The best thing that ever happened, anywhere, ever.

There is a place in Belgium that is largely occupied by nothing, or farmers, for 99% of the time. Only four days a year do 80,000 people descend on the area to rock out at Rock Werchter.

2009 AD. Thursday morning.
After surviving a gruelling 13-hour bus trip, Patrick arrives at a campsite fast filling up with people and puts up his tent near the entrance.
In the afternoon, Elliot and Ollie join the group.
And it begins.

Elliot, Patrick and Ollie get through the insane crowds into the festival site and watch Dave Matthews Band whilst chilling on the grass. Patrick then goes into the crowd to watch Placebo rock the place. The three of us do various things watching Oasis from a distance. Patrick then missions into the mosh and pushes through to the front section, ending up two or three people from the bar, to experience The Prodigy live on the main stage.

Friday's bands are even better. After watching a few bands from the grass, Patrick and Ollie come together in the crowd and watch Bloc Party, then Patrick stays in the crowd for a great set by The Killers, and then the absolute top highlight of the festival, Coldplay. They play for an hour and a half and bring some awesome effects into the show, plus they go into the crowd to play a few of the songs.

On Saturday, Patrick and Elliot are in the crowd to see possibly the world's greatest acoustic guitar duo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, capture the crowd with their skillful playing. Patrick and Elliot then push their way into the front section for the hard rocking power of Limp Bizkit. Patrick has a can of ravioli in his back pocket that he smuggled into the site, and as soon as the mosh starts, he regrets having it there. After much squashing and moshing, Elliot heads off with Ollie to see Katy Perry. Patrick stays in the second row of the mosh and watches Franz Ferdinand play a nice show, then Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and finally Kings of Leon. For the final song, Black Thumbnail, a guy lets Patrick into the front row. Awesome. After that, Patrick, Elliot, Ollie and their Dutch campsite neighbours go crazy dancing outside the other stage, where a DJ is going off. They then catch the end of 2manyDJs on the main stage before heading back to the campsite.

Sunday brings the festival to a close with Patrick watching Kaiser Chiefs in the crowd, then Ollie and Patrick watch Röyksopp outside the tent while Elliot sees Nine Inch Nails, then the three of them head into the crowd for the closing band, the one and only Metallica. The crowd are boring. They do not move at all, except a few people at the front. That said, we moved, and Metallica are just awesome at doing what they do.
The festival is brought to a close with awesome fireworks and Patrick, Ollie and Elliot eat hot chips.

Oh by the way, this blog sucks. In no way does it come close to describing the awesome time I (erm, I mean Patrick) had at Rock Werchter 2009. I saw so many great bands do so many great songs and had many great times with great friends.