So how is Silver Hayes?

[5co77ie]

I like dance music but I couldn't spend any time there - felt quite un-glastonbury this year.

[stiff]

They had to stop calling it the Dance Village because nobody dances there anymore.

Should be called "Dabbing powder from a pretty girl's hand" as that was the main activity down there.

Sonic was a huge let down. I'm over 6ft and I couldn't see anything. Think stage was in a dip?!

[5co77ie]

If i remember rightly, I watched Eats Everything, 2Bears and Fatboy Slim back to back on the Thursday in WOW!

Was one of the highlight of my week. Not my normal type of music, but three great sets.

[5co77ie]

Should be called "Dabbing powder from a pretty girl's hand" as that was the main activity down there.

Edited October 11, 2013 by 5co77ie

[Redwinevino]

Though that was ignored by security as was troughing bags of pills in front of them, but anyone with a 'burnin' spear' was hassled - not cricket.

[5co77ie]

What's a "Burning Spear"?

Edited October 11, 2013 by 5co77ie

[bsolxiv]

What's a "Burning Spear"?

[5co77ie]

He is

[JackyBoi]

Full of bumholes.

[Redwinevino]

a skankin' stick

[LondonTom]

I thought there was a great programme of acts there this year a good balance.

[bsolxiv]

Man, I really want towatch Rockers right now

[5co77ie]

I've never seen Rockers - gonna have to find a copy of that. It reminds me of living in the Pacific in 1978.

[5co77ie]

Are you Aquaman?

[LondonTom]

Are you Aquaman?

[jeffie]

Just so you know, I've had a whole office look at me after bursting out laughing at that

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Style over substance for me. Looked good on paper and promised much but generally was the most disappointing of all of the changes for 2013.

I have to say, I was oblivious to any trouble or idiots but the atmosphere here is definitely 'edgier' than others. An issue for me was the horrendous crushes, particularly with people trying to get in and out at the Other Stage end entrance just before Disclosure. The security were clueless, powerless and someone really could have got hurt. The crowd for Fatboy Slim's 'secret' set at SOS was also badly mismanaged. These are just my personal experiences.

The Sonic stage isn't big enough for (currently very popular) acts like Disclosure, who in all honesty would have packed out a stage the size of West Holts. The sound for this stage was also terrible. For Steve Aoki's set, even being stood right on the edge of the tent the sound was poor. If you stood back to watch on the video screens you could hardly hear a thing. Was this a common theme throughout the festival?

The entrance/exit at the Other Stage end isn't big enough to cope with sudden large numbers of people to go through. Maybe a one way system would be beneficial here?

As has been well documented here, the sound bleed between Sonic, Gully and Blues was also dreadful.

On a positive note, Blues and Gully were great fun, especially during the day.

But a rethink is required ahead of next year. The area needs to be bigger, with an outdoor stage necessary if possible to accommodate for the recent popularity surge in electronic music. Whether they have space to do so, I don't know.

[DJL]

Just another to state that i liked gully and blues, i agree more like that is needed and that they need to sort out the soundbleed.

That aside the difficulty is that what i want is for it to be more like the se corner... but in fairness that doesn't look anywhere near as exciting during the day either

Edited October 11, 2013 by DJL

[jackarmy]

They should scrap all of it apart from The Blues & The Gully and bring in The Port from Bestival, best set-up I saw this year.

[FloorFiller]

so many times when i went to roll / light a fag in Silver Hayes a security person would run over to me and ask if it was a spliff. seemed like their main priority was to stamp down on weed, yet shoving a key of anything up my nose, no biggie at all. weird

there were a lot of problems with the set up this year - the sound bleeding being the main factor. for a lot of the stages, if you weren't front centre, you weren't hearing the music (at least, not the music you want to be hearing)

[JC-Mo'Fucka]

It was definitely an improvement on the previous layout but ultimately it was still shit. Reggae and blues were great but tbh you only really needed one of the other.

Sack off the sonic as it doesn't work. Can't hear anything at the sides and its just a weird shape which fills up in the middle too easily.

I'd personally go for one big outdoor dance stage at one end with maybe blues and pussy parlure at the bottom.

[MrsRookin]

We camp over in Rivermead so used to pass through the dance village on the way to and from our tent. However due to a couple of terrifying crushes in Silver Hayes last year we started going the VERY long way around via the old railway line and coming in from the back of bushy ground if we ever went back between around 7pm-2am for any reason. The area was prettier to look at this year, and agree the Gully and the blues areas seemed good although didn't spend any real time there, but the rest was just as soulless as before, except with a larger unpleasant crowd at times.

[Mr.Tease]

I liked the look of it, and most of the ideas behind it, but something went a bit wrong in the execution.

One thing that confused me was the thought process behind the new main dance tent- I just don't get why they thought that shape was a good idea. When I first saw the plans for it, I assumed the stage bit would be in the centre of the cross, but instead it was at one end. Just made it really awkward to see and hear anything. It looked flash, but I'd rather they just had a normal tent.

[eFestivals]

They should scrap all of it apart from The Blues & The Gully and bring in The Port from Bestival, best set-up I saw this year.

was it as good as Boomtown's Lion's Den?

Or even Boomtown's Beatbox?

[BigChief]

Didn't see any trouble? But there was over crowding and crushing at times.