incident

To be fair, it stopped raining well before they played in 2011. It stopped at some point overnight on Friday into Saturday - both Sat and Sun were great, and it was even just about safe to switch back to trainers by the time the Saturday headliner rolled around.

"Fully bespoke" is very arguable. The customer/photo database definitely is bespoke. But the more complex parts of the system - the asset inventory, order processing etc hook into the regular See backend.

I'd assume that ultimately this will mean a complete technology change, with Eventim introducing their own technology. The See systems are quite antiquated in some ways, as they're pretty much a direct evolution from the systems they were using when Way Ahead first started selling online over 25 years ago. Even the GFL system is pretty much a rudimentary customer database nailed onto the regular See backend. GFL may have preferences on how the ticket process works, but ultimately that'll have to be within the parameter that the relevant ticket agency is willing to provide as doing anything fully bespoke comes with a cost.

Yep the only thing to be aware of is if the card needs approval or a confirmation code, but that can easily be solved with good communication.

Not easily. If you have your ticket, you can walk through the site and that'll be much easier. If they have your ticket, you need to get one of them to come to Gate A and meet you. Walking the perimeter is going to be actively discouraged and so very difficult.

I'm not sure how the maths would work on that, and even if they did it would be an odd way of looking at it. There's always been gaps in the lineage (including most of the 70s), so not sure why they'd arbitrarily disregard those 2 years.

I think I know enough about the gates that I could do it. The risk of a long miserable trek home on public transport, passing loads of happy people going in the opposite direction would ensure I never tried.

Yep. Despite the best efforts of the Mel's to manifest it, my best guess is that they've only succeeded in annoying the festival and making it less likely. Emily is usually very diplomatic when she's asked about acts - for her to outright dismiss one like that presumably means that we can take her statement as a flat "no". At least for the foreseeable.

Yep. That's definitely the recommended / official / easiest way to do it. Security / Stewards / Marshalls around the gates and on the roads will strongly object to anyone trying to drop and/or collect anywhere other than at B&W. That's not to say it's impossible, but it would involve both some careful coordination and being a bit of a d*ck.

Yes, Left Field was on the corner itself. But given that WG was only about 3 or 4 stalls down from the corner, for me that's not a distinction of any substance and it counts as essentially the same location.

Williams Green was a replacement for the Queens Head. Which in turn was previously known as The Crown, when it was in the Other Stage field. The spot across from the Meeting Point was previously occupied by the Left Field.

Or indeed - one of the most useful and yet overlooked features of Clashfinder (the Desktop version, anyway) is that it has the option to export to Google / Apple Calendars so you can easily use the functionality built into your phone.

I'm not convinced that Carhenge was a cheap option. At least, not in Year One. If it was just a straight chop and weld, that'd be one thing. But putting down foundations for it (as they seemingly have done) requires proper planning and a decent wedge of cash. I'd be very surprised if it came in any cheaper for 2023 than Williams Green would have. Where it potentially becomes cheaper is if they insist on persisting with it going forward.

As do Red and Blue Gates. Don't *think* each of the individual vehicle gates have their own (the ones I've worked on certainly didn't anyway), and instead are covered by the relevant Red/Blue Gate Manager.

This is obvious of course, but.. you *are* going to check it before the festival, right? And ideally give it a soaking. Decathlon allow you to buy replacements parts for the main components, but that's only useful if you know to do so in advance.

I'd argue one of the main changes that GFL need to make is that they need to learn to say "No" to Joe Rush.

Still can't believe you left that tap running.

That looks a LOT like one of the Ethiad model planes that used to live on the roundabout just outside Heathrow Terminal 4:

Disagree with this almost entirely. It was excellent last year - the only minor issues I noticed were just before Elton started, and that was with 150k+ all crammed into the Pyramid field so forgivable. But prior to that and especially in 2022 I felt that it got worse year on year - which could just be that they made the same provision, but usage increased. I came away from 2022 fully intending to make sure I was on EE the following year, and would have done so if Voda hadn't taken over the contract. One consideration would be that I didn't have a 5G capable phone in those years so that may make a difference.

You just sign in with your Virgin Media account, the option should be on the login page:

If it helps, you also get access to O2 Priority via Virgin Media Broadband so don't have to use their awful mobile network.

It'd be less of an issue if the same council (along with South Derbyshire who also have some jurisdiction) hadn't spent the last 50 years dragging their feet over a permanent replacement for the "temporary" bridge installed at Walton-On-Trent in the 1970s, which would be the other obvious access route for Catton Hall. They're now saying it'll open in 2025 but you won't find many people who believe that date.

Most likely yes - Oxfam will have a better idea of how many places they need to fill once the deadline has passed. Obviously that creates something of a vicious circle for you, but it's kinda the only way it can work.

Yeah, it's going to be a pain. But for me I'm 100% blaming the council for that. The fact that the bridge has been left to decay for years to the extent that it now has severe limits on it for safety reasons is disgraceful. It's not like it's even a surprise, this is something that's been getting worse and worse over the past several years. I'm wondering if it'll be worth driving a slightly longer route via Tamworth on the way home, and so avoiding the need to cross the river entirely. The problem is that the turning for Tamworth is pretty close to the bridge, so will still likely end up catching most of the same traffic anyway. Hopefully Bearded can negotiate with the council to make that stretch of road one-way-only for 4 hours or so on Wednesday morning, as that'd make a huge difference.