LowerMead

OP, I note your key requirement is something that will fold up and go on the coach. I have used one of these for Glastonbury several times, going on the coach. https://amzn.eu/d/emczKLu It is rated at 80kg, but I try not to load it that much. It's absolutely fine on the metalled roadways and does the job when space is at a premium but I wouldn't fancy using it in the mud. I've used all sorts of trolleys over the years but my favourite for ease of use is the good old traditional sack truck with solid rubber wheels, something like this: https://www.sacktrucks.co.uk/folding-toe-high-back-p-handle-truck-200kg-capacity-with-puncture-proof-wheels/ Granted that is probably too big for your requirement but well up to the job.

I'm a bit 'meh' about the line-up announced so far and undecided as to whether to pay my balance. The main issue for me is the additional days the festival takes compared to others/time off work/childcare costs etc - all of which is expensive but cost justifiable when it is a great line-up. I just wish they'd release the Leftfield/Acoustic/Avalon line-ups before we have to decide to stick or twist on the balance payment so I could make an objective decision. People say "it's not just about the music" but to me it is, primarily.

On the bars/wifi issue, I've not got a particular dog in the fight on cash vs cashless society, but it just seems terribly bad business sense to turn away cash when the IT goes down. Tills don't work? Go into contingency mode: every pint is a fiver, every half £2.50. The correct money appreciated. They must have lost thousands at that bar at the Woods stage on Saturday afternoon.

Wut? Not sure if trolling! Seriously? You haven't scored any EOTR house points until some other middle-aged bloke compliments you on your obscure 90s indie t-shirt, after which you engage in a bit of chat and maybe exchange contact details to engage in nerdery over said band. 'Twas ever thus: "Kitchens of Distinction? Great band. Did you see them at Spunkbridge Poly in November '91? Absolutely amazing, sonic cathedral. Is that t-shirt original or a reissue?"

The Good Scott Lavene (amazing - and I met him for a chat wandering around too, lovely chap) The Last Dinner Party, Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Friendship, Royel Otis, Say She She, Daniel Norgren, Angel Olsen, CVC, Wet Leg, Future Islands and Caitlin Rose were my musical highlights. We take our 8yo son, and whilst he likes EOTR, a bit of alt country sometimes isn't his thing, so I had to miss a few sets to keep him entertained, but saw enough to keep me happy considering that a week prior we were thinking of ditching our tickets for the first time since 2008. Glad we stuck with it. The weather was great after an iffy start, always helps. The people. We go with a massive group of mates from all over the UK, so it's good to see each other in one place once a year. Just hanging out at Larmer Tree is a really nice thing to do. Likewise most attendees seem pretty nice, chilled out people, there remains a very low dickhead quotient, long may that continue. The campervan field. Really well organised compared to other festivals. (we don't bother with showers, but I know there were some queues/water supply issues). The food and beer offerings. We're spoilt compared to the fare offered up at the more corporate festivals. The volunteers and staff. They're all great in my view. Love having a chat with people as we wander around. The Bad The Mary Wallopers. Only stayed for two songs, they just came across as a terrible Oirish tribute act who said f**k a lot. My wife is Irish and is a bit tired of that kind of Sweary Mary stereotype, it just seemed a bit try-hard to sound edgy. They don't. Bunch of eejits. We had great hopes for Caroline but their set was self-indulgent to say the least, they started with a near full Garden and ended with about 1/3 of the people. The Ugly I've got to join in with a lot of other people - the lack of urinals, see separate toilet thread. We had a look behind the workings of the composting toilets, each composting container (effectively a glorified wheelie bin) had a drain hose running out of it to collect urine, so it's not as if they are gaining much by NOT having urinals - that liquid still has to be tankered off somewhere, but better it be via a urinal than having blokes piss all over the seat that someone has then got to use after them. We all mourn how great Andy Loos were and know they are not coming back, but these composters just seemed a cheap, poorly designed ineffective replacement masquerading as a green alternative. Nobody is fooled by that. I really hope that EOTR listen to the critical feedback.

At festivals in the 90s you didn't drop the best part of 700 quid on tickets (two adults, a kid and a campervan). Simon needs to realise that he's charging people a fair old bunce so should provide some decent services, like EOTR used to do very well. You may not have encountered any issues but you're probably a healthy adult male, not a woman (with period or fashion challenges - they were hardly outfit friendly, unless you like your clothes covered in piss), a child or someone with mobility issues. As was mentioned further up the thread, the staff and performer bogs were not composters - ask yourself why? For clarity I have no problem with composting loos per se, or looking at the contents, it's just that the design of the stalls is abysmal from a usage perspective.

Funnily enough I heard 'All My Friends' being played as between-acts tunes at both The Woods and The Garden Stage this year. Not sure if they both just run from the same playlist or was it a subliminal message! Much as I'd love to see them there, I think Arcade Fire and The National are possibly too big for EOTR now, but never say never.

Agree with most of that but I don't think it's practical for them to provide a light. I just carry a small torch in my pocket, the cubicle gets a quick inspection with that on entry after dark, just in case any horrors should be present.

I've been to EOTR every year since 2008, and remember the days of Andy Loos winning festival awards for 'Best Toilets'. I also have ulcerative colitis so unfortunately need to go to the loo a lot, and also go to a lot of festivals. When you're in my position you get to see a lot of festival khazis, I could probably have it as my specialist subject on Mastermind! These were just grim. I've got no problems looking at the contents - it's bodily waste, everyone takes a dump. It's the design of the cubicle, and how it contributes to not everything that should be landing in the wheelie bin below actually landing there. Add in the high, slippy steps, nowhere to hang your stuff and, because of the massive lack of urinals, blokes to have a stand-up wee in them when they just need a urinal. With the best will in the world some of us chaps miss our aim especially in the dark/when drunk - I always wipe up when I do, but many don't - so the cubicle innards just end up being covered in piss. Men then don't want to lift the seat, so they end up pissing on it even more. I saw someone on Facebook describe the metal steps as 'Urine Waterfalls' - quite true. Women then have to go and sit down in a piss infested cubicle, nowhere to put their bag, their clothes covered in piss, it's ridiculous. These were 100% designed by a bloke who has never seen a woman go to the bathroom. I know times are hard for everyone, costs are going up, but getting the toilets right is a fundamental thing about running a good festival. It's nothing to do with green credentials and everything to do with cost. Festival Republic might be corporate shysters who fleece you at every opportunity, the antithesis of EOTR, but at least they get the bogs right. I used one at Latitude this year which was probably cleaner than my one at home, on the Sunday. They had a dedicated team constantly cleaning them. Obviously that costs money, but I honestly thing the average EOTR-er would be happy to pay a little extra for nicer bogs. It's not as if they'd blown the budget on the line-up this year, is it?

Agree with all of this. Most of Latitude is really well organised, but my arrival experiences in my post above (which I think are down to a significant increase in numbers since we last came in 2017) are down to them pinching on budget wherever they can. Festival Republic screw costs down to the bone wherever they can - which is of course good business sense (otherwise it just gets passed on to punters in increased ticket prices) but you would hope they would get the basics right. As a family with a youngster we have long since ditched reliance on any festival campsite loos, a PortaPotti and a toilet tent are a gamechanger. Yes, you have to carry it and empty it, but it removes the distance/unavailability factor once you get there.

Good to know - is that for online bookings too?

Back for the first time since 2016, we just haven't fancied the line-up since but this year ticked a lot of boxes so were excited to make a return. Since then we've graduated from family tent campers with a baby to caravan campers with a kid at the end of Year 3. The main difference there is my wife now works in a school, and our son was at school, so we could not leave home until 3pm, with a 5hr drive. Arrival at a festival on a summer evening at 8pm, with a pre-booked, expensive ticket shouldn't be a problem, no? How wrong could you be? Complete carnage on arrival - family campervans was totally full, oversold IMHO. The staff who were doing their best to find us space were in effect completely helpless - only one of them had a radio and his battery had long gone flat. There were about 5 of them running around a huge field trying vainly to find some space, but not being able to communicate, whilst the queue grew longer and longer. People were being sent down blind alleys with no space to turn, having to then unhitch caravans in the mud to turn them round, complete chaos. Eventually they "found" us a space that was basically in a fire lane that was a main walkway into the site. We along with five other vans behind us refused to camp there, to an officious Customer Services woman who said "this is what festivals are like". No, they are not. We stood our ground and insisted that they site us on a proper pitch i.e. one that wasn't in a fire lane. It got a bit heated, I said I would complain to East Suffolk Council that they would be in breach of their licence on H&S grounds. Eventually, after a 45 min stand off they opened a gap in the fence and allowed us onto an access road, where our little convoy of refuseniks sat for the next 2hrs waiting for them to finally agree to open an overflow field. Eventually an apologetic campsite manager turned up in a pickup truck and led us to it. We were the first five vans in, but by next morning it was also completely rammed. We were eventually set up by 1am, having arrived on site at 8pm, effectively losing our Thursday night's entertainment, meeting up with friends etc etc. Whole idea of having a caravan at a festival (and paying a princely sum for it) is that you arrive, drop your legs down and are set up, none of that lugging of camping gear from the car. 5hrs to get to that from pulling into Henham is not really cricket. This is not my first festival rodeo - I've been to about 50 events, at least 10 as a caravan lugger. Elsewhere they are without exception always well managed, simply for the fact that any traffic problems that us shed-draggers create soon impact everyone else. Latitude failed us massively unfortunately, I doubt we will be back in that form. I can't understand why they don't push the event date back a week later so that it is inside school holidays, so families with kids in school (a massive part of their market) can get there easier. Musically it was great. Pulp, James, Paul Heaton and Far From Saints were my highlights. It was noticeably busier than 2016, but I thought overall that the site coped very well with it. I had a friend at Bluedot who stopped allowing day ticket people in on Sunday because of the amount of mud on site, by comparison. Toilets were all great, and I met some lovely staff, including one really kind Oxfam volunteer lady who accompanied me into the festival site at 1am without a wristband on arrival night just so we could get some water. She was a bit of a superstar dealing with loads of annoyed people. My only other minor whinge is that despite the massive Barclaycard sponsorship on social media, they gave bugger all advance notice of the 10% Barclaycard discount at the bar - I have one of their cards that I hardly ever use so left it at home! It only transpired on Sunday that some bar staff were giving the discount if you said you had one at home, but not all were doing this, so it was somewhat random in its application. I was also overcharged twice at the bar because some of the staff just wave a card terminal vaguely in your direction without showing the contactless amount - this happens everywhere these days, not just festivals - I've got to the point where I insist on seeing the amount. Refunds were apparently not possible, so I had to accept 'free' extra beer instead, which I didn't necessarily want at that point. So, musically this was an 8/10 for me, but I'm not convinced we will return again soon.

The War On Drugs, Pretenders, Sparks, Weyes Blood and Rick Astley with Blossoms were all acts I missed because I had a clash but, having watched them back on the iPlayer, wished I was there. Them's the breaks!

I agree in principle, but ultimately that is all extra cost to be passed on to the punter. Also due to the traffic issues/green agenda Glastonbury won't want to be seen to be promoting car usage, anything done to improve parking security could be construed as facilitating that. That said I'd be miffed if I'd paid £55 to park and this was allowed to happen, despite the small print of "no liability for any damage or loss" I know not everyone has the luxury of this, but next time I will be taking the family banger - every panel on it is dented and due to be scrapped the next time it throws a big bill - rather than our nice car. Also the cars I have seen stripped are Land Rover 110s - sadly there is a massive national problem in stealing parts from them as they are no longer in production but there are so many on the road, combined with the fact that they come apart like a large Meccano toy. I would never leave one parked unattended for a long period of time anywhere, sadly.

Much as I'm not particularly enthralled by the line up this year (I know, EoTR always throws up unknown gems), I'm pleased that KGLW are Sunday headliner, simply on the basis that I've got an 8yo kid and a wife who works in a school, both need to be there 0830hrs on the Monday, so we really need to leave early-ish on Sunday evening. Right after Caitlin Rose suits me absolutely fine.