A bit of feedback/suggestions

[clareandguy]

Hi, brilliant time at EOTR 2010, best festival I've been to in years. Our second time there, having been at the muddy 2008 (and loved that despite the mud).

A few things that occurred to me though:

Ear Protectors: We thought we'd lost our daughter's ear defenders and went looking for a stall selling them, and couldn't find one. Did anyone see one? At Summer Sundae this year there were 2 stalls selling them. I think it'd be great if it became standard practice for festivals to have a hearing protection stall - for both adults and children - I recommend any adult who goes a lot to gigs to get a set of filtered earplugs such as ER20s, and wish I'd done so before the hearing in my right ear deteriorated.

Family Camping : Delighted with the amount of space allocated to those of use with little-ies, but the presence of only one sign designating Family area was confusing and lead to some unfortunate latecomers pitching slap bang in the middle of family camping, unbeknownest to themselves. I have to say that the lads that I went to around 3 in the morning on saturday to ask if they knew it was family camping were smashing and quietened down right away. Also the stewards did a great job of trying to spot people who had made that error, but one extra (possibly lit?) sign so as to show both the beginning and the end of the family camping area could have saved some parents disturbed sleep, and some non-parents an unwanted early awakening.

Stalls playing music: I don't know if it got sorted out, because we didn't go much to the tipi tent after a couple of instances of quiet bands being overshadowed by the sound of piped music coming from nearby stalls. Could they be asked to check the timetable of nearby stages, and turn their stereos off while the bands are playing?

Bar Staff: all lovely, but you really had to wait a long time to get a beer. I ended up drinking tins (love the fact that we're allowed to bring them in!) instead of paying for intereting beer I didn't know just because of being put off by the waiting time.

I was going to to a balancing act and say on the positive side... but really everything else was positive. I trust this festival so much we've bought our early bird tickets for next year, which may be the furthest in advance I've ever planned anything.

cheers all, so looking forward to next year.

Guy.

[5co77ie]

Ear Protectors: We thought we'd lost our daughter's ear defenders and went looking for a stall selling them, and couldn't find one. Did anyone see one? At Summer Sundae this year there were 2 stalls selling them. I think it'd be great if it became standard practice for festivals to have a hearing protection stall - for both adults and children - I recommend any adult who goes a lot to gigs to get a set of filtered earplugs such as ER20s, and wish I'd done so before the hearing in my right ear deteriorated.

[tiamaria]

Couldn't agree more about the ear defenders ... this year in the Big Top I saw only two children with ear defenders and it was loud enough to make me sit right at the back and then it was uncomfortable ... I saw one little girl being pulled to the front by a very determined mother who was crying and pointing at her ears and putting her fingers in them so was obviously in pain, but Mummy didn't care. she was going t0o the front! Shameful!

x

[andy55]

Festival gets better each year. Tipi tent much better, new Cider bus location really worked, better location for the Secret Disco (...so secret we never found it until Sunday night). Was it my imagination, or were there less food stalls this year?

Only issue I have is with the bars: By Sunday it was alright, but Friday/Saturday the queues were just too deep. I suspect it was caused by the guest Real Ales taking too long to pour...a nice idea to put them on, but maybe it would be better to have fewer and to then put them on handpulls? And I say this as a real ale drinker.

[wackojackohighcliffe]

One thing was the lack of encores - why are they not allowed? Low Anthem were cut short by a bad sound check and then were not allowed an encore even though there was a whole hour until Wilco, while Felice Brothers didn't even get to their alloted finish time. And Wintersleep weren't allowed an encore even though only surprise slots were to follow.

My only real qualm in all honesty. Everything else was pretty much perfect.

[ElGanzo]

One thing was the lack of encores - why are they not allowed? Low Anthem were cut short by a bad sound check and then were not allowed an encore even though there was a whole hour until Wilco, while Felice Brothers didn't even get to their alloted finish time. And Wintersleep weren't allowed an encore even though only surprise slots were to follow.

My only real qualm in all honesty. Everything else was pretty much perfect.

[eagles69]

The only qualms I hav and one isn't mine but my daughter's, can we hav the Ribs back please!!!And the other is if u r gonna book a top comedian might b worth putting him on a stage so people can c him as well as hear him. The festival was amazing so many highlights and I agree the Tipi was gr8 as was everything else

[ElGanzo]

The only qualms I hav and one isn't mine but my daughter's, can we hav the Ribs back please!!!And the other is if u r gonna book a top comedian might b worth putting him on a stage so people can c him as well as hear him. The festival was amazing so many highlights and I agree the Tipi was gr8 as was everything else

[wackojackohighcliffe]

And the other is if u r gonna book a top comedian might b worth putting him on a stage so people can c him as well as hear him.

[liarliar]

yes, this. or turn up his mic so we outside can hear.

[Better Late...]

Couldn't agree more about the ear defenders ... this year in the Big Top I saw only two children with ear defenders and it was loud enough to make me sit right at the back and then it was uncomfortable ... I saw one little girl being pulled to the front by a very determined mother who was crying and pointing at her ears and putting her fingers in them so was obviously in pain, but Mummy didn't care. she was going t0o the front! Shameful!

x

[Neville Street]

had a great time, tix already bagged for next year.

We loved the Big Top set up on Friday night, we could hear the New Pornographers from outside the bar then when everyone had got a drink, been to the loo, we went down the hill and joined in at the back. Saturday and Sunday it was all shut up and just doorways. I am guessing sound bleed but it was a shame as it also looked lovely in the Friday set up.

Bar queues were a shame. The three of us took home £100+ each that we would have happily handed over if we could only have got to the front. Fortunately for us a friend had overordered barrels of beer for a party so we had that by our van and we just went back and tapped off into two 4 pint jugs. The added bonus was that after midnight on Thursday our beer was clearer than any of the guest ales I did eventually try, and some of the EOTR beer. I did enjoy the beers, but I like to be able to see through my beer.

[seadragon]

Ear Defenders - they were selling them at the campsite shop, I remember seeing them. I also noticed several kids very close to the front speakers, particularly in the big Top[ who were clearly not happy at all. To my mind, if you're going to take your kids to a festival then you have to compromise. If you're not prepared to do that then don't take them.

Short sets - we commented on the short Iron & Wine set...why was that?!

Bars - didn't have a problem all weekend, never had to wait long anywhere and sampled a fair few of the ales on offer. Very funny encounter in the Tipi bar on St (I think?) when they seemed to have run out of everything except Chardonnay.

Otherwise nothing else springs to mind. Great weekend and infinitely better than any other festival I've ever been to.

[riverlodge]

my first time here and must say I thought it was truly wonderful, the attention to detail and the general ambience leaves others streets behind. brilliant.

that said, there are some tiny things that would make it even better for me.

- tried three times and couldn't get anywhere near comedy. it is great use of a funky tin pavilion, but didn't seem to give adequate access to enough people.

- showers. fortunately (or unfortunately) i habitually wake early which means i had no problem getting in, and i know its also quiet late afternoon / evening night but i do wonder if there are enough. especially when (controversial ) blokes have to suffer girls being in the same queue. what DO you ladies do in there for all that time?

- as mentioned above, the big top being closed in was a shame. didnt seem to be a major sound bleed problem to other stages on friday.

all pretty minor points. already have tix for next year

[mistral]

Did I miss something or am I the only person who thought it seemed more packed this year v. previous years. Felt like more than 5,000...not that I was counting. Agree with previous post that the scrum for the bars in Garden stage and near Big Top seemed deeper than before. And Sunday seemed busier than ever.

That said, I too have signed up for next year. Woo hoo.

[perfectpassion]

Couldn't agree more about the ear defenders ... this year in the Big Top I saw only two children with ear defenders and it was loud enough to make me sit right at the back and then it was uncomfortable ... I saw one little girl being pulled to the front by a very determined mother who was crying and pointing at her ears and putting her fingers in them so was obviously in pain, but Mummy didn't care. she was going t0o the front! Shameful!

x

Edited September 15, 2010 by perfectpassion

[beachbum]

I thought the campsite appeared much fuller than 2008 certainly, people were noisier between 3-6am and that there was less security.... What was the story with thieving from tents, wasnt sure how much of it was chinese whispers????

[MattL80]

I consumed many many many pints of ale from each of the bars and on almost every

occaision was served within a few mins. Maybe once or twice over the whole

weekend I had to wait up to 10 mins but certainly better than any other festival

or most gigs. I must admit some of the staff seemed a bit clueless, often saying

that an ale had sold out when another member of staff was clearly pouring it, but

on the whole I thought the whole bar situation was good. And lots of very nice

ales..

[speckles]

I thought Iron and Wine, played allotted time? He did encore (with a cover of Such Great Heights), maybe people missed that?

I had a problem with the sound from the cider bus on the Thursday, Darren Hayman actually commented on that as he could hear it from the stage, seemed as thought that was sorted out fairly quickly, but maybe the cider bus would have been better where it was the year before.

I'd agree with the fact it seemed busier, I've only been once before but I noticed it, and yeah it seemed a lot noisier around the 3am - 6am mark, could hear lots of screaming whilst attempting to sleep. Maybe security could have been better, a little more telling people to keep it down slightly wouldn't go amiss; that said it's got to be tough and, if their were more people, a little harder too. Maybe something that needs looking at?

There were some impressive improvements too mind, particularly with the size of the tipi; excellent work there. Gives me hope that any little niggles from this year will be sorted for the next one. Oh and can we have the Scandi kitchen back please? There was supposed to be a Viking Cafe but that never materalised.

[Donny Osmond]

Definitely a lot more people there than there have been in my previous 3 visits to EOTR. Had suspected as much based on the campsite seeming a lot fuller, and this suspicion was confirmed when I did a supermarket run on Saturday as the car park was pretty much full. In the past it's been about 2/3rds full tops - but this time it was packed right up to the top of the field. I'd guess about 8000 people there.

That said I thought the stages & the bar areas/food stalls coped pretty well as I got in to see pretty much everyone I wanted to (apart from a couple of times in the Tipi - but that was due to "dolts" sitting down rather than increased capacity) & don't remember queuing for more than a couple of minutes to get served anywhere.

I'd say there was a slightly different vibe to the festival this time & I would put that down to the increased numbers - not as universally friendly as previous EOTR's & certainly more knob heads around the place. However, it's still head & shoulders & a fair chunk of torso ahead of all other festivals imo & we've already bought tickets for next year.

[ilikeboureks]

I grew to kind of like the new location for the cider bus, even if it did make walking round the woods at night with a hot cider a bit harder! Only problem was that the sound often infringed on the tipi. Not always, but sometimes. For example, The Mountains And The Trees was perfect and quiet, whereas all the way through Ben Ottewell there was a loud, irritating beat ruining the atmosphere.

Also, The Local often ended up being swamped by the sound from other places. Olof Arnalds even made a few jokes about how hard it was to concentrate with so much else going on! Not really sure of a way round that though. Maybe a more enclosed tent?

It was a fantastic festival though. Can't wait until next year! Can we please have Band Of Horses, Beirut, Teenage Fanclub, Midlake, Seabear, Beach House and Sun Kil Moon? Please? Thank you.

[Better Late...]

...certainly more knob heads around the place. However, it's still head & shoulders & a fair chunk of torso ahead of all other festivals imo & we've already bought tickets for next year.

[nofunnyname]

The thieving was definately real!! People got into our friends tents whilst they were sleeping and stole money, phones etc. They only realised when they woke up because their tent was open. They only seemed to target the small tents in our area (mainly those pop up ones)- I guess because the people were more likely to have things by the door. They jumped the gate near the tower- some people camped next to it told us. Nasty start to the festival.

[perfectpassion]

:angry: Oh I am really sorry that happened to you, thats very upsetting. I don't think that there were security guards at that end this year, I remember in 2008 that they were posted down by the tower which was being refurbished at the time! I think you must be one of the guys from Leeds I met last year - Nofunnyname - ???? I hope it hasn't put you off EOTR sorry didnt see you at all this year

[Maoster]

There were also a few instances (and see the points people have made on noise defenders) of people being in a questionable condition to be responsible for a child... as someone else has said, if you are going to bring young children to such an essentially adult environment, YOU are the one who needs to adjust your expectations of what is feasible for the weekend, rather than expect the children to fit in with you.