How did they handle the Friday blackout?

[Riggins]

I was lingering around whilst Jimi Goodwin was on waiting for Parquet Courts, he's not my cup of tea but when he stopped I went forward to see what was going on. Got on the front as it started lashing it down, all the bars were full and my tent was over in Pylon so no chance or point of walking back so got absolutely drenched. By the second round I just thought I've been here long enough I'll just stay, but they didn't really let us know what was going on. Some guy starting singing a song about the sun which was odd/great. Then Jimi Goodwin came out to try a song but he was either struggling to play it or his crowd had gone, was a nice touch but a bit awkward. Then shortly after Parquet Courts were great.

[adamski]

I was lingering around whilst Jimi Goodwin was on waiting for Parquet Courts, he's not my cup of tea but when he stopped I went forward to see what was going on. Got on the front as it started lashing it down, all the bars were full and my tent was over in Pylon so no chance or point of walking back so got absolutely drenched. By the second round I just thought I've been here long enough I'll just stay, but they didn't really let us know what was going on. Some guy starting singing a song about the sun which was odd/great. Then Jimi Goodwin came out to try a song but he was either struggling to play it or his crowd had gone, was a nice touch but a bit awkward. Then shortly after Parquet Courts were great.

What did he play? Thought he played a great set and was gutted he had to go off early. Luckily I wanted to see parquet courts, and fashioned a makeshift tent from a poncho and two camping chairs for myself and my 6 year old. Once everything had passed we were second up the ribbon tower, no queue!

[waynewdk]

the red writing that came on the screen during rudimentals set when the storm kicked off read along the lines of 'due to the weather we may have to power down for a bit' or something similar to that

this

[incident]

Mik Artistik had just started on the Summer House when the power was cut mid song.

They decided to carry on as best they could, and got the audience (30 odd people) crowded round the stage. They managed to rig up an amp for the guitarist, and pointed it towards the audience.

It led to a very memorable show - most of his songs are based around keyboards and given that they were fucked he ended up playing a load of stuff I'd not heard before - basically anything they could try and make work with a guitar, a tambourine, and some shouted vocals.

[davidd]

Absolutely loved it to bits this year,didn't go anywhere near as mental as previously and enjoyed it as much if not more. Middle son came for his 3rd and as he's almost 16 i let him bring his raving boots for the first time and left him in capable hands whilst i chilled back at camp,he had a fucking ball .

[glenman]

hudson taylor made there way to the middle of the avalon stage and continued to play, was amazing!

[halfpint]

I had booked a glass blowing lesson at 6pm so made my way up to the marquee early and sat and watched the storm from inside a nice dry marquee next to the furnace so was toasty and warm!

[Festival Liam]

I am pretty sure it was God trying to get Ed Sheeran not Haim.

(Referring to his durge track with Rudimental where he mostly just seemed to go mhm)

Edited July 1, 2014 by Festival Liam

[balti-pie]

I didn't know about any of this til yesterday - we were at the tents getting booze/coats etc and thought we'd sit in the porch and wait out the rain. Half a litre of vodka later it was dry and sunny

[EveryRecord]

Agree with the above post - Jimi Goodwin came out after to try to play on unplugged. Some pics and a review here (and Parquet Courts too)

[The Other Steve]

In the video here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28056363

At around 51 seconds, you can just about see the screens at the sides of the Pyramid stage. It looks like some red writing and doesn't look part of the set. Did anyone see what it said?

I was at the John Peel stage and Crystal Fighters had just finished. They'd started to set the stage for the next band, when "Gandalf" came out and made apologies but they're going to have to turn off the power and get everyone off the stage. He had some choice words to make about the decision, and invited everyone in the audience to just talk amongst themselves, have sex or have a w*nk since no-one will see them.

Was wondering how other stages handled it, particularly those which had acts performing. I see Rudimental were ushered off stage in that video above.

Here you go: http://flic.kr/p/ocRuRk

[innerspeaker]

Rudimental were cut off and Lily Allens set was shortened but I think Elbow & Arcade Fire were normal

Elbow and arcade fire were normal times, coz I watched Interpol an hour late thinking id catch the end of delayed elbow. But they'd already gone off!!

[newportstu]

Rudimental weren't ushered off because of the rain, somebody just decided that enough was enough.

This tickled me. They were fucking shite.

[stardustjunkie]

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.

[tillyandthewall]

Here's my potato Nokia phone image of the message:

From my point of view it was pretty poorly handed - though I think all UK festivals are a bit blasé about the risk of lightning - one medium-sized festival I worked only gave instructions along the lines of 'in the event of evacuation wait for instructions from the zone manager' - not good for the staff on the ground who have to deal with crowds right now.

[drewsstrat]

Fisherman's friends in acoustic were ushered off after 2 songs all the power went off and we were also told to stay at least 15ft from the tent poles which was kinda enforced by stewards, though I'm not sure most of them could judge how far 15ft was.

Fisherman's friends came out into the crowd and sang acoustically although the tent was so packed that most people

couldn't get close enough to hear but well played on them for trying. They did manage to get most of the tent singing sloop John b.

After the power came back on they went back on stage and did two more songs.

They passed a Cornish flag around the crowd which 'surfed' to the back of tent and back again whilst they sung a Steve knightley tune, very moving moment I thought

[Andeeroo]

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!

[Lubic]

Saw HAIM (excellent) in the sun, but it started to absolutely lash it down just as I was buying a pint outside the JP tent.

Caught the end of Crystal Fighters and got to the barrier for Wild Beasts/CHVRCHES. It was a hell of a wait while 'Gandalf' played a barely audible acoustic number at the front! I was sure Wild Beasts were going to be cancelled but it seemed their set was just cut down a little. CHVRCHES were great and seemed to play their standard festival setlist.

I started to worry that the delay would make me late for Arcade Fire, but when I got to the pyramid Elbow were surprisingly still playing.

[shoptildrop]

well we were on way to Hell stage to watch Kosheen and managed to dive in a bar there during the epic doom storm....went round to watch Kosheen and power was still off but Sian was on the speaker with the guys strumming away on the guitar doing a proper unplugged set, my fella was in heaven rather than hell and must say it was a great set and one of our highlights of the weekend

[strangetown]

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..

[lisa93]

Had no idea stages had closed at the time. Was watching Mr Scruff in Arcadia who was meant to be in the spider, but ended up on the dj bug truck, due to the storm I guess but don't think anyone had a clue! A definite highlight for me - hundreds of people going for it in torrential rain, dancing next to the truck and going even more bonkers when the sun and the rainbow came out to play. For once, the rain actually made it extra special!

[lisa93]

Here's the rainbow with mr scruff!

[pensky]

I was in Left Field when it happened, during the Tuts, and Billy Bragg kept us informed.

[Jie Bie]

hudson taylor made there way to the middle of the avalon stage and continued to play, was amazing!

Yup we were there for this as well, lucky for us they set up right where we were standing.

Was hilarious when they handed the megaphone to the random girl who didn't know how to work it and kept turning on the air raid style siren instead.

[cokebabies92]

Ended up seeing fishermans friends instead of dr feelgood due to the delay, ended up singing the South Australia song constantly for the rest of the weekend which ended up with me and my brother drawing a small crowd at a toilet somewhere near shangri la.