Alchemy festival 17th - 19th Sept 2010

[timespeedsup]

Tried to get him out of the woods by jumping the ditch.

[GlastoMad]

i do beleive he was in that position and didnt go for it.

lol.

i do agree, those pizzas were something else. not to mention the crepes. i also had a malteser milkshake which went down well!

[rabid]

& was Mongrel in a position to realise what that involved?!?

[Psy-Clone]

That was awesome!!!

Thanks to everybody that made it happen..

Thanks to Toby, for hie hard hard work all weekend,

Thanks to everybody that danced to my sets on Fri (x2)and Sunday,

Thanks to all the other artists and DJ's for their brilliant music,

And thanks to the wobbly bike crew.. what a laugh they were!

Cant wait for next year! xx

[greenfairy43]

That was awesome!!!

Thanks to everybody that made it happen..

Thanks to Toby, for hie hard hard work all weekend,

Thanks to everybody that danced to my sets on Fri (x2)and Sunday,

Thanks to all the other artists and DJ's for their brilliant music,

And thanks to the wobbly bike crew.. what a laugh they were!

Cant wait for next year! xx

[Psy-Clone]

Sorry, yes, good point!

Thanks Elen! - See you guys soon hopefully! xx

[Guest Flip]

Best festival of the year for me, absolutely loved it!!!

Toby and everyone involved, you have something very special there, vibe was lovely lovely lovely!!!!

Jody's Opus rig sounded belting all weekend and we were treated to soooo much good music in there it was untrue!! Mentions to Merv's 2 sets, James you rocked the Friday night mate!! Zetans set was stomping, the crowd were going flippin mental!! Wobbly Squadron, Lorraine, Ed T, Mr T Hippie and loads others I have forgotten...

Big respect the Psy Breakfast crew as well, Saturday/Sunday thru till gone 5am was cracking, Gregg Zogg played a blinder and the tent looked lovely!!

Dance areas too good to fully appreciate the whole site but it looks like a nice new Alchemy home..Great to see Tarantism pop up on the Sunday!!

Real Ale needed in the bar, after the first Alchemy where the ale was lovely, to go to nowt but Jahn Smiths meant our small group alone went home with alot of money we would have happily spent on good local ale [More on this topic when WoW signs in ]

This was also Lisa and my last festival as just us, by next year we will have a new addition as Lisa due in Feb, Lisa was therefore sober and straight and still thought Alchemy was amazing!!!

Edited September 21, 2010 by Flip

[Paul ™]

This was also Lisa and my last festival as just us, by next year we will have a new addition as Lisa due in Feb, Lisa was therefore sober and straight and still thought Alchemy was amazing!!!

[Psy-Clone]

James you rocked the Friday night mate!! Zetans set was stomping, the crowd were going flippin mental!!

[Goblinz]

Can someone please tell me who the DJ was that was playing in the psychedelic breakfast tent at about 2am on Sunday morning (it was during and after Eat Static). It was really good and refreshing to hear some fast stuff that was interesting and not dark and mental!!

Edited September 21, 2010 by Goblinz

[strudders]

Simply Brilliant festival. Vibe was the best all year, the bands and DJ's were epic and the company fantastic.

Thanks once again to Toby and Ellen for a great weekend....

Normally I am sullen and depressed for the first few days but I am still on such a buzz from a great great great few days...

Cant wait till next year...

Woohoo!

[Altern8Gal]

Anyone find a black cat. Lis (Buzzy Beatz) lost her cat - If anyone knows where he might be (he's chipped), please give Lis a call on 07963 919628.

Cheers!

[greenfairy43]

Simply Brilliant festival. Vibe was the best all year, the bands and DJ's were epic and the company fantastic.

Thanks once again to Toby and Ellen for a great weekend....

Normally I am sullen and depressed for the first few days but I am still on such a buzz from a great great great few days...

Cant wait till next year...

Woohoo!

[GlastoMad]

I can't believe I'm the only one who had teary eyes when I left

[rabid]

you wernt you wernt! was sad to go but we will all be back again next year!

[superdry]

I can only echo all the compliments and huge thank yous to Toby and Ellen. Was the most brilliant weekend and the best festival of the summer for me!

Food was ace and at a good price. The company was superb, the decoration and the music was fantastic and I especially enjoyed the Psychedelic Breakfast tent!

I also loved being able to join in and help out with the decoration with the woods if only for a little bit and watching it change over the weekend as more and more things got added and moved around. Feels almost like a part of the festival rather than just a punter turning up to be entertained.

A perminant fixture in my calender from now on. I only wish I had some cash on me at the end of the weekend buy another for next year as I was leaving.

My face still hurts from all the laughing!

[greenfairy43]

One of the things I loved the most was that at the end, the campsite was pretty much immaculate as far as I could see. There was rubbish, granted, but it was bagged & in pretty tidy piles. Just shows the place was full of decent people.

The communal fire pit was a high point too. Warmth, something to sit on & random banter. What more could you wish for?

[rabid]

One of the things I loved the most was that at the end, the campsite was pretty much immaculate as far as I could see. There was rubbish, granted, but it was bagged & in pretty tidy piles. Just shows the place was full of decent people.

The communal fire pit was a high point too. Warmth, something to sit on & random banter. What more could you wish for?

[greenfairy43]

Something certainly

[GlastoMad]

i didnt even notice it was the communal fire pit until the last day... i just thought it was were the hulahoops were!

[William of Walworth]

I have at least a zillion very positive things to say about this excellent festival, but they'd all be even more positive if it wasn't for one utterly unforgiveable crime.

The so called 'Beer Tent' was a total disgrace :angry:

I hope if any of the organisers are reading this, that they pay some serious attention to this lamentable apology for a 'bar' for next year.

People (Flip and others etc.) who'd gone previous years had praised the range of ales formerly available, which among much else (all the music, the atmosphere and so on, and none of that disappointed us newcomers this time) we were hugely looking forward to.

I think somewhere much much further up, months ago in fact, Mr Alchemy referred to the ale choice being repeated for 2010.

But what did we get?

John Smiths Extra Shite ( :angry: x 10,000!), Carling, and some moderately good cider that had run out by Saturday -- lunchtime, I believe?

A Theory I have, purely speculative I admit, is that the bar spec may have been reduced for cost reduction reasons -- and maybe to get rid of any profit sharing with other (more experienced/professional?) organisations/businesses. If there's any truth in this Theory at all, then it must surely have been 100% plus counterproductive -- I never saw any queue in that bar, the staff were most of the time standing around, and a fair bit of money must surely have been lost.

My sympathies with the organisers are miminal on that one thing, because a well planned, well stocked, better ale filled/better lager filled/better cider filled bar would have done so much good for the festival both in terms of happy punters, fewer bar related complaints (surely it's not just me on this??), more profit, and the MC of the Beer tent stage not feeling obliged to force himself (surely?) to refer to 'plenty of lovely beer'** when urging people to buy there between bands, on Saturday afternoon ...

**'It's not true!!!' someone loudly shouted. That may perhaps have been me ... echoing the thoughts of literally tens present!

Apologies for lengthy rant, but we're beer drinking professionals, it was our last festival, we had money to spend which we ended up not doing, and like many music festival fans at this kind of festival, we're truly committed CAMRA types. We go to shedloads of music festies every summer (and beer ones in the winter! ) and we've rarely if ever seen any beer tent so awful outside the Reading style mega corporate ones that we nowadays avoid.

Festivaldeb especially is actually massively involved in the Swansea Bay Beer Festival (100 plus beers plug plug!) and we have access to all sorts of helpful tips/advice and positive ideas beyond just the harsh** sounding criticism.

**but fair, I'd assert!!

The Alchemy festival was new to us and a wonderful revelation in pretty much every other respect ... they really really let themselves down with that disgrace of a bar though!

Sort it aht for 2011 please!!

This aspect could be a bit of a dealbreaker for one or two of us re coming back (which we'd really like to but ... )

Edited September 22, 2010 by William of Walworth

[William of Walworth]

Loads of positives to follow soon, we actually had a brilliant time overall

[timespeedsup]

Size of that rant! Thank fk the weather held.

Pretty fair assessment of the bar though I guess, and I assume The Alchemist is now well aware of the problems it caused. Whether or not the fest was let down or not I don't know, really hope it wasn't planned that way.

Contrary to what you heard WoW, I heard off no-idea-who (so quite possibly 100% inaccurate) that the bar-owner decided the hassle of the extra 2 days of getting the proper ales in and settled wasn;t worth it. Think that was wrong though, plenty of money would have been spent, but then again plenty of lager etc was consumed, so that by Ruth Theodore's excellent Sunday teatime set it looked like just tinnies available (at £2 a shot).

Same bar crew as last year?

[just7]

-I would have liked t have gone to Alchemy this year, but 3 festies in three weeks had knackered us.....

-what I do like at festies is reviving pint of local real ale, with, preferably, a decent choice.

-reading about Alchemy, these guys obviously go to a lot of trouble to ensure there is a damn good festival to be had, so one is hard put to understand why John Smith's shite was the beer on offer. Weird or what?

-sort it out, and I'm there for 2011

[greenfairy43]

If the scale of the response to the isssues raised from the first Alchemy last year is anything to go by, next year's beer tent is likely to be the best in all the land!