All Points East 2023

[Gingerfish79]

1 minute ago, charlierc said:

Feel like that's just a broad festival problem anyway, even moreso after inflation in 2021/22 was just so bad.

True, prices felt reasonably high at Download and Ynot this summer, but the prices at APE were just silly! £12 for a ‘German’ sausage was daylight robbery.

[manchestermusicreview]

According to a steward I spoke to on site, expected to be as half as busy as Friday today… 

[Dales]

32 minutes ago, manchestermusicreview said:

According to a steward I spoke to on site, expected to be as half as busy as Friday today… 

I live fairly near and seen hardly anyone pass my place.  Normally, you hear loads of people going by. The area is very quiet. Can hardly hear any noise coming from the park, very weird.

I am going later, so will be interesting to see the size of the crowd to previous years events I have attended.

[xxialac]

Such poor line ups this year. Started so well in 2018. 

Hope bad sales gives them a kick in the arse..

[ConfidenceMan]

3 hours ago, xxialac said:

Such poor line ups this year. Started so well in 2018. 

Hope bad sales gives them a kick in the arse..

Yeah, I went and had a good time for one day this year, but I wouldn't even factor it into my thinking again for 2024 without a major improvement in the calibre of acts booked. 

Im willing to give them an out - its a competitive market and quite a few festivals have mediocre line ups this year IMO, but if it becomes a trend... 

I can't think of a single late summer festival around Europe with a decent line up this year. There are probably one or two I've missed (and certainly some quality smaller events) but if we're talking big ticket events comparable to APE, id say they're all pretty poor. 

[xxialac]

1 hour ago, ConfidenceMan said:

Yeah, I went and had a good time for one day this year, but I wouldn't even factor it into my thinking again for 2024 without a major improvement in the calibre of acts booked. 

Im willing to give them an out - its a competitive market and quite a few festivals have mediocre line ups this year IMO, but if it becomes a trend... 

I can't think of a single late summer festival around Europe with a decent line up this year. There are probably one or two I've missed (and certainly some quality smaller events) but if we're talking big ticket events comparable to APE, id say they're all pretty poor. 

How about Kalorama/Cala Mijas?

[Jonathan Jonathan]

11 hours ago, Gingerfish79 said:

True, prices felt reasonably high at Download and Ynot this summer, but the prices at APE were just silly! £12 for a ‘German’ sausage was daylight robbery.

I’ve basically accepted that 12 quid is standard of what most festival food is nowadays. Weirdly I’ve realised going to the more expensive looking places is a better shout. The cheap burger, hot dog and chips type places know they can charge you 12 pounds for a McDonalds quality burger whilst the fancier places know that most people won’t pay over 15 quid for festival food so have to keep prices more realistic.

 

I went to the poke bowl place at both Field Day and Ape and got salmon and teriyaki chicken bowls for 11 pounds, which is about what a regular poke bowl costs. Felt like I’d found a bargain compared to most festival food. At other festivals this year I’ve had full pizzas and Korean chicken dishes for around 12 pounds too.

 

Also halloumi is the enemy. Halloumi fries, halloumi burgers, halloumi skewers, halloumi wraps - always the biggest rip off.

[manchestermusicreview]

Last day was actually great! HAIM were perfect with the main stage sound being spot on, Confidence Man smashed it out the park, and discovered a few new artists (shoutout to Isabelle LaRosa!).

Could certainly tell the difference in numbers leaving, was much easier than Friday. Ngl tho, it was better for it. 
 

 

[rug568]

Haim were 10/10 for me. Not my usual gig but cheap tickets and them being my wife's favourite band it was all in all a great evening. Never been to ape so couldn't judge how busy it was in comparison to other days but it was very easy to get around. 

Very happy crowd, good sound and the band put on a great show. 

The undercard was pretty shite which I think accounted for a lot of the poor ticket sales 

[ConfidenceMan]

13 hours ago, xxialac said:

How about Kalorama/Cala Mijas?

Yeah these are certainly the best on the go (though you couldn't pay me to go to a Florence & the Machine gig!) 

Not much variety elsewhere. Festival Republic seem to really dominate the late summer market so it's the same acts popping up at Reading & Leeds, Electric Picnic etc etc so if you're outside that booking cycle, it must be trickier to get acts. 

[Dales]

Went to Haim yesterday. It seemed practically empty cmpared to other APE events I have been at. Although, empty is a throw away term there were still thousands of people in attendance. To put it in perspective we walked to the VIP barrier for Griff without ever having to break stride, or step aside as the crowd was that thin. The sales must have been shocking. Haim were good but as usual their choreographed chat/banter was annoying. I thought by now they would be able to make it seem off the cuff or if not drop it. Although, most of the crowd lapped it up.

Surprise for me was Confidence Man, I went along out of curisity rather then knowing their stuff. I did wonder if that would be a mistake as I was enjoing Girl in Red. They were Ohhhhhhhh so cheesey, shockly cheesey with extra cheese on top and with a side order of cheese. However, they were so much fun. I did not know whether to dance or piss myself laughing. They might be my new guilty pleasure. I have tickets for New Order at the 02 later this year and they are the support. I can't wait to see what the real nerdy New Order fans who only like the 12" B'side versions of tracks and only really like Joy Divsion make of them 😊

 

[Dales]

I forgot to mention talking and drinking is still the main reason people go to APE. At least in the tent with Confidencer Man it was to loud to hear anything anyone had to say. Still dont get why so many people spend so much money to go to a festival when they clearly dont like music? Save some money and go weatherspoons and get cheaper drinks.

[captainricebox]

Anyone else get sniffed out by one of the dogs yesterday? Seemed to be loads of people going for extra searches. Felt more like the dog was thrust at me, and the signal was nothing more than them sniffing me, which I've had plenty of times before and not had it called a signal. 

[mahoneypepe]

Went to Haim day. Loved it. No queues, sound quality was excellent on every stage. Girl in Red, Snail Mail and Unflirt were my highlights. And the non-stop supply of Coke Zero for free. Not a big fan of Haim but they put on a good show. It was the perfect day out (and yes, I did buy tickets at full price). 

[Fleetwood_Mac_And_Cheese]

What a good time yesterday was! 

Caught Snail Mail for the 4th time who never disappoint then a perfect run pretty much through to HAIM who blew it out of the park! Such a good energy and was glad they played a decent chunk of their debut and recent album as both are brilliant records.

Girl In Red really impressed me and brought some great energy to the day but for me Confidence Man blew it out of the park! What a good vibe!

[maarrkk]

31 minutes ago, captainricebox said:

Anyone else get sniffed out by one of the dogs yesterday? Seemed to be loads of people going for extra searches. Felt more like the dog was thrust at me, and the signal was nothing more than them sniffing me, which I've had plenty of times before and not had it called a signal. 

Yes and every single person from the point of walking in and the dog thinking I had drugs to when they cleared me was on a massive power trip and pretty mean. No need to be like that even if I had drugs and the policy was to eject those people.

 

I entered at 2pm on the dot and it definitely brought my vibe down being treated that way, just temporarily thankfully as the rest of the day was great. 

 

Is it worth complaining about the way I was treated getting in, or is that normal if they suspect you have drugs on you? I was told quite abruptly that that the dog never lies. But since I was one of the earliest in, perhaps the dog was just warming up into the day before it got settled in and more people came through?

[captainricebox]

1 hour ago, maarrkk said:

Yes and every single person from the point of walking in and the dog thinking I had drugs to when they cleared me was on a massive power trip and pretty mean. No need to be like that even if I had drugs and the policy was to eject those people.

 

I entered at 2pm on the dot and it definitely brought my vibe down being treated that way, just temporarily thankfully as the rest of the day was great. 

 

Is it worth complaining about the way I was treated getting in, or is that normal if they suspect you have drugs on you? I was told quite abruptly that that the dog never lies. But since I was one of the earliest in, perhaps the dog was just warming up into the day before it got settled in and more people came through?

I went in around 4pm and other than the dog handler, who was clearly power tripping, everyone was fairly chill. I think after 2 hours of solid checking people on a whim and not finding anything, maybe they'd lost some of their vigor. 

I doubt you'd get much out of complaining, although the searches were filmed, so you never know.  My feeling is, unless you could prove the handlers were either targeting people or straight making sh*t up, there's little that can be done. 

[emmanuel]

9 hours ago, ConfidenceMan said:

Yeah these are certainly the best on the go (though you couldn't pay me to go to a Florence & the Machine gig!) 

Not much variety elsewhere. Festival Republic seem to really dominate the late summer market so it's the same acts popping up at Reading & Leeds, Electric Picnic etc etc so if you're outside that booking cycle, it must be trickier to get acts. 

Kalorama/Cala Mijas don't look particularly inspired to me. The lineups are very APE-like (Aphex Twin, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Amyl, Strokes, Moderat) but the location is further away, with Arcade Fire an additional turn-off.

Rather, to me it seems like Green Man, End of Road, Connect and others took over in terms of good undercards and good lineups, which is the main issue with APE. And Green Man is not very far from the size of the Haim/Jungle APE days so I think the comparison is valid.

[manchestermusicreview]

Any shouts for 2024?

If she’s in the UK, Olivia Rodrigo would be an interesting one? Potentially Vampire Weekend? Reckon we’ll have a new album from them soon…

 

[OCarter]

LCD Soundsystem (would have bet my hat on them this time last year), The Smile, Massive Attack/ Portishead, Self Esteem, Fred, Tyler the Creator, NIN, Nick Cave...

 

 

[Dales]

This post is not about APE but I know plenty on here played the Ladbrok games to win APE tickets. Well Ladbroke Live currently giving away pairs of Courteeners tickets for Earth. First 100 entries get tickets.

[sisco]

7 minutes ago, Dales said:

This post is not about APE but I know plenty on here played the Ladbrok games to win APE tickets. Well Ladbroke Live currently giving away pairs of Courteeners tickets for Earth. First 100 entries get tickets.

Was going to enter but then read winning a ticket doesn’t guarantee entry! First come first served 

[Dales]

16 minutes ago, sisco said:

Was going to enter but then read winning a ticket doesn’t guarantee entry! First come first served 

Thanks for pointing that out as I missed it.

Hopefully, not to much of a  problem for me as I live in East London and so worth a punt but at least I now know to go down early tohave any chance of getting in.

[dumbsaints]

10 hours ago, sisco said:

Was going to enter but then read winning a ticket doesn’t guarantee entry! First come first served 

Argh missed out on the initial tickets and now missed out on these.

If anyone has two spares let me know 😁

[dumbsaints]

The Ladbrokes thing doesn't offer you any code to submit like the OG tickets through NME did does it?