Secret Garden Party with VO5

Last weekend I was lucky enough to head to the last ever SGP (Secret Garden Party) with the wonderful team from VO5. I’d never been before but heard incredible things about the festival and let’s just say it did not disappoint. You may have seen my posts over on Instagram last weekend but here’s the full story of what went down at SGP and why I was dressed up as the Devil (!?).

I’ve been to quite a fair few festivals in my 25 years on this planet and hands down Secret Garden Party was one of the best I’ve ever been to. Everyone was there to have a good time, everyone was friendly and you felt comfortable whether you were wearing your regular day to day look or covered head to toe in red paint.  We bumped into loads of mates, other fellow bloggers and made a load of new friends too whilst seeing some amazing acts including Peaches, Maribou State and Jorja Smith.

Each year it’s taken place SGP has had a ‘theme’ – this year’s theme was VIP’s and Celebrities, which I personally think is a really difficult theme to dress to, I think the idea was the whole hype around social media made celebrities like the Kardashians etc. They posted on their facebook page ‘ STOP MAKING STUPID PEOPLE FAMOUS’ and said that quote sums up the theme. I had no idea how to dress to that theme so on the first day I just went super casual, wearing my new Hi Fi FNK Shirt, Daniel Patrick Tee, Weekday Shorts and Off White Sneakers (RIP).

I also used the VO5 Rework Putty in my hair, I wanted a hold that I could switch up and change depending on where we were, most of the time I just kept swiping my hair to the side because it was so windy! the VO5 Rework Putty is perfect for chopping and changing your style whilst keeping that textured look. Like I said I’d never been before so I wanted to suss out the vibe and see what everyone else was wearing, just how far were people going with their festival looks?

The stages at SGP were actually insane – the one picture above was ‘The Lake House’ which was a floating house in the middle of the lake!? (They then proceeded to set this alight and blow it up during the fireworks display on the Saturday night – don’t worry, no one was on it then haha.) The other stages were the ‘Colli-silly-um’ where naked mud wrestling took place, The Drop ( which included a robot who spat out fire) and the Labyrinth that we actually only found on our last day because it was so hidden away deep in a forest?! The amount of different things you could do and find at the festival was actually incredible – it’s such a shame that this was the last one ever.

Day 2 came and me and Danielle decided to go as an Angel and Devil – I bought some red face paint from Amazon, some devil horns from eBay and I was pretty happy with the result for something which was so easy to do. I also used the VO5 Mega Hold Styling Gel to style my hair around the horns and bandanna. HOWEVER – this day, the one where I decided to paint myself red, was the day that the heavens opened (irony lol) and proceeded to pour down for the whole day. Word of warning, don’t paint yourself then go outside in the rain – everything you touch will turn red.

Having said that, even though it rained all day – I had the time of my life and do not regret dressing up one bit, the reaction from other people about my outfit was amazing. Especially when a group of 20 guys dressed as nuns proceeded to run over to me and shame me with their crosses and rosary beads haha. I do really hope the creators of Secret Garden Party bring out a new festival similar to SGP just under a brand new title – we’ll just have to wait and see! I want to say a huge thank you to VO5 for taking me along I had the best time, keep your eyes peeled for some more exciting work I’ve been doing with VO5 over on their Instagram here.

This post is in collaboration with VO5 and all images were either taken by me or Danielle Haslam.

Thanks so much for reading guys and hope you enjoyed reading up about my time at SGP.