Goa Cream and the Wonderful Return of Whirl-y-Gig

Its really been an amazing year; the Hippie Kushi vibe has been shining strong in many ways.

I am looking forward to an exciting three-month trip travelling around India starting on December 6th this year, and I’m super stoked about that.

But before the big lead up to that wonderful trip, I have been to two amazing events.

My blog post about Goa Cream festival is very delayed due to the long hours I have been working to pay for my big India trip, but finally, here we go…

I nearly didn’t go to Goa Cream as I had run out of stock to do my stall there (due to a busy festival summer) but also because I was desperately trying to save for India. But I got talked into it by my good friend Las and so here I was arriving at the festival site in Lemington Spa UK.

The first thing I noticed was how cold it was for early September; it was absolutely freezing. I was glad I brought warm clothing and a second duvet. I was soon warmed up by the positive energy of all my lovely friends arriving one by one. We quickly created a nice camp of tents.

The site is fairly small with a few shops and a main tent, but I was expecting that. But it looked great, and the energy was high.

And so followed three days of dancing and socialising to some psytrance beats. It was a lovely event with a really good vibe. At the centre of the field was a fire pit and we spent a lot of time chatting to people there and making new friends; it was a really social festival.

We also spent loads of time in the main tent, also socialising and dancing with some incredible people. My crew danced through the night.

But the best part of this last festival of the year, were the amazing people. There were so many souls of pure light and love, with a real hippie vibe; so much positive energy. For me this made the Goa Cream festival a lovely event.

I also made of lot of contact with people who want to help us when we start our Hippie Kushi Event Tent business next year.

All in all, a very enjoyable little festival; thanks Piers.

What came after Goa Cream was the most exciting event of all: the triumphant return of Whirl-y-Gig!!

We were all so excited at the prospect of the return of the famous Whirl-y-Gig (event in London UK), this wonderful club night has been going since the late 80s but because of Covid has be closed for a few years.

It was to return on 15th October 2022 and the build-up has been very exciting.

The night before some of us didn’t sleep due to the anticipation of it all. A few of us planned to meet at my friend Louise’s for a pre-whirly glass of wine the afternoon of the big reopening.

Two of us, me and Louise are Whirly regulars but the other two, Steve and Dale were Whirly virgins (although they had previously attended the Fayre).

We all set off on what turned out to be a short journey, the new venue is not so far from where I live; I like this new venue already.

After a short walk from Notting Hill Station, we met the rest of our friends, Mel, Katy and Las at the Pelican pub a short walk from the club; we then all headed off to our final destination.

A few minutes later we arrived at the club: Subterania.

And there was the queue full of our Whirly family. So many familiar faces, it was joyful. We were all so excited and the bouncers had to keep telling the crowd to quieten down.

We were then allowed in; what would the new venue be like?

Immediately, I totally loved it! The main dance area was spot on with a nice size dance floor, seating all around and of course all the well-known Whirl-y-Gig paraphernalia and decor; mind-blowing!

But there was another surprise in store; the club had an upstairs! The upstairs area was a large balcony with another bar, loads of seating, a shop and an amazing view of the main dancefloor below. I love this venue; its perfect Whirl-y-Gig.

I started meeting tonnes of wonderful people, friends old and new. The Cornish farmers were there too, as well as all the old regulars, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

The famous host and one of the organisers Mary Sutcliffe then welcomed us warmly; it was so great to be back. She then introduced Dr Trippy to the stage, he was amazing and we danced our heads off.

DJ Monkey Pilot then blew us away with his amazing tunes and we danced and danced, socialised and made new friends.

Later Mandala took to the stage and we were in whirly overload. Whirl-y-Gig was truly back with a triumphant explosion of pure joy. Well done Mary and Richard it was great to be back home.

Music 100 out of 10

Venue 100 out of 10

Hosts 1000 out of 10!!

And as for Steve and Dale, they totally bloody loved it.

And so, this amazing whirly night triumphantly went on, slowly rising to climax in only one possible way: the famous Whirl-y-Gig parachute!

This was an amazing night and I felt sooo happy that Whirly was back, and as we rode in an uber back to Surbiton with sleepy heads but joy in our hearts, we couldn’t help but think it was all over too soon.

Until the next time Whirl-y-Gig, welcome back. xxx