Campervan Chaos!

[pendleton_girl]

For comparison purposes, I've been to Beautiful days 4 times and used my campervan last year. There, the vans were arranged in an orderly fashion to allow easy access by the fire brigade and tents were kept to a minimum and despite the bad weather we had a great time.

I'm no Health and Safety freak, but if the powers that be had seen the state of the campervan area at EIID it would have been shut down as a fire and health hazard I'm sure.

The steward lady did her best, but just saying "we are trying to leave room for fire engines" and then letting everyone park where they like was a big no-no. She should have been supported by other stewards, at B Days we were actually guided into our space by a steward to keep everything as it is supposed to be.

Additonally, there seemed to be far too many tents allowed to pitch up there; in fact on the Saturday, a couple parked their car and set up their tent right outside our van. Now I'm not trying to be precious here, it was pouring with rain so it didn't really matter that we couldn't have got our awning out if it had been sunny, but why did we pay an extra £20???

The water taps were mounted far to high on the stakes so the area around them soon became a big mudlake, plus trying to fill a Fiamma water container from a great height was difficult without making it worse. Consequently I tried to hold it under the tap and ended up dropping it because it got too heavy for me.

By Sunday morning our neighbours had had enough and packed up and left (with the help of a tractor) and we were very tempted to do the same. To be fair the weather on Saturday was diabolical and I don't think the festival could really pull it back from that. Anyway we stuck it out and after a couple of glasses of wine to chill out seemed to be OK again until I went to fill up my water bottle and en route found that some animals of the two legged variety had decided to use the campervan area as a lavatory...enough said.

In four years of going to Beautiful Days I have never came across such chaos, disorganisation and filthy behaviour. I realise I may be mocked for this opinion, but I don't think there is anything 'cool' or 'fun' about living in the dangerous free-for-all public lavatory that the Campervan area was allowed to become.....we couldn't wait for this morning to come and finally escape, with the result that after going to many festivals, all of which I have enjoyed, this is the first one I've not enjoyed and will not be coming back to.

So can someone please answer the question, why did we pay £20 for this?

I was also going to ask if the parking of the campervans would be tightened up and arranged better next year, but maybe there is no point as I won't be coming back.

[rosemarymagpie]

Why did we pay a extra £20 for my campervan to be parked next to a car park away from all toilets, a walk to main arena. people then moved their cars and tents in around us. last year the live in area was close to main entrance and i didn't see cars parked in there. security was a bunch of power freaks in uniform boyfriend got searched regularly going in to main arena. I was told the car that came with us was not allowed next to van on friday woke up saturday to cars and tents parked outside the van. must say a great big thank you to tractor and landrover drivers who helped tow us poor peeps who got stuck in mud.

[barbienightmare]

For comparison purposes, I've been to Beautiful days 4 times and used my campervan last year. There, the vans were arranged in an orderly fashion to allow easy access by the fire brigade and tents were kept to a minimum and despite the bad weather we had a great time.

I'm no Health and Safety freak, but if the powers that be had seen the state of the campervan area at EIID it would have been shut down as a fire and health hazard I'm sure.

The steward lady did her best, but just saying "we are trying to leave room for fire engines" and then letting everyone park where they like was a big no-no. She should have been supported by other stewards, at B Days we were actually guided into our space by a steward to keep everything as it is supposed to be.

Additonally, there seemed to be far too many tents allowed to pitch up there; in fact on the Saturday, a couple parked their car and set up their tent right outside our van. Now I'm not trying to be precious here, it was pouring with rain so it didn't really matter that we couldn't have got our awning out if it had been sunny, but why did we pay an extra £20???

The water taps were mounted far to high on the stakes so the area around them soon became a big mudlake, plus trying to fill a Fiamma water container from a great height was difficult without making it worse. Consequently I tried to hold it under the tap and ended up dropping it because it got too heavy for me.

By Sunday morning our neighbours had had enough and packed up and left (with the help of a tractor) and we were very tempted to do the same. To be fair the weather on Saturday was diabolical and I don't think the festival could really pull it back from that. Anyway we stuck it out and after a couple of glasses of wine to chill out seemed to be OK again until I went to fill up my water bottle and en route found that some animals of the two legged variety had decided to use the campervan area as a lavatory...enough said.

In four years of going to Beautiful Days I have never came across such chaos, disorganisation and filthy behaviour. I realise I may be mocked for this opinion, but I don't think there is anything 'cool' or 'fun' about living in the dangerous free-for-all public lavatory that the Campervan area was allowed to become.....we couldn't wait for this morning to come and finally escape, with the result that after going to many festivals, all of which I have enjoyed, this is the first one I've not enjoyed and will not be coming back to.

So can someone please answer the question, why did we pay £20 for this?

I was also going to ask if the parking of the campervans would be tightened up and arranged better next year, but maybe there is no point as I won't be coming back.

[Dipster]

There was apparently a strict 'No campfires, no bbq's, no naked flames etc etc' policy in place in order to protect the famer's crops...

So, where we're the onsite fire safety crews?

The ground was very dry on the friday and people we're pitching up with bbq's and camping gas cookers etc. The tents we're packed in too tight. They should have had more stewards actually in the campsite designating an area for each tent. And, clearly defined fire lanes and a Fire Safety Crew on call.

Infact having been to Wychwood and Gobal Gathering in the past, it was very re-assuring to know that the show DOES NOT start until the Fire Safety Officer says it is safe to....

Luckily at EIID, it rained all day saturday which meant we all slept soundly in our beds safe in the knowledge our tents wouldn't be burned down around us :-)

And yes, the taps we're a bit too high.

[moose]

Seems to me the organisers can't win here. At Glastonbury, people whine on and on about having to park in lines, not be with their mates, not able to put tents up, etc, and then when they go to a festival where they can, they whine some more.

The toilet issue was rectified pretty soon after being reported, and remained well-maintained and clean throughout the weekend. There were two more toilets in the field this weekend than I've ever had in my usual field at Glastonbury, WOMAD or several other festivals I go to. The distance from the van to the arena was a very short stroll over easy terrain.

I saw no evidence of the field being a 'dangerous free-for-all public lavatory' either. The only thing bothering the people I was camped with was the loudness of one guy's snoring.

[Cybertec]

"Seems to me the organisers can't win here. At Glastonbury, people whine on and on about having to park in lines, not be with their mates, not able to put tents up, etc, and then when they go to a festival where they can, they whine some more."

I think you've missed the point Moose - I'm not complaining about parking in a line, this is primarily a safety issue, its not some pathetic 'dissing' the 'man' and its not about camping with 'my mates'If I want to camp with my mates, that is what I will do - in the camping area, and if they want to campervan with me...well they need a campervan and pass to do so ...it is also about having to pay a premium for a campervan pass only to be blocked in by the cars and tents who obviously couldn't be bothered to take that 'short stroll' to the designated camping area or to the plentiful toilets elsewhere on site. this is a health risk (pissed adults and small children running around/falling in human sh*t).

[Flounder]

as I am a health and saftey freak , I actually came on here to rant about a long list of stuff which includes all of what youve said so I wont repeat.... but wow how bad was the whole camping situation......very very very unorgasnised to the point of cant be bothered to put up with a repeat of it when there some many brilliantly organised fesivals going on for the same money ..... and tbh with more to do....and did they actually employ anyone to do some work when it came to stewards or was it totaly based on free tickets for stewarding alone ?? meaning none of them give 2 hoots to doing anything too much cause they alredy had there tickets and werent about to get fired?

stewarding for your ticket is great for extra hands on the deck but surley some sort of proper management is required to cover all bases for saftey .... water .....supervison ..common sense?

even a sign post or pointer to the direction to the basics would have been a simple slight help too.

[moose]

I think you've missed the point Moose - I'm not complaining about parking in a line, this is primarily a safety issue, its not some pathetic 'dissing' the 'man' and its not about camping with 'my mates'If I want to camp with my mates, that is what I will do - in the camping area, and if they want to campervan with me...well they need a campervan and pass to do so ...it is also about having to pay a premium for a campervan pass only to be blocked in by the cars and tents who obviously couldn't be bothered to take that 'short stroll' to the designated camping area or to the plentiful toilets elsewhere on site. this is a health risk (pissed adults and small children running around/falling in human sh*t).

[rosemarymagpie]

moose i'd prefer it if everyone could camp where they wanted and thats what happened at my area of the live in area tents,cars and vans. I'm just annoyed that i had to pay a extra 20 quid for my ticket when i carry my own water supply and toilet

[Dipster]

The water pipe thing was only a minor gripe, us girlies like to be all independant and outdoorsy etc but are quite puny with the old arm muscles

In hindsight, I could plan ahead next time and bring a short length of hose with a tap attatchment to use. Adapt and conquer! That's the spirit...

On the fire issues... how equipped we're the security guys in tackling any fires that may have taken hold? Good on them for telling people to put bbq's etc out, but they surely can't be everywhere, all of the time. Also, I saw some fire points around, but no water butts. Apologies if I was blind and missed them.

Call me a stress head, but it only needs 1 clumsy devil full of cider/ale/whatever, to knock his/her oil lamp over and a few tents could go up in quick succession.

And really, don't friends who want to camp together, turn up together? Even so, the campsite at EIID wasn't so big that pals would end up miles apart in other fields like Glastonbury etc...

These are not critisisms, just my own observations that could be looked at for the future

Thanks

[Cybertec1]

Whilst there shouldn't be cars in the Campervan/Live-in Vehicle area, there's no suggestion on the website (or on the tickets, IIRC) that tents cannot be erected in there - maybe you believe there should be, in which case I'm sure the organisers will look also at that. I can't think of any festival where tents aren't allowed in the campervan field though.

Perhaps if the organisers were to define what the campervan field ticket price covers, people might feel less aggrieved - for example, at Glastonbury, it's clearly stated that it's not to pay for any extra facilities other than a field, it's an 'environmental tax'. Other festivals I attend use the money to pay for a larger allocation of land for the festival.

In fact there were both cars and tents in the campervan area, and these were not necessarily 'attached' to campervans, please don't use Glastonbury as an example of anything, its days of having any sort of credibility are long gone.

As it is Flounder has confirmed that due to 'unforseen circumstances' the designated campervan area was not able to be used...fair enough shit happens, what I would say ORGANISATIONALLY more effort should have been put into keeping the areas seperate.

As for the environmental tax - if you believe that etc....a VW van takes up no more room generally speaking than a large car and the owners are not taking up 'camping space' elsewhere, they also (generally) have there own on board facilities which again put less pressure on the toilets etc...

I do however object to walking in some lazy bastards shit. this is not acceptable and although (obviously) no blame for this can be laid at the organisers door it is some years since I have been confronted with this and the obvious answer on this occasion - was not enough toilets (conveniently excuse pun!) placed for the expected useage.

As for the organisers 'no win' situation, afraid that doesn't wash with me as an excuse, we paid to go to a festival and to be looked after as far as possible in safety while we were on site. This time we weren't and i'm sure that Flounder and co will take this all to post festival analysis and ensure it doesn't happen again next year....me, I will go back to Beautiful Days where I KNOW they get it if not perfect then pretty damned near.

Did enjoy the Dreadies though!

[moose]

Why have you got two log-ins?

You've obviously had a bad experience in Dorset - hope you enjoy the rest of your festival season

[barbienightmare]

The problem here is partly about misinformation and presumption. All stewards pay £75 which they get back, so are committed to working.

The toilets were an issue on Friday, as someone had blocked in the trailer that we can use to transport them around site. However, this was a priority on Saturday am and was sorted by the time I got up (7.30am).

Security were tending to the naked flame issues - in fact I was moaned at in the Punk bar by a punter who mistook me for "the moaning twat" who made people put out and form of BBQ.

However we do listen and act on feedback/complaints, so please do be assured that this will all go back into the festival analysis and dealt with appropriately.

[tartanterra]

In therory I see what your saying and Im sure most were commited , but I still think a few more watchfull eyes over exactly what various stewards are putting in is needed dont get me wrong we did find a lot very lovley and good (mostly the older ones I hate to sound agest here) .... but as a mostly confused punter especially on the friday there were a rather of lot of of completly useless stewards , our group and the van next door asked a fair few steward about toilets etc, ...where the water was, finding one was hard enough to begin with as it was and when we did they either looked bank or hadnt a clue , we got the feeling they didnt care, your explanation of the last minuet major changes in fields and loo van getting stuck explains a bit for the clueness and blank stewards nut definatley in that case communication needs to be adressed, and the lack of steward presence at certain point like the parking of vans, when we arrived there were plenty of car parking stewards, and at first there was lady on her own it seemed who I must say was doing a fantastic job at directing the vans , but at one point she seemed to get inandated with van arrivals and it was quite impossible for her to be able to see to them all, and sudenly you got a surge of vans tearingacross the field and plonking them selfs down she really could have done with an extra 1 or 2 stewards to stand at points....then someone else came we took it to take over her job and after about 5 mins they just hug around looking vaugue and then seemed to wander off ...... and then there was no one for a good while and thats when the organisedness seemed to go down hill in the van field.

on the points being made are listen too, mabey I should put this in a separate post ? but anyway regarding children and saftey , you wrote a contact number on there wrist bands which is great, but the paper wrist bands I know are pretty tough but as a parent of 2 rug rats trying to keep them in tact and ledgible number and allergey info on there wrists wasnt easy.

Also Im not so keen on kids names being on wrist bands , I know a lot of places do this sort of thing but a lot of agenceys also dont incourage generaly names on really young kids even clothing tags in school uniforms are considered risky ... visable names arnt needed and can be a risk,

The kid knows its name and the person on the end of the contact number should too ....but every other tom dick and harry dosent need too know and f its on a wrist band its visable and can be used to sense young kids in to false sense of security....ie an adult sees the name and later goes to the child oh you must be *so and so * I know your mum .... do you want to come with me ... .. I think you should review your name on wrist band policy or at least look into it, mabey a number system with bands and names written sepretly on file of sorts for emergency situations even , seeing as allergys were being asked it would make sense and be safer just to have the ciontact number exposed on wrist band for immediate purposes call me over catious but my kids are the most important thing I own .

my other issue was with la ost kids tent ?? was there one if there was it should have a whacking gurt sign saying so...... I was a bit stuck to tell my kids where to go if we got separated....I had to suggest the gate reluctantly with the gate area being so busy but at least I knew at least there was pernamently a security gaurd on the gate , which to me was the safest type of person to be able to pick out for them......... a lost tent would have been better, thankfully they didnt get lost but kids saftey policys are a big decider to where I take and dont take my kids .

[tartanterra]

I had three kids under six, and one of them wandered off. No snags, we were re-united in minutes, thanks to lots of festival goers and stewards who helped out.

I can't really believe some of the nonsense I'm reading on this thread, i.e. "taps too high", "Health and Safety" etc. It's a festival - not the Ritz!!!!! It was a great festival from mine and my kids point of view and I think that a great big "THANK YOU" should be going out to the organisers and staff, who - let's face it - aren't exactly going to be millionares out of this.

If people are so agrieved at paying an extra 20 quid to get a van in and not having top facilities, here's a top tip:

SELL your van, use the interest from the proceeds to pay for a local hotel to stay in, and simply get a taxi or a bus to the site every day. That way you can get all the modern conveniances you demand and you wont have to rough it like the peasants!!!! SORTED!

ENDORSE IT IN DORSET 2008 - Many thanks, it was fantastic!

[Cybertec1]

Got two logins as I lost my password and then got confused (i'm old).....

Taranterra....nice to see some rounded debate, any advice for the lazy dirty bastards sh*tting outside tents and vans.

As for joining the 'peasants' (your words), been there done that, now don't have to.

[pendleton_girl]

I had three kids under six, and one of them wandered off. No snags, we were re-united in minutes, thanks to lots of festival goers and stewards who helped out.

I can't really believe some of the nonsense I'm reading on this thread, i.e. "taps too high", "Health and Safety" etc. It's a festival - not the Ritz!!!!! It was a great festival from mine and my kids point of view and I think that a great big "THANK YOU" should be going out to the organisers and staff, who - let's face it - aren't exactly going to be millionares out of this.

If people are so agrieved at paying an extra 20 quid to get a van in and not having top facilities, here's a top tip:

SELL your van, use the interest from the proceeds to pay for a local hotel to stay in, and simply get a taxi or a bus to the site every day. That way you can get all the modern conveniances you demand and you wont have to rough it like the peasants!!!! SORTED!

ENDORSE IT IN DORSET 2008 - Many thanks, it was fantastic!

Edited August 13, 2008 by pendleton_girl

[rosemarymagpie]

If people are so agrieved at paying an extra 20 quid to get a van in and not having top facilities, here's a top tip:

SELL your van, use the interest from the proceeds to pay for a local hotel to stay in, and simply get a taxi or a bus to the site every day. That way you can get all the modern conveniances you demand and you wont have to rough it like the peasants!!!! SORTED!

my van quite comfortable thanks just aggrieved that i had 2 put up with people in tents + cars who haddened paid £20 quid blocking my van in if had been a dry weekend it would have been one hell of a nightmare if there had been a fire. you were proberaly one of the lazy gits who didn't want to walk your camping gear down to the campsite where the proper facillities for tents were. other than that i had a good festival and will be festivaling it for the rest of the summer and summers to come quite comfortable in my van

this is what was stated on the endorse it website:There is a separate area within the campsites for caravans and campervans. You will need a live-in vehicle pass to use this.

Cars pulling caravans/trailer tents can drop off the vehicle in the live-in vehicle area, but must then be parked in the official car park.

Edited August 13, 2008 by rosemarymagpie

[Cybertec]

Thank you rosemary

[Dipster]

SELL your van, use the interest from the proceeds to pay for a local hotel to stay in, and simply get a taxi or a bus to the site every day. That way you can get all the modern conveniances you demand and you wont have to rough it like the peasants!!!! SORTED!

[Ffi]

For comparison purposes, I've been to Beautiful days 4 times and used my campervan last year. There, the vans were arranged in an orderly fashion to allow easy access by the fire brigade and tents were kept to a minimum and despite the bad weather we had a great time.

I'm no Health and Safety freak, but if the powers that be had seen the state of the campervan area at EIID it would have been shut down as a fire and health hazard I'm sure.

The steward lady did her best, but just saying "we are trying to leave room for fire engines" and then letting everyone park where they like was a big no-no. She should have been supported by other stewards, at B Days we were actually guided into our space by a steward to keep everything as it is supposed to be.

Additonally, there seemed to be far too many tents allowed to pitch up there; in fact on the Saturday, a couple parked their car and set up their tent right outside our van. Now I'm not trying to be precious here, it was pouring with rain so it didn't really matter that we couldn't have got our awning out if it had been sunny, but why did we pay an extra £20???

The water taps were mounted far to high on the stakes so the area around them soon became a big mudlake, plus trying to fill a Fiamma water container from a great height was difficult without making it worse. Consequently I tried to hold it under the tap and ended up dropping it because it got too heavy for me.

By Sunday morning our neighbours had had enough and packed up and left (with the help of a tractor) and we were very tempted to do the same. To be fair the weather on Saturday was diabolical and I don't think the festival could really pull it back from that. Anyway we stuck it out and after a couple of glasses of wine to chill out seemed to be OK again until I went to fill up my water bottle and en route found that some animals of the two legged variety had decided to use the campervan area as a lavatory...enough said.

In four years of going to Beautiful Days I have never came across such chaos, disorganisation and filthy behaviour. I realise I may be mocked for this opinion, but I don't think there is anything 'cool' or 'fun' about living in the dangerous free-for-all public lavatory that the Campervan area was allowed to become.....we couldn't wait for this morning to come and finally escape, with the result that after going to many festivals, all of which I have enjoyed, this is the first one I've not enjoyed and will not be coming back to.

So can someone please answer the question, why did we pay £20 for this?

I was also going to ask if the parking of the campervans would be tightened up and arranged better next year, but maybe there is no point as I won't be coming back.

[Cybertec]

..Now that is a fair reply.

Thank You!

[rosemarymagpie]

Thank you! I'm glad that you admit there was problems. The childrens area i noticed this year had grown and there seemed to be plenty of recycle bins in the main arena and camping area. yes everyone remember EIID is a very reasonable priced festival and it seems from my experience that the organisers are willing to listen to complaints and have promised to rectify problems in 2009.

all those people who didn't pick up your litter think some poor buggers now having to pick up your litter out of a muddy field yuk

[sod buster]

As one of the organisers of EIID 08 I would like to make a few apologies and shed some light on the problems with the live in vehicle area this year.

Due to late unforseen circumstances with crop rotation the original site map showing toilet/water/stewarding points had to be disregarded.

The problem with the toilets was unacceptable and for that we are truly sorry. The trailer was blocked in and I am glad to say that the issue was rectified early Saturday morning but EIID take full responsibility for that problem.

We allow tents to camp with camper vans to allow friends/children to camp with one another. Cars should not have been parked in the live in vehicle area, this was clearly a communication error and the orgasnisation of this area is paramount in the plans for EIID 09.

On the kids wristbands issue, parents were told to put mobile numbers only on the wristbands, and we will have a lost kids tent at EIID 09 (thankyou for that feedback)

I suppose though the real reason for responding to this post is our comparison with Beautiful Days................we are flattered to be compared with BD as they are a large and well established festival who have a sell out capacity of 15'000, a high ticket price and large amounts of financial sponsorship, this equates to a large budget thus allowing for the employment of professionnal stewarding firms, low key police presence on site, and paid organisation accross the board.

EIID does have a different ethos. We do not rely on financial supplementation, we have a capacity of 5000, a very low ticket price to ensure affordability for our punters (£75) and a very hardworking crew of volunteers and festival organisers, much of whom are still litterpicking now!

We are absolutely committed to improving our event for the benefit and safety of our punters and value the feedback from all of you. We really hope that small glitches in the organisation this year do not marr the overall feel of the event and your experience of it. I can assure you EIID 09 will address these to ensure the best festy yet.

Lastly.................Dont compare us to the big boys, you cant compare the price, so don't compare the rest of it.

Cheers,

Ffi

[sod buster]

Think you were told the usuall field may not be harvested in time . So you have the use of the field that was was used for the weekend .DONT PASS THE BUCK ONTO THE FARMER FFI.