Nathan Explosion

This is what they were saying about baggage back in 2022: Please do not bring an excessive amount of luggage on the coach. We would advise to bring one large bag/rucksack and one tent/sleeping bag per person, plus one piece of hand luggage. Trollies or Wheelbarrows are not welcomed. Remember there are lots of other passengers on the coach and we cannot be held responsible if your luggage will not fit on the coach.

Ah I see. Hopefully just moving rather than removing. Must admit it's always been an issue that when it gets busy the crowd basically blocks the entire walkway. It could probably be arranged more sensibly.

No Truth Stage (or rebranded equivalent) would be gutting! It's always got some gems, and in 2022 it provided Brass Against > Bob Vylan > Warmduscher > OMG! It's the church, all between 1am and 6am on Saturday night / Sunday morning. One of the most purely enjoyable runs I've ever seen at a festival full stop, and all after midnight. An experience pretty much unique to Glastonbury, would be a real shame to lose it. That said, I don't think Skindred on Avalon is enough evidence on its own to start panicking just yet. They played on Truth last year didn't they? So hopefully just mixing it up.

https://factoryinternational.org/whats-on/janelle-monae-aviva-studios/ Janelle Monae doing a 3 night residency at the new Factory International venue in Manchester, 2-4 July. She was initially scheduled to do this last year but ended up cancelling. Pre sale tomorrow, general sale the day after.

Do they do it for the money? Jack Black's a Hollywood mega star who makes literally millions per film, pretty sure he does it entirely because he loves performing. They'd be ace in a sunny late afternoon pyramid slot, although they're probably big/popular enough to go higher up.

Oh yeah agree with you the toilet situation was a bit of a disaster. Seemed to be more an organisational issue than a space one tho, down to their bizarre decision to have everyone shuffle through a single entrance/exit point. Once you got through that bottleneck (admittedly a nightmare) there were usually plenty of free loos. If they restructure (and they'd be fools not to) it should be fine. Have to say didn't really have any issues with the bars, although they were rammed once it got to headline time. No problems throughout the day, if a bar had a big queue the next one was never that far away. Sounds like a few more/better bar staff would sort it based on your description, so hopefully another easy fix.

The shuttle buses were plentiful and frequent, at least towards the end of the night. They stopped at Atocha station last year, with a few stops in the way (can't remember specifically as Atocha was our stop). Some people struggled to find them for some reason but they really weren't far from the metro stop. Just had to carry on straight rather than turning off the main road down to the metro. They put loads on, we never queued for more than 10-15 minutes even when the queue seemed massive. And I really wouldn't say the vibe was as bad as some here and on Facebook have made out. It was a pretty standard festival setup, not really any cool/interesting bits like Glastonbury or any number of boutique festivals, but pretty much exactly like something like Leeds / Download etc, except the grass was fake and the sun was guaranteed - a fair trade IMHO! If you like the acts you'll have a great time.

Not sure where the £350 ticket price is coming from? This is what I'm seeing: £267 - Weekend Arena Only £300 - Weekend & 3 Night GA Camping £322 - Weekend & 5 Night GA Camping £35 - Parking From here: https://www.theticketfactory.com/tickets/events/download-festival/ Still an argument to be made as to whether or not it's value for money, but it's not the case that it's basically as much as Glastonbury.

Seconded. They were so good at Gunnersbury Park earlier this year, massively surpassed my expectations. Would love to see em on the farm.

Seen The Prodigy with and without Keith, of course it's a real shame not to have his stage presence but they're still a great live proposition without. Maxim's just an excellent MC, and they do a good job paying tribute to Keith with a funky silhouette thing & recorded vocals when they play Firestarter. They'd make a great Other stage headliner.

Yeah I'd be very averse to anything that might result in ticketmaster taking over. Imagine surge priced glasto tickets...

I'm assuming no one will be able to do that until they reopen registrations on Monday. Edit: for the record I can't get to it, just get the email confirming my reg details.

Think people are using whether the reg check 'works' to mean 2 different things. Based on my experience, I can put my email address in and get an email that has my name, reg number & post code confirmed as registered. BUT if I click the link to properly view & edit the registration, then it just goes to the ticket sale page with the info about this whole debacle. Given they've said registrations won't open up again until Monday this all seems to be as it should be to me. However, if some people are saying they can actually edit their registration details at the moment, then colour me confused and a little concerned!

You'll get to pick whether you want a Wednesday or Thursday coach as part of the ticket buying process this evening, but exact time is luck of the draw. Can be anything from early hours of the morning to late afternoon / evening!

Absolutely agreed, saw them on the Manchester leg of this tour. Third time seeing em and they've smashed it every time. And yeah the Tatu cover was a fun surprise!