A Turkish man who is planning on traveling hundreds of miles to see some of his favourite artists at a number of festivals over the next eight weeks, has claimed that he is “more than happy” to make the trip even if he doesn’t get to see any of the acts.

Arda Bulut, who recently quit his job to make the eight-week pilgrimage, starts his journey this week in his hometown, Bodrum, at Chill-Out festival which takes place on 20-21 July.

We spoke with him earlier, “Most of my life I have wanted to live the life of a nomad and now, for the next eight or nine weeks, that is exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve had enough of the hustle and bustle of everyday life, it’s time to hit the road and what better way to do it than by traveling the country visiting some of the best festivals Turkey has to offer.”

“Obviously, I’ll be starting here in Bodrum so it’s quite easy to begin with, I’ll probably just stay in my own house and have a few days off to recover afterward, which is good because Chaim, Viken Arman and Stavroz are all playing and I really like them.” continued Arda. “Once I’m done there, it’s straight onto the road, my next stop will Çeşme on August 11 for the second installment of Chill-Out Festival.”

“It’s about a two hundred mile journey and I’ve decided that I’m going to walk it, barefoot, so I’ll probably be pretty tired by the time I get there,” he added. “But, that’s OK. I find that when I go to festivals, I usually make all of these plans to see all of my favourite acts and then by the time I get there, I get caught up in the moment and miss everyone anyway.”

“So, even though they’ve got artists like Stimming and Matthew Dekay, who I really love, this probably won’t be any different, except instead of getting lost in the moment I’ll be suffering from exhaustion and probably dehydration too. I’ll most likely find a quiet corner and sleep somewhere for most of it, but like I always say, it’s the being there that counts.”

“From there, I make my way to Istanbul for Chill-Out’s flagship festival. This is a pretty long walk but it’s not on until 15-16 September so I will have a whole month to get there,” he said wearily. “I’ve been loads of times and It’s such a good festival so it’s the perfect place to end my journey. I’ve heard it’s in a new venue too so I really can’t wait to miss all of my favourite artists there, after a three hundred and fifty miles walk.”

“Once I’ve been to all the festivals, I’ll probably get a bus home and spend the next three or four weeks checking out videos of them on the internet, that way I’ll get to experience them all over again, while I’m awake.”

If you would like the chance to join Arda on his pilgrimage, or even to attend one of Chill-Out’s festivals without being completely worn out from walking hundreds of miles, click here for information and tickets.