NOS Alive Festival 2015, formerly Optimus Alive!

[robMUFC96]

Utter drivel. Muse, Prodigy and disclosure is better than the pants glasto headliners this year for starters never mind the undercard at NOS.

 

Foos>Muse, Kanye>Prodigy, The Who > Disclosure (Florence doesn't count as wasn't what they actually booked)

 

On terms of size of headliners it's not even close.

 

I do like the lineup, but its not pretending to be close to Glasto. It's a Portuguese festival and is one of the only European ones that allows local acts to form the foundations of the undercard. The bands may not all be the most well-known, but will all put on a great show, and that's what's important

[redstar99]

Foos>Muse, Kanye>Prodigy, The Who > Disclosure (Florence doesn't count as wasn't what they actually booked)

On terms of size of headliners it's not even close.

I do like the lineup, but its not pretending to be close to Glasto. It's a Portuguese festival and is one of the only European ones that allows local acts to form the foundations of the undercard. The bands may not all be the most well-known, but will all put on a great show, and that's what's important

In my world muse and disclosure crap all over foos/florence and kanye. The who being the obvious exception.

My itinerary for day one is young fathers, jessie ware, metronomy, alt j, tiga, muse, django django' , julio bashmore. Thats an amazing day which compares with the best ive done at any fest before. People have been whinging about line ups at all the fests this year, including even Coachella which for my money usually has the best line ups of any fest in the world. Glasto this year was very ordinary i thought.

Anyhows heres to an incredible weekend im sure we will all never forget.

Edited July 5, 2015 by redstar99

[robMUFC96]

In my world muse and disclosure crap all over foos/florence and kanye. The who being the obvious exception.

My itinerary for day one is young fathers, jessie ware, metronomy, alt j, tiga, muse, django django' , julio bashmore. Thats an amazing day which compares with the best ive done at any fest before. People have been whinging about line ups at all the fests this year, including even Coachella which for my money usually has the best line ups of any fest in the world. Glasto this year was very ordinary i thought.

Anyhows heres to an incredible weekend im sure we will all never forget.

 

I'll probably agree with you that 2/3 of the headliners do suit me better, but they are objectively bigger artists at Glasto. Looks like I'll be following you round a bit on the first day haha.

 

We fly out late tonight from Manchester. Anyone know how much a taxi from the airport to Bairro Alto will be at about 1AM?

[Al Wallace]

I know it's subjective and all about opinions but to say that this line up is better than Glastonbury is absolutely ridiculous. It's like saying "yea that messi bloke is ok but I'm more of a Scott Sinclair fan myself". The line up is a shocker

Thursday for me is about metronomy and django django,I'll probably fill the gap with alt j, Muse and tiga but I'm not overexcited about any of them.

Friday - when you're looking at the ting tings and thinking "hmmmm ye they're one of the better ones" at a festival then you know you're scraping the barrel of an awful line u, but it may well be them over mumFord and sons. Obviously the prodigy and I may stick about and give moullinex a whirl.

Saturday is diabolical - sam Smith and disclosure that's it. Maybe I'll have to stick azalea banks out cod I'll be with my Mrs!

[snipe]

RE: taxi from airport they charged us 18.20 to Santos which is fairly close to there. A local said it should have been 15 though and said there are chancers who'll ask for 30. Theyve fare cards to wave at you to back up what they want so get the price before getting into the taxi.

As for the lineup it ain't great but actually being able to see the bands and not miss half set running around the site will mean it has that over Glastonbury. Also the festival has a massive quote on their website saying "think Glastonbury with guaranteed sun" so they are attracting comparison by having that. I'm not expecting anything of the like though.

Edited July 5, 2015 by snipe

[robMUFC96]

RE: taxi from airport they charged us 18.20 to Santos which is fairly close to there. A local said it should have been 15 though and said there are chancers who'll ask for 30. Theyve fare cards to wave at you to back up what they want so get the price before getting into the taxi.

 

Cheers, there's five of us so expecting a high fare, but will be low per person.

[martinpa]

Think last year "Brits" made up about 5% of the total crowd .. Who knows what is popular with the Portuguese crowd, hence the lower prices and lack of established names from UKscene. The Saturday is def a shocker though, but there's so much to visit in the area away from the festival just gives me more free time during the day !!

[snipe]

Been here a couple of days. Check out Mercado Da Ribeira. It looks like a shopping center food court when you go in but everything is restaurant grade (and can take 15 mins sometimes to prepare). Everyone speaks English and most have English signs. Best place for lunch by far. Try the British colonial super bock stout. It's yum.

[robMUFC96]

Been here a couple of days. Check out Mercado Da Ribeira. It looks like a shopping center food court when you go in but everything is restaurant grade (and can take 15 mins sometimes to prepare). Everyone speaks English and most have English signs. Best place for lunch by far. Try the British colonial super bock stout. It's yum.

 

What's the price like? Saw it before but cast it off as too expensive for us on a backpacker's budget haha

[snipe]

Probably more expensive than the average corner café but quality is way up. If you want something small there's bits for a few euro. A proper plate that'll do for dinner comes in at ten euro on average. Some could go as high as 13 but it is restaurant quality then.

[TheNewUnion]

the festival has a massive quote on their website saying "think Glastonbury with guaranteed sun" so they are attracting comparison by having that. I'm not expecting anything of the like though.

That quote is a bit odd really. It's absolutely nothing like Glastonbury. It's a relatively small, commercial "big gig in a car park". Thought it was great in 2012, looking forward to it this year but comparing it to Glastonbury just seems strange and, like you say, invites (an unfair) comparison.

[robMUFC96]

Probably more expensive than the average corner café but quality is way up. If you want something small there's bits for a few euro. A proper plate that'll do for dinner comes in at ten euro on average. Some could go as high as 13 but it is restaurant quality then.

 

Cheers mate, that'll probably be fine for a couple of meals. Doing a cheap lunch and breakfast in the apartment most days will cover for any expensive meals out

[Al Wallace]

Hi guys I'm sure this has been mentioned but I'm on a very slow computer and flying out tomorrow - how do we get back to lisbon in the early hours via pubic transport? We are going to get viva viagem cards so hoping to use them instead of a taxi. I've read that 'trains run all night' but can't find anything specific about times and how regular they are!? And whether there are buses and trams or just trains? Thanks in advance for any help

[martinpa]

Hi guys I'm sure this has been mentioned but I'm on a very slow computer and flying out tomorrow - how do we get back to lisbon in the early hours via pubic transport? We are going to get viva viagem cards so hoping to use them instead of a taxi. I've read that 'trains run all night' but can't find anything specific about times and how regular they are!? And whether there are buses and trams or just trains? Thanks in advance for any help

[martinpa]

Memory serves me that there was a train on the cascais line that ran every half hour. The latest I caught this was 2.30am though, I think someone in my hotel got it around 3.30 though.

Public transport good - though on the Saturday it gets unbelievably busy, mainly locals travelling to beaches etc. proper can of sardines stuff !

[thewayiam]

Utter drivel. Muse, Prodigy and disclosure is better than the pants glasto headliners this year for starters never mind the undercard at NOS.

Muse are utter bull now, The Prodigy I'll give you but they didn't sit higher than Other Staget header at Glastonbury and Disclosure is a joke aa a headliner. As for undercard, does it even have one?

[TheNewUnion]

Mumford and Sons are on the undercard, they headlined Glastonbury in 2013.

 

Thing here is, I know nothing about the Portuguese music scene, so I have no idea who is big and who isn't big over there. There are some odd inclusions, Cavaliers of Fun for example I have never heard of. To say that there isn't an undercard is entirely subjective. Young Fathers are a Mercury prize winning act, Alt-J are subbing the main stage at Reading, Jesus and Mary Chain are a legendary act, Counting Crows have sold millions of albums. All those acts are totally different, it just depends what you like.

 

I didn't watch one of the Pyramid headliners at Glastonbury this year and will be watching one at NOS. But it's an unfair comparison really.

Edited July 7, 2015 by TheNewUnion

[snipe]

If anyone is in Lisbon tonight Cocorosie are playing a gig in the theater Tivoli bbva. Pricey tickets but might be of interest to someone.

[Al Wallace]

Did that funky monkey pub crawl last night -they were all 17 year olds from Oxford!

Beer us seriously cheap out here though. Got a round in for 4 beers somewhere and it was 8 euros,with our exchange rate that's about 6 quid!

Hoping to see that Jesus statue thing and go to the national pantheon today,although I'm not sure if they'll let us see eusebio yet

[broken monkey]

Great to hear about the cheap beer - have a feeling we've changed too much money over to Euros but I'm sure we'll cope. Leaving early doors tomorrow morning, can't wait to get over there now.

[calnthat]

Where is Etienne de Crecy on the set times? Am

I being blind or have I missed some bad news? I'm hoping blind. Lisbon is seriously cheap though, it's nice getting the bill and having a happy shock for a change. About half what we'd pay for 2 beers in Nottingham.

[TheNewUnion]

Jug of sangria, feet up. Got to be one of the best "day before the festival" days you could have eh? Bloody lovely in Estoril this evening.

[Al Wallace]

Jug of sangria, feet up. Got to be one of the best "day before the festival" days you could have eh? Bloody lovely in Estoril this evening.

We had a jug on the way back from a tour of sintra today mate. Not a bad day for it at all!

[TheNewUnion]

How was Sintra? We're going on Monday.

Edited July 9, 2015 by TheNewUnion

[snipe]

Went yesterday. Found it expensive. They charge for each and every entry. We only bothered with the Pena palace which was impressive but it was 14 euro. You could see the best bits with the park and terrace ticket which was 10.50. To do all the palaces in the area and bits costs upwards of 50euro. Also you'll want to be fit as theres lots of hill walking. Some fairly steep inclines.