benali

Just googled that. Didn't even know it was a thing. Funny to think that one year and 2 days ago they played a pub in Portsmouth to about 60 people.

I'd be happy if they cut capacity back to what it was in 2014 and had more room for rounders and cricket but I don't think Simon's bank manager would agree.

Every time we go to a gig we play the "first person to spot an Idles t-shirt wins" game. Doesn't normally last more than 2 minutes. I wonder if everyone wearing one acknowledges each other like bus drivers do when they drive past another bus?

The kids are the future of the festival. Our eldest was at the first EOTR on his first birthday and is now down the front in the mosh pit.

Forgot to mention Sufjan Stevens. Is 4 years a big enough gap?

Wasn't them, but there was a guy on crutches who had been run over by a taxi a couple of days before the festival and decided he'd rather be in pain there than at home. I hope he survived the weekend.

Four Tet was amazing at Green Man, I'd love him at EOTR. PJ Harvey - although I imagine they try to book her every year. Idles will no doubt be asked although by then they could probably have retired to their own desert island on the amount they have earned through t-shirt sales alone. I'd have Oh Sees on the Garden Stage every year if it was my festival. SFA would be amazing.

I still can't get over how good Low were. That's right up there with my favourite EOTR sets. Personally I think they got the mix of music spot on this year. Having been to a lot of the early festivals I sometimes got bored with the lack of alternatives to singer songwriters and Americana. It's not that I didn't like it, just that at times I wanted to hear someone use a distortion pedal or bash out some electronic beats. Looking at our term dates for next year I imagine a lot of schools will be on Inset days beforehand. In that case there might well be an even larger exodus on Sunday evening. The main problem will be for teachers who will have to work on the first 2 days of the festival and again on Monday when most schools will go back.

It was set up by someone here who messaged the link. Was unbelievably useful for secret sets although if you weren't in it the best way to find out was to either have a look outside the press area or just ask Big Jeff.

The Garden Stage was always amazing. Loads of room to sit and relax and watch some bands. It's just too busy now to do that, even early afternoon there's barely any space to be found. Still love it in the evening though, it was magical when Low played and part of that was because of the setting.

Wow. Hadn't heard that about Hard Skin. Sounds like a very weird reaction from the crowd. It's painfully obvious what they are doing, not sure how people didn't get it.

Pom Poko got shunted back because one of the Tipi acts pulled out and they moved someone else across from the Woods stage. I missed Crack Cloud and am still annoyed about it! Good to meet up again, see you down the Joiners soon.

How was it for everyone? We had an absolutely amazing time. Just a near perfect weekend full of incredible music. Highlights for me were the unbelievable Low, Parquet Courts, Squid, Viagra Boys, Kathryn Joseph, Fontaines DC, Shame, Pigsx7, Wand, Stella Donnelly, Black Midi, TVAM, Sweaty Palms and Kikagaku Moyo. Only had a few disappointments. Goat Girl seemed bored on the main stage, probably would have been better in the Tipi but I missed that. The main gripe is with the people chatting during quiet sets. We all came to see the gig not listen to some prick waffling on next to us. Luckily most times the crowd seemed to self police and people were told to shut up! Saw so much music but still missed a ridiculous amount. What I love about EOTR is that you can have a completely different music festival to someone else, watching completely different styles all weekend but both will come away loving it. Great to see so many bands just hanging out there, even ones not playing. Goes to show just how damn good it is.

Yeah, here's the link https://chat.whatsapp.com/BCbm05QlYSG8Kyn5qBzPd5 Looks like Shame are the Sunday evening Big Top surprise slot

Weather looking perfect. No wellies needed this year again.