumbling over trip wires making great new friendships to last in the main, no longer than 10 minutes each. We tried re-entering the venue at just after 1am, where we were told the doors were closed and there was no re-admission? "Re-admission! We’re sleeping on-site mate!?" I yelled at the security guards, "Nope, sorry you can’t come in", even rinsing our press pass / VIP / Clubbing UK status he still wasn’t having it.. Fuming we slope off disappointed but with Friday’s party ending at 2am we thought this possibly justifiable?
Saturday morning comes and luckily we’re not far from the food tents, the queues are fairly hefty so we boil our own brew and get the bacon sarnies in. Before heading in to the main arena we check out the luxurious coffees at Cuthbert St George for a super-doopa-deluxe latte with double shots of flavoured toffee and syrup… From this point on I’m hooked, topping up my caffeine buzz at every opportunity from these guys (thanks Justin), if they’d of served up croissants as well I would have probably spent the rest of the weekend there!
 We popped back in and headed for the Polysexual arena with teen-looking DJ Shan who kept the passionate afternoon ravers happy with tracks like Blur’s "Song 2", and BK’s classic "Revolution"! and one of Shan’s trademark tracks Paul Van Dyke’s "For An Angel" - another classic that always makes the crowd go nuts! We were gutted that Yoji Biomehanika was supposed to play his dirty hard house and techno set straight away, but he didn’t show, we think he played later but it wasn’t meant to be for us. Back to the tents for well-deserved post afternoon tech-no break, and an energy re-fuelling.
After stopping in at my Mum’s on route to Stratford we had enough food to setup our own burger-stall but only one mini B&Q size BBQ tray. This meant in order for it to be worthwhile starting the BBQ we had to recruit more bodies to physically get through all the food in one go… Shouldn’t be too tricky, right?
 We recruited our Welsh neighbours George and Lucy, alongside the random b-boys and lit the instant Bar-B, no sooner had we done that, a fire inspector truck drives straight passed us. As I sit there grinning up at him, they look down and start shouting and pointing... A message comes through on the local Fire Marshal’s walkie-talkie ordering him to "get those people under your nose to put that bloody thing out!". Up to this point I hadn’t really appreciated the fact we weren’t allowed to have a BBQ?? What the feek, we’re camping?? What about our agreement with the Fire Marshal? What about his burger-bribe? Apparently you are allowed to use gas-burners though? Which of these do you think could pose more danger, an instant BBQ or a tin of highly explosive gas? Tough call. Anyways there was no way we were gonna put this puppy out, what about all the food - it couldn’t be wasted, what would our mums think?
We moved the Bar-B behind a couple of tents and out of the direct view from the paths and our friend (the fire marshal) and cooked it up baby. After stuffing our faces and leaving the BBQ burning out at the foot of the fire-tour, we headed back for the party, and the pre-emptive queues.
I swapped hats with the boys from tent #2138 - naturally, and we trotted back into the night… On to the Babooska Arena for funkster supreme Erick Morillo for a injection of the good stuff before whisking our way over to Mr Carl Cox in his very own Carl Cox and Friends Arena to catch the start of his tearing 3 hour set. With the same ludicrous no re-entry after 1am rule still in place, it was gonna be a late one!
Over at Polysexual, the Tidy Boys were playing Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit (as did Oakie the night before), both to devastating effect. Clearly Poly faves, this set was many had paid their hard-earned bucks for.
Rounding off at 4am in the Godskitchen Arena, who else; Eddie Halliwell who finished his masterful set with an extended mix of Tiesto’s "Surburban Train", the arena was rammed with a fantastic atmosphere, the lights went up and you realised the shear enormity of it all!
For me personally it was a bit of a nightmare experience - the main thing I’ll take from the event is the god-awful relentless queues and the fact of no re-admission after 1am despite camping on-site (with no advanced warning about this). Grumble, grumble… Despite this there was still an incredible festival vibe about it and thousands (if not more) had the weekend of all weekends at Godskitchen Global Gathering 2005.
Some photos courtesy and © of Paul Underhill
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