Doing a roundup again. Here we go.

Friday:

• The queue to the festival entrance was horrible, so we missed Jens Lekman's first song. We got there in time to the second though, and Jens was lovely. He did good, being the first to play one of the bigger stages of the festival, but I think he would've been better a little later in the evening when people were more relaxed. Still great though.
• After Jens we ate, and then watched some of Paul Weller's set. Boring. He was so blasé he changed guitars before the songs were even over, and half of the time he hid behind a big piano so his hair and eyebrows were all you could see. And everyone on stage wore black, not a great stage outfit when the stage and backdrop are black too..
• Wu-Tang Clan was up next. Hilariously bad. I started out with an open mind, but I just couldn't take them seriously. They just shuffled around on stage, doing the cliché hip hop things like grabbing their crotches, shouting "yo" and "yeah" when they didn't have anything to rap about.. and they couldn't even be bothered to "play" the songs all the way though, they just stopped the background loop when they got bored. So confusing.
• After Wu-Tang we went to Linné, the tent stage, to see Local Natives. They were good, as I had expected them to be, but they suffered from horrible sound. I don't know why, but the bass always seem to be too loud on the Linné stage. It drowned out most of their beautiful melodies and harmonies, which was a shame.
• Miike Snow played after Local Natives on Linné. They were good. Danceable. Bit dissapointed they played a remix of Animal though, instead of the original version. The remix was too.. unhappy.
• Linné had the best line-up on Friday, because after Miike Snow it was time for Jónsi. One of the absolute highlights of the festival. It was so amazing, so touching and so beautiful. Everything was just perfect, from Jón's out-of-this-world voice to the perfectly balanced music (no bad sound here), to their stage outfits and the beautiful backdrop with the wonderful animated projections over it. I was close to tears a couple of times. Leaving Linné, I felt a bit like I'd had something close to a religious experience.
• After that, we went over to one of the big stages again to see M.I.A. I like M.I.A, and had read some great reviews of her show beforehand, but I was so dissapointed. The first fifteen minutes was horrible, a female DJ (whom I thought was M.I.A) just looped the same thing over and over again. Then M.I.A came on stage with some dancers, but she didn't really sing anything, just walked around. I'd expected a bit more action right from the beginning, so we gave up and headed to Linné.
• Even though M.I.A was certainly one of the biggest draws of the festival, there were a fair amount of people waiting for The xx over at Linné. I've really gotten into them the last couple of weeks, and even though I knew they would be different live than on CD, I didn't think they would be as boring as they were. I'd expected some kind of intensity, but there was none. I was sleepy before the concert started, and even sleepier afterwards. Not the best way to end the day.
• There weren't any interesting club acts, so we went back to the hotel and I fell asleep with hurting feet.

Saturday:

• It was so hard getting out of bed. But we managed, ate breakfast and then went back to Slottsskogen to see Shout Out Louds. We were a little late though, so we missed some of their set, but they were fairly good. We decided that we'd rather get better spots in front of the other main stage, so we went over there and listened to the rest of their set from the ground.
• Mumford & Sons got to play one of the main stages, despite the fact that they've only been to Sweden once before (in April, when I saw them at the small rock club Debaser Slussen). No need to worry though, there were lots of people, way more than some of the "bigger" and more established names playing on the big staged had. They were amazing, and their songs really filled the whole space. Also, they brought the sun. Of course they brought the sun.
• After Mumford we saw some of Anna Ternheim, but decided to sit and rest our poor feet instead. There was some hip hop act playing after Anna, but I sat up for half of it and then fell into slumber in my boyfriend's knee. Nice music to rest to, steady beats and some talking.
• We decided to leave the festival area to get some chips/crisps, soft drinks and candy. We went to the nearest supermarket, and then sat outside the entrance with what must've been more than a thousand other people (difference being that everybody else drank alcohol they were not allowed to bring in while we enjoyed our soft drinks).
• We went back in to go to the toilets (the queues were hilariously long, so I skipped it) and then went to Linné to see Marina & The Diamonds. The crowd was thin, because she got the unfortunate spot of playing at the same time as Håkan Hellström, Sweden's most beloved pop-poet who can't really sing. She was great though, very energetic and lovely, and she seemed happy even though there were gaping holes in the crowd. While some went after twenty minutes to see Håkan, I stayed the whole set and I don't regret it. I've never been very into Håkan, even though I think he's great. Marina was more worth my time.
• When she finished, I went to the toilets, no queue this time because everyone was off seeing Håkan. I got to the stage he played at about half time of his set. There were sooo much people, so I stayed far out on the side. He was playing his whole debut album, "Känn Ingen Sorg För Mig Göteborg", from start to finish, as it was ten years ago it was released and it has been such a big deal in the Swedish music scene ever since. Sadly, he'd already played all the song I recognize, so I just stood and watched the spectacle. Pretty enjoyable anyway. He also played a song specially written for the occasion, which was very good actually. He said he would only ever play the song once, and that was right then and there, so there were a lot of mobiles and cameras in the air, including mine.
• After Håkan we saw some of Lykke Li. It looked spectacular even from a distance, but I'm not very into her and her songs, and she lost her voice in the middle of the set, so we went to get some food and then secured a place in front of the other stage, where The Chemical Brothers were gonna finish up the festival.
• I'm not a big fan of The Chemical Brothers, but I stayed for fifteen minutes and it would've been nice to see it all because the visual show seemed amazing, but I had to get to Annedalskyrkan (a large, beautiful church). It acts as one of the stages, along with a handful of clubs, on the night-part of the festival, Stay Out West. I knew the queues to all the Stay Out West-places have been horrible every year, so I wanted to be there before it opened at 11 p.m. La Roux was playing at Linné at the same time as Chem Bros, but I ditched her for Laura Marling.
• I got to the church ten minutes before it opened, and the queue was already long, even though Laura was not playing until 00.15. I was so nervous that I wouldn't get in, but I did and ended up on one of the church bences in the middle of the church. It filled up pretty quickly on the floor, but there was a balcony too. I think the church holds about 1500-2000 people, so it's pretty big. It was so beautiful on the inside too, with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and the front of the church (don't know what it's called) bathing in red light. I was so tired though, I almost fell asleep waiting. Wasn't the only one though, saw lots of people sleeping with their heads in their arms or against the walls. It was a pretty funny scene, seeing festival-dressed-up people sleep like children in a church while others were debating which bands had been the best or worst, or making out.
• Fifteen minutes after midnight, Laura came out with her band and was greeted by lots of applause. Not much cheering though, seemed a bit wrong in a church haha. She was so lovely and so great. She sounded a bit different than I'd imagined though, or not just different from what I'd imagined but different from both the CD's and live performances I've heard. Her voice was different. Not in a bad way, just different. She sounded more mature, her voice had a different richness to it. It reminded me of someone else, someone from long ago, but I can't remember who. She was funny too, which I'd not expected. She joked a bit about how she had amazing whistling skills, and that we shouldn't be intimidated by her but whistle along when she whistled the violin solo in Night Terror. She also pointed out that it was the perfect setting for creeping eachother out with the whistling, being in a large church. Needless to say, she did have amazing whistle skills and it was as creepy as it was absolutely beautiful. "I said I had amazing whistling skills, didn't I?" Video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHShu9bmhTk She was the best of the whole festival. The end.