View From The Side: The 'Yes Moment' Festival Dictionary

Commentary

As the youngest member of the Ransom Note team current residing within the UK (unless you’re reading this from Friday onwards, where it’ll be England/England & Wales/Up Yours Scotland – the latter a probably George Osborne idea) when the idea of a festival dictionary was mooted around Ransom Note Towers heads turned in my direction, expectant that as part of the ‘youth’ I’d know what was going on. Whilst I may indeed be young (22, in case you’re wondering or questioning any strange fantasies), I am far from in touch with the young people of today, besides my love of comic books, my indie music knowledge and my appreciation for things like this.

So I’m not the sort of person you’ll find out at festivals using slang, however, I do like to keep myself in the loop with this sort of thing and thanks to Lucozade Energy teaming up with experts to create a long overdue festival dictionary, which we’ve all been calling out for for so long, I can be down with the kids. Here’s a quick round-up of some of my reactions to this delightful everyday helper;

Amazeballs – I first heard this word on the dreadful 2 Broke Girls and wondered if people in real life used it. Unfortunately, they do. It’s not exactly quicker to say than amazing but, I mean, it has balls in it – which makes it some much more fun and totes incredible. Right?

Bangin’ – Barely a new word, this is one that has been around for years but what the young people have oh-so-cleverly done is remove the final g, turning it into a whole new word which will undoubtedly have uncool adults, or ‘squares’ as I believe they’re known, in a muddle.

Don – A word taken from the mafia. Don’t take from the mafia, if you like your legs.

Endz – Right, hold up. Adding a ‘z’ to make yourself sound cool is a thing? I thought we were over that about the same time ‘WASSUP” stopped being funny.

Flashpacker – The description reads ‘A festival-goer that has flashy or expensive equipment or accessories’. Since when did ‘rich prick’ stop sufficing?

Gramper – Probably my favourite inclusion as, if I’m right in thinking this is something overheard at a festival, perhaps the expert mis-heard the word Grampa being used to describe an older raver.

Hashtag – The example reads ‘These wellies are hashtag awesome…’ If you ever use the word hashtag in any other sense than discussing online viral marketing schemes, please step away from technology for a while as you’ve clearly lost any concept of reality that once existed within you.

Innit – The word Wil says every time he wants me to do something, I hear this word so many times every day. Nothing wrong with it at all, a perfectly acceptable inclusion.

Jel/Jelly – At least jel is short for jealous, jelly takes just as long to say and leaves me feeling confused and hungry.

Laterz – Again, z. Come on now.

Mum’n’Bass – No problems with this one, I think it’s great. The best word young people have come up with since jive-turkey.

Mission/Mish – Christ, am I starting to actually come around to the idea that this dictionary isn’t ridiculous? Oh wait, no, here comes…

Nang – Because we don’t already have enough words for cool.

Nuff and Obvs – USE FULL WORDS!!!!!! (Alright, starting to realise I might be a little more out of touch than I first thought…)

QT – Now, why does this need to be in here? If it’s things to say out loud, the word cutie IS THE SAME WORD. The definition calls QT ‘a slang word for cutie’, which in turn in a slang word and, may I add, THE SAME WORD.

Reem – Joey Essex is alright, I suppose.

Tekkers – As is Soccer AM.

Unforch – Because unfortunately is a word we need shortened.

Vamping – Which means ‘showing off’ apparently, I always thought it was something that a band did during a musical when there’s speech over the music which could last a varying amount of time in each performance. I’m cool, right?

Wasteman – The bloke who writes Herbal George? He’s in this?

YOLO – This is indeed true and exactly why I’ve decided to stop going through this dictionary now.