In July we were lucky enough to go to Sète in France for the final weekend of this year's Worldwide festival. Worldwide is a week long festival curated by Giles Peterson with loads of great music happening day and night in various venues around the town. Sète is a charming Mediterranean port town and a great place to hang out anyway, so add a festival and you've got a winning combination of great music, mega sound systems, cheap wine, friendly people from all over Europe, glorious sunshine and unspoilt beaches. Not to mention good food!
Sure, any boutique festival worth its cider in the UK has an all singing / and dancing / pop up / dress up / gourmet restaurant these days but you will probably pay massively inflated prices for a meal. Stick with the masses and you will be eating out of cardboard cartons surrounded by overflowing bins. No matter how much choice is offered by the vans around you (and it can be good) after the third day I always struggle to find something really appealing and may well end up eating mushy peas cold from a can (true fact). Here you have a great many restaurants to choose from and don't have to suffer the slight indignity of festival food.
Our day in Sète generally started off with a hangover. We had brought along a suitcase full of alka seltzer which helped to neutralise this, (alka seltzer makes you bullet proof, I overheard someone exclaim on the beach - so true) as did breakfast in bed at our fabulous little hotel, les Sables d'Or. Rolled in at 5am and want breakfast at midday? No problem just call the reception and within two minutes a lovely smiley French lady appears with a tray laden down with good filter coffee, orange juice, bread, croissants, jam, and butter. RECOMMEND!
http://www.hotel-sablesdor.com/
Thus fortified we'd head to the beach, a short walk away, for a day of music and chilling, stopping en route for gallons of alarmingly cheap rosé wine served from a massive refrigerated tank by a very sarcastic man. Bliss.
At the beach bar they served big platters of huitres, (oysters) which were amazing, and mussels (not so amazing, still beardy). We also sampled a delicious octopus pie (like a minced octopus pasty type thing) recommended by a man named Dan who has come to Sète for Worldwide the last four years in a row and is very much in the know.
On the beach there is music all day and as long as you have your rosé in a plastic glass there is no problem taking it into the festival "bit". It is a bit stricter at night and at one point we did use a baby to smuggle in a bottle of rum but that is another story...all in all an absolutely blissful time was had by all, I really hope we can return next year and thanks to the friends who suggested we come along :-)
