questions of a practical nature from a newbie

[zahidf]

Hello

Just a few questions if anyone can help!

1. Is there a supermarket/shops walking distance from the site, or should I pack all my snacks beforehand?

2. Is the ground hard or soft, tent peg wise?

3. Does it get muddy when it rains? Will I need wellies?

4. Are there phone charging places on site?

[seadragon]

Hi zahidf!

In answer to your questions...

1. Nearest supermarket is Tesco in Shaftesbury so best to stop there on the way and pick up what you need. It's about 15 mins away. There is a geneal store on the site where you can get a lot of things, but for snacks and drinks I'd pick these up on the way. Although the food there is amazing and not expensive if you're thinking about proper food rather than things to pick at.

2. Ground is soft enough...so long as you can find the ground between the huge lumps of stone that seem to be everywhere across the site! Expect lots of bent tent pegs.

3. I've not been there for any significant rain even though this will be my fourth EOTR this year. I doubt it gets that bad, nowhere on the scale of glasto for example and I wouldn't bolther with wellies, but others might advise you better on this one.

4. Last year there was a phone charging tent run by FOTE (I think) but they were totally obverwhelmed by demand and eventually stopped taking phones in by about the middle of the second day. A lot of the problem seemed to be not having enough chargers so maybe take your charger too and you might have more luck? Also, after leaving my phone there for a few hours I got it back with no more charge than it started with so it's hit and miss. To be honest though, I wasn't too bothered, was only using it for the clock. I can live without my phone for a few days

[perfectpassion]

I think wellies are always useful. It did rain on the friday in 08 and I remember the ground being particulary sticky! Phone charging was useless last year, and the battery runs down much quicker there.

[ElGanzo]

Ya there was one year when it was quite muddy. If the forecast is rain, take wellies. Otherwise should be fine.

[zahidf]

cool, thanks. I may take heavy boots instead, though good weather would obviously be better!

I have quite a power hungry phone, so will probably last around 5 mins:-)

[paulwa]

I was there the year it pelted down for an hour or two on the Friday night (2008?), making it muddy all weekend, even though it was pretty sunny after that. It was never really that deep, so walking boots were fine instead of wellies - it's not Worthy Farm. I do remember one gents portaloo slowly filling up with mud. They had to close it once it got a few inches deep. At least, I think that was mud!

I've got to agree about the pitching of tents. You can usually get your pegs in, but the ground is packed with annoying pebbles a couple of inches below the surface. Best buy a cheap mallet for giving them a whack, as it can get a bit wearing on the hands - making the holding of beer difficult for the next half hour.

Another supermarket worth consideration is the Waitrose at Gillingham. It's a bit further away, maybe 30 mins from the festival site, but they have a cafe - so you can freshen up, shop, and then grab a sausage or bacon bap fit for a king.

On the phone front, you can try turning some services off to help your battery last longer. If you can see your wireless settings, set it to "2G only", as there's no 3G at the site anyway and running this additional radio will only kill your phone. If you have your email client set to check for new messages on a regular basis, or even "push" it to you automatically, turn this off for the weekend. Make sure Bluetooth and Wi-fi are both off as well. It's voice and text only from now on... who would want to know what the rest of the world is doing that weekend anyway?

Edited August 15, 2011 by paulwa

[Yokel Again]

Virtually the same answers from me, but here we go anyway...

1. Not been off site but there is a shop on the campsite, it doesn't have everything you'd ever need by any stretch of the imagination, but they have taken an 'order' from me in the past to go out and get something in particular. I think it's just a local village shop reloacted for the weekend.

2. Soft ground, killer stones.

3. It's not tooooo bad, but I don't think there's ever been to much rain to test it. I think 2008 was wellies the next morning but fine after that. The stages were all fine, just the walk through the gates into the 'arena' type bit were boggy. As with any festival, take your wellies and you can always leave them in the car.

4. No idea. Phone off for 5 days. Site is small enough to spot anyone you may be meeting up with on site.

2 and abit weeks!!!

[perfectpassion]

And bring a torch and some very warm clothes/blankets. It gets very cold at night

[jol33n]

It does! As for phones, I put mine of flight mode when I don't need it (ie: when I don't need to meet someone / find out any info about secret gigs or other emergency) so the battery runs a bit longer (it doesn't connect to anything). And anyway, if you're worried about having lost someone on the site, don't worry, it's not very big!

[baroquepop]

4. Spare phone batteries cost a couple of quid on Ebay. Well worth having!

As for the rest, thanks for the info! Will be shopping en-route for wellies etc, depending on weather forecast.

[steve1878]

2. In 7 trips to LT the ground has never been too hard to nail the pegs in but as others have rightly said there are a lot of stones to contend with, one joy of the terrain. If you've just got hte cheap and nasty pegs that your tent came with then you may with to invest in some sturdier ones.

3. It got pretty moist at the regular Larmer Tree Festival but walking books were fine, never any need for wellies. There's one pinchpoint between the two main areas that has historically got pretty muddy but that's been surfaced over for this year which helps a lot.

4. If you must, then I can recommend one of these babies: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=new+trent&x=0&y=0

[airwaves]

".....but that's been surfaced over for this year....."

This sounds like some info from someone - Steve - who knows something about the site this year (though I thought the area in question had had hard core stones added last year)

If you do know something about the site this year do you know where the Wodds Stage is located? Please post

[steve1878]

".....but that's been surfaced over for this year....."

This sounds like some info from someone - Steve - who knows something about the site this year (though I thought the area in question had had hard core stones added last year)

If you do know something about the site this year do you know where the Wodds Stage is located? Please post

[cocoab]

Perfectpassion is right, it gets really cold in the evening /night.

I found last year that my best strategy was wearing a woolly hat from about 7 in the evening, before it gets cold.

I have never had to resort to wellies either,but then I manages without wellies at latitude this year!

[Thowky]

Perfectpassion is right, it gets really cold in the evening /night.

I found last year that my best strategy was wearing a woolly hat from about 7 in the evening, before it gets cold.

I have never had to resort to wellies either,but then I manages without wellies at latitude this year!

[paulwa]

Perfectpassion is right, it gets really cold in the evening /night.

I found last year that my best strategy was wearing a woolly hat from about 7 in the evening, before it gets cold.

I have never had to resort to wellies either,but then I manages without wellies at latitude this year!

[Better Late...]

I find that wearing a woolly hat in my sleeping bag keeps me warm at night and has the added bonus of pulling down over my eyes, as it does get light early. Ear plugs are another good tip.

[perfectpassion]

Yes, I agree on woolly hat or something with a hood, and earplugs (it's not particularly noisy at night though definitely more so last year than in previous years)... and I have my valuables (money, phone etc) in my sleeping bag with me. I was robbed while I slept at another festival a couple of years ago, and there were one or two reported incidents of pilfering from tents even at lovely safe EOTR last year.

Edited August 19, 2011 by perfectpassion

[Sipperana]

I honestly can't remember ever having to resort to wearing my walking boots at EOTR. And I don't do wellies.

I found the phone charging thing ok last year - then again I didn't need it until Sunday afternon (and I'm an iPhone boy), so maybe they were less busy by then, and I got enough charge to see me home.

Mallet and decent tent pegs recommended, as many here have said.

[GeordieMartin]

BL it was 70-100 reported incidents....ok do not take valuables or large amounts of cash....get to know your neighbours....

Re Wellies, if you have space I still recommend taking either these or boots which pull on, the grass on the campsite is cut quite long and the mornings are damp, I find it impossible to fiddle with bootlaces when I need to get to the loo in the mornings!!!

And I didn't find the shop much use, no camping sized portions.

[acstalker]

I find that wearing a woolly hat in my sleeping bag keeps me warm at night and has the added bonus of pulling down over my eyes, as it does get light early. Ear plugs are another good tip.

[paulwa]

I find that the heating in my motorhome does the trick.

[acstalker]

OK, you trumped me! Every year me and my mate say "oh no, not the bloody tent again", but it costs about £400 to rent a motorhome for the weekend and about the same to buy a caravan on Ebay. We've just been a bit too tight to go for either of these, especially as the tent was bought new for EOTR 2008 and we keep convincing ourselves that for every year we use it, the average cost of the tent comes down.

[riverlodge]

as a newbie last year, the advice about the cold was very welcome, although i still underestimated it a bit.

anyone think it should be a bit better this year for a couple of weeks earlier?

(oh, & bump)

[Christophales]

don't sing sea shanties all night, people get annoyed