Here's a little factoid about me: I hate celebrating my birthday.
Not because I'm afraid of getting older (honestly, women. WHY), but rather because I hate having attention forced on me.
NOTHING stresses me out more than having to arrange a get-together in my honour, especially that of my birthday.
Food; entertainment; guests; it's too much pressure to try and accommodate for it all!
At the same time though, I hate the idea of just letting my birthday pass by me. I am human after all, and I would like SOME event for my memory bank to mark off the day I turned a year older.
So there I was stressing about what I was going to do to for my upcoming 24th birthday, when my new (gorgeous) Moldavian friend, Daniela, asked me about wanting to go to Creamfields in Abu Dhabi.
For those of you that don't know, Creamfields is a yearly British music festival that's now been expanded to international destinations, much like how SA just experienced Ultra Music Festival for the first time in February (btw, MAJOR FOMO, I HATE ALL OF YOU THAT WENT). You cannot even imagine how excited I was to hear that UMF was coming to SA, and then how HEARTSORE I was because I missed it. CRYING.
ANYWAY.
I found out that Creamfields was going to be taking place on Friday 13th, the day before my birthday.
HELLO.
That meant I didn't have to organize vokol.
Every aspect needed for a party was already pre-arranged by someone else, so if it sucked, it couldn't be held against me in any way.
As a bonus, Calvin Harris was performing!
Someone get me a ticket because I'm SOLD.
What started out as just 2 or 3 of us going turned into a group event as soon as word got around that this plan was happening.
Because I had been to Abu Dhabi a few days before that (weeks, maybe? I don't know. What is time anyways?), I was put in charge of getting us to our destination in the neighbouring city (which, let me just say, was a great idea because I am legit the best person to travel with as I've got amazing navigation skills).
We all decided to meet up outside the hotel (that we were temporarily staying at) after Jumuah (Friday public transport and what-not), and off we went, not-so-fresh-faced, and in search of a much needed party after all the studying we had been doing.
Look out Abu Dhabi, we were on our way!
Not because I'm afraid of getting older (honestly, women. WHY), but rather because I hate having attention forced on me.
NOTHING stresses me out more than having to arrange a get-together in my honour, especially that of my birthday.
Food; entertainment; guests; it's too much pressure to try and accommodate for it all!
At the same time though, I hate the idea of just letting my birthday pass by me. I am human after all, and I would like SOME event for my memory bank to mark off the day I turned a year older.
So there I was stressing about what I was going to do to for my upcoming 24th birthday, when my new (gorgeous) Moldavian friend, Daniela, asked me about wanting to go to Creamfields in Abu Dhabi.
For those of you that don't know, Creamfields is a yearly British music festival that's now been expanded to international destinations, much like how SA just experienced Ultra Music Festival for the first time in February (btw, MAJOR FOMO, I HATE ALL OF YOU THAT WENT). You cannot even imagine how excited I was to hear that UMF was coming to SA, and then how HEARTSORE I was because I missed it. CRYING.
ANYWAY.
I found out that Creamfields was going to be taking place on Friday 13th, the day before my birthday.
HELLO.
That meant I didn't have to organize vokol.
Every aspect needed for a party was already pre-arranged by someone else, so if it sucked, it couldn't be held against me in any way.
As a bonus, Calvin Harris was performing!
Someone get me a ticket because I'm SOLD.
What started out as just 2 or 3 of us going turned into a group event as soon as word got around that this plan was happening.
Because I had been to Abu Dhabi a few days before that (weeks, maybe? I don't know. What is time anyways?), I was put in charge of getting us to our destination in the neighbouring city (which, let me just say, was a great idea because I am legit the best person to travel with as I've got amazing navigation skills).
We all decided to meet up outside the hotel (that we were temporarily staying at) after Jumuah (Friday public transport and what-not), and off we went, not-so-fresh-faced, and in search of a much needed party after all the studying we had been doing.
Look out Abu Dhabi, we were on our way!
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| Only a 2 hour bus ride. |
Originally we intended on catching the bus to AD bus station, which is in the middle of the city, and then catching a taxi to Yas Island, because it isn't within walking distance, and Du Arena is located there.
About 15 minutes from Abu Dhabi, the bus broke down!
The show ended at precisely 2am, and we managed to convince an Abu Dhabi taxi driver to take us back to Dubai for only 300 Aed, which is about R800. Split between 9 of us thats just about R100 to get a lift to another city!
That turned into such a blessing for us, because it meant we were nearer to Yas Island, so we just walked to the nearest mall and caught a taxi to the arena.
Yay, serendipity!
Because we were there about 4 hours before the gates were set to open, we went to check out Ferrari World, right next door to the concert arena.
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| We got free lumo paint, caps, and bandanas from Zippo! |
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| We got to do one of those cool 360' photos in the Pepsi photobooth that they do at American awards shows, but we can't find the photo anywhere online! |
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| Disclosure |
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| Above & Beyond |
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| PREACH. |
Then at 23:45, just 15 minutes before my birthday, Calvin Harris came on!
At 12:00, my friends all shouted a massive 'Happy birthday!' to me and told whomever could hear that it was my birthday. Some guy then put me on his shoulders and I managed to snap this shot from above the crowd on my iPod Touch just as Calvin was playing 'Drinking From The Bottle'.
It was the most incredible moment, and I'm so happy now that I have it captured on camera!
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| Crowd photo taken by the show's producers. |
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| The Prodigy came on last. Meh. I'd skip em. |
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| THANK YOU CREAMFIELDS! |
Thank God.
I would have died if I had to wait until 5am for the buses to start running!
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| Zippo photobooth souvenirs |
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| Came back to the hotel/residence we were all staying at to find some of the girls had made this for me and stuck it on my door! The hotel also had cake sent up to my room. FREE CAKE, HOLLA. |
SUCH a fantastic way to bring in my 24th year of being on this planet.
Looking forward to the next one!
