Day Two involved selling merch, borrowing an artist pass, talking my way backstage and actually talking to people. It ended with Gallowbraid’s first-ever live show, a blue moon over Scarborough and the certainty that I would be back.

Back at Fortress Festival in Scarborough for twelve hours of black metal, camera-related despair, unexpected cosmic joy and one headlining set that reduced my notes to "Omg".

Slagmaur lured me in with sheep, hit me with distorted forest madness, and somehow ended up as the first item on my Fortress 2027 homework list.

Back to England, back to Scarborough, back to Fortress. Before the music, there was Heathrow chaos, Google betrayal, sea-view swooning, beans on toast, sunburn, Whitby crowds, dog-hair beer, and a Dracula purchase that was absolutely necessary.