Jeel

It would be cheaper to hand out nappies!

They're a bit too one-note really without having that many hits. They'd also be better in the Big Top I reckon. Wouldn't work as well (and not really a fan) outdoors.

EOTR 2024 hot fashion will be cargo shorts and t-shirts. Anyone not wearing them is suspicious and probably a landlord.

I listened to that set from the opposite bank. It has a little angry.

because not everything is based on money? At least two of the BG trio have a special connection with the festival, for instance. but I get the point and it's very tricky to get headliners for a festival this size, especially if they're popular.

Suede are a decent shout for a cheaper but also popular headliner.

Precisely. There were never really queues for the bin toilets and if one was iffy then not difficult to find another one. Still the same complaints about the design/lack of cleaning of them. The steps themselves mean not everyone can use them. they can surely, at least, have a section with a ramp.

Deer Shed is I believe a similar vibe, but a bit more focused towards families.

Pulp have been going longer than both those bands! I get your point though, but if they need to cut back on spending I'd rather a band like those two than UMO or Future Islands. And I personally don't think it would be worse to watch than say The Pixies.

James or Ash would be decent Saturday night headliners. I realise they're not the kind of bands EOTR usually go for.

You must like the diversity and tolerance aspects of the festival? It's not Henley Regatta.

I don't see why Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds would be too big as a headliner. It's pushing it at the top end but they're not exactly money-driven. I just hope the headliners are smarter next year. You pay a premium for foreign bands so I'd rather it be someone with a good history than middle of the road bands. The likes of Pavement, Lucinda Williams, Pulp, PJ Harvey etc Ending the Sunday with a singer songwriter headlining isn't a bad idea (PJ Harvey) You can chuck someone like Wet Leg (not really my cup of tea but about that size/buzzy) as the Thursday headliner. I saw Young Fathers at GM and they'd be a great Friday headliner For the Saturday, someone like Nick Cave or Pulp. Pulp, I assume, might be significantly cheaper. There's always good stuff on the undercard, but the headliners put a lot of people off this year (I sold up and went to GM instead). Even if you're not fussed about the headliners, it's a point of value for money. They need to be acts that I can't go and see in Manchester most years for 30-40 quid. They need to be a bit different. I mean, if you're really clever you could offer Boy Genius the Saturday headline and give them individually the other ones.

Worth noting that at Green Man they had the same toilets but a male and a female urinals near each stage so there were largely no queues and the majority of people using them would be sitting on them so you mitigate against the urine problem. In the set-up EOTR had, the seats were an issue though as they don't always pull up so as a guy you're choosing between sitting down and trying to aim better. Often with dirty seats. I don't really want to try and force a seat up if it's covered in fluids. Not in the pitch black. They're so small as well. It's really hard for anyone a little bigger to get into them, then try and turn round with a bag or chair, and then repeat the process. An accident waiting to happen (in more than one way!)

Did they have the same toilets in boutique camping or did they have the usual ones there?

Oh, I'm not bothered about getting mud on me. I was more bothered about walking on it. I have full (ish) mobility, and it was dodgy in places. Unnecessarily so. Mostly fine though but the early afternoon cordoning off of the Green Man makes it much worse as everyone is forced to use the same paths.

Enjoyed GM again this year. Lots of good things that make it stand out against other festivals, but I think the accessibility considerations are outstanding. Impressed with the additions of viewing areas on all stages. The BSL dancers were really great, especially in the rain. The litter-pickers did a fantastic job. Lots of good stuff, but the sound was poorer than normal. Much of the festival is great, but there are always areas for improvements. Drink and food excessive for what it is in a lot of cases. There should be cheap meals for £10 and not just parts of meals (how you can charge than much for a basic burger or fries and some stuff on top is beyond me. I know it's a captive audience but for a festival interested in diversity they seem less interested in making it affordable for anyone not pretty well off. Ditto to the beer. Growler (and its cousins is not great to start with), but to charge £6-7 for a pint of poor local ale (with £2 for a reusable cup) is beyond me and strikes of profiteering. Although, the beer festival was decent as per usual, but again you're paying £6-6,50 for a pint costing a couple of quid less, and in a glass, in a pub a few miles away). £5-6 would have been fairer pricing and I'd but I'd love to see how much profit the festival makes here because the breweries aren't and the staff are volunteers. All this did was encourage people to bring their own. I've never seen so many cans being drunk at GM. I can empathise with people doing it though given the costs involved. However, a huge moan at people who just dump their cans and food on the floor. There are plenty of bins and it's simply unacceptable. The volunteers did a great job with the litter picking. The toilets. There are disabled toilets scattered around for accessibility users, which is good, but the cubicles being a, on stairs is not good for accessibility and b, rarely cleaned made for an aromatic experience. Plus, the cups for sawdust relied on people throwing in cups and toilet roll seemed to be a bit of Russian roulette. We all want Andy's back, let's be honest. Extending the female urinals is a good thing and there were noticeably far smaller queues to use cubicles. It would have helped to put signs on the men's urinals as well as the women's though. I've been several times so know where they'll be but newbies would I assume just follow men and hope for the best?!! The contingency for the rain was poor, imo. I was flabbergasted to arrive on site Saturday morning to see that the bare minimum seemed to have been done by chucking a bit of hay on it. Big areas (outside babbling tongues is a prime example) were left either untreated to just be mud or barely touched. I realise woodchip is bad for grass but it would have done a much better job. I'm not sure how the site would have coped if we'd had significant rain on Saturday or Sunday. Struck me as cost-cutting. The amount of parents bringing babies and toddlers seems to have shot up this year. There are always a lot of kids which bring their own challenges (how long until a child running/rolling/sliding/throwing seriously injures someone on the Mountain stage?) but having screaming babies is something else. Parents carrying them to wards the front and then loudly playing with them while people are trying to listen to the music. I question the experience children have watching music they can't hear because they're wearing ear defenders. It seems to me that their parents are much more concerned in enjoying themselves. It has to be said though that the feral children are remarkably well behaved, considering! GM need to re-think the cordoning off of the Green Man on the Sunday. It makes everything much less enjoyable and causes queues around the top of the site. This is not helped by the number of trolleys/prams on site. Like EOTR, they really need to be banned after dark/inside tents. It's annoying at times in daylight but becomes dangerous in the dark. And when the weather's bad tents are almost blocked off with them. Camping chairs (etc) aren't much better sometimes as well. These seem to get further forward every year, with people seemingly want to sit close to the stage and stay sat down. I also think the scheduling and choice of stages needs a little think next year. Less acts that really pulled crowds to the mountain stage and some acts (the last dinner party/Mandy, Indiana etc) inexplicably on the smallest stage. The shuttle bus to the park and ride gets worse and more unreliable every year. Quite a few people stay off site and locals come over the weekend, but you end up having to walk 2 miles instead of waiting for a bus because whether there will be one within an hour is just a game of risk. It's a 10-15 minute journey each way, especially on the weekend when most people are on-site, why are these not every 30 minutes and stick to some sort of regularity so you know when they'll depart? I get there's costs involved so charge something per journey (£1-2) if it makes them reliable. I was walking 15 km per day which is not something everyone can do. Great move to relocate the sessions to Round the Twist but there are only 3 songs so the people doing the sound need to understand that there shouldn't be a 30 minute soundcheck for standard instruments for a band to play 10 minutes. Madness. The sound was good, but there needs to be some common sense. Also, if you put times up on a board, stick roughly to them. It went to pot very quickly.

So, the biggest plank of the festival was a parent. On the Friday kids were sliding down (on their feet) the mountain stage in the rain (which I guess is the wet equivalent to rolling down). One dad trying to show off took a run at it, kept going, and then went headfirst into a (luckily) empty trolley. I actually had fewer issues with kids this year than normal, but that might have been the weather and the lack of acts I wanted to see on the main stage. As you say though, it's almost always the fault of the parent(s) either allowing/encouraging them to do things or simply abdicating responsibility and letting them do whatever. The kids themselves, other than being kids, are largely very well behaved.

Make them cheaper than any other listings on there if you want a quick sale.

Round the Twist is just DJs, isn't it? The ones in the record shop are announced in the morning every day.

Who has dropped out for the TBAs?

Could some kind soul, when they've fully settled in and having a beer, possibly post the beer festival 'menu' please?

what tier are your normal tickets? Just look at the prices on there and price at the low end. If you're a later tier you might have to lose money on them

Plenty of places in Crick (pubs and cafes), Dragon and Bear spring to mind.

Any recommendations for bands, especially from those who have seen them live, would be very welcome.

I doubt it. I don't think any of the pubs in Crick have been showing the football either.