There's nothing quite like spending the August bank holiday in Manchester. Granted, we had to exchange the clear blue skies of Brighton for the drizzle that was Manchester on arrival, but it doesn't really matter what the weather's like when you spend the day in bed recovering from the night before and preparing for the next night.

A few of us arrived a day early. Kyle, Glyn and myself so that we could get into the swing of the weekend before the masses arrived. Alistair and Nick because they had to leave a day early to go on holiday to France. Or did they? And Wilma & Philma because they didn't want to risk breaking down 100 times and missing the parade on Saturday. They still broke down 100 times of course. But made it in time to jump around at Essential anyway.

You'd better stop reading this crap and get on with looking at the 350 or so photos from the weekend. They could probably do with some editing. But then again... Although I'd better remove that picture of... and those two... and... oh I'll just leave them in and see if anyone actually looks at them.

Enjoy!