Day ten, drawing a line

My day ten highlight could, quite frankly, be my stand out event of the year for so so many reasons.  Over the years, All Tomorrows Parties at Camber Sands was just about the most incredible thing I have ever had experienced.  It was amazing to be invited to go, all those years ago, by Drew and Nick and the gang, and was absolutely the start of a chain of events that made me feel so much at home in Bolton and with the people here.  Hardly ever was the gang who made it down to Camber the same group, but the interconnected web of friendships which hold and snap were the context that I've always enjoyed the festival.

There's all the amazing memories of my times there, underpinned by seeing bands like The Magic Band, Sonic Youth, The Fall, Aphex Twin, Tindersticks, Modest Mouse and The Shins, Sons and Daughters, all playing under a sign reading PONTINS: THE PARTY FOR KIDS.

And the creaky chalets, and the blasted landscape, and the fact that it's in the arse end of no where.  I loved, dearly loved all these things and all the people I experienced them with.

Then came the blow that this December was to be the last ever Camber Sands ATP, and I had to be there.  I had to be there for my own sanity, to draw a line under so many held and snapped friendships and such an extreme musical journey.

The final ever ATP did not disappoint; how could it?  It was classic.  And then it was everything I'd hoped.  Much a good time with Lauren, such pleasure at the bands, such joy at this time actually engaging with the landscape of that part of the country to which it's unlikely that I'll ever return very quickly.  I was full to bursting from setting off to arriving home, it was the best way to close a chapter of my life that's taken me in and out and through so much joy and love, it was truly an incredible thing.  And now it is no more.  Except that I'll always have what I've had, and I can really want no more than that.

Thank you ATP, and all who have sailed there with me.

(If you want to know, and weren't paying attention, my picks this time round were Comets on Fire, who were the greatest music I've seen all year, Braids and Les Colettes.)