VIEW FROM THE PLATFORM:

T IN THE PARK 2010

PART ONE - FRIDAY

Published: 13th July 2010

Upon arrival at T in the Park's special needs campsite you would be forgiven in thinking that you have just arrived at your holiday destination. There are a number of reasons for this. The obvious being that for the next few days you are escaping the 9-5 relentless boring grind but the exclusive disabled compound brings more delights then a Pontins holiday camp.

For starters there's friendly staff, but in no means patronising (something we found at Wireless last weekend). The comical banter we encountered over the weekend from the camp crew made our stay even more enjoyable. Selected team members helped us with our erections - Putting up tents!!!! And a community spirit asked everybody to 'look out for each other'.

Another ingredient which spiced up our 'holiday' arrival was the 'check-in' desk, situated in a Port cabin. After taking our contact details just in case they required us to move our car or for any safety reasons we were then told their services also included a fridge should we need to store any medication - but then again, who takes pills at a festival?

Unfortunately the Gods weren't quite mucking in on the festival spirit as a power cut on site permitted the lack of any electricity during the first few hours, leaving the two shower units situated on site unused; and clean!

Car parked. Tent up and luggage unpacked. It's time for T. For those who find walking around a site a tad too strenuous a bus shuttled disabled guests and staff around the site perimeter.

Over at the main stage The Big Pink opened the festival's incredible line-up for the weekend; as they rounded off with their most successful single to date, Dominos - The London electo-rock duo stabilised Friday's first falling brick which would fall next upon the shoulders of Paloma Faith.

Kids In Glass Houses did the opening duties for the Radio 1/NME stage before heading back to the artist garden to purchase a packet of fags from the saucy girls selling nicotine to those who needed to protect their lungs for their festival performances. Moving away from home Melbourne lads, The Temper Trap managed to confine crowds away from the likes of 30H!3 and Stand Up Guy who were stimulatingly playing the King Tut Wah Wah and Red Bull Bedroom Jam Futures stages respectively.

So we have already covered London (Big Pink), Wales (Kids In Glass Houses) and Australia (Temper Trap) so how about a third world country? We actually felt like Bob Geldof celebrating Live Aid's 25th anniversary as we made a pilgrimage around the 'normal' campsite as we were intrigued to see how the other half lived.

The vast array of tents echoed images of a Comic Relief documentary, although we felt little pity for these Scottish refugees. In a space of five minutes we faced prejudice towards our own disability, jerks finding it funny to ruffle our hair and mistake our lack of co-ordination for a pissed up festival punter who had taken one too many snorts of the white powder. It's a shame that disabled awareness websites such as ours still have to exist in a bid to change people’s perceptions. The disabled loo we spotted had already been misused and this had been less than twenty four hours since the campsite had opened.

The disabled campsite itself was expecting 221 guests over the weekend. Hungary for more T stats? Well here's a few for ya...85,000 fans attended this years event. T celebrated its 17th year. 3 people were arrested for attempted murder and 368, well 368 is the title to one of Jamie T's tracks which the Wimbledon lad played whist he was warming up the Radio 1/NME stage for Florence & The Machine.

Just before we make our way to the headliners we draw our attention back to the disabled loos, albeit the conveniences which haven't been vandalised over in the main campsites. The prime disabled toilets were well situated around the special needs platforms. The only other people who had access to these were those who had genuine bowel problems and held special 'Can't Wait' cards, this was to ensure that other able-bodied guests bursting for the loo didn't 'take the piss' by using the arena's disabled toilets.

Just before Muse took to the main stage we managed to grab a quick word with drummer, Dominic Howard backstage. We quizzed on the continuing promise the band give in various interviews that UFO's will be flying overhead at their performances which never seem to materialise. According to Howard this sensational gimmick will finally see the light of day when the bad play Wembley Stadium in September.

There were little quirks for The Black Eyed Peas who headlined the Radio 1/ NME stage. After their tour manager airing concerns that the crowd may be able to see the band backstage limbering up the Peas spend too much time handing Will.I.Am control of the decks for an over extended DJ jam (Which included Michael Jackson tracks and 3 Words which was dedicated to Cheryl Cole who is currently suffering from Malaria) and forgot to swot up on their geography skills by addressing the hometown Balado crowds as residents of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The special needs platform was extra-busy with suspiciously more able-bodied people blagging their way onto the viewing area including three Police staff (one yawning) casually watching the show. Maybe a more suitable location for those without a disability would have been the sound desk or even an additional VIP / Staff platform?

As the first day of T in the Park rounded off we retreated back to our luxurious 5-star hotel. OK, so it was just a bloody tent in the special needs campsite, but we're on holiday, remember?