I can be really confident when speaking about most things but there was a moment of pure pressure when I was asked to sit down and write about something that’s been so important to my year.

This year has been spent getting use to doing things that I’ve not been use to doing for the past 4 years. I’m off to India this month on a spiritual enlightenment journey and very much looking forward to it. By the time this is posted I’ll probably be out there already and found all the zens and chakras!

There’s always been events in Bournemouth but the thought of going to Block Party or the O2 Academy just seems so unappealing to me this year.. Having to queue, having to wait for a drink, or go outside for a fag and do that for hours just seems like eurgh… Recently I spent an evening with the lo key family at Inferno and there was no desire to be there amongst the students writing on one another’s white tshirts.

I think it’s because we’ve been quite spoilt this year with really good music and parties that are just different from what the town usually offers.

I say that but one of the funnest nights was when we took a spontaneous trip to Bristol to see Miche’s beloved Detroit Swindle. I was going up with Jade when Miche mentioned that we should all go up together for a little road trip. Being surrounded by nights as good as those, and the fact that the lo key boys take a lot of inspiration from those nights are why I feel the way I do about Halo and all the above mentioned venues and the nights that you typically experience in them.

The Bristol trip was back in June but this all started at a 60MPC sometime in April when I met Miche and saw Kyle sitting on the side. Shortly afterwards we made our way to Aruba for a Get Satisfied thing with the after party ending up at their place – it was 4 in the morning when we all bundled back… miche, matt, kyle, izzy!

Isabelle proceeded to play Daft Punk’s Alive 2007 really really loudly, shortly before ruining the nice cream carpet lol.

I was like who are these people and what am I doing?!

That was a Thursday night on the Easter weekend and the next night it was Eat’s N Beats (which I’d known about for a while before that) and I decided to turn up by myself, dying with anxiety but thought “Alice, you’re single now but you need to put yourself in this situation otherwise you’ll make no friends”.

I then proceeded to say Hi and chain smoked my night away.

Then it became an every Friday thing with after party’s at 1a Haven Road pretty much for the rest of the summer.

It seems like a whirlwind to me as it quickly turned into a little friendship group with so many people involved – new friends and some old ones too. First I met Ida on a sunday at Buffalo when the big huge guy (Bob lol) had a little afternoon thing in the summer and the night before I met up with Holly at Boscanova for the Eats N Beats afterparty w/ Space Cakes – I hadnt seen her since we left school. Phoebe and the rest I cant really remember where I met you guys but I love you all.

It’s been such a fun year and everything’s happened at the right time for me and the lo key family really has been a saviour for me, otherwise I’d be so lost, wondering around not knowing what I’m going to do with myself. I love all these guys that made this summer so special for me. Ida, Phoebe, and all of you.

Namaste

Alice x