DeanoL

It is absolutely crazy to have an elevated disabled viewing platform that has no view of the stage!

I seem to remember the festival did a poll a few years back and it was roughly 50/50 for ban/keep, with keep coming out marginally ahead. Numbers will change now, buy I say this just to make the point that neither side is in a tiny minority on this. It's not just 10 angry people on forums that don't like them and it's not just the people who take them that *do* like them. Lots of people on both side. Point being, have the discussion but anyone claiming that one side is tiny compared to the other is straight up wrong.

Didn't Macca start a bit late? Like 10 mins maybe? I don't have an issue with him overrunning but equally should have been no need for him to go over as much as he did. If he wanted to play for longer they could have juggled stuff earlier in the day. (Contrast Elton who spent days rehearsing the show to bring it in bang on two hours).

Nah you can do it as an add-on with balance payment. So base price then a Wednesday arrival add-on. Maybe a Tuesday one too. I don't think we are at the point where they need to limit arrivals to X on Wednesday and Y on Thursday, just a significant price difference (£50+) will make people self select enough to help.

Yup - no one ever goes "I think I'll take a smaller tent next year, I had too much space". And as the price increases, fewer young people going (who are more likely to at least bring a small tent their first year) so average tent size gets bigger. Camping fields get busier every year despite no theoretical change in numbers. 2022 was the first time since it opened Rivermead ever felt busy - it still had space but the back used to be near empty. Weirdly the festival planned really well for this with opening up all the West camping fields in one go in 2014 and letting things grow organically, and the popular campsites and the quieter ones basically pick themselves. Then just as they start approaching capacity, in 2022, the first time they should have been thinking "we may need a bit more space at some point in the next couple of festivals" they just delete a whole bunch of public camping space instead.

Nah, the vast majority of people follow the rules if the festival clearly explain it's what they want. It's why we saw all those Chinese lanterns for a few years and then never again. Most people abide by the rules because they want to, many more would be to worried not to (but what if my bag gets searched and they find my flag!) - a few will continue to do so but if you cut the number of flags by 90% then honestly the job is done. The festival just don't have the will to do it, at least until the next renewal with the BBC.

This should be Backhouse that does that already? Did it this year? Honestly we've camped in Rivermead until this year and there's always been plenty of space there even on a Thursday. There and Pylon were always the "unofficial" late arrivals fields. Giving over that space to staff camping was not well thought through. And when the staff and hospitality campsites are in the middle of the festival, it's also clear that they didn't need all that space either. A radical solution would be to change hospitality and staff camping to entirely pre-erected sites, thus ensuring the precise amount of space needed is used and not any excess. Fit more staff on site that way, and have some offsite camping for staff available as an option if folks don't want to do that. (And for god's sake make sure the pre-erected staff camping has blackout linings). I suspect what we'll actually see is more of the campervan space eaten into and more campervans pushed to Bath and West, although I'm assuming there's room to expand there? Not see it myself. But it seems it's the only reasonable way the festival can get more space, in the face of rising numbers and bigger tents.

Just a quick heads up that I've returned home with what I thought was a stonking cold but turns out to be COVID. I'm fine, just flagging up for anyone concerned or with vulnerable/anti-vax friends/relatives!

So I think it was a panel on diversity in comedy in the end.

Indeed, however would we be able to find the people with flags to enforce it.

I think it's just the original act dropped out so they don't have a replacement to list yet. Don't think it's anyone special. That or its Acaster.

Nah, flags will get banned eventually, it's already a bone of contention with the BBC, eventually it'll come to ahead. (Or the beeb will just use AI to digitally remove them in real time and so folk will stop bringing them as that was the whole point)

Uncomfortably hot today but manageable. First time I saw them open the roof of the Astrolabe! Why anyone would want it hotter than this I really don't understand. I get why some like today's weather but really don't get the appeal of anything hotter.

But yeah today was loads quieter. Its little things like queue for Children's world cafe around 1pm. Last year was about 15 minutes, this Friday was 3.

Dom Joly being interviewed about his new book was rammed on Thursday. Everything will be. A talk by Liz Truss would be. There's just not enough to go around. Making Thursday a "full day" just shifts the problem to Wednesday. Making Thursday an evening might work though. Pyramid from 7 until midnight and use it push bands that aren't usually that level. Not anything that would *force* late thu/ early Fri people into arriving earlier. Yeah that probably means changing the license but they managed that to get Silver Hayes running until 3am so it's not impossible.

Camping spots tighter, I really don't think Cinarmaggedon freed up as much space as was lost from Rivermead and Pylon. And the trend for larger tents will ever continue (not blaming people, I'm part of it, but is what it is). But theatre fields felt a lot quieter today than Thursday last year. They were busier fri/sat last year than they were today and Thu is usually peak for them as they have stuff on.

Just Deserts - walking from cider bus toward and past bandstand, the run of stalls you come to, round to the ledt, had a lovely banofee pie!

They seem to have replaced Will Varley at Left Field on Sunday.

NHS postcode lottery. For huge swathes of the nation you wouldn't even be able to get a GP appointment in a couple of days to talk about the possibility of a letter.

Only true if they're statistically independent events, which they're not.

Won't help if it's just because "it isn’t sensible/feasible" to go. Need a doctor's note saying you're "unable" to go.

As long as everything goes smoothly earlier in the day you'll be able to waltz right in. But it's also probably on the edge of "if gate opening delayed or anything goes wrong" you may still catch the tail end of the queue. (Also at Gate A, you're always at the mercy of random coach arrival times - if ten coaches all turn up just before you get there you may have a bit of a queue)

It's missing most of the stages though

Having never been to a stadium gig before, is it usual to leave the house lights up the entire show? I know it started while it was light outside but when they took them down for the last song the atmosphere was improved so much.

They clearly wouldn't just wave everyone in, it'd be a massive breach of licensing conditions. It's already established that having a queue outside going back a huge way isn't a problem, for 10, 12 hours as they literally have that overnight on Tuesday. They'd just make people wait until it was sorted. And they run power there now I think for lights at least so you could cause significant disruption for evening arrivals already if you so wanted. (Plus one of the benefits of etickets is you don't get misdelivered tickets at all )