The post-festival capacity thread

[Maoster]

Will be interesting to see how early bird ticket sales do this year versus last. When I got home last year I immediately booked for 2011 as was on an absolute post festival high. This year I am going to wait to see if capacity increases more and what bands are playing. If either is not positive will probably not go. I can't quite believe I'm saying that as have been with my family to every one so far and have been evangelical in the past about EOTR. Well that's just my view and I suppose they will sell out again so who cares? Real shame though, something special has been lost.

Edited September 6, 2011 by Maoster

[binaryRooster]

I have to say that the criticism coming for the Woods stage (ie it's a generic festival stage) doesn't seem to apply to the Big Top tent. That's exactly the same as countless festivals but no one seems to mind that.

[sadwitch]

I have to say that the criticism coming for the Woods stage (ie it's a generic festival stage) doesn't seem to apply to the Big Top tent. That's exactly the same as countless festivals but no one seems to mind that.

[Better Late...]

The path and the queue to check in (mid-afternoon Thursday) were not a good start, but both are easily solvable: smaller grade of stones next year please, and one or two more wristband points (these can easily be scaled down once the initial rush subsides).

Increase in numbers: not generally a problem in itself, in spite of my fears. However, the extra people did seem to include a disproportionate number of festy teens, doing the unwelcome run-around-showing-off-loudly-shouting-silly-words-and-graffitiing-the-loos thing. I wonder which acts particularly attracted this element ? I can see that the organisers will want to encourage younger people to put EOTR on their festival radar, looking to the future, but I kind of hoped for discriminating and music-loving teens, not just drunken gigglers.

Noise during acts - this is endemic and increasing everywhere, not just at EOTR (or festivals in general). Carrying on with your conversation (yelling at top of voice to be heard over the music when it gets louder), whooping, hollering and whistling during the performance rather than as part of the applause afterwards... at least at EOTR we don't (yet ?) have people yelling "F*** off you w***ers, we haven't paid to see you" during non-headline acts, as is sadly the experience of many support bands at gigs these days.

[Infinite Jest]

Will be interesting to see how early bird ticket sales do this year versus last.

[Yokel Again]

Well that's just my view and I suppose they will sell out again so who cares? Real shame though, something special has been lost.

[clareandguy]

View PostbinaryRooster, on 06 September 2011 - 12:57 PM, said:

I have to say that the criticism coming for the Woods stage (ie it's a generic festival stage) doesn't seem to apply to the Big Top tent. That's exactly the same as countless festivals but no one seems to mind that.

True. Story.

Edited September 6, 2011 by clareandguy

[MattL80]

I expect the disproportionate increase in drunken teens was largely due to the fact the festival was earlier this year, and therefore entirely within the school holidays. Rather than the general capacity increase.

just need to ban kids and it will be fine

[Joe_the_Great]

How can people complain about the Woods stage? It's not a replacement of the garden stage, it's an extra stage.

Did no one actually noticed how much better the sound system is on the Woods then the garden? And if you really don't like it that much, you still have The Fall, Okkervil River and John Grant at the Garden stage, effectively another full set of headlines!

The Woods stage has no magic/atmosphere? Where do you purpose it should be then? No it's not in a garden, but that's because it needs to hold more people.

But then you just can't please everyone

[binaryRooster]

I'm not saying anything about the concept of having a large tent - it's pretty essential! I'm just saying, you go to the Eotr tent and you could be at any festival - something that the Woods stage is getting criticism for.

I'd certainly go next year if the line up is good - i still don't think i'd put myself down for a festival where i didn't know who was playing yet.

[ElGanzo]

My third year and I enjoyed it more than the other two. I was actually astounded at the lack of chatter this year compared to last. Found last year much worse. Maybe I was just lucky where I stood all the time! Met so many amazing people this year. This is the first time I considered buying an early bird. But I haven't as I always buy a ticket based on the bands playing first and foremost so will wait and see.

[Surprize]

Just wanted to echo what a few people have said; not as good as previous years, bigger capacity to book bigger bands didn't work for me. Lost a lot of atmosphere and was no longer the fantastic festival it had been, just good now. Used to be I'd have lots of moments where I would think that they could only happen at EotR, that's what made it great. Saw some great acts this year, but could have been anywhere really - "EotR moments" were few and far between.

* I felt where the festival fell down was that a lot of the smaller attractions couldn't be scaled up (enchanted woods, piano), so have either been pretty ruined by crowds, or replaced. My main gripe wouldn't be with the Woods stage, as with the new capacity there isn't much they could do on the existing site. My gripe is that the Tipi is completely redundant, its just a weird shaped bar. What was The Local (or maybe still is I couldn't tell) behind the Tipi is pretty much the same apart from being bigger. Effectively we lost the Tipi stage and gained The Woods stage.

I would much prefer there to be more stages showing smaller bands if the capacity has to be bigger, rather than one massive one and 3 mid size ones.

* I felt the camping site was too "linear" - the increase in capacity has meant the furthest camping is further away, rather than spreading into a different field for example. So quiet camping was a good 10 minute walk from the green.

* Re: the change in crowd. This is a really subtle point, but in previous years I felt there was a majority of people who were looking to discover something they'd never heard of before, whereas this year there seemed to be a lot more people looking for "the next big thing", or "a headliner of the future". So there seemed to be more people who would go and see someone down the bill, takes lots of pictures during the first song or two and then start to have a chat with their mates.

Ultimately I think this year the festival just lost its way a little bit and maybe forgot what it was all about in the first place. I really hope it gets back on track next year, it used to be the only festival I went to, but for next year I'm going to keep an open mind and see what other ~5000 capacity festivals there are out there before deciding whether to buy a ticket. Its a real shame that the festival has tried to make itself retrospectively big enough for Fleet Foxes, rather than just hold their hands up and say that it was a blip of FF getting much bigger between booking and playing and crack-on with the old size.

[pushy tramp]

I agree with what most people have said on here already. This was my 4th time at the festival and possibly my last. The increased capacity was very noticeable and it has lost a lot of the magic which made me love it so much for the last 3 years. Do I think they will be able to do anything about it? No. They will never reduce the capacity, it will only ever go up - and I hope for those still planning on going every year, that they don't increase it any more. They'll probably still get my money though as No Direction Home sounds promising, I'm just sad that they had to change EOTR but I don't begrudge them the success they have.

[Dom Dom Dom]

Just to add a little 'young persons knowledge on their own generation'.

As its seems alot of people had a problem with the young folk and maybe dont know why they were there. Two words .Laura Marling.

Its become quiet 'cool' and 'trendy' now to listen to Indie and Folk and for everyone to dress like they are 1: in a band 2: from the 18th centruy.

This is largely due to the fact that Radio 1 raves on about 'cool' acts like laura marling, Because its the next big thing to sell. So bridging the gap to the young morons of my generation and getting them to turn up at festivals like End of the road. Only so they can post up on Facebook how cool they are to be at such an 'alternative' festival. (instead of where they should be, in a gutter on methadrone and K) no im Joking .

Bigger acts (Mainstream) attract bigger twats. simple.

[Sloblock]

It's interesting that most of the people for whom this year was their first at EotR say it is the best festival they have been to and most of the people that have been before say it's not as good. I suppose those of us that have been before will just have to realise that we have been somewhat spoilt and accept that it is still the best festival out there if you want want to go to one (holding off on the NDH festival for now until more info becomes availiable). Perhaps No Direction Home will be what the EotR used to be and the new sized EotR will go to pay for it... Did anyone else think there was a load of Spiders this year, when I opened my tent in the morning about 10 of them would abseil in, the wiley little critters! (I'm not blaming anyone for the Spiders by the way, just an observation). I must admit though, having not gone for the early bird ticket (I will wait for first band announcement before I do) I don't have that relaxed feeling that it is already booked for next year...

[zahidf]

I'm just puzzled by people saying it was too crowded. You could move wherever you want and see whatever you want. Ok, queues for food, but they can get more food stalls next year or toliet blocks.

The woods stage was fine soundwise and still nicer than most festival stages

[SweepingTheNation]

Just to add a little 'young persons knowledge on their own generation'.

As its seems alot of people had a problem with the young folk and maybe dont know why they were there. Two words .Laura Marling.

Its become quiet 'cool' and 'trendy' now to listen to Indie and Folk and for everyone to dress like they are 1: in a band 2: from the 18th centruy.

This is largely due to the fact that Radio 1 raves on about 'cool' acts like laura marling, Because its the next big thing to sell. So bridging the gap to the young morons of my generation and getting them to turn up at festivals like End of the road. Only so they can post up on Facebook how cool they are to be at such an 'alternative' festival. (instead of where they should be, in a gutter on methadrone and K) no im Joking .

Bigger acts (Mainstream) attract bigger twats. simple.

[GeordieMartin]

Ok. I'll try and keep this in sections otherwise it could get messy.

Increased Capacity - There is still no official numbers been given and i'm not going on 'i heard someone in the lock up tent say....' For me personally it didn't feel too bad although it's clearly bigger i'm not sure really by how much compared to last year. I seemed to queue more for food this year but nowhere near as long for beer so it's difficult to tell. I certainly wouldn't want it to be any more than it was this year that's for sure.

Woods Stage - All in all i thought a success. It's in the best position for the site as it's got the slope which means everyone can get a decent view which is always good. I think if you can see the band then there's less chance you will get frustrated and either start talking/moaning or walk away leaving the band to play in front of less people. I thought it sounded great though and they didn't have a huge gap between stage and crowd. I also found that although from a distance it may look busy at the front if you went down there it wasn't so bad and you could get up pretty close. 8/10 i'm giving it as i'm sure they will teak it a bit each year.

Tipi - Quite frankly i thought the sound tech in there was bloody awful. One of my favourite things i was looking forward to was seeing Sarabeth Tucek and although she never done anything wrong, the sound was appalling. I was not that far back and i could hardly hear her, the sound was terrible as it was for many people i saw in there. Brakes on the Sunday night in there again were great but you could hardly hear Eamonn sing despite numerous requests for more vocal. Personally it needed more everything, volume for a start would have been good(don't think i'm a 'turn up to 11' sort of person cause i'm not but he was seriously bad i thought and actually i was put off going in there because of the shit sound)

Vibe - Generally very good. However, There was a BIG increase of drunken teenagers which you know, fine, get drunk, i did as a teenager, difference is i wasn't going round screaming 'OH MY GOD!' Every f**king 2 minutes and often during some tender moments when someone was singing (John Grant for example) I'd hate to see security having to do stop and searches and take their 4% alchopops off them but i would like to see less drunk teenagers around. I have no problem either with ADULTS getting drunk, i got pretty pissed myself but i would like to think i never barged anyone out of the way to get where i wanted, i never invaded anyone else's space with my drunken antics and that's what i think people don't like. Get drunk and have fun by all means, whoop and holler at the right times, just have a bit of respect, that's all. Saying that, i was sick when i drank a gulp of absynth but it wasn't over or near anyone and only my friends noticed ;-) 7.5/10

Food - Don't get me wrong, the food stalls they provide are very, very good, some wonderful world cuisine being cooked and they really do pull out all the stops when it comes to having a varied amount. However, i'm vegan, but went veggie for this weekend because as much as i liked the tibetan vegan option and the vegan pizza i felt i was left with very little choice of vegan food. I know i'm choosing to be vegan and people may argue that i'm asking a lot to have more vegan food but there is a great vegan food outlet that does do the festival circuit and i would love to see it there. Saying that, the veggie food i had was very very good. I found myself queueing a lot more for food this year though, i'd say on average about 30 mins queueing time but some times as long as 45 minutes. 7.2/10

Beer - I love ale but i personally think £3.80 a pint is pushing it. Ok, i know beer has gone up a lot over the last few years and most pubs are close to £4 a pint (here in Brighton at least) but £3.80 for an ale? I took some of my own cans this year and next year i will be doing the same except more of them. Saying that, the ale i did have was bloody lovely :-)6.5/10

Toilets More needed to stop having to queue for so bloody long. But again, i never used a dirty one, were all very clean and fully functional with roll/hand cleaner. Some even had a mirror on the door which just reminded me how rough i looked (especially on the Sunday, jesus) 9/10

Camping Area - I arrived on the Thursday, that bloody rocky path! Still, got there eventually and had a nice spot. No complaints where i was camped at all. I was disappointed however to wake up on Friday morning with my very close friend come to my tent crying on my shoulder (who works at the festival) who had had someone go into her tent while she was asleep and steal her iphone and also have the audacity to open her purse in there too and take out her money. Having had my phone stolen last year i know how she felt but i was slightly disappointed that she was asked to camp in an area that was for staff yet she (and others in that area) had stuff stolen, mainly money. It sort of put a downer on my time if i'm honest.

Line Up - Best line up so far for me of any of the previous ones. Highlights off the top of my head were Tinariwen, Nathaniel Rateliff, Midlake, Kurt Vile, The Growlers, John Grant, Clap your hands, Gruff Rhys, Woods (why no woods on the woods stage? makes perfect sense,no?) Anyway, no one let me down who i saw and I came away feeling extremely satisfied with who i saw as i do go to this festival mainly for the music after all.10/10

So all in all, i had a really great time. The weather certainly helped, the garden stage is just a delight to sit in, most people were very friendly if you got talking to them, good (if expensive) Ales and the music was incredible. A little bit more respect from some people when it comes to rubbish and smoking where you're not meant to wouldn't go amiss however but i'm sure they will clamp down more on that. Obviously there was more security around but maybe they can be less conspicuous next year? Maybe even plain clothed so not to stand out so much? It may stop potential thieves looking in areas where Security are not so visible as well.

Most of the stuff i've 'moaned' about are just little things really because having had a couple of days to reflect i look back on the festival very fondly, like an old friend who i've seen change little by little with each passing year but still retains the essence of what they're about.Good people, great music, no advertising (we're in BIG trouble if that happens) Still the best festival around as far as i'm concerned, by a long way too. Until next year! 9/10

[shugie]

Oh, come on. Marling had no/not much bigger a crowd than most of the high end of the Woods stage bands. More young people went to EOTR because more young people are going to every noteworthy festival, which is to do with the way the media presents festivals as staycations/lifestyle opportunities. If anyone thought the crowds and behaviour there were unacceptable, as now seems to have become the default setting on this thread, you might want to try any price/capacity comparative festival some time for perspective.

[puppyfeat]

I'm just puzzled by people saying it was too crowded. You could move wherever you want and see whatever you want. Ok, queues for food, but they can get more food stalls next year or toliet blocks.

The woods stage was fine soundwise and still nicer than most festival stages

Edited September 6, 2011 by puppyfeat

[Phildo]

If it had been made bigger purely to enable "bigger" acts as headliners, then I'd sooner see things revert to normal. Couldn't sleep on Sunday night because of the half-assed Kate Bush karaoke audible from the Woods stage. Thought there was meant to be a headliner on? Obviously didn't turn up.

Generally, loved the new layout, although there were clearly far too few Andyloos. The whole new kids/circus/storytelling area around the old comedy pavilion was simply lovely.

Things did feel a little less intimate this year (our 4th) but generally, after a rather lacklustre 2010, I definitely felt the magic was back. How many festivals are there where one can sit in a library in some magic woods reading Peanuts books at 12.30am?

The whole "everything must shut down for JNew" thing was a complete joke, however. She's nothing more - regardless of opinions on her music (mine? She's awfulawfulawful shite beyond shite) - than another artist on a phenomenal list of artists and deserves precisely no special treatment. Unfathomable.

[GeordieMartin]

If it had been made bigger purely to enable "bigger" acts as headliners, then I'd sooner see things revert to normal. Couldn't sleep on Sunday night because of the half-assed Kate Bush karaoke audible from the Woods stage. Thought there was meant to be a headliner on? Obviously didn't turn up.

Generally, loved the new layout, although there were clearly far too few Andyloos. The whole new kids/circus/storytelling area around the old comedy pavilion was simply lovely.

Things did feel a little less intimate this year (our 4th) but generally, after a rather lacklustre 2010, I definitely felt the magic was back. How many festivals are there where one can sit in a library in some magic woods reading Peanuts books at 12.30am?

The whole "everything must shut down for JNew" thing was a complete joke, however. She's nothing more - regardless of opinions on her music (mine? She's awfulawfulawful shite beyond shite) - than another artist on a phenomenal list of artists and deserves precisely no special treatment. Unfathomable.

[Thowky]

Absolutely. Some punters have obviously not been to many other festivals to compare this with. Let me tell you that if f'rinstance they'd seen the way that the Big Chill (which incidentally also started out as a small affair at Larmer Tree Gdns) had gone the last few years they'd have nothing but admiration for EOTR. To be honest I've never seen such clean toilets at a festy - with hardly any queues either - good food and drink - again without much waiting (except for at that red bus - they were hopeless) - ease of movement, cleanliness of site and politeness everywhere. And that's even without the brilliant music! It felt like festival heaven to me and my partner - the only gripe we had was the lack of showers, really 12 cubicles for 10,000 or so people is just ridiculous (although they were good hot showers, so no complaints there either!).

[bennyhana22]

I'll chuck in my two penn'orth:

My second EOTR - first was 2009.

In 2009 I loved the festival and had a wonderful time, but at times felt that the village was a little bit sparkly populated, felt a bit 'empty'. Now I realise that to some that might be heaven, but whilst I am no fan of overcrowding, finding it impossible to move, eat, wee etc, there is a happy medium when a festival also feels 'populated'.

Now, ironically, there has been, to my knowledge, NO suggestion that capacity was an issue in 2009 and yet they could not accommodate everyone to see one of the three main stage headliners - I refer of course to the closure of the Garden Stage to further entrants, for Fleet Foxes. However you look at that, it can't be in any way acceptable to say to a punter thanks for your 140 quid but you can't see one of the main bands at our open air festival. So they either decrease attendee numbers (never in a million years, obviously) or they create a new, bigger stage in a newly expanded site, with a predictable small (if the gradual creep to 8500 adult tickets is generally accepted) increase in festival goer numbers.

And so to 2011. For me, it was nigh-on perfect, with regards to size and attendee numbers. It felt more 'complete' without feeling in any way big. It was easy to move around and get where you wanted to at all the stages. I didn't get any feeling of over-excited youngsters, or over-indulged twits. Were there any idiots? Yes - have there EVER not been at ANY music festival? Were there any slightly annoying teenagers? Yes - did they cause problems with me enjoying the festival? Not in ANY way.

I really like the feel and look of the revamped Village - especially the view from the middle down towards the Woods Stage, when it's illuminated at night etc. As for the Tipi Stage, well OK yes, all it is is a bigger version of the Local stage, but then the Tipi in 2009 was ridiculous. I'm all for the excitement of a secret set in a small intimate venue by an artist that is more used to playing the biggest of venues, but when the size of the intimate stage precludes 95% of festival goers from having that experience, that's just unfair. As a result, I found the Tipi stage to be a reasonable alternative and greatly enjoyed the late night sets by Three Trapped Tigers and Brakes, amongst others.

So, for me, the changes were nothing but improvements. If they can manage not to meddle too much with the formula in years to come, then I have no reason to doubt that EOTR will remain the festival that I love the most.

Ben

[binaryRooster]

Having read the threads before and after the festival, it does sound like some people decided it wasn't going to be as good before they actually went this year!

i gotta agree with the comments about the crowds - in that they were pretty non existent! What i love about Eotr (and this was only my second) was that you can get to pretty much anywhere in five mins tops. Seriously, go to any other festival and queue for food, toilets etc (or in the case of some Glastonbury's just to actually start walking somewhere) and you'll realise how great Eotr is. You can stroll up to a band as they start and get a decent place to watch. There's also nowhere near as many people elbowing their way to the front as other festivals.

I'm feeling a bit for the kids on this thread. The majority of drunk people i saw were certainly not teenagers.