rock ness 2009

[smithy10]

-This is my second trip to rockness and I think I will definately be back next year!

-The toilets were kept clean and queues didn't get too bad

-You didn't have to walk for miles to get into the camp site with all your camping gear or to get into the arena - which was pretty handy when needing to head back for something.

-Things did seem to be a bit more expensive this year but I'm sure not quite as bad as some of the other festivals around. I think Rockness is a good at this size and shouldn't become too big as this is what makes it stand out and makes a big difference to the atmosphere.

-the bar was spot on - i don't think i queued all weekend!

-The roads on the way back were a bit rubbish - it took us six hours to get back to glasgow instead of the three hours it took on the way there due difficulty getting out of inverness and the roadworks on the a9.

-I think the veggie food wasn't great this year. Last year there was an amazing spicy veggie burger place, this year, I could only really have chips.

-Big shout out for basement jaxx, I wasn't expecting to rate their show much but I loved every minute of it. Cuban brothers were also a highlight, it put everyone at the main stage in good spirits. I wasn't too impressed with the flaming lips, ended up leaving the arena early friday night.

-You can really tell that there is a lot of thought goes into it to make it the best for the festival goers unlike some other festivals who seem to want to cram in more and more people and make as much money as they can get away with.

-Keep up the good work for next year!!

[jenayr]

No major complaints at all!

So good to hear that there wasn't as many thefts as last year.

Had a great weekend, loved every minute of it. Third year now and I'll be back next year for more.

I wish I could do it all again this weekend!

But can you sell Strongbow in the arena instead of Blackthorn!!?????

I didn't think the food was that great, I don't eat anything with wheat in it so something like risotto would be great! Get fed up of chips after a while!

That journey travelling back was a nightmare, we left about 11ish got into Glasgow about half 5ish. Got home about 10 last night. Shattered but it's worth it.

[April_C]

So many highlights! Bassment Jaxx were out of this world, the sound on the main stage seemed much better on saturday night and it was a really friendly happy crowd kudos to the vj as the visuals were top-notch, as was the tremendous booty bouncing and rapid costume changes. The downpour on saturday provided one of my best festie moments, was going to boost back to my tent but got caught up at the rizla stage which was putting out some amazing old techno, got a poncho and danced like a maniac with the other punters on the water logged stage.......felt about 5 years old again, horsing about.....brilliant.

Did anybody go to the wee Thai home-cooking stall at the bottom on the main stage field? Cheapest, healthiest food there, £4.50 for green curry, noodles, sweet tattie fritters and chilli sauce! all served up by the smiliest happiest thai folk i've ever met, had to shake that chicks hand at the end of the weekend, best food i've ever had at a festival. Get them back next year! All in all Jim a brilliant weekend, great vibe that could rival Glastonbury but Rockness benefits from being a smaller site, you can pack so much in! Only slight complaint is that the Clash arena needs two more sets of speakers on each of the poles further back in the tent to up the decibels........also Prodigy were great but should have gotten their arses back on stage for an encore, much was left unplayed!

Back in the real world now, it's raining and i'm already plotting my next festival outing.....here's to next year!

[elektrogirl]

Hi Jim,

This is my 4th Rockness, and I noticed huge differences from 2007 to 2008 but personally I thought it wasn't AS good as last year (sorry!) which was mainly due to VIP not being as great as previous years - the VIP area in the arena just wasnt as good (I miss the Rhubarb Vodka ;-) and although we didnt camp in the VIP area the toilets outside of it were better in the main campsites and I gladly paid the £2.50 for a shower rather than wait in the mammoth queue in the VIP area - 3 showers is just not enough.

I preferred the layout of the Argyll food stalls last year - it just seemed like there was more choice?

On the plus-side the cash bars were a fab idea, and I thought the sound from Bollywood/Soco/Rizla was much better quality - however, the main stage sound wasn't as good. I stood in the same place last year for FatBoy as I did for Prodigy but the sound was def better last year. However, I still jumped around, enjoyed the sporadic weather and generally had a ball.

I agree with the comments on the A9 situation....those roadwork traffic lights could have been managed better in light of traffic volumes/direction over the weekend!

x

[Mishmoneypenny]

Hi jim ,

i think its great how your coming looking for the feedback rather than sitting back and hoping no one complains. This sets you apart from many other festivals who after this year will just go straight into organising next years without as much consideration of the success of this years.

This was my first rockness and i have to say its stood out head and shoulders above the other festivals ive been to, and the english guys i camped next to were amazed at the atmosphere when compared to festivals theyve been to.

I would like to particulary point out the toilets were kept well, the food was resonably priced and there was a good level of campsite security. I think your crowd is very good, keeping away the idiots of the day i would say is the reason rockness has such a great atmosphere.

I thought the entertainment in the campsite was rather average ( the monster and carling places ) when compared to campsite entertainement at other festivals (e.g the duracell tent at T) , the bollywood arena and the soco were brilliant and were where we spent most of the time at night but not been able to take in drinks made it exspensive. I understand licensing restrictions but possibly abit more life in the campsite entertainment would make the difference and give the atmosphere i thought the beer amnesty and monster lacked.

But I will definetly be returning as this is the friendliest and most enjoyable festival ive been to. I also thought your speech after the prodigy to close gave it a more personal touch, it showed that rockness is a labour of love, rather than a corporate money machine.

[Piratebhoy]

What a weekend!! It absolutely flew past!!

We spent quite a while getting in on the Friday. Security was going through our bags as if they were on commission to find glass bottles!!! I have been to loads of festivals, and always decant into plastic bottles, but this fell on deaf ears.

Other negatives were the amount of neds hell bent on wrecking the campsite when they were pissed. On the Friday night the group of tits up beside us had wrecked their own gazebo and two of their 8 tents. The Saturday they had 2 tents left and resorted to wrecking other peoples!!! Woke up on the Monday morning about 6 am with one of them trying to smash up our site saying that if their tent was wrecked then mine will be too!! He soon fecked off when I popped my head out the tent...

Definitely though there was a LOT more young groups of lads about this year than last year, looking for aggro and it does make you watch yourself a bit more. Luckily there is usually a good group of us who can look out for each other, but I would definitely stay in the VIP or go home to INV if it was just me and the GF. I have been to the previous Rockness’s and never seen so much as an argument, but this year there was a fair few fights.

Also my mates from work had his tent set on fire after a group of utter idiots threw there BBQ on it from up the hill. This was in the middle of the night and luckily a group beside them woke them up and got them out there melting tent. As you could imagine the tent was pretty f**ked and they were lucky not to be hurt.

On the positive, the music was amazing, the weather perfect (I have freckly skin which goes red at the sight of the sun) and the general atmosphere amazing!

Any chance of having the Nesstival Arena open later than 2am? A few more hours would be awesome and maybe by the time people head back to the campsite they would be ready for bed and not looking for aggro!!

Roll on ROCKNESS 2010!! 5 Year anniversary!

[rachbon]

i had a great weekend, will definitely be back next year!

good points - dj yoda, dizzee rascal, scratch perverts, soulwax, flaming lips, super furry animals, efest camp banter, the stovies van and the pimms bus!

choice of food was good this year but not quite as good as last year. i think you should have another indoor cafe area like the argyle food market from last year.

[rachbon]

anyone caught shouting "here we, here we, here we f**king go" should be removed from the festival.

[Kowalski]

choice of food was good this year but not quite as good as last year. i think you should have another indoor cafe area like the argyle food market from last year.

[weesteve]

I'd agree with that.

Also, there was a stall advertising "Square Sausages". WTF.

[Paul ™]

Also, there was a stall advertising "Square Sausage". WTF.

[Piratebhoy]

I'd agree with that.

Also, there was a stall advertising "Square Sausages". WTF.

[rachbon]

I'd agree with that.

Also, there was a stall advertising "Square Sausages". WTF.

[dirty flow]

i dont get it

surely square sausage is not only a good thing but a standard normal thing?

[Kowalski]

Some people may call it Lorne sausge....

[Thing 2]

Thats was actually Keatsy from the Cuban Brothers on the stage after the prodigy. Totally unrecognisable from earlier on eh?

[missmairi]

Hi Jim

Firstly I'd like to say that I think it's amazing that you have come on line to ask for feedback on the festival...that in itself is a highlight for me. I've been going to TITP for 10 consecutive years now and each year it becomes more and more apparent that the organisers don't particularly care much about the festival goers and just want to cram as many people in as possible to make as much money that they can. Rockness on the other hand although it obviously needs to make a profit seems to take on board comments and criticisms and definitely makes the effort to make things more enjoyable for its festival goers.

This was my 3rd Rockness (I couldn't make it last year) and every year has been fantastic in my opinion. However this year seemed to be much more organised. We barely had to queue to get in to the event, there was just the right enough stuff to do on the Friday night and we didn't need to queue to get into any of the tents which meant that you could leave your pals to go to the toilet without the worry of not getting back in and loosing them. There was plenty of space to sit on the hill and chill if that’s your thing and also enough room at the back of the tents to dance without being constantly banged into.

Highlights for me were -

Friday night in the Soco Social tent

Erol Alkan - the guy is amazing seen him loads of times and he never disappoints

The Prodigy - even just looking down on the crowd made the hairs on my neck stand on end

The steak, onion and pepper baguette I got on the Sat night cost £5 but it tasted so good not like your usual crappy festival burgers so well worth the money.

The toilets were actually pretty clean

Low points were -

We were camped in the yellow campsite next to a bunch of stupid wee boys who were trying their best to start fights with everyone. They tried on us but luckily we were with a bunch of guys who put them in their place & they didn't bother us much after that. However they did kick the sh*t out of someone on the Friday night as well as start fights amongst themselves and rip down loads of tents including their own & were also throwing a football down the hill trying to noise up other folk. They supposedly got arrested on the Sunday night but in my opinion they should have been put out on the Friday night. I think there should have been some more security in the campsite on those scaffolding things watching out for trouble cos I didn't see any at all watching over the yellow campsite.

Apart from that well done, keep up the good work and whatever you do don't end up turning into the nedfest that is TITP!

[Piratebhoy]

We were camped in the yellow campsite next to a bunch of stupid wee boys who were trying their best to start fights with everyone. They tried on us but luckily we were with a bunch of guys who put them in their place & they didn't bother us much after that. However they did kick the sh*t out of someone on the Friday night as well as start fights amongst themselves and rip down loads of tents including their own & were also throwing a football down the hill trying to noise up other folk. They supposedly got arrested on the Sunday night but in my opinion they should have been put out on the Friday night. I think there should have been some more security in the campsite on those scaffolding things watching out for trouble cos I didn't see any at all watching over the yellow campsite.

[onelasttime]

Hi Jim,

This was our first Rock Ness, as we are usually at the less dancey festivals, but the draw of the Flaming Lips was too strong.

In comparison to the other festivals, Rock Ness is very good.

I am sure that you wont mind some constructive criticism, mind.

A few things slightly annoyed us.

Only one entrance lane to the main arena. A festival like REading may have twice the capacity, but will have at least 6 times as many lanes. You cant ignore those figures. Although, I had no issues with the stewards here, if bottles of water were being confiscated then I agree thats pretty off.

The stewards between the campsites and the car parks seemed a bit lost. I like to keep some of my stuff in the car as its secure and dry, but the stewarding here was really inconsistent. At one point, we werent allowed to leave the campsite. Thats is strictly not on. Im also not entirely sure I need a ticket stub for another festival if I have a wrist band on. What exactly were the instructions at the car park gates because it seemed to annoy a lot of people.

You really ought to think about letting people camp up on Thursday afternoon and populating the Friday bill. People sitting arounf waiting for 8 hours in a field is no way to start a festival.

We did VIP and an extra couple of points.

The VIP area was behind the barriers to the main stage, which meant it couldnt be used until this area was opened (e.g. 630 on Friday)

The amount of toilets was surprisingly low.

But aside from these points, the festival was excellant and better in atmosphere than most festivals. The line up was a bit skinny though, wasnt it?

Edited June 16, 2009 by onelasttime

[jabbo]

we done the sums and worked out we danced for around 30 hours solid ("chems free") with breaks only for drink/toilet over the weekend (including the pre-party on the thursday)...that says it all really about how amazing this festival was! rizla (cracking soundsystem) and bollywood were nuts. have no complaints whatsoever about the organisation everything went soothly for us. only suggestion is would have been good for the rizla to have gone on until 2am on the sunday too, the taxi rank was brutal whereas on the saturday just after 2am was no queue...this may spread out the queue a bit??

shame about the neds in the campsite that would have been feckin annoying...occupational habit unfortunately with living in this country.

square sausage lol its a scottish thing..i have a square sausage roll every other morning...delicious!

can't wait for next year already...will be living abroad but will be making sure i come over for it.

[Paul ™]

People sitting arounf waiting for 8 hours in a field is no way to start a festival.

[festivalchick77]

Luvved Rockness!! No Major compalints at all!

Missed the ROCKNESS sign on the hill and felt like there was less toilets??

not sure if there was though! Apart from that no problemsits an amzing festival, the cash at the bars was great also

Would prefer strongbow to blackthorn as the cider also!

Woop Woop!

P.s Can we get groove armada next year??

SOULWAX ROCKED!! XX

[Perratt]

You really ought to think about letting people camp up on Thursday afternoon and populating the Friday bill. People sitting arounf waiting for 8 hours in a field is no way to start a festival.

[jabbo]

oh meant to say also cash bars much better than tokens. never understood the tokens thing anyway that seems to be used at so many of these events??? all you need is plenty of bar people and there were loads who were all super friendly!

[Tommy]

Jabbo - Tokens make security easier. It's basically a sign that the promoters don't trust the bar staff.