Arriving at Splendour Festival a heartbeat before the gates open is usually an impatient queue-haters' dream.
The 11.15am bus to Wollaton Park's gates on Saturday, July 20 - loaded as it was with families wielding camping chairs, cool boxes and blankets - should have been a clue as to what to expect on arrival - and it wasn't going to be walk through the park straight to the main stage.
Waiting at the entrance at 11.29am, scores of keen revellers were sweetly waiting for the starting flag to be raised and bags to be checked.
Sold out in record time, Splendour had been billed as the biggest yet, with arguably its best ever line-up and evidently the 25,000 people who had bought tickets (plus the extra 5,000 children and 'others' also attending the festival) didn't want to miss a moment.
Picnics were already starting to fill the grassy hill to the historic hall when Future Sound of Nottingham winner Remy opened the main stage to a respectable size crowd.
He’s a 17-year-old acoustic soul singer-songwriter, so the last thing one would expect of him was a banging cover of Gloria Gaynor’s classic I Will Survive.
But that, the boy did.
It’s timing couldn’t have been better too as the crowd had just endured the day’s first flash shower (the Met Office had predicted a less than 10 percent chance of rain, ahem).
The rain in fairness lasted just one song, an emotional self-penned single about the passing of Remy’s grandmother. It was called, rather sweetly, Afternoon Tea.
The rising star finished his short set by telling the crowd: “Like I said Splendour, it’s been a blast, now go follow us on Instagram.”
He then launched a rolled-up t-shirt into the sizeable crowd. As you do...
It was the first of a few memorable covers to grace the main stage on Saturday, the best perhaps being Manic Street Preacher's version of Sweet Child of Mine, which was actually difficult to hear because the whole park was singing along.
By 5pm the Met Office's prediction of sunshine came true and brollies were replaced with sunnies. Over at the bars the time it took to buy tokens and a pint was a pretty swift three minutes 15 seconds although the main stage bar did run out of IPA before the end of the night.
We will chose to forgive James Dean Bradfield for not sporting a Forest shirt on stage despite claiming to be a fan and we will also turn a blind eye to Rag'n'Bone Man's very questionable ensemble.
All Saints looked phenomenal in contrast.
So that's for another year, the stars have left Wayne Manor's grounds and Wollaton Park looks back to its usual self thanks to the heroic Splendour cleaning squad who were down at the main stage with their litter pickers collecting the remnants of a thoroughly good time before the last song had barely been finished.
The City Centre Cleansing Team then arrived early this morning to finish the job.
George Akins, DHP Family owner, said: “It’s great to see months of hard work pay off with a day that has gone down so well with a fantastic festival crowd, with a line-up that really ticked all the boxes. We love putting on what has become the most epic summer party in the whole of the East Midlands and can’t wait to start working on next year.”
Plans for Splendour 2020 will be announced later in the year and the pressure is on.
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