eFestivals
-
Posts
103,429 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
2
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Gallery
Store
Posts posted by eFestivals
-
-
Oh, and Bikini Beach Band are fab!
seconded.
-
I've just been told hat the first announcement, and early bird ticket sales, will happen this week.
It's no good asking me for details, cos I don't know.
-
To keep these forums running sweetly at the busiest times, posts in the various festival forums that are over a few years old are going to be archived.
This means that a number of posts are going to 'disappear' from these forums and the number of posts against a forum will decrease.
The archived posts will reappear at a later date (fairly soon) on a separate set of archive forums. These archive forums will allow these old posts to be viewed and read, but they won't be able to be added to - the archive forums will be read-only.
-
-
ps whoever said on the website 'it's ok, it's a chalk site and drains really well' needs to be held down, tickled with a feather and covered in mud
You're not wrong!
This year was their first wet one, and it's what they thought would be the case. It has to be said that the ground did hold up quite well for a while, but eventually those tramping feet did for it .... but even then, although there was mud everywhere, it was very shallow mud and I didn't feel the need to get out my wellies to replace my waterproof shoes (which where more than adequate). The state of the ground looked terrible but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it looked overall when compared to many other festie sites.
-
from what i heard at the festival there were 2 assults against women alot of drug dealing which resulted in overdose,s , threats of knife assult and a live gun incident in which at 8 am looking out of my tent there were armed police on site
i've just spoken to Flounder (who is currently on holiday) about these things (which are all new to me) and he's told me:-
1. one guy assaulted two women, and was immediately removed from site. He was, apparently, *very* off his head and it's a possibility that he was actually sectioned as a result (tho Flounder wasn't certain if this was the case). This was one of the two times that the Police were called onto site over the weekend.
2. there were no reports of any drug dealing to security or the organisers over the weekend (tho of course, like with any group of people anywhere, there might have been some going on).
3. there were no reported knife threats at the festival.
4. There was a report of a something which might have been a gun - this led to the proper implementation of procedures for this sort of threat, which did result in armed police turning up on site (the second time they were called onto site over the weekend). No gun was found.
The full story is this is as follows: a person who wasn't in a sober state was in their tent one morning (I think Flounder said Saturday), and a blunt object was pushed against the side of the tent which looked as tho it might have been a gun to the person inside the tent. This person reported what they'd seen to security, and security took the proper steps by calling the police to investigate. A sweep was made of the site and nothing was found, and it was concluded that what had been seen very probably wasn't a gun.
I felt it was best that these comments were properly addressed, so that what has been posted by 'partyhard' isn't taken as absolute fact when they're not.
-
Have the signature settings been re-set again? I'm actually trying to make mine shorter but keep getting the 'Your signature is too long' message
the sig restrictions have been put back in place (they weren't working for a while), but they're set as they always have been, with a limit of 7 or eight lines, and a maximum for an image of 10Kb, and a max size of 225x68 pixels.
-
Lol! MY post with this info got deleted - Mods obviously not that bothered about all the people that got ripped off!
no it didn't, it's here in another thread:-
-
Thats more like it!!
EIID 08 was a fantastic event and we cant thank you lot enough for making it so.
A massive thankyou to everyone involved this year, I think that we have overcome the mud and the rain (lets face it we were due a wet one) and proved that the sun doesn't always have to shine for the punters to smile and be happy!!
i've got to say that the efforts of the organisers - the ACTUAL organisers - was fantastic, and not the sort of thing I've seen at other fests. I saw Ffi & Lamma working hard putting down woodchips on Saturday, and not ordering others to do it for them; that's proper dedication.
It's a shame that it kept on raining cos in the end those woodchips didn't make much difference, but it would have taken a whole forest to soak up that mud.
-
OK perhaps you may provide some info? - are PRIVATE security firms allowed to use handcuffs? and Pepper spray?
and . . it is very rare one sees a police officer walking around in a stab vest - on a day to day basis- I think subtle is the word here. I know many a security firm and they belive that they are a service and make all attempts to reduce tensions by 'the subtle approach' a smile here and there - not by abusive and obnoxious actions.
I appreciate your point 'go about their job' but - - - what you are impying is that Endorset employed this firm to be rude and obnoxious to festival goers- flounder is this the case.!! Not being funny but at the G8 the security on one of the sites were most certainly not attired like ESP and they probably really had a case for extra padding.
One might presume that ESP were a little nervous and inexperinced and this was why they felt the need to act insuch a way. For the past two years security seemed to think Endoret very safe-
Are you saying Endorset is not safe any more?
I am sure the punters would like to know especially the ones with children.
Sorry clarity is necessary here- and I am just providing my observations!
my comment was only about stab protection vests, nothing else.
And while you say it's rare to see a copper wearing one, that's complpetely wrong. It was certainly the case in Devon & Cornwall Constabulary around 5 years back that these vests were compulsory for all uniformed officers (or at least that's what a copper told me when I asked why he was wearing it).
All I was commenting on "about their job" was that that they're as entitled to go about their job safely, the same as anyone else. A builder wears steel-toecapped boots for protection, and a security guy wearing a protection vest is no different; after all, they're the people whose job it is to face up to someone with a knife if there's someone with a knife - I'd certainly rather do that wearing a vest, and I'm sure you would too.
My own experience with security at EIID this year was only good, and that was the experience of many others too, as posts on these forums show. While you might have had a bad experience, that was no everyone's, or even typical I would think (if it was typical, I'm sure there'd be many more posts about it - complainants shout loudly, those who have no issue tend to be silent).
-
Another point that needs looking into is this.
Section 1 of the 1975 Guard Dogs Act states;
(3) A person shall not use or permit the use of a guard dog at any premises unless a notice containing a warning that a guard dog is present is clearly exhibited at each entrance to the premises.
I didn't see any warning signs at the entrance to the Festival or in any of the Licensed premises inside the site.
what is the definition of a guard dog within that context? I'd have thought it was a dog roaming free and not on a leash - the dogs at EIID were always on leads as far as anyone has said. (they were when I saw them).
-
Plus, how will a dog (specifically) be any more of a counter to a gun or a knife at a festival, than just some tough Security teams without dogs?
if you don't know, then really, what business do you have commenting in this thread???
Were there any knives being widely used at Endorse It in 2007, where Security didn't have dogs? Of course not. Get off the crime hysteria of the Mail chat forums and hit the real world.would knives have been used this year if they didn't have dogs? You don't know and nor do I.
I'm sure that you expect to be safe when going about your job. Will you grant that same right to other people?
I'm not saying that security should have dogs, just that I can see how they're likely to feel a damned sight safer if they do.
-
I have acted as an advocate many times for individuals and groups of employees and attempts to destroy the credibility of witnesses and organisations distancing themselves from the proceedings is standard.
I expect that from Government bodies and large corporate organisations but to see it in action from Festival organisers and a Festival website is a bit of an eye-opener.
Oh c'mon - *you* the one doing what you are accusing EIID and me of doing. If you're used to acting as an advocate in situations then you should know to not over-state your case, to use emotion instead of facts, etc, etc. You destroyed your own credibility in my eyes by doing this - I've simply repeated back your words and pointed out what I consider to be these things.
I'll point out that I'm posting here off my own back, nothing to do with EIID. The only contact I've had with them since the fest was a phone call on Monday night when they asked me if I'd seen or heard of this incident (which I hadn't until then).
There are serious discrepancies between the Security incident report and what we saw happen.There are discrepancies, yes. But please be aware that it's just as possible that some of these discrepancies are caused just as much by what you didn't see happen as by any dishonesty over this by security.
You've stated that security didn't try to clear the tent before this incident, but it's simply not possible for you to be 100% certain that that was the case - you cannot know what you didn't see. Me saying that is nothing other than saying that - it's not an accusation of you lying, it's just simply a fact, and one that needs to be considered along with anything else. There's at least one post in this thread which states that security *did* try to clear the bar prior to this incident - one version must be wrong, but which? You have to accept you might be wrong with your version, even if you believe what you say was the case.
I appreciate the fact that it takes time to investigate something like this but the fact that this issue has had the most views of any topic on the front page of this forum, in about 24 hours, should be taken as a sign of peoples concern about the matters raised.no, all that says is that people love to read a row.
If this topic has been viewed so much yet there's not so many people posting in it, then it can similarly be considered that people have nothing to say on this issue - that they don't think that security was over-the-top enough for them to comment on.
Dogs and handcuffs in the hands of private security firms at Festivals is an issue that will not go away and is relevant to any Festival goer, I never thought I would see it at Endorse it, if it can happen there it can happen anywhere.there's many more important issues related to security at festivals than just these two things. I'm not condoning these things - personally I believe that security at ALL festivals (outside of keeping out fence jumpers) is far too strong compared to what's actually needed, but it's not my own view that holds sway. It's the licencing authorities views that count, and each authority has their own independent idea of what's needed (there's no national guidelines). I'm realistic enough to know that the alternative to private security is the police, but the result on festival go-ers would be a far greater cost for their ticket and often a less-free atmosphere - the police are no less capable of being little hitlers than private security, and no more truthful in the event of an incident.
And for private security to be prepared to take on the job they've got to feel capable of taking on that job and be safe while doing so. Would you take on that job knowing the sorts of arseholes that attend festivals (all festivals)*? I certainly wouldn't, but if I did, from my personal point of view I'd want a very big stick. So while I'm horrified as a punter that security might have these things because I know they'd never have need of them when dealing with me, I can think of plenty of situations where those things make security safer in doing their job on a festival site - and their job on a festival site is to police it; they need the necessary tools to be able to do that safely. I'd be surprised if the police/licencing authorities didn't feel security had need of those tools in certain circumstances - after all, short of fifteen people sitting on a trouble-maker (and so those people are not available to deal with another issue), how exactly do security restrain someone until the police arrive on site if they need to do that and the police aren't present at that moment?? Private security are on festival sites in place of the police and with the police wanting private security doing that job and not them; they are, if you like, the police for the duration of a festival. The badging of security staff has improved things in this area, but it's still taking a while to shake out those not suitable for this role.
(*I'm not saying everyone is an arsehole, just that there's always a proportion of arseholes)
Since when have democratic polls been Spam ?when they're posted in every forum when they are not relevant to those forums. These forums have always been run in this manner, and while I might be wrong it's my belief that this manner is a part of their popularity; each forum stays relevant to it's purpose, and people appreciate that.
-
There is a huge issue to be addressed here in regard to the use of dogs and handcuffs by private security firms at Festivals.
I think a poll amongst the ticket buying public is more than relevant in the circumstances.
My polls were deleted, denying thousands of people their say on the matter.
It's not just me that's being gagged.
you are not being gagged.
You are trying to raise an issue in places where, in eFestivals opinion, it has no relevance. Are dogs used at Summer Sundae? No. So it's not an issue for the Summer Sundae forum.
If you think it's so important to raise with people reading the Summer Sundae forum then you're perfectly welcome to do it and you're perfectly free to do it. You are just not free or welcome to do it on these forums, because the eFestivals editorial decision is that it's nothing to do with that festival. Live with it.
If there's an issue about this that needs raising to every festival-goer, then posting it in every forum will not achieve that. If and when you know that it's an issue that needs raising with every festie goer, get in touch with me and it'll be raised - but not as your inconsidered rant, but in a way that might actually have the desired effect.
-
I have been around enough to know the difference between a deterrent dog ( trained only to bark and never to bite ) and an out of control personal protection dog.
yeah, and I can tell which men are bad just by looking at them.
Flounder has stated that, and I quote, " the dogs were not authorised by EiiD to be used on the site for clearance ."So they over-stepped the mark and operated outside the conditions set by the organisers.
Questioning my credibility in light of an admission that dogs were used in a completely inappropriate situation without the permission of the Organisers is well out of order.
over-stepping the mark set by the organisers proves nothing as to whether they over-stepped the mark far further as you have said.
You credibility has only been questioned in relation to the emotive language you've chosen to use, which says nothing about what actually happened and only says something about how you want to portray what happened.
Like I said, you where lucky.not me. eFestivals has nothing whatsoever to do with the running of EIID; we simply give them some money for them to spend as they see fit in order that the festival is a little better than it might otherwise be. We ask for nothing in return.
eFestivals, and me personally, is as concerned as anyone else about this incident. However, dogs are sometimes used at festival sites (just cos you haven't seen them doesn't mean they're not there), and incidents like this and far worse than this happen at festivals up and down the land every weekend - did you know, for example, that two people were seriously injured at a festival in Scotland at the weekend? Far more important. Yes, it was a gas explosion, so perhaps caused by their own negligence, but that would be a far more worthy and relevant topic to raise across all forums in the manner you so love.
I'm not trying to lessen this incident, but shouting at anyone that'll listen doesn't do anything particularly positive to address what might have happened here, and the wider and much greater issues related to security at festivals, issues that EIID seems to be mostly free of, affect far more people and are far more in need of addressing than what appears to be an isolated incident which was at least in part brought about by circumstances at the time (and where those circumstances might include a contribution by the people in the bar that failed to hear &/or follow an instruction to leave).
-
Well, Elfskin has been silenced and barred from posting on E Festival forums.
no, Elfskin has been put on moderation and *NOT* banned, for taking this issue into every other forum here, when this issue has not yet been addressed here and where it's nothing to do with those other festivals. Any issue that is spammed across forums in this manner is dealt with in this manner, so that these forums are good for their purpose and aren't hijacked for any other purpose .... normally it's spammers that have to be actioned in this way.
Keep it where it's relevant and you're not being silenced. Once the issue has been fully addressed here - flounder is still looking into things - if there's an issue which impacts on all other festivals as you appear to want it to, then you can speak to me about how it can best be raised on eFestivals (which is much more than just these forums - they're only a tiny bit of the readership) in a manner that's reasoned and not designed to scare.
-
Dogs, especially counterproductive if -- I stress if --- their handlers lose it, as MAY have happened this time at one point.
if the handlers had lost it then we wouldn't be having the conversations we're having.
They didn't lose it: no one was attacked in this incident, by either the security staff or the dogs.
That isn't saying what has been reported here was justifiable, if it happened exactly as stated by some. But then again it didn't happen exactly as stated by some, because they've used emotive language to over-state the incident as much as they possibly can.
** (ie except in REALLY extreme situations, and was last Sunday night really that? I only ask ... )while it's impossible for anyone who wasn't there to know whether it was an extreme situation or not, it's also - from what's been said by those complaining the loudest - impossible for them to really know what happened either.
Security say (as posted by flounder) they'd tried to clear the bar to no effect before this incident happened; some of those inside the bar say no attempt was made to clear the bar before this incident happened. One of these is obviously false. But which one??
I fully accept that security have a vested interest in their version; but the fact is the other side also have a vested interest in their version (tho I'll accept less of one).
But on top of that, is it really possible for anyone to authoritatively say that something they didn't see didn't happen? It's possible that security did try to clear the bar to no effect, and if they did try to clear the bar to no effect then it's very possible that some people in the bar didn't see them trying to clear the bar, because if they had done they'd have possibly left. Others had obviously left - why did these others leave? These are thing we will perhaps never know for sure.
-
Why were ESP security walking around in stab vests?
you want to feel safe at a festival with great security. Don't you think that the security are also allowed to feel safe while they go about their job?
Whatever other valid gripes you might have, this isn't to me a valid gripe of any sort. You might as well go about saying that all builders want to kick your head in just cos they're wearing steel toe-capped boots.
-
What the f**k have fireworks in the wheatfield got to do with out of control dogs and an assault in the beer tent.
there are a limited number of security personnel. If some are dealing with one incident then they're not available to deal with something else, meaning that others might get assigned to the second task.
C'mon - stop being blinded by your red mist and apply the same common sense you're saying was lacking at EIID over one seemingly isolated incident over a whole weekend.
-
The use of attack dogs at a family Festival where children are running around is just wrong in any circumstance. You were very lucky on Sunday night, people could have got seriously injured.
sorry, but "attack dogs", and "lucky"??? While I understand that you're pissed off at what happened, you're certainly stretching what you say to the limits of credibility. You say "attack" dogs when I would think you have no proper knowledge of their training or their handler's training, and surely "attack" dogs would be attacking, and if they're not "attacking" then it's surely not down to things being "lucky" but down to those dogs being properly restrained - you cannot have it both ways.
What happened in the bar sounds plain wrong if I take every word of what you say as things that actually happened. However, the security did not - from what you have said - set out to use violence against anyone, and the one act of theirs that you might consider violence you (maybe it was someone else?) are also able to acknowledge as being for the better protection (as compared to getting perhaps chomped by the dog she was moving towards) of the person involved. And the dogs were properly restrained and not set on anybody; dogs bark, that's what they do.
While you might want to see those things as over the top, things would have surely been very different if the security were out of control as you also state. If they were out of control then there'd have been punching and there'd have possibly been people getting bitten. Neither of these things happened, from what you have said.
You or someone has said that the woman who was pushed was moving to within an unsafe distance from possibly agitated dogs; does that person's responsibility for their own actions in doing this (surely a thing most kids know before they're five?) not come into this somewhere too?
I'm not trying to justify anything that shouldn't have happened, but similarly perhaps you should apply a little perspective and not over-state things.
-
i thought The Beat on Friday night were fantastic - i've seen them a few times before but this time they seemed to be enjoying playing for us just that little bit more than I'd experienced previously.
-
I just thought the issues raised -- even if isolated from the general run of how security were -- sounded worryingly different from previus 2 years,a nd tat barbie;s comments were tad arseholeish to say the least.
my own experience of security this year was that they were much better than two years ago. I wasn't bothered by them once, and every time I saw them around they were doing nothing I felt they shouldn't be.
And I guess what can be drawn from that is regardless of what anyone sees at any fest, another person's experience might well be vastly different. While the dogs incident sounds unpleasant, I'd guess that was an experience for a relatively small number of people and not typical for most attendees.
As for the campervan toilets thing, I've heard a number of different reasons why it happened and they can't all be true, so I won't try to presume which might be the correct one. I'd guess that at the end of the day it was a huge cock-up by someone somewhere who didn't join up all the necessary dots, cos I'm sure it wasn't done as any cost saving (there were more than enough loos around elsewhere on site, so it doesn't seem like skimping). Other festivals might not listen or try to do better next time, but I'm sure EIID will do.
-
the eFestivals pics should be online sometime tomorrow.
-
Flounder....you seem to be ducking a lot of the issues here, concentrating on the admittedly serious and worrying allegations.....however the FACT that the organisers deemed it suitable to allow ANY security dogs on site at a festival that has hitherto had no problems, let alone to let the security personnel wander about with handcuffs, (which they may not use legally) has to be addressed..the 'Campervan Chaos' thread REQUIRES a reply...it was a total f•cking shambles.
This is the first festival I have ever taken my wife along to where I was worried about her wandering about without me.
As for the 'incident book' - who writes it?...will there be any statements from punters present?
Where were the real police? - don't believe I saw one all weekend....
Please give Flounder a break here - while the likes of you and me have returned to our normal lives, people such as him still have lots of work to do in dismantling the festival. I'm sure he'll give more time to these issues here when he has that time and when he feels he has all the available facts to hand so that he's not having to guess at bits he might not otherwise have to guess at.
While I understand that people feel there were some issues - and I'm not trying to lessen those - please do try to keep things in some sort of perspective. The dogs with security were on site all weekend yet there appears to have been only this one issue.
Outside of that, and ignoring the fact that security people can very often be grumpy arseholes whichever firm they're from and whichever festival they're at (and this is no different from all of us when at work sometimes), were they really so bad?? The only time I saw them getting involved with anything all weekend was in helping deal with people in need of medical help, and where they acted certainly no worse than I would have expected and actually a lot better than might have been expected when considering that they were sometimes dealing with people that might not have been acting in any predictable manner. They certainly didn't make any of my friends both male and female worried about what they might do.
Any news on 2009 artists yet
in Wychwood Music Festival
Posted
i do know a little bit more now, in that they'll be at least two bands announced (possibly more, I guess it depends if they get firmed up this week).
The two that I know will be announced are not huge names, but they're very much the sorts of bands you'd expect to see at Wychwood, and both have a great reputation with those that know of them.
I'm not sure exactly when the announcement will be - "later this week" is all I know on the timing. But you'll be able to read about it first exclusively on eFestivals.