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Just back from the Relentless Boardmasters festival in Newquay, Cornwall and had a lot of fun! Boardmasters is held on a stunning cliff top location over looking Watergate Bay where 12,500 people attend the South West’s biggest live music event. Dave and I played on the view stage, which is their new acoustic stage.
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Good old English weather threatened to pour down until an hour before we played but then brightened up a little bit. Not quite the scorching hot day we were hoping for but lots of lovely people still came to see us and support us!
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Being non drinkers and non caffeine intakers we didn’t partake in the drinking of any Relentless drinks or vodka on offer but found a very cute little tent with free red current tea which was put-on by a lady who lives in Spain and self teaches her 3 kids in a house without an electricity generator which she has done for 15 years! She was very cool!
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For the rest of the evening we were loving the sets from Plan B, Xavier Rudd, Seasick Steve and Newton Faulkner.
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The beaches are gorgeous in Newquay so we made the most of it the following day by making sure to do some surfing with the Quiksilver surfing school and walking through the more quiet secluded beaches-avoiding the nuts magazine Bikini contests and the like where on 2 occasions I saw pink liquid coming out of some poor guys mouth! Oh the joys of alcohol- not!
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This weekend we met some really lovely people at this festival. So thanks to Katy for booking us, those on Facebook who came along to support me! Really appreciate it!! Hope you had an amazing time! Thank you to Ady Webb for the brilliant photos of us playing the gig and Jen White for the videoing and Stacey for recommending them to me. Video/audio to follow asap. Bye for now,
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Lots of love,
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Ellie xxx

Ready for the premiere in my Quiksilver Women Ian dress from the Fall 09 collection (Photo : Lucia Griggi)

Last weekend, Newquay in Cornwall played host to the surf and music festival the Relentless Boardmasters and I was there to premiere the new Kelly Slater film CLOUD 9.  Rather unusually for the UK, sun split the clouds on the day of the screening and thousands of people flocked to the beach to enjoy the surfing, the entertainment and of course the beer tents!

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On the morning of the premiere, Gabe and I decided to double-check the technical aspects of the screening in advance of hundreds of people turning up at 5pm.  It was just as well we did, as the first problem we encountered was a distinct lack of a DVD player to play the film on!  Having tracked one down, we then faced the issue of the screen being too light for a daytime screening.  With the premiere hour fast approaching, it looked very likely that fans would either be watching a faint outline of Kelly or that I would have to read the script aloud and act the film out myself!

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However, despite the pressure of the clock ticking, with the technical team on side and with Gabe running between autograph signings and the venue, we all pulled the event together with minutes to spare.  I had a few minutes to change into my Quiksilver Women T-shirt dress (Ian) in a shimmering gold beige that was perfect for the night.  The crowd poured in, I gathered my breath and I jumped on the stage to present the film.  Action!  The projector whirred and there on the screen was the film I have been working on with Director Nicolas Dazet for the past year.  To the public, it was a seamless premiere.  It just goes to show one never knows the chaos going on behind the scenes.

The premiere crowd watching Kelly in action (Photo : Lucia Griggi)

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I was happy to hear a huge cheer as the final credits rolled and it was then time for Ben Howard to play us into the night.  His music was fantastic as ever, the crowd sang along and he brought a tear to my eye by dedicating the film’s title track CLOUD 9 to me.  After he had played, Ben, Gabe, Ben’s manager Owain and I could finally relax and enjoy the party. 

Job done! Ben Howard and I enjoy the aftershow party (Photo : Lucia Griggi)

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Two days later, I dressed in a Quiksilver Women rock graphic T (East Village) with a denim mini to attend the final day of the music festival.  There really is an outfit for every occasion in the collection.  Joined by beautiful British actress, Emma Pierson, who has just joined the Quiksilver Women team we watched Ben, his drummer Fabian and cellist India, play to thousands from the giant stage in Watergate, prior to jetting off to tour America with Jason Mraz.  For me, it’s back to work on a new book and a new script.   

Emma Pierson and I watching Ben on the giant stage!

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Owain, me, Ben and Gabe at the Watergate music festival

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CLOUD 9 continues to tour and will be shown on TV before long.  Stay tuned to quiksilver-europe.com for details.