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Massive outdoor Festivals? don't get it


PaulWarning

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I see this years Download turned into the usual mudbath, why do people go? massive queues, way overpriced drinks, sanitary conditions that would shame a 3rd world country, miles from the stage ( and if you do get anywhere near idiots think it's good fun to throw pints of fosters) and iffy sound depending where you're standing, and that's before the lottery with the weather.

I wouldn't go to Downpour of Glastonbury if you gave me a ticket.

The only reason I'd be there was if I was playing, and that's about as likely to happen as finding a sub £5 pint of watered down lager

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2 minutes ago, dmccombe7 said:

Must be a young persons thing. Not for me either.

Dave

that's what I was thinking as I was writing it, I'm convinced it's one of those things you feel like you have to do so you can say you were there.

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I’m not sure it is a young persons thing now, haven’t they become the thing for the middle aged?

I went to a V festival a few years ago, and pretty much hated everything. Far too many people, most of whom seemed to have regressed back to their childhood for the weekend. 

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2 minutes ago, ambient said:

I’m not sure it is a young persons thing now, haven’t they become the thing for the middle aged?

I went to a V festival a few years ago, and pretty much hated everything. Far too many people, most of whom seemed to have regressed back to their childhood for the weekend. 

middle aged is young to me :lol:

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Went to IoW a few years back, luckily I was working so had back stage access, and in and out via artist entrance (which still had sniffer dogs checking everyone 😮). Was so glad I could get away quickly - it was horrific. Crammed with not particularly chilled, friendly festival types,.Sound bleed coming in to the big tent from the Radio 1 Introducing stage only a few metres away, noise from a huge bungie ride, and the bar/club directly opposite, all of which could be heard onstage. Just glad I wasn't playing. Loved Bishopstock - blues festival that only had 10,000 capacity and one main stage.

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It’s why I love the Rebellion Festival - 200+ punk/Oi bands over 4 days, INDOORS! All stages have decent loos and the drinks/food in there whilst not cheap is ok, and being smack in the middle of Blackpool town centre all your regular fast-food establishments are within easy walking distance. And they say us punks/skins are the stoopid ones!

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Have to agree with most of the above. I just don't get the festival thing, and never really did when I was younger too. Attended a few major ones ( Reading, Knebworth etc) because of the line ups, but now it seems people part with large sums of dosh before they even know who's playing so presumably going for the whole festival 'experience I guess. 

In the late 70's I did the Blackbush Picnic thing - Dylan, Clapton and others playing to some 300,000 people I believe. Nightmare of a day for me, which ended up taking 4 hours to escape the car park after all the NCP staff had gone home early leaving it as a free for all to exit.

Best one I went to was the Capital Jazz fest at Alexandra Palace, again late 70's - great line up including Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry. Went to the one a year or two after which was relocated to Knebworth - again, great line up and well organised too.

Also stopped doing any big gigs pretty much as well - arenas just don't seem the right way to enjoy the music I like. Along with paying more for the privilege of being miles away / crap sound / watching video screens. For that I expect to pay less than if it was a smaller more intimate venue. Blimey, what a grumpy old s*d I've become......🙁

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I'd rather stuff wasps up my bum than go to an outdoor festival

I like a calm, relaxed atmosphere so generally go for the seated part of a concert. The idea of rolling around a muddy field completely out of my gourd never appealed to me.

I always remember going to see Madness a few years ago, again in the seated bit. At one point my wife turned to me and asked why they were throwing pints of lager up in the air at the standing section. I pointed out that a pint was about £7 so have another guess what it was 😁

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My son works at many of them each summer (always including Glasto), but then he's a dirty little bastard.

No way you'd find me blowing £2000 for 4 days living in squalor in this shitehole of a country.

I bet it would be nothing like this:

It's all down to the weather...

Edited by Ricky 4000
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I don't think "hard rock calling" counts as a festival in that you don't stay on site, so my first festival experience was Download 2016 aged 32. It pished down from the Friday lunchtime onwards. Security staff were forcing people out in to the elements for no apparent reason. We camped next to east mids airport runway which was active all night on the Friday. They sold more camping plots than there was room for which led to arguments and your tent not always being where you'd left it. On the positive side... Saw some great bands, ended up following a few bands I'd not heard of before, saw Megadeth live which fulfilled an ambition since age 13, thought Jane's Addiction were ridiculously good and was gutted to have to leave them to see Iron Maiden start up, had a good weekend with old mates and made some new friends, but the severe lack of sleep was draining and meant I slept and missed most of Rammstein. I went last year on a day ticket but stayed in a B&b in the middle of nowhere, had to queue two and half hrs for a taxi back and ended up unable to sleep when I got to the b&b anyway. I would go again but at my age, with enough sleeplessness from my toddler and another baby on the way the only way I would do it is to hire a camper van and stay in the premium quiet camping bit and hope the camper van survives. And take two days off work after for recovery.

What I find with a rock crowd in general is that people are really friendly and polite, in the camping area everyone was sharing drinks, there was only a few small crowds of idiots and they were pretty quickly ignored until they moved on, and they were irritating idiots but not stealing stuff or fighting from what I saw. The worst behaved people were the staff. I never saw any violence apart from this weird fixation with "pro wrestling" which is all pretend anyway, and considering the age range I'm surprised it's popular there, everyone is older than eight. Seeing Dave Mustaine have to read out some bullstuff about giving some wrestler a "Lemmy award" for embodying the spirit of rock and roll was bollocks, and Dave couldn't have read it out more disinterested and sarcastically.

I think part of the attraction is the "experience". I'm glad I did it but on the sleepless Saturday night I did think seriously about packing up and just walking at 4am to get home. When I took a day ticket last year the weather was glorious. The shitty weather and the mud does really strain though, but there's no way you can know what the weather is like when the tickets come out.

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13 -I think- runs at Dynamo Open Air starting when I was 14. The bands, the fans, rain & shine, sex drugs and rock ' roll, the comradery, pranks and shenanigans with complete strangers, leaky tent and a foot deep stinky mud to sweltering heat and everyone with their top off.

If you don't like a party, stay at home.

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The whole camping business is awful and I've always hated that and am definitely too old for that now!  When it rains for three days solid and you can't get dry anywhere and you're always knee deep in mud is horrible.

The lure of seeing a load of your favourite bands all on in one weekend though is very strong.  So it's a good idea, just ruined by weather and people.

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The only really big one I've ever done is Womad (about 8 times now), and I think it's fab. I have without doubt heard some of the best music of my life there. OK, it's all jolly middle class etc, but it's very family friend and mostly tosser free. Toilets are pretty damn good, it's very well organised and the prices are fairly reasonable IMO. 

I imagine going to a rawk/indie type festival full of boozed up teens/twenty somethings would be an entirely different kettle of kippers however...

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Good God there's a load of miserable old sods on here. 

Thank goodness, I thought it was just me. 

No desire to go to a festival ever. It's my idea of hell.

I quite like the small, village type festivals but anything that's larger than a football field or village park I'm not interested, and even then I'd only do it in fair weather. 

 

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