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The Square Festival 2009

Guest lufcwls

By Guest lufcwls,
in other UK festivals

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lufcwls Newbie

lufcwls

Posted
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BRRAAAAND NEW WEBSITE! www.thesquarefestival.com

an extra day of bands, an additional stage and double the capacity of last years very successful first year. I cant wait!! anyone else going or returning?

check out the website for details, more bands will be announced soon! :P

was great to see the festival on the front page of Efestivals the other day too! Nice one Niell!

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lufcwls Newbie

lufcwls

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65 days of static, supergrass, fight like apes to name but a few of the still yet to be completed lineup of square 2009. so frikkin excited! sold my leeds ticket and with the shit euro this is going to be my only fest this summer but I know its gonna be even better than last year and will easy make up for it :)

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vampcherry Newbie

vampcherry

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FESTIVAL COMEDY!!

If you are up for a laugh at the festival there will be an excellent comedy show from Kumquat Comedy in the Backbeating Stage from 8:30pm on friday night with top comedians from the UK circuit!

Your compere for the evening is Anna Keirle http://www.annakeirle.com

with

Pat Gallagher http://www.comedycv.co.uk/patgallagher

Owen Niblock http://www.owenniblock.com

& your headliner

Terry Saunders http://www.terrysaunders.co.uk

Hope to see you there, please pass it on!

http://www.kumquatcomedy.com

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gjammer Newbie

gjammer

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The Square Festival 2009

Poorly run in comparison to other festivals. Friday was wasted as nothing started until 8pm approx. No one knew when anything was going on as there was no artist listing and many people missed the headliner (on Friday!)as a result. Hardly any stands which gave the impression of "a few tents in a field". There were not enough toilets so those in use quickly became blocked. Private sound systems were played intermittently until dawn and kids were so wasted/drunk they were shouting, pissing up others tents, throwing food at neighbours, falling into tents and puking on the floor. If you want to get wasted in a field this is for you but if you want a good festival experience stick to the likes of Beautiful Days.

Edited by gjammer
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MonkeyG0D Newbie

MonkeyG0D

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Probably one of the worst festivals I've ever been to, hugely disorganised, there were no showers as advertised, the toilet facilities were hugely inadequate, the whole gnome thing wasn't in place, the hammock island was deemed unsafe and fenced off, the bands didn't run on time, was full of pissed kids, security was shit, there was a 4 cans per person rule when coming into the campsite so you basically had to move your beer in for the weekend bit by bit from the car. I will most definitely not be going back to this piece of shit festival

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the sausage Newbie

the sausage

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I so agree with you guys. This was a big bag of shit. First bubble was burst by waiting 2 hours to get a wrist band...for 5000 capacity festival??? You dont get this at Beatherder. The 4 cans per person rule was ridiculous...this was 4 cans onto the campsite, not necc into the arena! This meant those who had struggled with a 12 pack by train would lose two-thirds of their beer before their festival started. With a seafront Spar a mere 6 mins away from the site, this stupid and unexpected rule only served to provide party supplies for security, not increase onsite alcohol sales as they probably hoped. I can understand the no glass on site rule, but there was no provision (ie. empty milk cartons for sale) for those who didnt know about this rule and so got further caught out and lost all their spirits/wine (and perfume/aftershave). The website is very pretty but a complete unorganised mess when It comes to clear information (ie. no glass etc) ....hang on..that sounds just like the festival, and brings me to my next point.....

Information. Ok, we paid our money, we turned up, we followed the rules. Unfortunately we forgot to pack our crystal ball (would have been confiscated anyway...), which would have come in very handy when trying to find out who and what was on where and when. Yes...a festival with no programme. Fri night was a case of lucky dip. Stewards, security, police, staff.....no-one knew what the fk was going on! Saturday we trudged past the security point to the wristband exchange (all of 50 yrds away) and found a piece of A4 sellotaped to the back of their hut with band times on. Wrote them down and then had to go through another bloody bag search etc on the way back in. Was this really neccesary at a festival of this size?

My next gripe: security. The rules changed all the time, by Sunday night they had us emptying our pockets on the table on the way back in.....from a walk on the beach at 1am! We're a couple in our 30s for fks sake! We were scared to bring in a half litre of Bells (in a plastic bottle) in case they tried to work out how many units it may represent! The website indicated that there had been complaints about heavy handed security last year and this year it would be all loved up....how wrong they were. It seemed that everytime we saw someone having fun in a way that drew attention to themselves, security stepped in and stopped it. The bloke on his stag do for example. At the mercy of his mates he started the day in a pink dress and covered in make-up. by teatime we saw him in front of the main stage in a Hannibal Lecter mask with a bin-liner skirt, strip of black tape across his nipples and his bare bum peeking out at the back..and horribly sunburnt too. Of course people were reacting to him, he looked pure comedy; even the professional photographers were getting him to pose. Offended by this, along came security with a pair of hawiian shorts and bullied him into putting them on! I was outraged! they should have been focusing on the gangs who were robbing tents like an SAS mission (see my other posts).

The festival site was far too big for what was in it. This gave the impression that it was half empty and somewhat killed the atmosphere at times. There were around 20 stalls in the whole festival, none selling anything you might actually need for a festival, though it was only minutes from the sea front. the food stalls were generally impersonal and overpriced. £3.50 for a pasty....c'mon! I saw none of the 'extra' things advertised on the website that give a festival a fun and 'get-involved' feeling.

On the sunday night we got talking to the Steward organiser. He told me that him and his team had been bullied by security who were trying to exercise authority over them. The worse thing i heard was that security had been 'tipped off' that Welfare were selling heroin! Thats one hell of a service! They were all arrested and searched by security, the Welfare tent turned over and their vehicles too. Nothing was found but 4 of the Welfare team were kicked off site because of their 'attitude'. Horrific.

Dont get me wrong, we still had a ball; found some ace new bands (Guile), my ribs ache from laughing....but thats not from the entertainment provided!! This festival felt like its trying to be V or Reading or T in the Park, its trying to run before it can walk, it needs to be looking towards festivals like Beatherder where customers are treated with respect, and youre dealing with the organisers who are accessible too.

Diatribe over....for now. Wont be going back there.

Edited by the sausage
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gjammer Newbie

gjammer

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I think what has happened this year is proper festival goers have been attracted via the festy websites and they demand...well...a proper festival! Four of us travelled 6 hours to get to this...just glad i didn't ask more of our festy group to come as I would have never heard the end of it. To be fair to the bands they shouldn't be lumped into the criticism and as the Sausage said the music was good (what I saw of it). I have been to many festivals and gigs and have been rained on, burnt, lost, forgotten my sleeping bag and warm clothes but this is the first one ever i have left early. Yep..we all decided to leave on Saturday afternoon and cut our losses!

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lufcwls Newbie

lufcwls

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everyone I know who went this year said they had one hell of a time and me included, so many great quotes from that weekend :) . I agree with the trying to run before it can walk statement tho, too many things came under the health and safety hammer and too many things didnt happen that were supposed to. maybe next year back to a 2 day festival like the previous year, get a bit more organised and experienced, and sort out the feckin security. itll get there, i am actually a bit surprised to see this much criticism here considering all the praise iv been hearing everywhere else, apart from the obvious security and disorganisation issues, but they obviously looked past that and got on with the party.

p.s. why didnt u just throw drink under the fence further down like everyone else did? :( I know you shouldnt have to!!!

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AberwennolSheepHead Newbie

AberwennolSheepHead

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All in all I think the festival was good. It was how i expected it to be. its a new festival and there will be some problems to start with. but in the end i believe it will come good.

There will obviously be people who had there issues and I certainly agree that some more efficient organising takes place. However, in support to the organisers I have been to alot larger festivals where the security is as bad if not worse and so is things like queueing unfortunately.

The issue with four cans does need to be sorted, however as one of the sheep i had my fair share.

i never got searched once, maybe the security were just scared of sheep!!!!!

the bands were class, there was no trouble, and everyone i spoke to seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Im from the area, and its fair to say that the locals like the festival, and in my opinion believe it can only get better.

I think the sausage needs to lighten up a little, enjoy the town, enjoy the beach and enjoy the festival.

Baaaaaaaaaa

Edited by AberwennolSheepHead
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