Guilfest 2024

Time for a forum revival... 

line-ups looking pretty varied so far.

click here

For the eFestivals news coverage of GuilFest 2014:

click here

To buy tickets:

http://www.seeticket...?aff=efestivals

http://www.seetickets.com/event/guilfest-2014/stoke-park-guildford/772967?aff=efestivals

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/13/131004b.shtml

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/12/120404b.shtml

Make sure you don't miss Chic, they're normally fantastic.

And having seen Roxy Music a couple of years back, Ferry is likely to be exceedingly good too.

Being a regular festival & rally goer for the last 25 years, and having been to Guilfest on a number of occasions as a day visitor in the past, my family & I decided to make a weekend of it and stay for Guilfest 2011.

The facilities where great and the festival arena is amazing. There are far more festival shops & food outlets than at Camp Bestival! On the face of it, it appeared to be the ultimate family festival.

However, when evening came the horror began.

We had decided to camp in Family / Quiet Camping area. Unfortunately, this did not deter a number of youths from causing havoc in this area. On the Friday night, we had the contents of our cold box – food & drink, stolen and spread about our site. Our eggs were smashed over our tents. Our neighbour’s had their clothes stolen on the same night.

The following night, our flag & pole was stolen. Our friends had 2 chairs stolen and 2 or 3 other people that I spoke to had had flags & poles stolen. On top of this, a colleague of ours padlocked his tent – and on his return on Saturday evening, found that someone had slashed open his tent and covered all his belongings in spaghetti hoops & tomato sauce. When I complained about the theft & vandalism, I was told by your staff that I was lucky that I had not had anything of value stolen!

In 25 years of camping at festivals & bike rallies, I have never come across such blatant thievery & criminal damage. I understand that you cannot be held responsible for this, and a festival in a town centre does invite a certain element. However, in light of this, perhaps it might be an idea to have some kind of campsite security in future. At least an official presence would be useful. All there seemed to be where people by the fire exits, and a bloke asleep up the central lighting tower!

It’s a shame that the security & sniffer dogs put on at the main gate to stop people from bringing their own alcohol & drugs in to the arena were not utilised in the camping area. It did feel that we were very much left to our own devices and had no one to turn to when there was any trouble. The stewards where not at all interested in our problems.

I did accost two chaps of about 18/20 who were trying to steal a neighbour’s tent and saw them off. This was not before they threatened me in front of my children, and told us that they would be back in the night to do me. This ruined my 10 years old daughter’s birthday and she had to be taken home, as she understandably did not want to camp anymore.

You seem to have a great festival at Guilfest; however, I could never camp there again until some kind of security is put in place. I had to spend all Sunday night sitting outside our tents to protect from anything else being stolen or other violence. It really left a bad taste in our mouths after what could have been one of the best festivals we have been to.

Sadly, a festival where you fear for your safety of your possessions & your personal safety can not be classed as a family festival!

I have contacted the Guilfest team by email & letter - but never had any reply back from them.

It rained a fair amount last night (Thursday) in Surrey so considering getting a day ticket tomorrow to see Brookes Brothers & would like to know what footwear to use. Cheers.

who are Take Fat?

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/12/120523a.shtml

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/12/120516a.shtml

Basically, to explain the story, I was walking in with no bag or anything, and one of the security staff decided he was going to search me. I refused to consent, and asked to leave instead, placing my hands over my pockets to stop him continuing to try. Instead he just asked me what I had to hide, and tried reaching in my pockets. I responded with "This search is illegal, and I don't consent to it.". I was just asking for a police officer to be present when one (looked like a larger, more aggressive version of Heston Blumenthal. I think he was the security member supervising.) grabbed my arms and held them behind my back, while two other security members stuffed their hands into my pockets and started putting everything on the table. I tried to sit down, and the guy holding me wouldn't let me.

I hadn't raised my voice until he held my arms behind me, but after that I started shouting a little bit that this was illegal and I hadn't consented, to try and make sure people saw and remembered it. Another guy behind me also got searched and complained about it - I think he had problems with people touching his wallet.

I got shoved against a table, with my head touching it. I kept complaining (but still not physically resisting). Someone at one point asked how old I was, and what I'd done.

Eventually I got booted off, (with 5 security guards holding me... Seemed a bit over the top for someone who wasn't physically fighting back) and had to wait outside for 3 dull hours.

Again, if anyone saw any of this, it would really help out. I was the 17 (18 in September) year old, wearing the green hoodie, a black submariner style watch, and blue jeans.

Cheers.

P.S. Not saying anything about the security as a whole, they were generally really good, it's just the odd twat that thinks they're above the law (to quote him, "we're basically police officers")

Wanting to get a day ticket for the family but Olly and Jools aren't for me.