Eden Festival

[Eden festival]

No worries, good to have it oot! And pretty sure no harm was meant in any shape or form and i do love a debate Am sure I've met you elf over the last few years and found yourself and your team to be a nice bunch or peeps. hope knocky goes well and will hold you to the chai

We only got a few weeks left of the beautiful british festival seasons, i beg your legs hold up for a few more rolls of the dice and lets have a final few dances before the flags and colours and faeires lay their wares to rest for another season.

Are you ready. here we go...........

[Paul ™]

Am ready... will be there Thursday (am volunteering )

[Owly]

Well to really get this thread back on track , I'm a Knockengorroch regular, and i love this site (site of my first Knockers fest) and I think they have put together the most amazing line-up, and am a late confirmed attendee, so I can't wait, it's gonna be amazing!

[Paul ™]

Heading off in a couple hours, hopefully the weather will be kind to us but pack the waterproofs folks!!

[Paul ™]

Well I drove down to the site and have come home after deciding Eden Festival looked as if it would be a washout.

I arrived on site from the main road at 5.30pm (gates were advertised as 5pm) and despite asking as instructed for crew parking, I was sent by a steward down towards the public car park that was actually around 3 miles from the festival site. I was told there was a mini-bus that was going to ferry people back and forward with their stuff.

I got to this car park, and it had some trackway road down in the field but there was a gap from that to the road which was already a mud-bath with only a dozen cars in the field.

I spoke to the steward and again told him I was working the event (as he tried to charge me £5 to park in this muddy field), so he told me to drive back up to the main entrance and speak to them again.

This time I got past the main entrance towards the site, where I was told to reverse back a bit as there was vehicles stuck up ahead and they were trying to move them. So I backed up a bit and sat for over 30 mins with no idea what was going on. I did hear one steward speak on her radio about vehicles not being allowed on site yet till 7.30pm (this was now 6.30pm) so I thought I was in for a long wait.

Eventually they decided to allow more vehicles in, so off I went again and came up to the caravan with more stewards. After explaining again to them I was told to drive on and round the one way system a couple of miles to the site!

On this road, I could see the festival site and it looked really muddy and the ground was cut up bad at bits. I drove up to more stewards and again we halted as there was more vehicles stuck. Again explained I was here to work and was told to drive round and park at the side of a road where I would need to carry all my stuff across to artist campine. Then a change once another steward came out, and was told I couldn't camp there and would need to park up and carry all my stuff over a bridge and way across the site to general camping.

On driving round, again I could see artist camping and live-in vehicle camping, both of which looked muddy too.

I then decided at this point, I was heading home as I didn't want to experience another mud-fest when am off to Bestival 2 days after I would get home from Eden.

So here I am, home and dry...

I hope the event goes ahead ok and people have a great time, if the weather stays dry it should be ok. But the site is in a forest, with a river through the site plus the water draining off the hills from the natural valley it is in, it could get messy.

Cheers and roll on Bestival

[rseamer]

Cheers and roll on Bestival

[Paul ™]

Several reports on the official forum

• One friend of crew member who was on site for set up for 2 days has given up and gone home

• D&G Police advising not to travel unless necessary but not specifically mentioning the festival

• Dumfries Tourist Board saying an access road is flooded

• One person who went to site this morning couldn't find a decent pitch, says site is a mess and came home

A lot of worried people anxious for an update from the organisers, there was no signal on my mobile (O2) yesterday when I was there so no idea on other networks but it is in the middle of nowhere

Hopefully it will go ahead but people do need re-assured before travelling

[5co77ie]

From the Eden forum:

For those of you who have heard earlier today the road was closed the local tourist office has informed me that it is now open and the area is busy with people heading to the festival.

[smog]

Everything fine by the sounds of it. River hasn't burst its banks hehe and the sun is out. Have a few mates driving up there now and they were starting to panic. Hope everyone has a good weekend. Its a wicked lineup

In fact to elaborate - from the Eden forums:

Hello all,

The river hasn't burst its banks. Yes, there is some mus on site, but not in the camping areas. I will post more information in an hour or so, and if there are any genuine problems (please ignore the rumors) I will let you know. The sun is out today and will stay out for the rest of the day. Tomorrow there will be light showers, but the tents will remain dry and warm

The area is no stranger to rain and I am confident that it will not interfere with the festival at all. Bring an umbrella for tomorrow though!

Edited September 4, 2009 by smog

[Paul ™]

Good news it's still going ahead

[treacle]

Just thought I'd pop by to say that it's a glorious afternoon in Dumfries and Galloway. I've pottered about the roads all day and there are no traffic problems according to the local radio station.

Hope you all have a great time

[Paul ™]

Total gridlock at the site, waited for 4 hours in a holding pen only to be told to go home. Orginal entered site on thrus night but left for supplies. Going to try again the morn. Hope everyone else gets in ok!!! I would not advise going tonight, mayhem!! Poorly organized.

[Andie1]

Please note that when I said some new festivals don't feel as great as my old favourites, I specifically said "I'm not saying Eden will be like this". And I didn't slate any particular festivals at all.

My post was a philosophical old-hippy waffle, about how I personally feel, inspired by something earlier on in the forum... I'm a relative newcomer to forums but I think it should be ok to express such things without being jumped on? Or did I go on too much of a tangent?

Please note too that after listing my old faves I said "I'm always on the lookout for other examples of 'the real thing', so feel free to let me know of any others I haven't discovered yet... :-)". Adam's post made me think Eden may just be such a one. Perhaps next year I'll get to go and find out. It's almost a shame it's not directly before Knockengorroch, then we could go straight from one to the other...

I've responded to Adam with a personal (and happy, shiny, friendly) message.

Hope to see you over a chai, Adam

[Owly]

If you're looking for examples of the'real thing' look out for the 2 annual festivals at Thimbleberry - great line up for 25th - 27th September - see http://www.weird.uk.com/ System 7, Dream Machine, ZubZub, Tetchi, Akahum and Sub source to name but a few for a small £40 sum!

Great site, great people and a lovely atmosphere with 24 hour prescence.

[Madsnapper]

After reading various comments on here especially from Paul I can only come the conclusion that an attempt was made to sabotage what was an excellent festival.

There where a few teething problems but after the rain that had fallen in the days before not surprising. I have been to many festivals that had problems with mud. This was not one of them........

I have included a link to my photographs from the weekend so you can judge for yourselves. Please note the multitude of smiling faces:

http://www.madsnapperphotos.com/festivals/...2009.index.html

My thanks go out to the Eden crew for putting on an excellent festival which was one of the main highlights of my busy year.

[Suzannah]

After reading various comments on here especially from Paul I can only come the conclusion that an attempt was made to sabotage what was an excellent festival.

There where a few teething problems but after the rain that had fallen in the days before not surprising. I have been to many festivals that had problems with mud. This was not one of them........

I have included a link to my photographs from the weekend so you can judge for yourselves. Please note the multitude of smiling faces:

http://www.madsnapperphotos.com/festivals/...2009.index.html

My thanks go out to the Eden crew for putting on an excellent festival which was one of the main highlights of my busy year.

[just7]

-yes, reading comments on here , I also agree with madsnapper, seems like there was a deliberate attempt at mis-information, designed to stop or deter people from going to Eden.

-We arrived on the Friday, had asbsolutely no problems entering the site or parking, the site held up extremely well, considering the rain we had prior to the festival.

-I know there were some issues for some people in getting on site, but the vast majority did not have a problem.

-it was a brilliant festival, set in a stunning location, with a good line up and, most of all, attended by the friendliest bunch of festy goers I have ever met.

-Well done to all the Eden crew for putting on such a stunning festival, look forward to supporting and attending Eden 2010!

[Guest Flip]

I didn't go to Eden, we bottled it after Solfest as the weather looked poo...

I have had some wonderful reviews from people I know and trust....and some that back up what was said on here during the early days of the festival.

So I don't think there was any conspiracy as such, just different experiences...

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Just from my point of view. I do know of alot of vitriol aimed at the festival from some people and the ripping down of flyers etc at other festivals, and alot of bad mouthing. Not really the festival spirit and it has left a sour taste for another festival that alot of the bile seems to have come from.

[Owly]

Well to be fair it was rather chaotic on arrival, in part caused by the police changing one-way systems at the last minute but they had to start using the overflow car park on the friday afternoon and it was a right pain for people stuck out there, makes me think the site doesn't really have the capacity to cope with this number of people, much as i love it!

The mud was nothing, i was at this same site 5 years ago for knockengorroch and it was far worse. where we camped was lovely and green and by the river!

And just to re-iterate the music and festy site were wonderful and the festival goers were without doubt the friendliest bunch i ever met at a festival, so all the shennanagins getting in were forgotten!

[just7]

re conspiracy

-well, certainly there was an organised campaign against eden by certain individuals/groups

-I alerted the Eden organisers to this, although I'm sure they were already aware of it.

-this was weeks prior to the festival starting, those posts, including some on the e-festivals site, were removed, presumably down to the actions of the organisers to stop this kind of bad-mouthing (it went beyond that, in fact).

-shame some feel they had to do this, as above all else, the vibe eminating from Eden and the organisers and everyone associated with it has been absolutely superb.

-I look forward to eden 2010

[Suzannah]

re conspiracy

-well, certainly there was an organised campaign against eden by certain individuals/groups

[just7]

-good to hear that, Andy, thats just the way it should be.

-hope your festival goes well, I'm sure it will.....love to go myself, but thats me lot for this year now, unfortunately!

[Madsnapper]

Look forward to seeing you soon Andy. Thimbleberry. Whoop Whoop. Bring it on.

[Guest Flip]

Well if there was a smear campaign and any of the instigators are reading this then SHAME ON YOU!!!!

The northern festival scene is thriving and lovely new ones are popping up all the time, this is a great state of affairs and I have been able to cut my southern festies down to just one (Sunrise) and instead attend Bearded Theory, Beat-Herder, Solfest and Alchemy...

Eden is definately on the list for next year and I dearly want to get to Thimbleberry, I hear excellent reports from it every bloomin year and have STILL never made it!!!

Edited September 17, 2009 by Flip