Lowlights

[Jim King]

Had a great weekend, saw some excellent acts and thoroughly enjoyed myself, but it's not above criticism. For me it was a step backwards from last year's excellent festival.

• Too many repeated acts across the weekend

  i accept we had a few acts on from previous years but there were so many new acts on this year that have never played before.

• Everything closing two hours earlier each night compared to last year

  it didnt. sat closed at 2am the same as in 2009. sunday did close slightly earlier though (sorry for miss post on this earlier).

• Serious shortage of bins in the campsite

  the specs were the same but i'll look into it as we really didnt cut any out. what i think might of happened is that more was brough into the campsites that ever before which leads to more waste packaging. they shouldnt have had the build uo of litter thought like you and others have mentioned so we will definitely look to improve this for next year.

• Not enough toilets in the yellow campsite.

  was the same spec as 2008 and 2009 so im confused. was it much more bsuier in there? the overheads dont show it as being so but you arent the fist to raise it so i will look into it.

• Drambuie Bar was an absolute shambles at times, very poorly run:

• -dishing out tokens on the Friday saying they were showing the opening match, only to find out that they weren't

• -operating a 1-out-0-in policy for at least two of matches

• -not serving drinks during some of the matches

• -no pass outs, so nobody could get a drink when they stopped serving, or go to the toilet

  it was their bar and overall i thought it looked good but the england v usa match was a bad idea to show; the area was too small.

• Being falsely promised a new set by 2manyDJs

  when we booked them they were in the middle of planning a new set. i didnt make it up. they then pulled back from doing it in 2010 as they couldnt make it work the way they wanted to.

• No information about line-up changes

  these were going out on the screens. someone else mentioned they didnt know about zane moving but i know it went out as i saw it. the fact they didnt means it doesnt work as it is so we need to change it. i think we need to run an app or a blue tooth next year that delivers any changes as unfortunately these will happen.

  anyway, thanks for the comments and feedback. regards jim

[Kowalski]

Cheers for the reply Jim.

Sounds good about FR being first-come-first-served next year.

[LiamGP]

toilets were more than last year so not sure why you felt there were less. must have been the dodgy aberdeen angus stall i read about earlier increasing the queues!

[Window Licker]

I have to say this also;

Good man Jim on replying to peoples main concerns, especially so quickly and with such understanding. I honestly hope all of these 'lowlights' don't paint too negative a picture on what was a truly wonderful weekend. I do however feel that if you were to fully address the issues raised in this thread, and tweak things ever so slightly, that next year and years to come, Rockness would definitely be a 10/10 festival for me and many others.

The highlights this year seriously outweight the lowlights. The line-up was sensational, the best Ive ever seen, ticked all the boxes for me. The atmosphere was electric, you could feel the buzz crackle in the air. And overall I thought the organisation as a whole was top top drawer, especially the running times. Aphex Twin followed by Leftfield is something I will remember forever. Grandmaster Flash was a brilliant addition, I hope he'll be coming back, just to see such a living legend in action was great, his set was unreal.

So a big big thank you Jim from me and all my mates. The last two years have been well worth the long journey over, and we'll be making our way back next year, Rockness is the best way to kick off the summer. Hopefully more of our friends join the fun next year.

Finally it was great to see so many Irish over there, I must have bumped into atleast 20 or so over the course of the weekend. Just goes to show, you can't keep us away from a good party once it gets going!

Cheers!

Roll on 2011!

[NeighbourhoodBeerWatch]

Like other people have said I don't want to gripe, as I had a good time just as I have the last few years and realise that it's not always possible to please everyone. Music wise, enjoyed Leftfield, 2manydjs, FBS etc.. wasn't such a big fan of The Strokes "Last Night" aside, but mainly as I'm not really into them, but can see they'd have been great for people who are. As for Kevin Bridges, loved it, liked him since he burst on the scene so was pleased to get to see him and being down towards the front didn't experience the hearing difficulties others have described. Also liked the Afterburner, music aside it's a striking sight when the suns set.

BUT.. I do agree with the person about the no pass-outs after Sat night Jim. Some might say it's not doing the festival properly but being from nearby, myself and a few others like to go back early morning get a shower etc (feels amazing by the way!)and were pretty disappointed to be told we'd be risking getting back in, especially with the weather the way it was..

Similarly, with the no re-entry with drink.. We did go back on saturday morning, and my view is I don't want to leave stuff unguarded given the risk of thefts, drink included but this prevents this. I did what they did and gave a crate to a guy coming in for the first time, but I don't get the point in the rule.

I too had a feeling of a shortage of toilets (in the campsite), but thats probably because we usually camp in the Front Row section rather than towards the foot of the hill as we did this year meaning theres a bit of a gap between the general camping and those toilets at the bottom. I think you've just said up there everyone will be allowed to camp there again next year? If so great!

The price of cans yeah.. I know there has been duty rises but £3.30 has to be a massive mark-up?!

Other than that, if you could find a way of extending music hours that would be class as well, but I appreciate your difficulties.

Oh and if you could tell the sun to come out more next year, cheers

[rachbon]

thanks for replying to the comments in this thread jim. it's appreciated as always.

[rexclark]

Cheers Jim for your responses. Hopefully Rockness will keep growing as a festival and all the little glitches will be ironed out.

P.S. we spotted you at the Argyle Food stalls on the Sunday, hope you enjoyed your dinner.

[MrCool]

In the grand scheme of things its just a few minor issues and overall the festival was excellent.

Another thing I remembered, crystals castles set being stopped twice to make that announcments was bad crack, im not suprised if they were raging about it.

I thought there was screens last year to inform us of changes to lineups? Never saw anything this year to let us know about any changes (zane lowe, hadouken?) it would have been nice too also know who the TBC acts on the lanyard were. Even a basic poster outside the tents to let us know would be good.

crystal castles stramash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PuWSj2OLDY

Edited June 17, 2010 by MrCool

[Fife_Nick]

Was my first time at Rockness and have to say it was amazing. I did notice a fair few utter pricks though. From people launching full cans of drink to randoms coming up to me and calling me a dick etc.

Toilets were a bit rank as well but I kind of expected that. Some of the food stalls were horrible as well. £5 for donner meat and chips....HORRIBLE! and the fact you only got a tiny portion.

Still had an amazing time, looking forward to next year!

[jenayr]

I just didn't think there were enough toilets, I seemed to queue for an age all the time in the arena and in the campsite they were too far away from where we were camped. It stopped me from drinking as much as I would so in a way that could be a good thing!

The bar staff in the arena were a total nightmare, not being able to remember a simple order for 3 drinks and taking forever to get served.

Disappointed that certain areas were closed early esp on Sunday night, was looking froward to a final night of partying before having to leave the next day.

That's the main moans I had, had a great time as ever, no doubt be back next year for my 5th year!