A weekend with Goths (caution, long post)

Well, I got back from Whitby yesterday afternoon, and it was an awesome few days! I would have posted a blog entry sooner, but I felt too knackered to do it. Anyways, onwards to my tale...

Whitby Gothic Weekend, April 2009

Wednesday was pretty normal, I had the day off work, so I got ready, packed and headed out to my mate D's. We chilled and I slept over.

The next day was the journey, which was a painful 9 hours. We caught the coach from Birmingham at 8.40, and stopped at Leeds early afternoon. I have to say, Leeds seemed like a good place, the market is fairly interesting too, it seems to sell loads of random stuff. One stall even had a cheap Wii rip-off for sale, which I found hilarious.
We then had to catch a bus at 2.15. There appeared to be a number of Goths waiting for the bus at the same time. We sat at the back of the bus with them, and by the end of a long journey (that ended in Whitby at 5.37), we were all laughing and joking around like old friends. We passed through the never ending moors, through the village where the show Hearbeat was filmed (incidentally, whilst filming was going on) and, for reasons I'm not going into, I rather hilariously got dubbed "Sheep Boy" by the lot of them.
Whitby is such a nice village, it's quaint and feels very peaceful, just like most seaside villages though to be honest. Still, it's a nice change to be somewhere by the sea, being as I live pretty much in the centre of the country. After getting lost, D and I made it to the cottage we were staying at. Again, that was a nice place, and for around £80 each it felt like a bargain to have an entire cottage for 6 people. We were staying with some members of the band RazorBladeKisses, and a few of thier friends and they're such an awesome bunch of people (if you're reading this, you rock!)
After getting a quick bit of food with D, we all headed out pubbing, ran ito a few of the others from the bus and chilled. The pub, The Little Angel Inn, seemed nice but was unfortunately rather packed, so we had to retreat to the outside area. We met more peeps, including other RBK members and, once the pub stopped serving booze, we went somewhere else. Resolution was where we ended up, which also hand a dancing area (bonus!) After much partying, we called it a day.

Friday was the first day of the Gothic Weekend proper. Naturally, I was up late , around 12.30 in the afternoon, oops. We all had cooked breakfast, got ready and dashed out. The gothic market was pretty good, but it was bloody expensive! If I had tons of cash, I would have deffinitely bought a lot more stuff. Instead, I just bought black nail varnish.
We headed to another market, which sold more elaborate, second hand stuff. I thought it was a lot more interesting, plus it was cheaper! I also saw an amazing punk-esque/biker jacket for sale, which I was desperate for.
at around 9, the bands started. We were a tad late, so only saw the end of Zeitgeist Zero's set. From what we saw, they were rather good, with a rock style, and almost metal-eqsue heavyness with electronica thrown into the mix. So, next up were The Last Dance. Again, another excellent performance. They had a more 80's darkwave feel to them, so it was deffinitely my kind of thing! The last band on was Abney Park, a very Steampunk themed band. The Steampunk style being quite noticeable throughout the weekend, to the point where it became a running joke. They were superb though, and went down quite well. Though at times, I found their musical style not very Steampunk (but then, what the hell is Steampunk supposed to sound like?! Afterwards, there was more partying and then sleep at a stupidly late time.

Saturday, we were up at 11.30, and it was more market browsing again. I managed to get that jacket too, for £20, bargain! After more chilling, RazorBladeKisses had thier soundcheck, the stall was set up and they were up at 9. RazorBladekisses were absolutely incredible. They put on an actual full blown out performance, and had a variety of styles within their music. Seeing them live was a highlight of the weekend for me. Afterwards, The House of Usher were on, and they seemed okay, but a bit dull after RBK's performance. I was too busy hanging out with the band and at the stall though. I saw some of Diary of Dreams set too, and they were great, with a very dark style to thier music. After that, it was a final night of partying mayhem, before heading back to the cottage pretty late. D and I stayed up, and after some goodbyes we had to catch the coach at the ungodly hour of 6.55 in the morning.

Overall, Whitby was an amazing experience, if you're into the Gothic culture, I'd highly recommend going. It made a nice change to see Goths being the majority for a change. Oh, and for anyone who sees Goths as depressing and boring, those thoughts can stop right now. There were so many laughs, I spent most the weekend laughing. I'd also like to thank everyone I met and stayed with during Whitby, you all truly made my weekend! I'm really looknig forward to doing all this again in October for Halloween!