by Dancing to Duran Duran with a stranger in a field turns out to be a genuinely terrible benchmark for every date that follows
I met someone at BST Hyde Park purely by accident, we ended up next to each other during the Duran Duran set, and three hours of shared, slightly sweaty, thoroughly joyful dancing later, I have had to accept that every single first date since has felt like a considerable letdown by comparison, through absolutely no fault of the poor men involved.
How It Actually Started
He offered me a sip of his drink when mine got knocked out of my hand mid crowd surge, a genuinely small, thoughtful gesture that somehow felt enormous in the moment, and we spent the rest of the set talking between songs, shouting over the bassline, the specific kind of instant, easy chemistry that a quiet restaurant booth simply cannot replicate.
Why This Has Become A Genuine Problem
Every subsequent date since has involved sitting across a table making careful, considered conversation, which is, objectively, a perfectly reasonable way to get to know someone, and yet compared to shouting song lyrics at a stranger while genuinely, unselfconsciously happy, it has all felt slightly flat by comparison, an unfair standard I am fully aware I am imposing on people who did absolutely nothing wrong.
What I Am Trying To Do About It
I have started deliberately suggesting more active, chaotic first date settings since, a market, a walk somewhere unfamiliar, anything that removes the pressure of sustained, careful eye contact across a small table, an attempt to recreate a small fraction of that original spontaneous energy artificially.
Whatever Happened To The Actual Man From The Festival
We exchanged numbers, obviously, and have seen each other twice since, though I will admit neither subsequent meeting has quite matched the original, a fact I am choosing to blame entirely on the absence of a live bassline rather than on either of us specifically.
Further Reading
For the fuller account of the festival itself, noise complaints and all, my earlier notes on BST Hyde Park cover the whole saga properly.
Closing Thought
Apparently you cannot simply recreate spontaneous festival chemistry on demand at a quiet Tuesday dinner, who knew. More London romance, ruined standards included, at my author page on The London Prat.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
