We continued on what felt like the never-ending bus rider after the breakdown. Our transit journey began again at nearly 4am until we stopped again at 9am for breakfast. Feeling a bit shattered already we weren’t thrilled to discover that we still had at least another 7 hours to Medellin. This would mean we weren’t going to arrive until at least 5.30pm and our hopes of heading to the music festival were slowly dwindling.
That said, we made it through the journey, snoozing, snacking and chatting to pass the time, eventually arriving in Medellin just before 6pm. Once we got to the hostel Gal had booked for us, Bamboo, we discovered that they were overbooked and had arranged for us to be accommodated at this place a few blocks away - the Galleria. We put our packs back on and walked around Poblado trying to find this place, eventually checking in around 7.30pm.
After a shower and some proper food at this amazing little lebanese place we found we started to feel human again. The group consensus was that even though it was 10pm and the festival started at 2pm and was apparently sold out we should take our chances, rock up and see if we could get in. A 30 minute cab ride later we were at Parque Norte and managed to pay a bouncer less than half the ticket price each to walk straight in the side gate. This random trashed Colombian called Manuel followed us in, freeloading off our bribed entry. The guy turned out to be hilarious and just kept hugging and thanking us all night for getting him in!
We made it in time to see the end of Miami Horror’s set and catch all of Franz Ferdinand before grooving away to Felix Da Housecat until well after 3am. It was a great festival, almost a better venue and set up than the likes of the Big Day Out. Break fest Medellin had cocktail stands, artisan markets and sold bottles of spirits with mixers, alcoholic ice blocks and much more. You have to hand it to the Colombians, they know how to fiesta. I even found proper pina colada’s served in pineapples for less than $8.
It must have been a reward for enduring the long bus journey, but during the festival I randomly met the sound guy for Miami Horror and then got to hang out with them for a bit. Never made it to their after party (probably a good thing) but at least I got an invite! We even managed to find our friends from Minca in the mosh pit. Such an excellent night in great company.
