How did they handle the Friday blackout?

[cornish hick]

Vintage Trouble had their sound cut at the very tail end of their second song and were clearly very confused at what was happening when they were told in their ears.

A guy then came on the mic and declared that there was an electrical storm coming and they needed to turn the power off for 4 minutes, casing much derision from.the crowd! Everyone waited, waited and waited a little longer. Seemed that the majority gave up after 25 minutes or so (may have been longer.) Eventually they started powering the stage and the set changeover for tUnE-yArDs began whilst VT did a couple of acoustic numbers on the barrier.

Turned into a great moment!

When the singer worked out how to use the mic on the Megaphone!

[JGP]

I think they handled it well, this is what it said.

[ian the worm]

(I've not read this whole thread)

The decision was taken to pull all electricy to all stages due to the lightning storm. For obvious reasons, these stages carry huge quantities of power.

Rudimental was cut to 45 mins and when I spoke to one of his team the following night he was not bothered about it as they'd really enjoyed what they'd done so far.

Same with Lily going on late.

It happens at all major events.

Interestingly, the Saturday afternoon rain storm didn't close anything - as it was non electrical.

Good decision by the team of festival directors.

Edited July 3, 2014 by ian the worm

[ICGenie]

The delay worked out perfectly for me. Tune-Yards were due to finish at the same time as Elbow started but I managed to watch all of Tune-Yards and Elbow had just come on stage when I marched into the Pyramid field

[tommyds]

It would have been nice to have been told what was happening and how the timings on the different stages were affected.

I found it a little annoying that some stages were delayed more than others so I had no idea what was happening

[evilduck]

We were waiting for Spector to come on in Williams Green and the staff told us that all the generators had to be turned off and they would keep us updated. We just decided to wait it out as we were inside and not being rained on, and when they eventually came on they played a shorter set.

[Craig_G]

We were in the Circus tent at the time. We saw the rain coming and thought it would be a great place to shelter after just leaving Avalon. While they did try and keep us informed, I felt bad for the compere who was really dying on her feet trying to keep the crowd entertained.

[LondonTom]

Weird one that wasn't it, I was going back to my tent anyway via catching the end of Rudimental and as I came into the field, I saw the signs on the screen and someone let off a black smoke flare near the sound desk. I did think for a moment something really bad had happened!!

Worked out well as by the time I changed my wet socks for dry ones, and got my gaiters on over the muddied shoes and got more booze. I made it down to John Peel in time 5 minutes before Wild Beasts started. Was a a great feeling as I thought I had ended up missing them!

[ian the worm]

It would have been nice to have been told what was happening and how the timings on the different stages were affected.

I found it a little annoying that some stages were delayed more than others so I had no idea what was happening

Each area has its production manager. Each little venue has its director. GFL demanded the back out and then allowed it all back on. The timings of each stage from ten on was down to the manager / director of each stage. Each decision had to be mad on the position of the power-down in each act. etc etc etc.

Also hard to communicate so many changes so quickly.

Consider also each festival area had to manage the rising water levels, not just the stage programming.

But from what I witnessed it was all done very well.

[scorp]

As a few others have mentioned in The Acoustic Stage fishermans friends came in to the audience and sang a few songs. The rain cascading from the tent roof was pretty epic..

and a few of us at the back sang a few neil young numbers. gr8 fun, that was.

[faymondo]

Was at Son Of Dave in Shangri Hell. He gathered us all around at the front and went acoustic for two songs then the mic's were OK but not long before it really pissed down and everyone legged it for cover.

[meirionw]

Stood at the second barrier at the pyramid stage wringing out my shorts every few minutes

[stuartbert two hats]

I wasn't paying that much attention to times but when I got to the Pyramid for Lily Allen it was very clear that everything had been powered down. She was almost an hour late on I think and had to have her set reduced to about half an hour.

I can only assume this impacted Elbow and Arcade Fire or Eavis paid a fine to allow for the music to continue after the licence allowed, although I doubt that's something he'd do lightly. Perhaps they all had to cut their sets a bit, Elbow more than Arcade Fire, and they had to rush the changeovers more than they would normally.

As innerspeaker said above, Elbow started on time, so were unaffected, as were Arcade Fire.

[pheonix08]

We heard that the stages were given 10 mins warning of the storm and were told to get everyone down from the rigging and that the power would be going off. Seems sensible to me as I would assume that the festival would act as one big lightening magnet. After all there have been lightening strikes in the past. Personally we had just come back down from the cv fields when the power went off and the heavens opened. Waited till we were drenched then went back for dry clothes. Mind you for a time there it seemed I had a never ending cup of cider

[ian the worm]

We heard that the stages were given 10 mins warning of the storm and were told to get everyone down from the rigging and that the power would be going off. Seems sensible to me as I would assume that the festival would act as one big lightening magnet. After all there have been lightening strikes in the past. Personally we had just come back down from the cv fields when the power went off and the heavens opened. Waited till we were drenched then went back for dry clothes. Mind you for a time there it seemed I had a never ending cup of cider

The stages would have had over 2 hours warning of the storm. Radio traffic around the site is superb regarding safety and bad weather issues.

The decision to pull the power may have been as little as 10 mins but in essence what that means is simply to put the pre-planned closure plan into place.

[Phil-itfc]

Was in the main dance tent watching Tiga, the sound went off and some bloke told us over a mic that they were turning the electrics off. The security staff were sensible enough to ask smokers to go to the edge of the tent rather than outside it in the pissing rain!

[CaledonianGonzo]

Devil may care mavericks at The Glade, just ploughing on regardless.

[GuitarManDan15]

To anyone who thinks the situation was badly handled... what else could they have done?

More information! I was at The Other stage the only thing they put up was something along the lines of 'we may have to power down for a bit'. No confirmation that they had powered down, no information about when they might reassess the situation and when it did all come back on absolutely nothing about amended set times!

The weather is out of the festivals control but keeping the punters informed is something that is!

[fur_q]

How are they supposed to impart the infomation that they have powered down when they have powered down?

[Pinhead]

As far as a stage getting struck by lightening, this is not the real risk I would think since the whole earthed metallic structure would act as a pretty efficient conductor. What would be of risk however is all the electronic infrastructure, since the EMP produced by a direct strike could well pop fuses and damage expensive and sensitive AV and lighting equipment.

[tommyds]

To anyone who thinks the situation was badly handled... what else could they have done?

I'm not saying they handled it particularly badly, it just would have been nice to have a bit more information even on a stage by stage basis

This was my experience:

Watching Vintage Trouble on West Holts, power went at what I guess was around 17:45 and we were told it would be off for roughly 4 minutes

No updates followed, it got to around 18:45 and since VT's set was due to finish at 18:30 I assumed they weren't coming back

Interpol were due to start on the Other at 19:15 so I walked over there, where nothing happened until about 19:05 when Foster the People came on

FtP played for around 40mins and Interpol didn't come on until 20:00

J5 were playing West Holts later but, as I assumed WH would be running roughly as late as the Other, I figured I wouldn't be able to see any of them before Arcade Fire

It would have been nice to have known how long the power was going to be off, although I appreciate this was a moving target

I would have been nice to have been told that Interpol wouldn't be on until 20:00, which could have very easily have been announced as FtP came on

It would have been nice if an updated schedule could have been put on the screens between bands, not sure how much effort this would take

[GuitarManDan15]

How are they supposed to impart the infomation that they have powered down when they have powered down?

Write it down on a big piece of card, come to the front of the crowd and tell people and ask them to pass it back, let the soundtower people know and get them to pass it on. A bit of old fashioned ingenuity wouldn't go amiss

[fred quimby]

Write it down on a big piece of card, come to the front of the crowd and tell people and ask them to pass it back, let the soundtower people know and get them to pass it on. A bit of old fashioned ingenuity wouldn't go amiss

mmmm. big piece of card when there is good chance of rain. That would of lasted

[GuitarManDan15]

mmmm. big piece of card when there is good chance of rain. That would of lasted

They all looked pretty dry on stage to me...

[katyrnewman]

.

Edited March 14, 2015 by katyrnewman