Best things , worst things 2014

[invisigothh]

That's one of the best BDsays I have had , and the band choices were a little off for my taste, but that gave me a nice gap on most days to go around the other stuff. However it was spoiled slightly by poor security which allowed tamazapan baking idiots to get in to the camper van field , camp inches from others, then scream shout , tell everybody how cold they were and constantly shout that they were going to stab that c**t in the head ( not me but the person who asked then to just be quite ) . They had no tickets , no camping or car park pass and am pretty sure they had already been thrown off the site once. If you sneek in to a festival for free keep you mouth shut and blend .....In the morning Security ( who did manage to shut them up after 3 hours of screeching and car engine noise ) turned up and removed them. It would be nice of they had a sin bin field where they could move the freeloaders and screamers to, them I would not have to then face children asking what's stabbing and c**t, and why is that lady screaming. So sadly after 7 Bdays that's me done , I will not be camping , or using the camper field again. van hire, tickets , food cost me a lost of money , and due to poor initial security ( can't fault security for the removal process) I had my festival cut short and a worried Sunday wondering if they would come back and trash our van and stuff. Having to listen to a low rent drug addicts and his friends scream that they are going to stab you in the head looses you what little sleep you could have had , so after 3DM we reluctantly left. This whole thing has really upset me , and ruined a perfect festival.

Edited August 18, 2014 by invisigothh

[5co77ie]

I really liked the line-up this year, amazingly they're are still new acts I've not seen before highlights included:

Dead Kennedys - loved how most of the crowd didn't get them, how the festival has morphed, if you could put them in front of the crowd in the first year it would have been a different story.

Carolina Chocolate Drops - band of the weekend between them and....

La Chiva Gantiva - got the whole tent dancing except the one guy who wouldn't sit down.

SEEED - German reggae covers band terrific!

Culture Shock - small crowd (see comment after DKs) but wow what a great set of singalong dance numbers.

Sorry to hear about the stab in the head numbers, I thought the campervan fields were lovely and chilled. For me it was a shame the field in front was so full of chumps that wee so rude to anyone passing by, and each other. Young pissed up gangs of girls or boys should not be seen or heard - if only they'd camped next to the tamazapan heads - that would have been worth watching.

[thisusernameistaken]

Hmmm....... There did seem to be more pissed or otherwise effected young men than in years before, for the first time we were left feeling a bit threatened at times (I'm not allowed to react when with the other half!) & I did wonder what some of the parents with young kids made of it.

Best things: Three Daft Monkeys, Seasick Steve, Sweet Chunks band, the food outlets & Otter Ale.

Worst things: 2 Hour traffic jam on Wednesday.

[buff]

Not a great line up for me this year, and the queue in was the worst i've seen in the 5 years ive been going. Ended up in the back field for van parking, my experience was a very quiet festival. Guess its the luck of the draw who you get put beside, toilets were better this year.

[mattrgee]

Toilets - Always clean and the queues weren't too bad.

The Tibetan Kitchen - Best food we had during the weekend. The beef stew was very tasty as were the little dumplings it came with.

Kim Churchill - The best act we saw all weekend. A one man band of pure talent, check him out.

Dead Kennedys - Oh dear. I thought they were a joke at first but apparently not. There's nothing worse than an American band preaching to us about 'our problems' with ill fitting snipets of current media. Zzzzzzzz

Main Stage - Power cuts, crackling sound and general poor sound quality. By Sunday we gave up and stayed over at the Big Top before heading over there for the Levellers. Yet, again terrible sound and almost chaotic organisation.

Rachel Sermanni - Another great artist.

Drunk kids - I have zero patience for pi$$ed up kids giving attitude to anyone who looks at them the wrong way, seemed like too many had run off from Mummy and Daddy and gone crazy on the WKDs.

No queues - Was out and on the A30 in less than 5 mins this morning (8:30am).

Will give it a miss next year.

[Perks]

Anyone see Tinariwen? I wasnt at the fest, just curious as I love Tinariwen and wouldve loved to have been there....

Shame about the pissed up knobheads you guys mention - has the demographic of the festival changed in the past few years - or was it just a one off?

[Neville Street]

We had a great time, didn't see too much drunken youth, but when I went to get a dressing on a cut hand on Sunday I was chatting to the paramedic who said they had lots of way underage people unable to walk on the Saturday night. There were also at least half a dozen teenage girls in the waiting area. Several hours later I wondered if they were waiting for the morning after pill, but I could be making too much of an assumption.

Highlights: Seth Lakeman and his dad! Bellowhead, Paul Heaton

Lowlights: sound for Levs Sunday, we were also by Hope Tavern.

[spg]

Highlights for me, culture shock, ferocious dog, 3 daft monkeys, Carolina chocolate drops and the magpie music busking slots.

Low points, not an easy thing to choose, as I had a great 12th beautiful days, sound for mad dog Mcrea,on the bandstand, was poor (only time as I watched at least six other acts and the sound was fine) and a father encouraging his young son to run around getting plastic glasses just to jump on them! Much harder to tidy up then!

Maybe a scheme like other festivals have been taking up, of sturdier plastics that you pay for then reuse would help reduce at least some of the rubbish?

[dondo]

Realised that I hadn't replied to this thread after our first Beautiful Days last year and was talking to my wife last night about festivals (we're giving them a miss this year)

For me:

Best bits:

• Kids field & entertainment- plenty to do to keep our 2 occupied and loved the storytelling by the Redwood trees
• Good food and beer
• Musically really enjoyed Jimmy Cliff, Dreadzone, Seth Lakemand and the Levellers

Not so good bits:

• Massive queue to get in- absolutely ridiculous to have to wait over 2 hours to get in. Getting out was pretty bad too not helped by idiots cutting in and ambivalent stewards
• Having a crap trolley for lugging our stuff to and from the car- keep falling over
• Due to delay in getting in camping choices were limited and for family camping there seemed quite a few non families in there and ones that were a bit unfriendly too like when we asked them to move their windbreak a few inches so we could get our tent in- as a result it didn't have the sociablke feel around the campsite that we would of liked

Overall I would say it was okay and it is handy for us to combine with a visit to family in Cornwall but may try something else next year

[5co77ie]

Maybe a scheme like other festivals have been taking up, of sturdier plastics that you pay for then reuse would help reduce at least some of the rubbish?

or just take your own tankard?

[5co77ie]

low points: only able to visit part time last year.

high points: being able to be there properly this year!