Shangri-La

[Pipine]

I thought it all looked great... I must make an effort next year to properly try out all of the venues cos I did far too much aimless wandering thinking how great it all looked but not wanting to stay put anywhere for long enough to properly appreciate it! I really only frequented Bassline circus and tilted disco but the rest of it looked ace too. Loved the shops, there to "lower the tone" and the hairdressers and after a first busy night visit we learnt our lesson and turned up there after 2am and found it to be not too hectic.

Thanks to all involved! Trashy City and Shangri La were both really cool and I'll definitely spend alot more time there next year!

[amfy]

Hi Amfy,

As I said earlier, even I with all my wristbands/passes and lanyards couldn't bypass that one way system I'm guessing that it must be there to ensure security during the mass exodus from the main stages. It doesn't last too long and Shangri-La does go on till late.

As for the diner, I think we've settled on 'Rocket Rays Juke Joint Deluxe Diner'

[kacas]

got a chance to see florence and the machine, and mystery jets in club da da and loved the venue as did the performers x

[LusciousLucy]

There should be no complaints about the queuing system! When there are over 100000 people all looking to party in either direction of the Park or ShangriLa/Trash City, the one way system was impeccable! Even trudging through the sludge on the Friday was no chore and the added bonus of the ethereal voice of Glastonbury politely informing all the sheep that it was straight on to Shangri or left to Trash...and there may be queues...why begrudge it?

Security were exceedingly well behaved IMO and it was a total surprise to find that despite the fact that there was probably upwards of 30000+ people in the area you didnt notice those numbers at all! The area was more than big enough, the tent for Hayseed Dixie was understandably rammed on the Friday (and was a shame you couldnt hear the music outside (where I was sat comforting my poor feet!) but what a place to party. Havent had that much fun in that area for at least 5 years!

Bassline Circus was the only 'club' I visited...WOW! After a couple of years of Glasto with so little to do at night in a real party sense (post lack of sound system era!), Shangri La has re-affirmed a lot of confidence.

Well done. I shall visit a lot more next year...my feet just refused to let me go anywhere after Friday.

[Sawdusty surfer]

couldnt hear any of the music in the 'Come Play' tent because of the noise coming from the bass line circus tent . shame.

[mr_smiss]

In true Glasto style I suppose, we only made it to Shangri La at 6 in the morning on Sunday after losing the early hours in Trash City, so in reality although things were still up and running, it wasn't the same I'm sure. Tilted disco I didn't know about the glasses and at that time of the day wasn't fully functioning so I have no complaints. when I went Friday night the bars all looked rammed and as such we didn't stop for a drink there, moving on quickly which was a shame.

[Paul ™]

Only walked through it a few times, once during the day and then a couple times very late at night (early morning) and never really went into the venues and near the bars.. must try harder next year

[redmuz]

i didnt make it into the bars but had a couple of pleasing wanders through and felt the atmos overall was great, happy, genuinely up and had lost the rather irritating selfconcious cool of latter lostvagueness years. it was a genuinely exciting place to be, for me.

the MAJOR irritation for me about the 1-way system was the c0cking awful tannoy herding us all like sheep! I come to glastonbury to get away from all that and stewards can do the job just as well in a more glastonbury happy stylee. it was particularly irritating as it was right outside Eartheart and totally ruined my chilled chai and live acoustic tunes time. BAH! no more tannoys please! (i know this is probably nothing to do with you but it got right on my wick...)

nice work though, Shangri-La!

[mr_bizarre]

There should be no complaints about the queuing system! When there are over 100000 people all looking to party in either direction of the Park or ShangriLa/Trash City, the one way system was impeccable! Even trudging through the sludge on the Friday was no chore and the added bonus of the ethereal voice of Glastonbury politely informing all the sheep that it was straight on to Shangri or left to Trash...and there may be queues...why begrudge it?

Security were exceedingly well behaved IMO and it was a total surprise to find that despite the fact that there was probably upwards of 30000+ people in the area you didnt notice those numbers at all! The area was more than big enough, the tent for Hayseed Dixie was understandably rammed on the Friday (and was a shame you couldnt hear the music outside (where I was sat comforting my poor feet!) but what a place to party. Havent had that much fun in that area for at least 5 years!

Bassline Circus was the only 'club' I visited...WOW! After a couple of years of Glasto with so little to do at night in a real party sense (post lack of sound system era!), Shangri La has re-affirmed a lot of confidence.

Well done. I shall visit a lot more next year...my feet just refused to let me go anywhere after Friday.

[mr_bizarre]

couldnt hear any of the music in the 'Come Play' tent because of the noise coming from the bass line circus tent . shame.

[cei]

They were on site from AGES before -- they were starting to set up, both in Shangri La and Trash City from at least the w/e of 14/15 June (I was there for Info Crew training on Sunday 16th, and a lot of the early basic infrastructure -- the bigger marquees and structures --- were starting to be in place).

My challenge to the idea that they'd have a problem getting the ales to sit for long enough to settle, and to have enough stocked up, is to point them towards the Real Ale bar on Acoustic Hill, they had plenty plenty ale there, all in great condition, plenty of choice that didn't decline in stock/range too much, all weekend.

But that particular tent is run/managed semi-autonomously from the WBC I believe, even if technically under its umbrella (I was talking to the manager of the RA bar last year, before and during the fest, can't remember the full detail, but that's the impression I got).

Also Slippery Dick's Love Shack across the railway, a Shangri La crew bar and run entirely independently, with public welcomed in as bar customers ("visitors"), had plenty of that Hartingtons Ale in stock right into Sunday.

There are ways forward here ...

[mr_bizarre]

Could you persuade Debs or Mark or Chris to read this thread? Or at least take all the concerns, such as this one, back to them?? Pressure from them on WBC, as well as from you on WBC, might help??

My request the same as that of efestivals : MORE CHOICE OF PROPER BEER!!!!!

ETA : I see you've taken the feedback thing on board completely, thanks and good luck.

See you at WOMAD!

[Steve_gts]

I've not voted as I don't know exactly which bars I went into, however I had a very good veggie burger there! Dissapointed in having to pay top money for a round of small plastic bottles of carlsburg. We just wanted a pint.

[fionchadd]

RE: the one way system, sorry if this has already been said but i think it would have been better the other way around. Reason being - we were camped in Williams field (just up from the diner) and it meant we had to go quite a long way round to get back to our tent.

(once we knew it was going to happen we planned our way back accordingly on previous nights, but the first night was a bit of a surprise)

I loved the village pub and green - i remember walking past one afternoon and seeing sack-races where everyone involved was apparently called Dave, which cheered me up no end

I enjoyed the tilted disco but I was fairly inebriated - again the glasses would have probably improved it but I didn't feel I should have had to pay for them (this was probably due to me already having paid to get into NYC downlow and being quite disappointed (yes I know that was trash city and not shangri-la)).

I would have loved to get into slumbarave but the huge queues put me off.

Bassline circus - I read something in a Q-daily about having people twirling above your head while you were raving, but went in there on sunday night to not find anything of the sort?

All in all I thought it looked fantastic, and had an awesome atmosphere. Definitely looking forward to seeing it again

[mr_bizarre]

RE: the one way system, sorry if this has already been said but i think it would have been better the other way around. Reason being - we were camped in Williams field (just up from the diner) and it meant we had to go quite a long way round to get back to our tent.

(once we knew it was going to happen we planned our way back accordingly on previous nights, but the first night was a bit of a surprise)

I loved the village pub and green - i remember walking past one afternoon and seeing sack-races where everyone involved was apparently called Dave, which cheered me up no end

I enjoyed the tilted disco but I was fairly inebriated - again the glasses would have probably improved it but I didn't feel I should have had to pay for them (this was probably due to me already having paid to get into NYC downlow and being quite disappointed (yes I know that was trash city and not shangri-la)).

I would have loved to get into slumbarave but the huge queues put me off.

Bassline circus - I read something in a Q-daily about having people twirling above your head while you were raving, but went in there on sunday night to not find anything of the sort?

All in all I thought it looked fantastic, and had an awesome atmosphere. Definitely looking forward to seeing it again

[mr_bizarre]

I've not voted as I don't know exactly which bars I went into, however I had a very good veggie burger there! Dissapointed in having to pay top money for a round of small plastic bottles of carlsburg. We just wanted a pint.

[Welly Boot]

I really liked the whole vibe of shangri la. We went up there on the Friday night (I think) about 8-10pm and it was pretty quiet. There was a mental band going for it in the bassline circus who were great and didn't seem to care that there were only about 15 people watching.

We were the only 2 people in the tilted disco which was quite interesting and playing great music but I didn't even realise that you could wear glasses, I agree that you shouldn't have to pay if this creates the essence of the experience.

We had the most amazing veggie curry up there which was the best meal of the festival for me.

Thanks for asking for feedback, in general I thought it was fab and will look to coming up later on next year.

[fionchadd]

The only ways to combat the ques are to arrive early or late (or que) If you expanded Shangri-La to meet the populous it would inevitably be either very empty and at best void of 'the magic'.

[Chocscoffer]

I spent more time in Trash City to be honest but I was in shangri-la on the Friday night for Hayseed Dixie (I was right at the front and the place was bouncing - great atmosphere!). After Hayseed Dixie a group of us made our way to a club a bit further up on the left (no idea what it was called) and spent a bit of time in there. The only disappointment was again lack of choice of beverages and ended up buying bottles of Carlsberg - not very nice!

As I have said I didn't spend long there but overall I was impressed with what i saw. One complaint I have is the signs outside the tents should be clearer, wasn't sure where Club Dada was (this is where Hayseed Dixie Played I think!) because there were no signs clear enough outside the tents. I will definately spend more time there next year.

[William of Walworth]

I've just been confirmed!! Am very excited as I've always wanted to go :D:D:D

[mr_bizarre]

Oh cool, just seen this, I've already posted in the WOMAD thread. Bring it on!

[William of Walworth]

Alcohol arrives on site (typically) on Monday/Tuesday morning in tankers (lager) and fridge trucks (barrels, soft drinks, spirits). This is done by a comparatively small site setup crew (think 10 people) for all the bars - in essence, they aren't going to have time to move ale barrels out into the bars to allow them to sit for 24 hours. This means it has to be done when the rest of the WBC staff arrive, which'll be Wednesday - in other words, not quick enough to allow 24 hours.

Throw in the fact that the sheer volume of sale means a new keg is coming off the fridge truck every hour or less, then how can you possibly allow kegs to sit for a long period of time?

The reason the Red Flag manages it is due to a careful selection of ales - namely those that don't need 24 hours to sit, and can simply be tapped straight off the truck and sold. This has a function of quite heavily restricting the range of ales that the WBC can sell. The RF is a WBC bar in every respect - it is managed by WBC managers, and has WBC server volunteers. The stock all belongs to the WBC. The only difference between the RF and other bars is that there are floating stock people from some of the speciality ale companies, and they lend a hand in the running and serving of their own particular produce.

The Red Flag also manages to keep its high stock levels of ale by the simple virtue of being the main product it sells - the space behind bars is quite tight, which usually dictates one truck and possibly one tanker. Obviously you can only fit a finite amount of stock in there, and if the ale isn't competing with cider, lager, spirits etc. for space then a lot more can be allocated, leading to the bar not running out. The fine art of dividing up space is a tricky one, and often results in some bars selling out of certain product despite last year's figures being taken into account. For the WBC however, selling out is a good thing - some alcohol can't be returned after an event - and as long as it happens on the Sunday, it isn't considered an issue.

Oh, and ale doesn't come in tankers, which makes it a major pain for volume sales.

Edited July 8, 2008 by William of Walworth

[mr_bizarre]

Cheers for this, I knew some of this but not all. The Avalon Back Stage bar had ales ready by Tuesday night so ...

I suspect that some of the real ale stock in the independent bars MIGHT be sourced separately or by more unconventional routes though, you could perhaps ask the Matt and Chris of Bar Humbug at Avalon backstage and it's possible (if they knew/trusted you) that they'd give an 'interesting' answer. They promised to order more next year though and were very nice about it.

I'm sure the people running Slippery Dicks and 'The Pub' could, with planning, be similarly 'creative' in sourcing what they need -- Mr Bizarre, would you say WBC has a total monopoly over the supply chain?? because that's not the impression I got (except 'officially') ... perhaps we should be cagey with detail on here though.

[SunshineSky]

The changing names of Club Dada were very confusing, myself and a friend went up on Friday night to see Robyn Hitchcock and no stewards could tell us where "Last Man Standing" was, even the ones there on the tent. It's fun to have quirky things to find out but this was very frustrating. So I think you need to make sure there is a big sign displaying the name outside the tent each night.

I thought the stage designs were extremely impressive and the whole place had a good atmosphere, I did feel a little unsure about what different tents were though.

[mr_bizarre]

I spent more time in Trash City to be honest but I was in shangri-la on the Friday night for Hayseed Dixie (I was right at the front and the place was bouncing - great atmosphere!). After Hayseed Dixie a group of us made our way to a club a bit further up on the left (no idea what it was called) and spent a bit of time in there. The only disappointment was again lack of choice of beverages and ended up buying bottles of Carlsberg - not very nice!

As I have said I didn't spend long there but overall I was impressed with what i saw. One complaint I have is the signs outside the tents should be clearer, wasn't sure where Club Dada was (this is where Hayseed Dixie Played I think!) because there were no signs clear enough outside the tents. I will definately spend more time there next year.