Reckoner

They should set up a stage for this, possibly in a tent and during the day they can book smaller indie bands who would otherwise not be able to fill the woodies stage. To avoid it getting too crowded at times they could avoid booking bands who had played the pyramid in previous years as “secret” acts on days when there weren’t many other options.

Woke up at 3am to watch Chvrches. Worth it. Foo’s great as always. Looking forward to catching up with the rest.

I’m lucky in that I always knew last year would be the last one for a while. I actually feel excited for all the people who are about to have 5 days of pure joy, including some very good friends.

It’s the loss of the late night acts like guilty pleasures, club de fromage, ultimate power etc for me. Amazing alternatives to dance music late at night that have given me some of my best memories. I really hope they have another space

Hearing first hand how to beat Tory’s and the Murdoch media at elections

Good luck everyone. Was pretty depressing not seeing my name on our groups spreadsheet but I’m content with my choice. until the lineup and until June next year.

The fact that she specifically name dropped Glasto and “almost” headlining it in that awards speech means there will always be hope. As with everything she does though, it will be on her schedule

Appreciate there are probably all sorts of sound and license restrictions but watching the crowd at west holts on Thursday afternoon go off to the Toto - Africa soundcheck only for it to then stop, sucking the life out of the crowd who then all started to wander off in search of something feels like a missed opportunity to use a large space to keep people entertained

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/the-british-mps-borrowing-the-albanese-playbook-in-bid-to-topple-tories-20220926-p5bl79.html Good article on what Uk labour are learning from the Australian victory

My point is that you can still maintain single member districts and have a voting system that stops people winning those seats with less than a majority without needing to change everything and adopting PR regardless of its form.

I really don’t understand why people want PR over a preferential/transferable vote system. Surely the goal here is to stop tories winning seats with 40% of the fptp vote because the left/Centre left vote splits.

I’m not convinced here in Oz. I think you might sever ties before we are ever ready to.

They are still there but still feel pretty content that I won’t be at 2023. We have just bought an overpriced Sydney house, so now financially it might be a huge stretch anyway. And yet, we have a friend who may be getting married in the UK summer, so maybe I should try just in case…..

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/glastonbury-festival-2022 2022 highlights up on SBS On Demand for those of us in Oz

I’ll always have a soft spot for Sky full of stars because the films clip is them walking up the street of Newtown in Sydney which is near where I use to live and I’d just moved overseas when it was released. Would have preferred their drummer to have not have murdered all those Starks at the Red Wedding though

I blame the deposit scheme. If I had to purchase and pay in October I’d be fine. The deposit scheme leaves the door open to try my luck and then decide further down the track.

Very similar although I got the Covid out of the way before I left. Consistently sick from daycare germs from the 10 month old as well and the weather in Sydney generally terrible. Was also feeling pretty comfortable that 2022 was my last one for a while, am still am, but can also feel the doubts starting to creep in as October approaches.

Was just waiting at the JP tent in between Holly Humberstone and Beabadoobee when she came on. I like to think I’m mostly on top of new music, but she’s been missed here in Australia, at least by me. Completely won me over. Such a good set full of charisma and good tunes and arguably the best connection between artist and crowd all weekend, and I say that as a member of the adult male overwhelmed by Pheobe Bridgers club.

The article has certainly been written in a way to maximise the catastrophe, but there is plenty of blame for the organizers. You can’t do much about the weather, it’s been raining for months. The northern rivers region is only a couple of hundred ml away from breaking the all time record for rain with half the year and the rainiest months still to go. I do think that the acceptance and attitude to muddy festivals in Oz plays a part for sure though. Cars getting bogged at entry was always a possibility, especially with police stopping people in mud to check the cars for drugs, but there didn’t seem to be much infrastructure to help alleviate it either such as metal tracking, roadbase being layed down etc. you also have a the car park/camping combined (like coachella I think) that had people driving over other plots to get to theirs churning the field up for those behind them. There certainly seems to have been a big issue in regards to organization, communication and the inexperience of staff after 3 years of no festival, similar scenarios to what we discussed after GFL this year. The buses and wait times were pretty inexcusable. People waiting 4plus hours just to get back to their campsite or accommodation in the surrounding towns. Camping was set up at both the festival site (north Byron parklands) and and secondary site at Byron events farm. NBP got the worst of the flooding and entry problems meaning they closed that site and directed everyone up the road to BEF. Buses, including a extra daily ticket price were set up to ferry people between the 2 sites. It’s arguable whether they had the right amount to deal with the initial capacity anyway but by moving more people into the BEF, they added numbers well in excess of what they could actually transport. Another problem is that they added 10k extra tickets this year, the largest ever and the site had just not had that many people through it adding then on top of the logistical issues weather brings and the staffing problems (numbers due to covid drop outs, general labour shortages and in experience) Finally, all of this is occurring at a festival that has been bought into by Livenation and has slowly seen its ethos whittled away by extra charges, VIP bars and areas, being forced to camp at a seperate area and then being made to pay for daily car parking for a 3 day festival and bus tickets to actually get you on site and a local police force that has taken an adversarial position to the festival in regards to liquor licensing and enforcement. All in all, it’s been a debacle started off by bad luck but compounded by bad organization.

Also a sub tropical climate. More rain actually falls in summer in Byron Bay.

Day 1 cancelled. Absolutely devastating for all the attendees, artists and organizers. 😢

getting some 2016 PTSD looking at the pictures coming from Splendour in the grass in Byron Bay this morning. Makes all the quibbling about 19 vs 25 and 1-3ml of rain seem a bit pointless in hindsight.

I actually meant a new exit to funnel people away from the park altogether but that’s probably me being selfish as I camp in South Park and would love an easy escape. they did manage to implement an in/out system at the bottom either side of the tree that helped, it was just missing Friday night and then attempted to be implemented when the crowd was packed.

Yeah, In answer the the question posed above, that one felt dangerous enough that we bailed out into the park entrance where there was space to wait it out.

The only bad one for me was the Park/Arcadia on Friday Night. I expect a slow shoulder to shoulder shuffle leaving a main stage, not being able to rock up 5 minutes before and get a good spot, queues at food and toilets were annoying etc but that was the one time where I actually felt like things could get out of control. People pushing 4 different ways with minimal chance of actually getting to the place you needed, no organization to help except a sign saying the park was closed when it was the only place with any space to spillover into. (Apart from the tents that got trampled) They definitely need an exit from the park to the right looking up the hill, even if just at night. Seem crazy to send everyone down the hill into the pinch point. It’s not really about crowd numbers but controlling the flow of people so you are all moving relatively in the same direction and not trying to all go separate ways.