As most of you know, this weekend was the Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Preston, and it was tied to the Frozen Indigo Angel ARG. It lasted all weekend, with the ARG events on both the Saturday and the Sunday.
For the Saturday we all had to be up bright and early, to be able to arrive at Preston for the gate opening at 11:30. Due to being competition winners, we skipped the normal queue and waited in the competition winners’ queue. We managed to get in a little after 12, where we milled around and waited for a few others to join us! I was logged onto IRC, where people were linking me to images of what we were supposed to be looking for.
We saw the first poster of the day on the side of a bin that was being carted off, which was close to being missed, but Izzy and Ben (I think) ran after it screaming “STOP!”, which dissolved us all into laughter. After that, we started spotting the other posters constantly. I was running around, following the others who were taking pictures of the posters to email to Paul, just telling those on IRC the posters that we were spotting, so they could create a wiki page holding all the poster information. We needed the four letter word, the shape, the shading of the shape, the colour of the shape, and the number inside the shape. We spent around 4 hours searching for all the posters we could. Each poster belonged to a set, and once the set was finished, it created a map piece. Those online were checking for complete sets, getting the map pieces, and merging the map pieces together to create a map for us to use. This was then linked to me, so I could download it onto my phone for us to check as necessary. I felt useful for once!
We got all but one of the map pieces fairly quickly, and manged to corner Paul Denchfield, to show him the map and the progress so far. Absolutely mental and hyper guy, but absolutely awesome. He took a quick look at the map on my phone, and then ran off to get a camera, which he kind of aimed at various people (me included!), and then we all charged around, trying to look for the transmitters. We assumed that the lighting rigs were a possible, and so Paul examined these thoroughly before deciding that they weren’t. We were then taken over to a car near the outdoor stage, where he asked for the roofbox to be opened, while he examined that. There were a lot of cardboard boxes in it, but nothing of interest. The bonnet was then opened, and a box was found, which we thought was possibly a transmitter, and then Paul went off to try to find out if it was! Unfortunately it wasn’t.
One of the people online (Morbus, I’ve just been told!), noticed that the dots connected to make triangles, which we then took the centre point of, and deduced the transmitters would be around that place. Unfortunately it was around this point that my phone battery decided to be low, and so we had to hurriedly sketch a rough idea of the triangles and the map for use to search for the transmitters, and I told IRCers to text me important information! We searched for the transmitters for a while, before finding out that the transmitters wouldn’t be placed until the Sunday! As we were transmitter searching, we came across a new poster which Izzy found in a Portaloo! Sadly, it wasn’t one of the posters we needed for the final map piece.
At this point, we gave up on the FIA side of the Big Weekend, and decided to enjoy the music until we went home, before returning the next day to “smash up” the transmitters and save the crowd! We spotted Adrian Hon during the evening, and had a chat to him, which was nice! I also managed to procure myself two Big Weekend t-shirts, as a souvenir of the event!
Sadly, due to illness and being excruciatingly tired, I was unable to go to the second part, on the Sunday, and am extremely disappointed that I was unable to be involved in the taking apart of transmitters!
The Sunday activities will be written in Part 2 of the Big Weekend write ups, so keep an eye on this page! I have taken a few pictures, which you can find on my flickr (as always). There are also many pictures on the Big Weekend website, as well as video’s and blog entries on Paul Denchfield’s blog and his twitter.
A fantastic day was had, and despite the cold and the mud (even though it was sunny!), I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and think that the event was fabulously done. It was so exciting, and we really had to work as a team to complete it. I didn’t realise how much I missed the events until this one!
Posted in Official PXC Events, PXC meet ups
