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Levellers ‘94 - 300k - how?!


jimmillen
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Following the great documentary threads I’ve been geeking out a bit & reading up on the history of the festival 🤓

Was a bit gobsmacked that the crowd for the Levellers headlining in ‘94 was estimated at 300,000!!

How the hell did that many fit? Was the site differently laid out in those days? Guessing not too many camping chairs back then? 

Would be great to hear from anyone who was there... 

 

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7 minutes ago, bexj said:

Sorry I don't believe that either, there might have been 250k and yes it did feel emptier the year after the super fence.. But not 500k, thats silly numbers! 

It's total bollocks innit?  I was there in 2000 when there was no SE corner and no Park and there's no way there were twice as many people there as these days.  It's crowded now!

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2 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

It's total bollocks innit?  I was there in 2000 when there was no SE corner and no Park and there's no way there were twice as many people there as these days.  It's crowded now!

There was definitely significantly more people than there is now... it was rammed. 350k minimum. But as a caveat, it was my first and I did spend most of the weekend consuming mushroom wine I bought off some random fella in The Glade...

Edited by GrumpyRaver
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42 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

It's total bollocks innit?  I was there in 2000 when there was no SE corner and no Park and there's no way there were twice as many people there as these days.  It's crowded now!

Same, I jumped the fence that year and it was honestly less crowded than it is these days.  Obligatory Cypress Hill clip incoming:

 

 

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19 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Same, I jumped the fence that year and it was honestly less crowded than it is these days.  Obligatory Cypress Hill clip incoming:

 

 

It was harder to get through the stages, but that was as much to do with the tiny bridges and other issues like the lack of a proper path up from Oxlyers to the railway track. Loads of infrastructure improvements.

The only thing that makes me suspect there were quite a lot of people there is that there was a lot more chilling back at the tent back then.

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56 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Same, I jumped the fence that year and it was honestly less crowded than it is these days.  Obligatory Cypress Hill clip incoming:

 

 

This looks quality. Being 8 when it was filmed I may have been too young to be in attendance (at least towards the front)

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8 hours ago, jimmillen said:

Following the great documentary threads I’ve been geeking out a bit & reading up on the history of the festival 🤓

Was a bit gobsmacked that the crowd for the Levellers headlining in ‘94 was estimated at 300,000!!

How the hell did that many fit? Was the site differently laid out in those days? Guessing not too many camping chairs back then? 

Would be great to hear from anyone who was there... 

 

not sure where that estimate is from, but the last year before the 'superfence' was muuuuch! busier and that was estimated at the time to be 250,000 (in the site, not in front of one stage).

And nowadays that 250,000 estimate isn't believed, as the site is much busier now despite the site being bigger.

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2 hours ago, eFestivals said:

not sure where that estimate is from, but the last year before the 'superfence' was muuuuch! busier and that was estimated at the time to be 250,000 (in the site, not in front of one stage).

And nowadays that 250,000 estimate isn't believed, as the site is much busier now despite the site being bigger.

Sounds like a dodgy estimate then. It’s quoted in the Wikipedia page and loads of other articles about the festival... but having dug a bit deeper there’s a decided lack of authoritative sources for it.

That defo makes more sense than somehow fitting 300000 people in the Pyramid field 😂

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I was there in 94, and in the field for The Levellers. Some random observations. Campsites were nowhere near as crowded as they are now (we were in Michaels Mead that year I think, or nearabouts anyway).  The crowd for the Levellers was busy but manageable...until they came on stage when a huge surge pushed the front half uncomfortably close to each other and the stage. About 3 songs in loads of people left to watch (I think) the Pretenders headline the NME stage.

Having seen pictures of the crowds for the Stones, Kylie etc I cannot believe that the Levellers had even half the amount these acts had. 

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To get a good idea of crowd sizes in '94, one of the bigger sets of the fest was Galliano (even though they were fourth down Pyramid Saturday).

 

 

As mentioned, Big Ground camping used to be bigger.

300k? Nah. It feels much more crowded nowadays.

Looking back (I was there...physically at least)...wow, what a line up!

RATM, Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, Bjork, Beasties and look at this line up for the Other (then NME) on the Sunday 😧

556815276_ScreenShot2020-02-29at11_47_47.png.8bf078907e0c4139eae080ea05ea4d3e.png

...bit of a shame really because I literally can't remember any of it 🤪

 

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5 hours ago, eFestivals said:

not sure where that estimate is from, but the last year before the 'superfence' was muuuuch! busier and that was estimated at the time to be 250,000 (in the site, not in front of one stage).

And nowadays that 250,000 estimate isn't believed, as the site is much busier now despite the site being bigger.

Yeah, I'd always heard 250k in 2000 and as you say, I don't really believe that figure based on how crowded it is now, as Stu says, the crowding felt most noticeable on bridges and between stages at peak times.  I can't find the video anymore but there is a clip of someone walking through the pyramid field for the sub headliners on Saturday and the field is less than half full.

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3 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Yeah, I'd always heard 250k in 2000 and as you say, I don't really believe that figure based on how crowded it is now, as Stu says, the crowding felt most noticeable on bridges and between stages at peak times.  I can't find the video anymore but there is a clip of someone walking through the pyramid field for the sub headliners on Saturday and the field is less than half full.

 

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