Shambala 2022

[Neil]

2 hours ago, Old_Johno said:

Long shot for Stevie wonder. 

that would be a very long shot, from what they've booked over the years i'd say their booking budgets are fairly small.

[guypjfreak]

Check out the the CONVOY CABARET in the squatters tights 

[Old_Johno]

Just like to apologise for leaving my wellies at home, so it’s my fault it’s raining 

[March Hare]

Just back from my first Shambala, a place full of nice surprises. 
Was lovely meeting you @chuckles07!

I’ll give it a solid 4/5 and well worth a trip.  I’ll think a few of us will return.  The little venues scattered around the festival are fantastic and while some complained about the wait times for food, I thought it fell in line with the slower pace compared to other festivals. 
 

I appreciate I see more extreme behaviours when stewarding but it’s still a festival with a element of selfish and dickhead behaviour.  Utopia is laying it on a bit thick.  That said, the behaviour of the punters is better than any other festival and I saw plenty of examples of people looking out for each other.  Security genuinely cared and treated junior security better than I have seen anywhere else. It’s in keeping with the festival organisation/staff who were also better than any other I’ve encountered. They genuinely care about festival goers experience and those working at the festival. I was on one of the smaller venues for a night (Phantom Laundry) and the stage managers couldn’t not have been more friendly and appreciative of the stewarding support.

Highlight of the festival - The Pink Flamingo. Late night, speak easy style jazz club. Sit on the floor, no bar, just jazz. Just amazing, amazing jazz.

 

[Skip997]

13 hours ago, March Hare said:

I appreciate I see more extreme behaviours when stewarding but it’s still a festival with a element of selfish and dickhead behaviour.  Utopia is laying it on a bit thick.  That said, the behaviour of the punters is better than any other festival and I saw plenty of examples of people looking out for each other.  Security genuinely cared and treated junior security better than I have seen anywhere else. It’s in keeping with the festival organisation/staff who were also better than any other I’ve encountered. They genuinely care about festival goers experience and those working at the festival. I was on one of the smaller venues for a night (Phantom Laundry) and the stage managers couldn’t not have been more friendly and appreciative of the stewarding support.

Absolutely incredible as usual.

Much fun had.

I'm genuinely interested in the "selfish and dickhead behaviour", as usual at Shambala I saw none. 

Struggling at work today.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Skip997

[Skip997]

Very disappointed with the special guest on Saturday night - Charlotte Church - what was that about?

[March Hare]

1 hour ago, Skip997 said:

Absolutely incredible as usual.

Much fun had.

I'm genuinely interested in the "selfish and dickhead behaviour", as usual at Shambala I saw none. 

Struggling at work today.

You always see more when you work a festival.  The behaviour was better than other festivals but I saw plenty to counter the positive marketing. Just a few examples, sadly I have more:

Once it’s dark around 30 people an hour were peeing in the lake.

I saw one person kick a beach ball into another festival goer and knock their food out of their hand (an accident). They didn’t say a thing, just walked off like nothing had happened.

I know of one occasion where someone spat on a steward.

Someone ripped the phone off one of the Teleconfusion booths

For best festival crowd, I don’t think It’s better than EOTR 2021 (the best imo).

Mate, I’m broken too. I had one overnight shift that finished at 08:00 and the other two nights I went back to my tent at 05:00 😂

[March Hare]

2 hours ago, Skip997 said:

Very disappointed with the special guest on Saturday night - Charlotte Church - what was that about?

Honestly this is the first I’ve heard about it 😂

It would have taken a lot to get me out of the smaller venues

[Skip997]

3 minutes ago, March Hare said:

You always see more when you work a festival.  The behaviour was better than other festivals but I saw plenty to counter the positive marketing. Just a few examples, sadly I have more:

Once it’s dark around 30 people an hour were peeing in the lake.

I saw one person kick a beach ball into another festival goer and knock their food out of their hand (an accident). They didn’t say a thing, just walked off like nothing had happened.

I know of one occasion where someone spat on a steward.

Someone ripped the phone off one of the Teleconfusion booths

For best festival crowd, I don’t think It’s better than EOTR 2021 (the best imo).

Mate, I’m broken too. I had one overnight shift that finished at 08:00 and the other two nights I went back to my tent at 05:00 😂

Guess it's impossible to avoid some twats getting in.

The other side of Shambala, which I rarely, if ever see at other festivals is the genuinely loving attitude of most of the punters.

This festival really does lift my mood and increase my faith in human beings.

It's the only one I've been to that does this (maybe Shindig compares).

[March Hare]

3 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Guess it's impossible to avoid some twats getting in.

The other side of Shambala, which I rarely, if ever see at other festivals is the genuinely loving attitude of most of the punters.

This festival really does lift my mood and increase my faith in human beings.

It's the only one I've been to that does this (maybe Shindig compares).

Absolutely, and the crowd is definitely  better than Glastonbury, Green Man and all the festival republic festivals. That’s my frame of reference 

[Old_Johno]

Shambala easily has the best crowd of any festival I’ve ever been to, especially stark contrast to Reading and Leeds with the videos of burning tents and bottles being chucked point blank at people. Not to say it’s dick free but the crowd is quite self policing, campsites we’re genuinely quiet at night which was a blessing.  
 

Being small obviously plays a large part, if 1/100 people are dicks then that’s a way smaller number of dicks than other festivals. One big downer, someone found my partners debit card and rather than hand it in they bought all their drinks on it all night until it got frozen when we finally got signal which was disappointing. There was a few confused people across the weekend who were wondering what festival they’d arrived at. 
 

charlotte church was a bizarre headline choice, but we were in swingamajig anyway. 

[March Hare]

That’s really crappy @Old_Johno. I hope the bank sort you out. With the phone signal like it was, there nothing you can do but hope for the best.
 

On the flip side I had a card handed to me by a punter which was reassuring.

[Boilingtent]

For what its worth I thought CC was incredible despite initially not getting it at all.

Well crafted show of covers / mashups featuring system of a down, RATM, black sabbath, Kate Bush...

[Skip997]

3 hours ago, Old_Johno said:

Shambala easily has the best crowd of any festival I’ve ever been to

Which almost makes me scared to try anything new (for me), e.g. Noisily or Big Love, as I'm going to be comparing them to Shambala and am likely to be disappointed.

Some of the reactions I get from people there is totally unlike anything I get anywhere else. This is partly because Shambala changes me for a few days.

Seriously struggling being back in the "real world".

[March Hare]

27 minutes ago, Boilingtent said:

For what its worth I thought CC was incredible despite initially not getting it at all.

Well crafted show of covers / mashups featuring system of a down, RATM, black sabbath, Kate Bush...

Was it her late night pop dungeon? I’ve seen that before and it was a lot of fun

[incident]

1 hour ago, March Hare said:

Was it her late night pop dungeon? I’ve seen that before and it was a lot of fun

Yep. I thought she was fantastic personally - I'd not seen her before but knew broadly what to expect and she delivered exactly that.

Certainly she maintained a decent crowd size through to the end, and everyone seemed to be enjoying it.

[Skip997]

Effectively no tents left behind. Seems there would have been one, but it was packed by neighbours and left at recycling.

[March Hare]

58 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Effectively no tents left behind. Seems there would have been one, but it was packed by neighbours and left at recycling.

That’s a massive achievement. The camp sites was also cleaner throughout the festival than any other. It’s just bloody nos that gets left around

[Skip997]

7 minutes ago, March Hare said:

That’s a massive achievement. The camp sites was also cleaner throughout the festival than any other. It’s just bloody nos that gets left around

I never go in the public campsites, I've no reason to do so, but I only saw about half a dozen discarded nos canisters over the whole weekend and never saw anyone with a balloon. I tend to hang out in Roots, Kamikaze (or whatever it's now called) and House Party.

Edited August 31, 2022 by Skip997

[March Hare]

4 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

I never go in the public campsites, I've no reason to do so, but I only saw about half a dozen discarded nos canisters over the whole weekend and never saw anyone with a balloon. I tend to hang out in Roots, Kamikaze (or whatever it's now called) and House Party.

It’s just a general moan I have about nos. Just learn to bin it

[Old_Johno]

On 8/31/2022 at 6:17 PM, March Hare said:

It’s just a general moan I have about nos. Just learn to bin it

I hate seeing the mess from it. More people seem to be acquiring 1 litre bottles of it from somewhere now which I suppose is better… 

[incident]

4 hours ago, Old_Johno said:

I hate seeing the mess from it. More people seem to be acquiring 1 litre bottles of it from somewhere now which I suppose is better… 

Not just better in terms of less mess - but much better in terms of getting noticed by the litter pickers / cleanup crew or the likelihood to get stamped into the ground.

But still - just don't leave it all over the place. I was under the impression that those larger bottles could be reused - so take it back for a refill if you have a suitable source.

[Skip997]

18 hours ago, incident said:

Not just better in terms of less mess - but much better in terms of getting noticed by the litter pickers / cleanup crew or the likelihood to get stamped into the ground.

But still - just don't leave it all over the place. I was under the impression that those larger bottles could be reused - so take it back for a refill if you have a suitable source.

Much easier solution - just stop taking it - crap drug.

Certainly seemed to be far less at Shambala than previous years. Hopefully people are learning.

[Neil]

On 8/31/2022 at 6:17 PM, March Hare said:

It’s just a general moan I have about nos. Just learn to bin it

For a better hit just have a decent cup of coffee 

[Skip997]

On 9/3/2022 at 5:34 PM, Neil said:

For a better hit just have a decent cup of coffee 

This is so true.

NOS is a "nothing drug"