Stage

I was more alert than I should have been this morning. Dozing on the sofa until the early hours is not ideal. Luckily, the morning wasn't too busy, and I could get what I needed done before logging off at lunchtime.

I'd taken half a day off work as we were heading to the BST Summer concert series at Hyde Park to see Stevie Nicks. I'd bought the early entry tickets for PY's birthday. With experiences at the Isle of Wight festival still very much in mind, we checked the set list and concluded we didn't need to use the early entry portion. So, we arrived at about 3:30 pm by the south entrance.

It wasn't jam-packed then, and we got to look around without the crowds. We had pictures taken in the American Express pavilion and queued twice for the free water bottles: once so I could get one as an Amex cardholder and later in the hour when non-members could also get one.

The stalls selling drinks, food, and merchandise are all very well-themed: there was an Asian-themed area, a part that looked South American, and a British area near a rainbow stage, where we watched our first act of the day, Nina Nesbitt. At this point, we were near the bigger north entrance, and people were pouring in. It had a great atmosphere and was very relaxed. We bought some chocolate brownies and wandered the park more before lying on the grass to listen to the main stage.

At about 5:30 pm, we went to watch the Cuban Brothers perform. I had a memory of seeing them before, and when I checked back through my phone's photo album, I found I'd seen them twice before. Their act isn't much changed, but it was a lot of fun.

Next, we decided to look for food. Most of the stalls we started looking at had enormous queues. I suggested we walk back towards the south entrance as we'd passed a lot of food stands, and that end of the park looked less busy. It was the right call, and both ended up with fish burgers and chips from a place with a short line. We also found a place to stand with a view of the main stage that was not obscured—albeit a bit side-on.

We watched the end of Brandi Carlile's set with a note to search out more of her music when we got home. I tried to sit on the grass while PY went for a beer, but I found it very uncomfortable, and as it became more crowded, I found I could not settle. After I'd fished my food, I stood up and waited for the main act.

I am less familiar with Stevie Nick's music than PY is. She opened with 'Outside the Rain' and continued with the more familiar 'Dreams'. The set included Tom Petty's 'Free Fallin'', 'Edge of Seventeen', and 'Rhiannon', all known to me. She paid tribute to Tom Petty, who passed in 2017, and at the end of the set to Christine McVie.

'Rhiannon' was the first encore song. As it concluded, there was an audible ripple from the crowd. As we all turned to the big screens, we saw Harry Styles had joined Stevie Nicks on stage for 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around' and then 'Landslide'.

It was a great ending to a wonderful day. It was much more relaxed than the Isle of Wight festival, probably because we never had to make a choice between acts. The Hyde Park site was much more compact, and there was considerably less walking, even though there were similar numbers of people attending.

The train home was less crowded than we imagined. The lower end of Park Lane had been closed to traffic, which meant exiting the park was easy. We'll look for more people to see at next year's event.