The Music

There were three music areas to choose from – Main Stage, Garden Stage and Big Top – but given my particular urban tastes, I wandered between the main and top, and found time to enjoy the likes of Labrinth, Jessie J, Katy B and Tinie Tempah.

The highlight of those was undoubtedly Jessie J, who you can’t help but be impressed by her soaring vocals; when she sang Who You Are, the dramatic pause that followed spoke volumes of her status as currently one of the most stunning female vocalists in the country.

Attractions

There was a beach on the site which was hilarious to visit and made a brief change from the mud on the site that you could barely avoid. I was also tempted to try out the funfair’s bungee jump – a stomach-churning ride that catapulted into the sky  – but as fun as it may have been, it’s something I can confidently say I’ll never do again (!).

Food

Jamie Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts in the hospitality area was incredible (I never knew summer fruit cake and bakewell tart ice cream could taste so good!). But as for the food stalls on site, shame on that £7 chicken  burrito I picked up for not being close to worthy and the greasy chips I bought afterwards to try and compensate for it. Not great.

The Crowd

To my surprise, there were alot of young families in attendance, as well as middle-aged adults and teenagers – so displays of excessive drunkeness were rare, making IoW one of the more respectable fests worth visiting if you like to keep it chilled.

Click here to check out our pictures from the festival…

This experience comes courtesy of Acer UK. Check out the Acer Intel U-Experience team on our journey and discover more about the challenges at: https://www.facebook.com/AcerUK/app_329103610497351

The post What we’ve been up to…Isle of Wight Festival 2012 appeared first on The Cultural Exposé.

The session began with a briefing from instructor Colin, who immediately pointed out that the sport is dangerous yet addictive, but we should have a healthy respect for the speeds we’re travelling and that we’d start with a pace car to help us familiarise ourselves with the circuit.  Despite a general lack of prominent female motor racing drivers in the sport,  he also said women were able to pick up the skills of motor racing alot quicker – and I hoped he was right!

Our group would be going on the Stowe circuit (originally a part of the Grand Prix circuit), and we were soon briefed on the best way to approach Stowe’s straightforward but tricky corners. The idea was to apply a firm break, step off the break and accelerate mid corner – and practice this technique over and over again during our practice laps.

Dressed in overalls and fitted with a helmet, getting into the beginner F3 cars felt like sitting in the bath but not as relaxing; the first priority was making sure we could comfortably push the clutch down leaning back at a 70 degree angle, then Colin’s assistant Richard strapped us into the full harness seats belts, making me feel a little bit too attached to the lightweight vehicle.

Thankfully,  I didn’t have any major issues on the track.  On my very first go, I stalled about 7 times before setting off as there’s no smooth pulling up of the clutch when you’re driving these bad boys.  They go hard from the jump, and you’re soon switching between third and fourth gear (3rd on the corners) – but easily going as fast as up to 100mph.  During my second set of laps, I started getting into the speed, but also got sloppy on my corners, knocking down cones,  sliding onto the grass and killing my gears.

Yet for my final attempt on an international circuit,  I drove alot faster, feeling more confident with each lap, going hard on the straights and sticking to 4th gear as much as possible.  And though I ended up being the slowest in my group with a time of 94.42 seconds on a 1.1 mile circuit (the fastest time was 66.48), not alot could compare to the thrill of burning rubber, pushing my natural limits and leaving the stresses of London living on the road (which means I’ll probably be back sooner than later!).

This experience comes courtesy of Acer UK. Check out the Acer Intel U-Experience team on our journey and discover more about the challenges at: https://www.facebook.com/AcerUK/app_329103610497351

The post What we’ve been up to… circuit driving at Silverstone, Northamptonshire appeared first on The Cultural Exposé.