Well, for the first time in six and half years of running eFestivals, I decided to take some time off last week. I'd forgotten what doing nothing was like!
And now I'm back, refreshed and raring to go ... watch out world.
Geek alert - Fedora is a version of linux.
Why does anyone buy Windows? Having just downloaded and installed Fedora, it's bloody brilliant! It's got everything a 'normal' computer user might need included - including an excellent fully featured 'office' suite (word processor, spreadsheet, etc) - and it's dead easy to install!
The fun comes when you start to try and set it up anyway from a 'standard' install. So far I've managed to break apache (the webserver that comes with it) several tim
It's always a real pain when a computer dies, but thankfully my most recent computer deaths have been about as kind as they could possibly be.
Prior to this one today, I last had a computer die on boxing day last year. That was my own 'work' computer - the one I run eFestivals from - so it really couldn't have died at a better time. Nothing happens in the festival world between Xmas and new year, so that gave me the chance to get another built and configured before everyone started back at wo
... is very obviously at http://www.myspace.com/efestivals
And I hate it - it's the most user-unfriendly website I've ever had the misfortune to interact with.
Can anyone tell me how I can edit the URLs that display on the page? I want to link to the main efests site, and can't work out how too.
yep, it's true, there's now this thing called free money, here's how it works.
What you do is set up or have a business. Then when you have some work to do, don't be a fool ... don't go doing it yourself! Do what Rupert Murdoch has his staff doing at the publisher Harper Collins (which he owns).
They come up with a book idea, an idea they know zilch about. Rather than waste their own time doing their job and researching it all, they try to find a few suckers - today I've been their target.
Six months ago I got flashed by a speed camera in Bristol (where I live). Thru came a form giving me some options, I ticked the "i want to pay a £60 fixed penalty", and sent it back. Then nothing.
Today I got a summons. So not only have I not had the option to actually pay the fixed penalty (the first form didn't give the option to pay at that point), the frigging summons is for Taunton Court - how does that work then?
So I phone the camera unit and say "I never had the option to pay the
god, I needed that sleep.
What can I say? I don't think I've enjoyed a festival that much in ages.
But next time, they need to book Steel Pulse for a 3 hour set.
I've just had a chat with a reporter from Channel 4 news. They'll be running a piece (probably this Thursday, 7pm) about the explosion of live music and festivals, and they wanted my expert ( ) advice to help with their piece.
They said that eFestivals would be mentioned, and it would either be a quote from me (not my voice tho) or a screenshot of the website ... but I never quite believe these things till they happen. Anyhow, fingers crossed!
As some of you might be aware, eFestivals is committed to giving 1% of turnover (turnover, not profit) to charity, and our chosen charity is WaterAid. I've just given them another sizable donation (the second this year) as a result.
Thanks goes to every user of eFestivals - without your support of eFestivals, this just wouldn't be possible.
WaterAid is an international charity dedicated to helping people escape the stranglehold of poverty and disease caused by living without safe water a
Well, it seems as tho some people think that eFestivals are the people that hand out passes for festivals, and some people will go to extraordinary lengths to try and blag a freebie.
Yesterday I had someone telling me how they're a director of a couple of music biz related companies, and he suggests I check at Companies House. So for the fun of it I check, and it turns out one is dissolved and the other is dormant.
He also told me how he knew one of the directors of eFestivals, so I asked
Lee, the guitarist/manager of The Blockheads has posted a few comments in the Summer Sundae forum, saying just how much they all enjoyed playing there at the weekend. He also dropped me a mail, asking if eFestivals had managed to photo their second performance at Summer Sundae (nope), and I took the opportunity to say thanks...
A couple of years ago my son (then aged about seven) went to Plymouth Festival with his mum, and afterwards he phoned me all excited, to tell me that he'd somehow (I n
I've had an email from someone today who was emailing to say hello to the efestivals staff they met at the Big Chill. ... the only thing is, the people they met aren't efestivals staff.
In the past, I've even heard of someone who slept with a girl at a festival I wasn't at, and they were claiming to be me.
I guess imitation is a form of flattery.
The second lot of passes for V Fest have turned up today, for the efests reviewer and photographer that are attending.
Somehow, the press office seem to have lost the first line off the efestivals address on these passes (the set that turned up yesterday for the other site were fine), and they only contain the company name, town and postcode.
Luckily I seem to have a smart postie, who worked out where they should go - thanks Mr Postie.
God knows what would have happened if they'd have
well, things are starting to slow down at eFestivals now - there's finally time to breathe - as most of the announcements about festivals for this year have been made, so there's not so much in the way of news and updates each day.
But even with the extra resources that eFestivals now has there's still lots and lots to do, with the chance (finally!) to catch up on some of the things that have been put to the side - sometimes for several years - because there's just not been enough hours in th
Every now and then, I get emails from people that think eFestivals are the organisers of the festivals we list. In the last week I've had a few of these, and in each case it's people trying to blag free tickets. The most common theme is "I'm a mate of so-and-so, and he said to email you to sort out a freebie".
Oh yeah? If you're such a good mate of so-and-so, how come he isn't sorting you a freebie himself?
having been ill and missed Sparks at Guilfest, I made a late decision to go to the Big Chill. I hadn't been before, and Lynz_star was going for efests, so I attached myself to her little group (who made me feel very welcome - thanks peeps ) and checked it out.
It's a great festival - bigger than I expected, and more free of corporates & advertising than most fests. The majority of time is spent sat down (it's the big chill after all ), with regular trips to the bars for more cocktails (yu
I've today removed the 'member mugshots' feature that's been part of this website since 2002.
It was originally included as a way for members to put up their photo, but since this feature was added to the forums at some later point, the 'member mugshots' section had near enough become redundant ... and it hadn't worked for a while as well for uploading new photos, due to its integration with the forums membership and the fact that the forums had changed how it encrypted users passwords - I c
My first proper blog entry ... I'm going to use this blog to detail a little of things going on at eFestivals towers that aren't directly related to festivals. It might be of interest to you, or it might not.
To help people get started, there's some step-by-step instructions on how to set-up your own blog here:-
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=66794.
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Well, the install of the blog software all went smoothly ... the difficulty came with sussing out a few bits and pieces of the configuration, and I had to ask for a quick bit of support from the makers to get a few things sorted out.
They were on the ball with getting the bits fixed, but what t
I'm not one to get all mawkish about the death of someone I don't know. And if you try juggling knives then why be surprised if they cut you? She did what she did and the consequences are hers.
All the same - and I don't say this lightly - the world of music has lost a huge talent. In the 13 years I've been writing about festivals and the acts I've seen there, I can't think of any act who's talent has jumped out and grabbed me in such a strong way as Amy Winehouse.
I first saw Amy and hear
My own visits to camping festivals are over for another summer, and despite officially being the wettest summer on record I've not seen that much mud.
Last summer I went to eight camping festivals. In every case there was more rain than any sensible festival goer would want, much use of wellies (tho I did get away with properly-waterproof trainers once or twice), and it was often far colder than you'd expect even with a British summer (the official stats confirm last summer as colder than thi
