I'm still suffering from a post-festival cold, including a throat age, running nose and red eyes, but that was one great long weekend! I think this might have been the best LowLands festival out of the three editions that I attended. I will give a detailed report of this festival in three posts, each one covering a different day and the last covering two days.
Pictures of LowLands 2005 can be found in my Photography section.

Thursday
We (four people this year; my brother Erik, my nephew Paul, Anky and me) were dropped off at the train station in Sittard with our carefully packed luggage on Thursday morning. We decided to try to get on the 9:45 a.m. train so we had some time left to buy a little something to eat during the ride. We ended up in one of the hallways in the train due to the amount of holiday-travelers.

After 2 hours sitting on a very small seat, we arrived at Utrecht Central. The place was crowded with people going in the same direction as us, recognizable by their type of luggage. The platform from where the train to the LowLands end station leaves, looked more like a camping site.

The trip to 't Harde, the designated train station to be transformed into a LowLands-only station, went great, We even had a place to sit! We arrived at around 1:30 p.m., half an hour before the shuttle busses would start their endless loop. Luckily some bus drivers decided to start early. It still took us an hour and a half to get to the festival entrance, where we had to wait until 6 p.m. for the gates to open.

The weather decided to be on our side, so I had a little nap in the sun. It's really weird to sit on a field of grass the size of a soccer field, occupied by human beings for every square centimeter. Time went by pretty fast and 20 minutes before the deadline everyone got on their feet to start pushing for the entrance. The door where I would get my wrist tag came into view. Centimeter after centimeter passed by, time seemed to be frozen. Then came the moment to show my ticket, stick my arm through the loop and be tagged. I was in!

Luggage was checked at random. We all got through without being checked except my brother. But we are honest people; Erik got through without trouble. The next obstacle is the bridge to the other side. Still the same stairs on both side, still lot's of people with large carts struggling to get to the top. I optimized my cart, taking into account the 6 years of festival experience I have, so I got to the other side in a jiffy.

Camping site #1 was still virtually empty as everyone rushed to #3, so we had every change of choosing a perfect spot. Close to a path, not too far from the showers and toilets and not in a hole. We were safe from rain, mud and urine from drunks.

The rest of the day was used to explore the terrain, exchange Euro's for the LowLands currency and get some food. I also emptied one third of my beer stock, ensuring a good night's rest. It's amazing how I can sleep with a DJ sending bass-tones into the air during the entire night...