The good and the bad

[paulo999]

The good?

- That view. I think more people took photos of that than they did the bands. Properly amazing.

- Nile Rodgers. And the Cuban Brothers. And Justice. And the rest of the lineup wasn't too bad either. I liked the variety.

- LOOOAAADS of space. Hard to believe that was a 35k festival. Room to sit down all over the place. Or dance. Or just move about.

The not so good?

- Only one bar I found (left of main stage) selling draught. Everything else cans. C'mon... I know it's hilly, and getting the beer trucks in is difficult, but we *hate* cans. well, I do.

- Food. Chips chips and more chips. I suspect the problem here is that there's not much call for "nice" food in event-style set ups, up in the highlands. Bags of events down south have call for this, but up here it's a different challenge. The bands can be flown up, but you can't fly catering. I found one amazingly good oven baked pizza place near Arcadia, but most other places looked like fairground food.

Overall, a brilliant weekend. Very friendly crowd - can't remember any idiots at all. I though the scots were meant to be perma-pished? Clearly not.

[robz1878]

I thought the food was great. Pancakes at the 80s cafe bus [in VIP], Buffalo burgers, Chorizo paella, some random meat kebab thing, crepes....all quality. Though how much of this was due to my state of intoxication I don't know.

[rachbon]

There's loads of good food at Rockness, I don't know how you didn't spot the argyle market. It's on the left as you walk into the arena, just before arcadia. They have a great selection of food, all quite reasonably priced.

[msr]

I would like to see the Cuban Brothers banned from Rockness going forward... total waste of a slot!

I really enoyed Justice but was a little disappointed with Deadmau5, I think he would have been better in the tent. Filth were amazing in the Koppaberg tent on the Friday night, people were lining up out the door!

Rockness has some great food, the Argyle Market has a line of stalls selling some amazing stuff. Venison burgers and proper lamb kebab were really good! Shame there were a bunch of breeds stealing pies and haggis by the spoonful.

[Theboypez]

VIP camping was the best it's been in recent years

I like how compact the main arena site was however it had its downfalls - in previous years you could sit on the hill and hear the main stage clearly however this isn't now possible due to the goldenvoice tent if u sit towards the left of the hill and the mixture of music coming from the big wheel, the bungee, the clash arena and the afterburner if you sat middle to right.

The music from the bungee and the big wheel shouldn't be allowed - the rest of the festival is about the music!

I felt the comedy tent was too small - about half the size of last year.

Highlights were - chic feat Nile Rodgers, Cuban brothers, admiral fallow, bastille, the view

Don't get me wrong we had a really good time just a few small gripes...

Also..don't think Mumford lived up to being headliners - the slow songs lost the crowd and we felt the cost of drinks was quite high this year especially when mixed fruit cider was 80p more to buy than apple of the same brand name...strange one

All in all a great time had and we'll be back next year

[Stanton]

I love the Cuban brothers on the main stage Sunday slot. For me its part of the festival. Jim likes them as well so I wouldn't hold your breath on them not appearing in future.

Personal highlights for me were bastille, justice, cubans, kassidy, ash and chic. The second half of the view on Sunday that I caught was pretty decent as well. Thought knife party started great but faded the longer it went.

As for the bad, wasn't a huge fan of biffy closing but that's a personal taste and the majority of the crowd seemed to like them. Same goes for that deid moose chap, dinne get that at all but the kids seem to enjoy it so I'll put that down to age.

My biggest moan was the lack of irn bru on sale at the vans/kiosks! Couldn't find it anywhere! But if that's the biggest moan I can think of it it must have been a pretty decent festival experience for me.

[rexclark]

Can't think of too many bad things. The campsite toilets were rotten which was a letdown as Rockness normally do well with these things. Also the organisation in the campsite at times was daft and it felt you were getting sent in different directions as the stewards didn't know what way people should be going.

The good.

- Ash, 20 years on and they're still outstanding. I hope they never run out of steam.

- Justice, second time seeing them this year so I knew what to expect but they were amazing as ever.

- The Rapture, was quite looking forward to them but they exceeded expectations.

- The food! As per usual the Argylle food market had a fantastic selection, personal favourites being The Stovies and the Steak and Black Pudding Pie.

- Cracking selection of booze and really enjoyed having the choice of Koppaberg.

- Tim Minchin. I wasn't a huge fan before I went to see him but I have to admit I was very impressed. Very funny.

- Death In Vegas, never saw all their set but what I did see really impressed me.

[Gothenburg83]

Hard to believe that was a 35k festival.

[Stuart1000]

The comedy tent was ridiculously small! There was a large queue every time we tried to get in.

[rachbon]

The comedy tent was ridiculously small! There was a large queue every time we tried to get in.

[Poleski]

The food was amazing this year. There was so much more than just the Argyle Food Tent. The burritos were amazing and the place called Ska BQ done AMAZING burgers.

[Gothenburg83]

The food was amazing this year. There was so much more than just the Argyle Food Tent. The burritos were amazing and the place called Ska BQ done AMAZING burgers.

[BunnyPaws]

The bad.. my teenage daughter stealing my peach schnapps on Friday.. the rain on saturday morning as my BF made me "go for a nice wee walk to the loch view " at 5.30 am.. ( I think I need a new man!!) The walk from the bus to VIP was a killer... the sound clash between Goldenvoice and the Main Stage when sitting on the hill...

The Good...The veggie paella was amazing... Chic was sublime I was right at the front in the middle... the After Burner was great until it started driving me nuts bouncing through the ground of my tent in VIP LOL... so for me that was good and bad. The showers were really good.. ques not so great.. The VIP Breakfast Bus was magic.. they did a great Veggie breakfast! The police seemed pretty cool this year...

[ScottishMetalHead]

The bad... was a little disappointed in the sets from Death In Vegas, Deadmau5 and Biffy. Comedy tent was too small, with too small an entrance. Having to listen to the rubbish music from the fairground rides while in the campsite, never let up all weekend.

The good... unexpectedly enjoyed Ed Sheeran and Mumford & Sons (obv pays to go in with low expectations as both were superb) plus amazing sets from Sound of Guns, Kassidy, and the Pigeon Detectives. Got a pic with Jim King. Cuban Brothers were hilarious. Great selection of food, never ate the same things twice all weekend, especially the superb breakfast bus in VIP. The excellent short distance had to walk to arena from VIP (and back again). Better showers in VIP this year and more of them, and more toilets.

[paulo999]

Actually thinking about it, I did get something from the Argyle market, and everything in there looked pretty good. Maybe I'm unfairly comparing some of other places with the Green Fields / late area food at Glastonbury, which is almost completely free of 'van' food.

I will remember to explore more thoroughly next time.

[rachbon]

Actually thinking about it, I did get something from the Argyle market, and everything in there looked pretty good. Maybe I'm unfairly comparing some of other places with the Green Fields / late area food at Glastonbury, which is almost completely free of 'van' food.

I will remember to explore more thoroughly next time.

[eFestivals]

You can't really compare it to Glastonbury, there's obviously a lot more nice food there because it's so much bigger. There's a lot more burger vans as well though.

eh? Glasto doesn't have any of those dog burger vans.

[rachbon]

eh? Glasto doesn't have any of those dog burger vans.

[eFestivals]

There's loads of really disgusting looking food vans near the pyramid and other stage, although thinking about, I'm not sure if they actually sell burgers. But there's definitely loads of the vans selling really vile looking, overpriced food like there is at all of the big festivals I've been to.

ahhh, you're right, my bad. I'd forgotten about them. Shows how often I get round that bit nowadays.

Mind you, they're still not as rank as you get at some other fests - and some other fests did (not sure if they still do, but probably) only had those very disgusting burger vans.

Edited June 18, 2012 by eFestivals

[rachbon]

ahhh, you're right, my bad. I'd forgotten about them. Shows how often I get round that bit nowadays.

Mind you, they're still not as rank as you get at some other fests - and some other fests did (not sure if they still do, but probably) only had those very disgusting burger vans.

[rexclark]

I think fests are definitely getting better. Rockness has a fantasticv selection of food for it's size and even TITP which used to be awful now has a decent selection if you loook around for it.

[theampersanddevil]

Have to agree. As a veggie as well food has improved, although rockness last year was disappointing but not awful.

Food at bearded theory this year was just phenomenal.