Can an EOTR regular please explain the stages and tents.

[shoebox]

I've Tweeted to ask a similar sort of question. I noticed that someone posted on Facebook asking about the 8500 capacity. Hopefully with a flood of questions like this, they'll be forced to address them.

The Brakes stagetime announcement is an interesting one. A headline slot at 9pm in Big Top surely means that the Big top won't be hosting the late night "after Main Stage" headliners anymore.

[Infinite Jest]

Word I'm hearing is that capacity last year was 7000 but they didn't tell anyone. (Seen that on Drowned In Sound, and someone also tweeted me to tell me. Given that his username is a Wilco song, I trust him implicitly ;-)). So 7000 to 8500 isn't toooooo bad...

[langerabend]

Word I'm hearing is that capacity last year was 7000 but they didn't tell anyone. (Seen that on Drowned In Sound, and someone also tweeted me to tell me. Given that his username is a Wilco song, I trust him implicitly ;-)). So 7000 to 8500 isn't toooooo bad...

[bennyhana22]

I've Tweeted to ask a similar sort of question. I noticed that someone posted on Facebook asking about the 8500 capacity. Hopefully with a flood of questions like this, they'll be forced to address them.

The Brakes stagetime announcement is an interesting one. A headline slot at 9pm in Big Top surely means that the Big top won't be hosting the late night "after Main Stage" headliners anymore.

Edited June 21, 2011 by bennyhana22

[Infinite Jest]

Ben, I mentioned it in another thread ("stage times"): Brakes tweeted they were headlining, at 9pm

[bennyhana22]

Which of course I found seconds after posting! Thanks Jester.

Ben

[SweepingTheNation]

I couldn't go last year so this may have been the case already, but in the bars list on the site I've just noticed the cider bus is now "Located near the Tipi's and fire". So presumably where that used to be is now being used for something else?

Edited June 21, 2011 by SweepingTheNation

[riverlodge]

I hope you are right (I remember too in some threads, that the capacity has been more than 5000 last year). Other than that, the news are worrisome. What about the late night sessions in the tipi? They will most likely be even more crowded. Or they add more alternative night-entetainment, which is in a way, also worrisome... I think I'm getting old... I dont want change!

[riverlodge]

I couldn't go last year so this may have been the case already, but in the bars list on the site I've just noticed the cider bus is now "Located near the Tipi's and fire". So presumably where that used to be is now being used for something else?

[Easily Distracted]

The increase may not be as bad as it sounds. After the 2009 EOTR, we asked Sofia whether they planned to up the capacity, before we committed to buying early bird tickets.

She said the number of punters was 5,000 but the actual capacity, including traders, staff, bands etc was 7,000.

She also said they had no plans to increase it any further at that time.

They may well have decided to increase it since then, but I suspect it isn't by the 70% that the earlier posters feared.

[Swindlebiscuit]

Though I'm not too keen on it rising to 8,500 capacity, it's not rising from 5,000 - it's rising from more people than that..

For the last couple of years it has risen well above 5,000. I can't find the link to the interview, but Simon said previously that it's already gone up to 7,000, possibly 7,500 if I remember right. I think that's already noticeable in the Garden Stage crowds and the squeeze to get in sometimes.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Swindlebiscuit

[Swindlebiscuit]

The increase may not be as bad as it sounds. After the 2009 EOTR, we asked Sofia whether they planned to up the capacity, before we committed to buying early bird tickets.

She said the number of punters was 5,000 but the actual capacity, including traders, staff, bands etc was 7,000.

She also said they had no plans to increase it any further at that time.

They may well have decided to increase it since then, but I suspect it isn't by the 70% that the earlier posters feared.

[Swindlebiscuit]

Not the link I'm thinking of, the TLOBF seems to think it was 7,000 ticket holders in 2010.

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/09/end-of-the-road-festival-101112-september-2010/

They're usually pretty clued up on all things EOTR.

[Swindlebiscuit]

Okay, last link - but it fits more with ED's post.

Their 2008 application to the North Dorset District Council for the 7,000 capacity rise:

http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media.jsp?mediaid=151406&filetype=pdf

It does include all "staff and artists". Personally, I think the difference between '08 and '09 in terms of people was very noticeable. 2,000 tickets for bands and workers? That seems pretty high. Pretty sure some of that extra capacity must have included increased punter numbers.

[langerabend]

Okay, last link - but it fits more with ED's post.

Their 2008 application to the North Dorset District Council for the 7,000 capacity rise:

http://www.dorsetforyou.com/media.jsp?mediaid=151406&filetype=pdf

It does include all "staff and artists". Personally, I think the difference between '08 and '09 in terms of people was very noticeable. 2,000 tickets for bands and workers? That seems pretty high. Pretty sure some of that extra capacity must have included increased punter numbers.

[Yokel Again]

Last year the capacity seemed just right - somewhere between busy and still chilled. I hope if there has been an increase it doesn't change this. After seeing how Latitude changed from 07-10, from being cool and chilled to packed and nasty (well, not really nasty, but the point is there).. I would hate EOTR to change too much. I love it! Still, trust the organisers, they've done a cracking job to date.

[Better Late...]

Personally, I think the difference between '08 and '09 in terms of people was very noticeable. 2,000 tickets for bands and workers? That seems pretty high. Pretty sure some of that extra capacity must have included increased punter numbers.

[RedRockRick]

what a cool link!

[Infinite Jest]

I'm also convinced there are day visitors, in spite of there being apparently no such tickets on sale. This seems particularly noticeable in the main stage areas in the evenings - unless some people have just spent all day at their tents getting hammered and then emerge noisily just for the main bands. Could it be that security around the woods is sufficiently lax that locals who know their way around can slip in and mingle ?

[Donny Osmond]

I felt the same about the difference between 2009, when I was a first timer, and 2010. 2009 felt small and relaxed; 2010, while still of manageable proportions, felt busier and more hassle-y. More people, more "assertive behaviour" - shoving and bad-mouthing to the front at the stages - noisier campsite with more security problems etc etc. I hope this year won't see further increases in these problems and mark a real change in the atmosphere of this lovely festival.

Edited June 22, 2011 by Donny Osmond

[asita]

I've given this some though and my only real concern with the festival getting bigger is what happens when a really popular act draws a really large crowd. as long as people stay evenly distributed about the site, in terms of acts, dancing, drink and food then i doubt anyone will notice the difference, but if the balances shifts at all then wherever the popular band/dj/food stall is will start to suffer pretty seriously. to make sure it doesn't you basically have to engineer clashes between acts to make sure the crowd stays even. In the past EOTR has been very good at juggling its bands so you could catch at least some of all the best bands - it's going to be much harder to do this year. If you consider that we've had a steep ticket price rise (or those that didn't get early birds will have) and a size increase and the possibility of seeing less bands than last year there is certainly a sense of trepidation about this news.

Balanced against this is the fact that for the past 4 years EOTR has been my favourite festival by a length, and that's not exclusively down to the sense of quiet and space that we're all worried about protecting, but also about balancing the best acts, food, drink and entertainment together to make a really perfect weekend. Whilst I'm worried about the balance of the festival I'm also really excited to see what the organisers have come up with this year and I'm kind of glad they've not rested on their laurels.

So yes, we can be worried if we like but at the end of the day the evidence that this will damage the festival is incredibly slight compared to the excellent record of simon and sofia. Balance your worries with a little trust and I reckon all will be well.

[bennyhana22]

All of the above is interesting and it seems to me that there is likely to be a small increase in numbers, based on what seems to be pretty convincing evidence of a capacity last year way above the commonly accepted 5000. However, given the comments about an even spread of festival goers in the various areas, surely there is one BURNING question that needs an answer:

WHERE is the Woods Stage going to be? What will it look like and what will it's capacity be?

I remember the Garden being 'closed' to any more punters for Fleet Foxes in 2009. Presumably part of the motivation for a bigger stage (given the accepted increase in numbers) is to ensure that 'no-one' is precluded from seeing what are considered to be the biggest draws of the festival, numerically - i.e. the Main Stage headliners. The Garden Stage setting, design and all is SOOO lovely. They'll have to come up with a pretty special atmosphere to top that...especially as it gets dark.

Ben

[paulwa]

Maybe this is the reason for the move to 2 large outdoor stages? i.e. to accommodate more people onsite and spread them around a bit. Also, the organisers always said that the Big Top had the same capacity as the Garden Stage (3,000 from memory?), so there are now 3 big stages for all those additional people. Of course the staggered start times could mean a big rush between stages, but it's one theory.

As regards the position of the Woods Stage, there clearly isn't space in what we traditionally think of as the woods setting. The only other big space I can think of would be at the other end of the festival, next to where the Tipi Tent and Cider bus were last year. This position would also avoid noise bleeding between the big stages. I think there are quite a few lines of trees up there, which could justify calling it the Woods Stage. It would, however, mean taking over some of the campsite space between the existing festival perimeter and the terracotta monument, so where do all the extra campers go? It's a conundrum!

Edited June 22, 2011 by paulwa

[MattL80]

The combination of a popular act in the big top plus heavy rain could result

in a very crowded big top. Could get interesting. I hope they've sorted out

some decent weather.

[End of the Road]

Simon has asked for the following post on the forum to provide some clarity to the questions raised on these forums.....

-----------

Following on from my Festival blog post on virtual festivals the other day I would like to respond to the questions asked here about stages and capacity.

For the past 2 years our capacity has been 7,000, not 5,000 (our original quota).

We watched the effects of the increase carefully and felt it had no negative impact at all on the intimate atmosphere, facilities, food and beer queues etc.

In fact the effect was the opposite: the energy of the festival increased without there being any sense of overcrowding.

Tickets sell out every year and many go disappointed, so if we can increase availability without compromising on the atmosphere, we will.

A beneficial side effect is a bigger organisational budget which we hope comes through in what we think is our best lineup so far.

This year we're also trying out a new outdoor stage - The Woods Stage, and a new comedy set-up - Comedy in the Forest.

Facilities, camping etc will increase accordingly.

From our point of view, each year it feels like the spirit of End of the Road is animated, not compromised, by constantly forcing ourselves to come to the

festival with fresh eyes.

Stages and areas are listed on this page http://www.endoftheroadfestival.com/stages-and-areas/ of our website.

Lineup times and a site plan will be added in the next few weeks.

The Local will take up a new residency in the Tipi on Friday.

Regards Simon.