A Summer with Twenty One Pilots (1) – A Roman Holiday

Hey, look who’s back! And for what reason? Twenty One Pilots. Yes. Again. You can’t change me at this point, I’m too far off. Deal with it.

I promise I had cool ideas for blog posts, even some that are partially or completely written. But I’m so consistent and confident in what I do that I completely forgot about this blog until a friend asked me if I planned on documenting my summer festival travels (Hi Lau!), so until further notice, most of all you’ll have to read here this summer is Tour blogs again… and here’s the first one!

Nîmes

We left for Nîmes very early on Tuesday, July 16th, and when I say very early, I’m talking 6am flight. Let’s just say we weren’t very awake yet when we landed around 8am… but the heat quickly rose us from the dead. We expected it, but it still felt hard on our shoulders so early (especially mine which are still red and burning!)

The most surprising, though, was the size of the airport. I had never seen one so small – barely two flights a day! – which also means that transports aren’t as frequent as in bigger airports. We had to wait 45 minutes for the shuttle, but arrived very quickly in the city centre, where we checked into our AirBnb almost immediately. We took our time to settle in, got out to buy groceries for the four days, then took a short nap (don’t judge).

In the late afternoon, we had booked a visit of the Arenas and… an Escape Game! Yes, in the Arenas! I had always wanted to do one, but playing in such a wonderful venue was something else altogether. It took us one hour and a half to solve all the enigmas and puzzles (and we had an allotted time of two hours; over that limit, our pad would have shut off completely and the game was over), and we shed a lot of sweat going up and down the big steps, but it was SO worth the money spent (only 15€, and after the game we were allowed to get audioguides and visit the arenas for as long as we wanted).

I don’t even remember what we did the next day. We were on holiday, so we took our time for everything. We visited the farmer’s market and bought the best fruit I’ve ever eaten, including peaches and yellow watermelon, and I’ll never eat fruit the same way. We also went to see “La Maison Carrée” (the Square House, which isn’t a square at all) and walked across the very small city center, where we found a secondhand music store in which we spent a very small amount of money considering the number of CDs we got.

On Thursday, our friends who had driven all the way from Belgium finally arrived, and we spent some time with them, including approximately two hours during which we were desperately looking for a restaurant that would suit everyone’s preferences. We ended up splitting the group and four of us ate Italian, almost as usual.

Festival de Nîmes

On Friday morning, we decided we’d pay a visit of the Arenas again. The venue had to close earlier than usual due to the show that were to happen that night, but we came right on time for the last visits, and that way we were able to watch the set up for the night. It’s always so interesting to me to watch the crew work. We stayed there until they threw us out (not literally though), then we all went back to our hotels and AirBnbs to rest a little bit before the concert.

At 7pm, we were in the venue, and we were quite surprised to get a super good spot, not that far from the stage, but far and off-centered enough that we had a lot of space to move and a barricade behind us if we wanted to sit while waiting. A good spot and good friends make the perfect combo for me, so I had SO much fun for the whole duration of the set. Tyler even ran right past us for the Car Radio trick. The only thing that was a bit deceiving was the set in itself, way too short for my liking and the amount of money we spent. And before you say “BuT iT’s A fEsTiVaL” – yes. I know. I get it. BUT. Festival de Nîmes isn’t a festival like others: there’s only ONE act per night (plus support). So at 70€ for a ticket, which is MORE than a headline show ticket, I think we’re in our rights to expect more than just one hour and ten minutes of show (which is LESS than a regular Twenty One Pilots set). And also: have you ever seen a headline act play only an hour in a major festival? I don’t think so.

Anyway, I may seem bitter for you reading this, but I’m really not. I had the best holidays in Nîmes, the show was great and I had an amazing time with my friends, and it’s all that matters. In twenty years, I won’t remember the price I paid and the amount of time they played for, but I’ll remember the smiles we had when the lights went out, and the confetti in our hair.

Over and out (until the next episode coming late August after Sziget Festival where I’ll be seeing not only Twenty One Pilots but also Foo Fighters, back to back, and if you know me, you know what that means).