Kendal Calling 2012

[Guest manc_al]

KC have held their hands up on FB re the toilets and say its a priority to get this right next year.

[ramragon]

Do they allow caravans? I know there are camper vans but didn't realise caravans were allowed.

[Jacko450]

I reckon the weather beforehand may have hindered preparation in their defence?

[ramragon]

What was the official capacity of the event?

[ramragon]

I reckon the weather beforehand may have hindered preparation in their defence?

[LOCHLAND5]

Totally agree about Maximo Park...I expected they'd be crap and they delivered!

James and Dizzee were phenomenal...best I've ever seen James (they even did 'Just Like Fred Astaire' which we had as our wedding song ...not that we got to sing it along together as she'd buggered off down the front!)...and the crowd reaction to Dizzee was mind-blowing.

The rug thing is definitely out of order unless they asked first...cheeky bleeders! Mind you, somebody did tell me off for accidentally stepping on their rug...they had 3 together taking up a massive space...not sure if they expected me to leap gazelle like over them but that would have been very difficult with no run up and wearing steel toe capped wellies.

[amfy]

Earlier in the thread, before the festival people were saying that part of this festival's appeal was the way it was slightly shambolic and clearly only just held together. I remember a photo gallery picture of "the crew" which looked like it was about 15 mates. From this, my attitude to the toilet situation was that they'd very much under-estimated the impact of the increase in numbers and simply bitten off more than they could chew.

It was awful, but by the time it became clear it wasn't working out, I would guess it was pretty much too late to do anything about it. A festival this size doesn't have the flexibilty, resources or "pull" of a Glastonbury or V to get something in place halfway through the weekend.....and to be fair - last time I was at V, the toilets were just as bad as this (both in numbers and the state of them), and the only reason they weren't worse was because at V - people will just piss anywhere and this lessened the impact on the actual toilets!

I hope that the lesson learnt for KC is more than simply "we need more toilets". I hope it is that expanding a festival takes quite a bit more than simply selling a load more tickets! They have damaged their reputation this year, and they need to seriously think about consolidation rather than growth to get it back on track.

[Paul ™]

But the company who they get to produce the event, Ear To The Ground have been doing events for years, they should know better.

[generationgav]

TBH - I don't think there was a huge lack of toilets! Obviously the more the better, but I don't think they were lacking.

Some people think this is a weird comment, but there weren't many less than last year. And we never queued more than 10 minutes for the toilets.

However the last 2 years they were constantly being emptied, cleaned and new toilet roll! Almost every time we went we'd see this happening. This year even if they were being emptied they were never cleaned.

Personally I think, for whatever reasons, they went with a different toilet provider who simply didn't deliver!

Edited August 1, 2012 by generationgav

[amfy]

I'm not here to defend the festival particularly, it was my first time this year and I am simply contrasting pre- festival posts regarding the delightful "home made" feel of it, with post-festival comments on a lack of professionalism.

I've just googled "Ear to the Ground" and they appear to be a PR company who seem to be experts in talking marketing bollox, and it is hard to imagine from anything on their site that they know anything about toilets. I could be wrong but I would say "Ear to the ground's" role in this was all the "see you in the fields", facebook, twitterfeed, youtube links to bands you'd never heard of, photography portraying a festival that had a gentle yet fun feel to it, etc etc - which was clearly done very well.

Whoever is responsible for actual logistics here failed miserably, and KC can either learn from this for next year, or watch it go the way of many other smaller festivals in the current climate, because people can forgive a mistake, but they won't be repeatedly taken for mugs.

[Jacko450]

I'm not here to defend the festival particularly, it was my first time this year and I am simply contrasting pre- festival posts regarding the delightful "home made" feel of it, with post-festival comments on a lack of professionalism.

I've just googled "Ear to the Ground" and they appear to be a PR company who seem to be experts in talking marketing bollox, and it is hard to imagine from anything on their site that they know anything about toilets. I could be wrong but I would say "Ear to the ground's" role in this was all the "see you in the fields", facebook, twitterfeed, youtube links to bands you'd never heard of, photography portraying a festival that had a gentle yet fun feel to it, etc etc - which was clearly done very well.

Whoever is responsible for actual logistics here failed miserably, and KC can either learn from this for next year, or watch it go the way of many other smaller festivals in the current climate, because people can forgive a mistake, but they won't be repeatedly taken for mugs.

[Flaminglippy]

I've just googled "Ear to the Ground" and they appear to be a PR company who seem to be experts in talking marketing bollox,

[Paul ™]

Ear to the Ground are the production company for Kendal Calling, Parklife, Snowbombing and Jodrell Bank.

This is from their website after last years UK Festival Awards

we’re delighted to have picked up an industry award for our work producing the perfectly formed Kendal Calling.

[Paul ™]

And this was a quote from after Jodrell Bank gig was cancelled in June

Event Director and head of Ear to the Ground Jon Drape commented “Due to a month’s rainfall in 24 hours across the North West the site is now unfit to accommodate the show. Despite the best efforts of our site crew and subcontractors overnight the main event arena and car parks we are unable to deliver the concert safely.”]

[Superscally]

Maximo Park shit??? Wash your ears out you pair of fools - they were amazing, as were the other two headliners!

[Mr_Grump]

KC have held their hands up on FB re the toilets and say its a priority to get this right next year.

[amfy]

The daft thing is that this is a really cheap festival. An extra £5-£10 on a ticket would more than sort this out - there wouldn't be anyone who goes now who would suddenly decide that was too expensive - so they don't even have to make less money! They just seriously need to spend more on toilets - not just numbers - but staffing them so that they stay clean. At Big Chill last year they permanently had 2 people on each block keeping them running smoothly and it was brilliant - one of the things we told everyone when we got back was how great the toilets were!

The toilets at KC didn't dominate or spoil my weekend, I have seen a lot of awful toilets in 25 years of festivalling, but it is true that somehow this is the kind of thing people remember and talk about more when they come back. They do really have to start getting this right!

On a lighter note - I am really glad to see that so many people enjoyed Dizzy! The consensus beforehand seemed to be against him but it was a great show, which he didn't skimp on just because it was only a small festival. I think he won a few people over!

[zimbo_9]

This was our 2nd Kendal Calling the first was in 2010 and if i am honenst it felt like the original vibe of the festival had been lost for various reasons.

From the moment we arrived we were met with poor organisation. Chaotic queues to get into the campsite only to find it was rammed with hardly any pitches available. They were letting people pitch against fence then an hour later telling them to move. We camped in the quiet field and over the 3 days several tents around us were robbed. One person climbed in a girls tent and took her bag from under her pillow. It was reported to security who said people were geting into the site by climbing over the wall at night. It is the first festival we have been to were we didn't feel safe. There was also a distinct lack of toilets and foodstalls around the campsite which resulted in a 1 hour wait for breakfast. If anyone located the whereabouts of the Mystical water tap please let me know !.

Inside the arena there was a welcome addition of more stages (especially tims dinner ) but there seemed to be at least 4-5000 more people than last time we attended. This resulted in a less relaxed feel and vibe. The atmosphere seemed to turn a bit edgy at times in the evenings although i didn't see any fighting only the odd drunken argument. I would say most of the bar staff were very helpful but some of them were just rude /gormless.

I know this seems like one big moan but we enjoyed most of the line up and overall had a good time but we didn't have a great time like we did in 2010. I think it is starting to become more of a commercial operation and by cramming more and more people in it is losing it's identity. This is only made worse by clearly cutting corners on security and by amatuerish organisation. I mean come on even the map of the site was wrong with the stage pointing the wrong way.

[kaytee...]

To be honest, I would rather pay more for it to stay a small festival with a 10,000 max capacity than it be expanded on a site that is too small

[sloaney007]

Hi guys, I totally agree with the majority of comments on the board today/yesterday. Im not going to go into great detail in regards to the problems experienced by most however I will stick in my two penneth for what its worth.

The toilets were unhygienic to say the least, I believe they only got cleaned/emptied once a day which simply isnt enough as they are used constantly both day and night. I mean the urinals were overflowing by friday night! Also I personally dont mind queuing for a couple of minutes but more than 10 is abit wrong in my opinion.

The queue to get into the site was an absolute farce and has to be addressed, I believe this was due to chronic understaffing and also a total underestimation of arrival times. Surely the organisers know that Friday morning between 9-12 will be by far the busiest time.

We camped in the family camping area in the end as that was the most spacious at our arrival time and didnt have any problems with stealing or anti social behaviour. Obviously as a group of couples we wern't that rowdy but I saw many familys leaving on sunday so I asked afew why, they replied with a mixture of, "the festival has lost its family feel" and, "theres just no space for the children". I think the organisers will lose alot of family business next year because of this. In hindsight I think the emergency field they eventually opened up should have been used for families.

Other minor gripes include a terrible map, little/no signage, bad layout of some stages (i.e. dead ends all over the place), open areas of field such as by the woodland stage not utilised (i.e. why not face the kopperberg stage into the open field?)

However after all that I still had a really enjoyable time. The bands made the festival which I think should always be the case. The majority of the tents were a good size for the crowd, the woodland stage was a triumph in my opinion, the atmosphere was mainly jovial and the weather wasnt even too bad!

Pick out of that what you will.

Edited August 1, 2012 by sloaney007

[LOCHLAND5]

Did any one see a woman with a really long pencil goaty beard? ( sorry if its your wife just asking)

And can some one confirm this rumour for me.........

Is it true some guy took acid lost the plot stripped off and ran around the campsite with a hard on ?

[ramragon]

Its a shame that a majority of the complaints seem to be about issues that should be totally avoidable, be it queues, toilets, lack of secrity to keep down the tent thieves or at least make them more wary. with investment in each area which shouldnt have been that costly we would have slight moans about mud and overcrowding but a majority of comments would have been singing the praise of the festival and the music which we all seem to agree was excellent.

The issues are all pretty much no brainers to put right and should be addressed straight away to ensure that the same doesnt happen again next year, the thing with festivals is that months down the line the problems will be distant memories and the slow build hype will start for next year, be it early bird tickets at the start of november or the odd rumour filtering through every now and again.

Sure we'll all have the odd gripe, however the massive strem of tanked up teens will have loved it, will tell their mates and be back in force next year, with more in tow. That is unavoidable

[Flaminglippy]

Maximo Park shit??? Wash your ears out you pair of fools - they were amazing, as were the other two headliners!

[Flaminglippy]

Tim Peaks will be back next year and apparently they have a 'humdinger' lined up already! Bugger. Any guesses?? I'm thinking maybe Tim Booth?? Must have been somebody there this year to have agreed for next year??

[kaytee...]

Tim Peaks will be back next year and apparently they have a 'humdinger' lined up already! Bugger. Any guesses?? I'm thinking maybe Tim Booth?? Must have been somebody there this year to have agreed for next year??