Optimus Alive 12

[roadrunner66]

The airport is inside Lisbon and not far from the festival. The festival is in Alges but it is located only 2 miles from Lisbon. It is very easy to reach by bus or train (both stations in front of the festival), there's no tube stations around there though. A cab would be an expensive alternative but still cheap(specially if you split the costs with friends) and from central Lisbon you could get there in 15 min.

I'm not able to give advice regarding hotel but there's a lot to choose.

The environment is great. I've been to a lot of festivals/concerts around Europe and I don't hesitate to say that Spanish and Portuguese crowd are the greatest. In Optimus Alive 2010 Eddie Vedder said that it was "the best singin crowd he'd ever heard". Trust me, you will feel more enthusiasm than the average of a typcal british festival. Radiohead have not come to Portugal for 10 years so the excitement will be huge. There's no such thing like curfew, main stage concerts should end around 1am and I think that the festival site closes around 4.30am, there's party everywhere until then. If you choose to camp, I should warn that the campsite is not located in the festival site but there's free buses everytime (or almost) from and to there. The campsite is great, with pool and everything, and the trip will take only 10 minutos at most.

I've been to all the editions mostly beacause it has always a great line up, this year will be no exception

[pryce]

if florence r not a headliner thats amazing news

[pryce]

even if every website i have read has them headlining.... so not sure who to believe

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

Thanks roadrunner66, muchly appreciated. I was under the impression that Florence was headlining though?

[radioladio]

Booked our tickets! Woo!

Does anyone know what time bands normally start in the day?

Really looking forward to this, don't really know what to expect can't seem to find much info in English or photos- but all part of the fun!

[roadrunner66]

They're not big enough yet, at least in Portugal. I know that some international websites announced it but only because they assumed that, the festival never said that Florence + The Machine would be headliners like they did with Radiohead and Stone Roses. No one is expecting them to headline. Actually there's a lot of speculation for who might be the last headliner, if the festival promoter ends up announcing F+M as headliners it'll be a deception for a lot of people. My guess is that it would only happen if they couldn't get a big act. You should keep an eye on Bilbao BBK Live, this festival is on the same weekend and always have a similar lineup (Radiohead is already confirmed in both festivals). There's still 2 headliners to be confirmed there, one of them will surely be in Optimus Alive.

[radioladio]

well florence is confirmed on the official site.

[dougal1]

looks so good i'm very tempted as a glasto alternative. bit worried on that website it says there's only 6000 weekend tickets left compared to the 25,000+ day tickets? didn't want to book anything yet but I'm worried it will sell out, anyone know when it usually does? also, does the £103 include camping, what is the extra £16 thing you can buy for camping? thanks!

[roadrunner66]

The €16 (£13 and not £16) ticket is for camping as it's not included in the 3 day ticket. They usually put extra tickets when they start running out and it usualy sells out one month before or so.

The 3 day ticket costs £88 (105 euros) and not £103.

I think the rest of the lineup will determine if the tickets will run out quickly or not. Keep checking.

Edited January 3, 2012 by roadrunner66

[dougal1]

thankyou! i get it now, seetickets are offering a set price of £103.00 for 3 days plus camping, so I wouldn't need to pay the £13 camping pass on that ticketline website.

when does the full lineup usually get announced? trying to decide between this festival and bilbao bbk you see any advice on which is better?

[5co77ie]

sorry i was talking about BBK announcing - post removed.

Edited January 4, 2012 by 5co77ie

[Frankly Mr Shankly]

Where are people finding out how many tickets are left? & I can't book until the 20th of Jan, surely it won't have sold out by then?

[dougal1]

on that ticketline.pt website when you click on weekend ticket it says there are 6319 left, although I dunno if thats just their allocation, meaning seetickets would have their own amount left? i dont want to book it yet either so hopefully it wont sell out anytime soon

[stylishkids]

Cheers for the info roadrunner. Have sorted flights out now and will be getting the tickets at the end of month. Really looking forward to this.

[roadrunner66]

Glad to help. Hope you have a nice time there.

dougal1, yes I think you're right, seetickets must have their own amount of tickets. It must be a small percentage though.

On ticketline they put about 26 000 tickets for each day and 8000 or 9000 3day tickets. The daily capacity is 50000. So, there's 15000 (some of these tickets are given as invitations to sponsors, contests,...) places for each day that are spread in international sites or/and are not on sale yet.

It is not expected they sell out anytime soon, at this stage you don't have to feel pressure to buy them.

Edited January 7, 2012 by roadrunner66

[Homer]

If anyone needs basic info on this fest, below's the e-mail that I sent out to my mates explaining the ins and outs at the start of our planning process:

http://www.optimusalive.com/en

It's in Lisbon (which you can fly to from Bristol or Gatwick with Easyjet), on 13, 14 and 15 July.

The line-up is currently Radiohead, Stones Roses, Florence and the Machine, Justice, Metronomy, Caribou, Mazzy Star, Black Lips, but a ton more will be announced.

Three day tickets are £99 each.

It's in the evening (there's a dance tent that goes on after the bands until 4am-5am odd), but in the day time we'll be staying in these:

http://www.booking.c...ngalows.en.html

This is the official campsite for the fest and has swimming pool, shops, crazy golf, etc, and there are free minibuses to/from the fest in the evening.

Unfortunately there are only so many of the bungalows. The price for six people is about 18 euros a night each!

You can get to the fest on public transport, though taxis are dirt cheap (around a tenner from the city centre to the airport when I was in Lisbon last year).

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[JesusQuintana]

I went to Optimus last summer, so can answer questions people might have on it. Information wasn't as freely available last year and i planned the trip myself just looking around forums and maps etc! We went to Lisbon for 7 nights, at the festival for 4 and did touristy stuff the rest. Flights were cheap from Easyjet, and we didn't book until about March or thereabouts.

We stayed here, which was a really nice hotel and quite close to the festival. I thought this would be easier to commute to and from the Festival than the city centre, but due to a one way system and a massive motorway, i wouldn't stay here again if we were to go back! Most taxi drivers at the end of the night seemed to be city centre folk and didn't fully know the area around the festival. I didn't consider staying in the campsite, as i wanted a hotel, and probably would keep that idea if we went back.

I really enjoyed the festival, but it was totally different from T in the Park (where i usually go) in nearly every way. Optimus doesn't start til around 5pm each night. I had imagined we would go to the pool during the day and enjoy the gig at night, i didn't realise how exhausted we would end up by around 11pm each night (maybe my age!), and therefore be ready for home before the main bands came on. The timings is something i definitely prefer with UK festivals. If you get up in the morning and start drinking, at least you know where you stand and the bands are on during the day. Over in Lisbon, the previous nights hangover is inevitable if you want to last the night, which caused me no end of confusion in when i should start drinking! If you don't drink, i'm sure the timings wouldn't be an issue. The whole festival seems like no-one is drinking, nowhere near on a scale of UK festivals, so i personally felt the atmosphere wasn't as good.

As mentioned somewhere else, the headliners choose when they want to play. So Coldplay came on about 10pm or something, while the Foo's were after midnight on their night. The Chemical Brothers night was wasted by technical fuck ups, which saw most of the main stage lineup cancelled. And by the time they came on, about 3 hours behind schedule, we decided to just head home. (See earlier point about drink confusion). Rumours going about on the night blamed 30 Seconds To Mars for wanting an extra part of the stage built for them, so that pissed me off. It could've been nonsense right enough!

Last year we had 4 nights of the festival, which i felt was too much. So if it's a concious decision to revert to 3 this year, then i'm sure it'll be better. Only the Coldplay night sold out last year, and the other nights were noticeably quiet. Comparing the last 3 or 4 years, i think i chose the worst one to go to for my personal taste, so probably would've enjoyed it much more if we were seeing bands we wanted to all night, instead of dropping into different ones to kill time.

Overall, i would go back, but would get a hotel in the city centre, as it's probably easier getting back there at night than to where we stayed last year. Taxi's are cheap, and there's a decent train line that goes straight to the festival. I'd be happier going for 3 nights rather than 4, as the heat and long long day's do take it out of you. I think this year i wouldn't be hanging around in Lisbon after the festival like we did last year, it's a nice enough place but didn't love it. Inside the festival it's pretty much like UK festivals, food and drink isn't cheap, probably 3-4 Euros a pint/burger.

So if more decent bands get added to the lineup, Pearl Jam/Soundgarden/Metallica etc, then i'd seriously consider going back.

[mblackhouse]

Bbk live in Bilbao has a similar lineup most years. 73quid for a 3 day ticket and very close to Bilbao city centre. Maybe worth looking at as an alternative. Lineup stil tba but radiohead headlining and in previous years the lineup has been reasonably similar to Optimus. Loads to do and see in Bilbao too

[TheNewUnion]

@JesusQuintana

Going to be staying at a hotel near to the one you have linked. Wondered if you took the train to and from the festival and if so how easy it was to get to and from the station from the hotel. Also, and forgive the questions, are there any bars/cafes/restaurantsin the locale?

Thanks

[JesusQuintana]

@JesusQuintana

Going to be staying at a hotel near to the one you have linked. Wondered if you took the train to and from the festival and if so how easy it was to get to and from the station from the hotel. Also, and forgive the questions, are there any bars/cafes/restaurantsin the locale?

Thanks

[TheNewUnion]

Thanks for the info. 10 minutes in a cab sounds OK, takes longer than that to walk back to your tent at Glastonbury!

Cheers

[JesusQuintana]

Bbk live in Bilbao has a similar lineup most years. 73quid for a 3 day ticket and very close to Bilbao city centre. Maybe worth looking at as an alternative. Lineup stil tba but radiohead headlining and in previous years the lineup has been reasonably similar to Optimus. Loads to do and see in Bilbao too

[JesusQuintana]

Thanks for the info. 10 minutes in a cab sounds OK, takes longer than that to walk back to your tent at Glastonbury!

Cheers

[mblackhouse]

Bbk is a similar start time. 5ish, 2 main stages with bands alternating between the 2 so

no clashing.

[JesusQuintana]

Bbk is a similar start time. 5ish, 2 main stages with bands alternating between the 2 so

no clashing.