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The future of Silver Hayes


bombfrog
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1 minute ago, bombfrog said:

If it's not aimed at me (a life long lover of electronic music and former DJ) then I'm not entirely sure who it is aimed at.

Youngsters!

 

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I think it suffers from being the dance area but all the big dance acts play anywhere but there. I actually had a few things that I marked that I wouldn't have minded seeing there this year but because of the heat apart from the Wednesday I never made it over there. It doesn't seem to have the sane sense of identity that say The Park or Avalon manage to have. 

It's not really an area I would be likely to spend much time in anyway though so maybe my opinion is not really valid. 

 

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2 hours ago, amfy said:

I’d ditch it as a ‘dance’ concept and  keep a collection of one off stages there (but not so close together) - Gully/Blues, pull The Rocket Lounge which has a much more generic appeal over from the SE corner, maybe Glastonbury Latino & the Rum Shack - give it a bit of an overall Caribbean/reggae/soca/aka personality.

Agree - that would be awesome ? 

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34 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Except all the West campsites

#SouthWestCampsitesFoLife

 

33 minutes ago, bombfrog said:

If it's not aimed at me (a life long lover of electronic music and former DJ) then I'm not entirely sure who it is aimed at. I think the point here is that it has  very little mainstream appeal for an area which takes up such a large and central slice of the site. I cam in Pylon so walk through it every day at least twice and it's definitely empty most of the time. Gully Blues is an impressive looking stage but I didn't see more than around 50 people dancing in front of it at any time. Putting a big screen up in front of it was.... optimistic at best.

I did like that little "No Average Groove" stage though. There was good music coming out of that at all times of day and always at least 10 people dancing in front of it :D

 

... Well I guess I'm just wrong then ahah, I'll bow out of this conversation.

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59 minutes ago, bombfrog said:

If it's not aimed at me (a life long lover of electronic music and former DJ) then I'm not entirely sure who it is aimed at. I think the point here is that it has  very little mainstream appeal for an area which takes up such a large and central slice of the site. I cam in Pylon so walk through it every day at least twice and it's definitely empty most of the time. Gully Blues is an impressive looking stage but I didn't see more than around 50 people dancing in front of it at any time. Putting a big screen up in front of it was.... optimistic at best.

I did like that little "No Average Groove" stage though. There was good music coming out of that at all times of day and always at least 10 people dancing in front of it :D

 

Personally I liked the look of the lineup this year although it certainly caters a lot more to House/Disco/Tech acts that are popular with a younger crowd, similar to The Beat Hotel. The SE corner books a lot of D’N’B and heavy techno that isn’t massively my thing.

Unfortunately I’m in the same boat as many here and don’t like it as an area even if I do like the lineup.

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One thing that would be really nice is to take one end of it and turn it into a chilled out beach bar type area. 

A few nice food places, cocktail bar and some Cafe Mambo type sounds. A bit like Williams Green or the Brothers bar before the Friday, a nice place to sit with friends and chill during the day.

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I feel like they had a few big names in hip-hop/grime this year, AJ Tracey, Little Simz etc, but I think they should maybe go more that way instead of being dance/drum and bass because like everyone said the big names don’t play there and there’s already so much of it at night, it would be nice to have an alternative 

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I saw Shaggy there. Uninspiring sums up the whole experience.

I think the consensus here is pretty complete. For me, the big failing is that the SE corner remains rammed at peak hours. SH needs to be drawing away a significant portion of that crowd which would benefit both areas. To do that, it needs a big boost in terms of visual delight it has to offer.

 

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2 minutes ago, bombfrog said:

One thing that would be really nice is to take one end of it and turn it into a chilled out beach bar type area. 

A few nice food places, cocktail bar and some Cafe Mambo type sounds. A bit like Williams Green or the Brothers bar before the Friday, a nice place to sit with friends and chill during the day.

It really needs to incorporate an area where people can hang out and chill. Currently, you just kind of walk from one end to the other. Maybe that's an issue with the layout? 

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I'm not exactly young and not really a fan of dance music although I do like bits and pieces but I quite like Silver Hayes.

It reminds me of chilled out dancey areas at European festivals and it's better when it's sunny. I like that it's close to most of the main stages and yet it's quieter than most other areas and I like that there is a variety of music on offer. On one afternoon between seeing acts at BBC introducing I saw or heard snippets of Self Esteem, a reggae/roots singer and DJ sets. There was plenty of seats and plenty of shade. It's an ideal stop off place.

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Silver Hayes is not really my thing, and I definitely think a few changes might liven things up a bit. However, the thread from Pete Paphides about this year’s festival that has been doing the rounds gives the area a name check. In particular he talks about the young, lively and diverse crowd. I know SH is not especially popular on here (or with the group I go with) but it did make me wonder if i’d been a bit harsh. Didn’t spend much time here, so can’t comment on general atmosphere or vibes in the area myself: 

 

Obviously some of this applies to the future of Glastonbury in general, not just to SH, but I like the optimism about the next generation of festival-goers - if SH has helped to push this then might be exciting to build on this in future years to shake things up a bit? 

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Find it depressing just walking through there. Featureless landscape of no identity tents, with even shitter names (Wow!). 

Even if the audience is younger, and on more ket or whatever, I’m confused why Glasto seems to have abandoned the aesthetic principles that permeate the rest of the site/venues. 

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Went for the first time in seven glastonburys this year on the Thursday evening for Annie Mac and Wilkinson and High Contrast. I have always held a slight stigma towards it. However.
It was amazing*. Will deffinitely do it again next year on the thursday. But obviously when the bands come on Friday onwards I'm outta there!




*I was off my tits mind.

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Does the area play a useful role in attracting and containing a certain type of person from other areas in the festival site?  Or is that completely unfair generalisation arising from the fact I don't tend to go there very much?

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It's in a tough spot because during the day it's competing with all the main stages and bands the after that there is a dance alternative that most people head to in the SE corner.

I only went on the sat this year, Silent Disco was busy, Pussy Parlour had a few in, everywhere else was dead. They should maybes try and incorporate the area into the SE corner then have that area changed to be a more rock orientated area as an alternative to the SE Corner late at night. 

Might help the smaller venues there and it would be better to have an area focused more on the rock genres later at night. Not sure how well it could be worked, there's some rock stuff in the micro venues in SE corner but tends to get hugely packed cause they are all crammed into a small area of Shangri-la. The Silent Disco can fit anywhere so that wouldn't be effected.

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3 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

In 15 years of going to Glastonbury I think I can count on one hand the number of acts I've seen in the Dance Village/Silver Hayes...

Same. I think the total might well be 2. One the first year I went in 2008 and then one I was forced to go to. Walk through it loads as I camp nearby 

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6 hours ago, bombfrog said:

It's a very big space, in a festival that has run out of space. I like the idea of splitting it into a daytime and nighttime line-up though, would reduce the need for acts to be programmed in order of popularity. Might also increase the chances that somebody might pull a big crowd into SH during the day.

Didn't there used to be a tent in SH which had a daytime slot years ago, I think 2011. I'm sure I remember seeing the King Blues and Guillimonts(sic) in there. 

I also remember the BBC Introducing being further towards Bushy in 2010 which could help in future. 

The idea of a larger stage, similar to The Park would be a great idea although I'm guessing that would have an impact on the license.

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7 hours ago, lukethekid said:

I just think that the space of Silver Hayes could utilised better and doesn’t really need to be playing Drum & Bass at half 1 in the afternoon. Don’t get me wrong I know people are in to it and that’s fine but I do think like you said it’s not at its best at half 1 on the Sunday afternoon.

Now, fortunately I'm not such a DnB monkey anymore, but 21 year old Sasperella would have bloody loved at least one venue to be playing DnB at half 1 on a Sunday afternoon. Even now that I'm over that stage of my life, I think it's great that there is a place on site doing that....and particularly now that Pangea starts so late. There is enough of everything else going on, that I do not begrudge the proper party animals their day time rave.

However....I do also agree that the blues/gully could have some mega reggae etc, the soundbleed is awful, and BBC introducing just doesn't fit at all. If a DJ I liked was playing twice, I would always go for the other venue.

I do also love the way the Blues looks though. Only saw La Playara there this year, and it was empty but still great ?

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One the big problems for me is it doesnt have a decent "main" stage.

Look at the Steelyard that Creamfields has. Or the Hangar at Parklife.

The Sonic was an attempt, but not a good one. I"d drop a stage & have an impressive main tent. There are names that could fill it. Stick Prydz on there doing a HALO set. Norman Cook will play & fill the place too.

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