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!

Looks like a classic Glastonbury shaped hole to me, as others have said they don't really do festivals but if they were ever to make an exception... Rammstein closing the pyramid Sunday night, you heard it here first.

Ha! Impossible to say if they'll make anymore worthwhile music in future, but they're excellent live performers. Did you watch either of em? Thought they were both fantastic, lil nas x especially. Wasn't on our radar at all until we caught some of his glasto set and thought he had to be worth checking out. What a show! Alex Turner could only dream of being that entertaining on stage 😜

Stone are there now, and it looks about right from what I remember - https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/stone/2023/espacio-mad-cool-villaverde-madrid-spain-3ba7d008.html Only other thing we saw from your list was Lizzo, I think the set list from NOS is pretty much the same (minus 'happy birthday') but I was quite a few drinks in by that point so couldn't exactly guarantee it - https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lizzo/2023/passeio-maritimo-de-alges-oeiras-portugal-3ba7d0e4.html

Real shame the organization issues seem to have marred it so much for quite a few people. I can understand it really not being ideal if you were feeling pretty knackered and/or had kids to worry about. As I've said, completely agree about the toilets - getting in and out of the gents was a nightmare that felt dangerous at times. But didn't have to wait at all once actually in there, and my partner said the ladies were fine. Should be an easy fix with a bit of rearranging. Have to admit location became more of an annoyance as the weekend went on, it's a big old walk in this weather! Felt particularly gruelling on Friday when we were at our lowest ebb energy wise (both 36 here so not exactly spring chickens anymore). Found getting home alright tho, absolutely loads of shuttle buses so didn't have to wait long. Don't get the bar complaints, we just avoided trying to get drinks at the busiest bars just before the biggest bands played and didn't have a problem. Never waited more than a few minutes. Loads of mobile beer sellers too. As I've said elsewhere, the bands themselves were all brilliant and the crowds had great energy. Particularly liked mahou avenue, excellent venues to showcase the smaller acts. No one we saw disappointed, if I was pushed for a top 5 I'd probably go the prodigy, thumper, lil nas x, the offspring & lizzo. But I'll probably say something different tomorrow - Robbie Williams, hotwax, stone, night club, queens of the stone age, years & years, MIA, and the red hot chili peppers all delivered.

Can understand the rhcp criticism, but some of those new songs are genuinely good (mainly black summer), and once they were playing the hits it was great. Definite lull in the middle tho. The prodigy were f**king amazing, definitely the most I've seen people throw themselves around this weekend. Perfect end to proceedings. Got to give a shout out to thumper, who blew the canvas roof off mahou avenue - 2 drum kits, 4 guitarists, so much noise and so so good. They even managed to persuade the crowd into a high spirited wall of death by claiming they were splitting the crowd in two so that everyone could "high five the person opposite you". Lovely stuff. Overall, absolutely loved it. We'll be back if the line up's good, plenty more to see in Madrid.

Yeah men's loos still a bit of a mess, but seemed to be less of a crush getting in and out. Or maybe I just timed my trips better. No queue even tho we seemed to arrive at a pretty peak time, but could've done without the lengthy diversion. The walk's long enough as it is in this heat! Otherwise had another great day - as others have said QOTSA were damn good (although I would've loved lost art of keeping a secret, or really anything off rated r). We also very much enjoyed working our way down 'mahou avenue' to watch hotwax, stone and night club. Really cool (literally, they have aircon) little stages that almost feel like you've stepped into a trendy club. And all 3 of them smashed it, although night club was sadly v sparsely attended (couldn't have been more than 50 people in there). They still delivered a synth pop masterclass tho, great contrast to anything else on the line up. We left early as weren't bothered about much after QOTSA so avoided any travel chaos there might have been. Plenty we want to see today, plus been doing loads of walking round Madrid as it turns out it's an amazing city, so needed to preserve our feet.

Nice, mostly sound like improvements! Hope the toilet barriers are doing the job.

Tbh I was too busy watching the great performances and dancing in the super energetic & joyful crowds to worry about the lack of "panoramic views". Yeah the surroundings aren't the most picturesque, but festivals are about the music & the people. Yesterday had both in spades. Didn't have any issues with bars either - there's loads of em everywhere so we just went to another if one had a big queue. Absolutely agree queue was a bit of a nightmare, hopefully that was due to it being the first day so loads of wristbands to be collected. Fingers crossed for an improvement today and tomorrow. And something to sort out the toilet entrances would be good, slightly dreading that.

Fair enough mate, if it's worked out badly for you then I can appreciate it's frustrating. To give a more positive perspective tho, we had a f**king wicked time. The queue to get in wasn't great, probably had to wait about 30-40 minutes with no shade. That was cos we didn't have wrist bands tho, one we had em just strolled right in. Saw the offspring, Raye, lizzo & lil nas x, all of whom absolutely smashed it. And the crowd were loving all of em, great atmosphere. Also saw Robbie Williams due to Rina Sawayama pulling out (the only real disappointment), I'm not a fan but he was v entertaining. Although spent 20 minutes moaning about take that and saying how he was too cool for em, you'd think he'd be over it by now. Can't speak to the metro situation but the shuttle buses were great. Less than half an hour to get us to Atocha where we're staying. Only complaint - the entrance and exit from the toilets are a f**king nightmare. Great once you're in there, but feels genuinely unsafe getting in and out when it's busy. Other than that, a damn good first day imho!

Haha, indeed! Given the site's still under construction I'm guessing we'll probably get it around an hour before gates open.