T in the Park 2013

[stu150]

I don't think there's anything wrong with it being anyone's first time - I think the problem is the 15-17years old who have no idea how to act in a gig environment with lots of alcohol. Getting really drunk and falling about barging into folk at the stages as they actually can't stand.

By all means get bleezing back at your tent just don't go and stand in a massive crowd if you can hardly walk. To be honest they get so drunk they're not going to remember who they saw.

Edited July 15, 2013 by stu150

[thewayiam]

I don't think there's anything wrong with it being anyone's first time - I think the problem is the 15-17years old who have no idea how to act in a gig environment with lots of alcohol. Getting really drunk and falling about barging into folk at the stages as they actually can't stand.

By all means get bleezing back at your tent just don't go and stand in a massive crowd if you can hardly walk. To be honest they get so drunk they're not going to remember who they saw.

[devilman]

Did they have extra litter patrols or something this year? I saw loads of pics of people sat on the grass yet there was green grass all around them. Normally you can't find a place to sit by saturday afternoon because of al the discarded plates and food containers.

[carruthers67]

Did they have extra litter patrols or something this year? I saw loads of pics of people sat on the grass yet there was green grass all around them. Normally you can't find a place to sit by saturday afternoon because of al the discarded plates and food containers.

[Ukulelelad92]

Not the fact it is their first time, as you say everyone does it for the first time. When I did it first most were Tvirgins.......I'm old.

These kids had no idea how to handle the mixture of crowds, heat and alchol...

Add to that the fucking inability to join in the mosh pit we tried to form.... More interested in get 500mm closer to the stage. Watching the killers through the bawbag in fronts fucking phone, that is what makes them fucking virgins. Wee pricks bad mouthing Ricky Ross all through his set....had no idea who they were, these idiots would rather sit through six sets they hate as they can't get to the front. Pure and utter inexperience....

[Chiefski]

Did they have extra litter patrols or something this year? I saw loads of pics of people sat on the grass yet there was green grass all around them. Normally you can't find a place to sit by saturday afternoon because of al the discarded plates and food containers.

[a_n_other]

Dont think so. Though healthy t was further up the hill

Taking a lot pf the consumptoon away from the arena area. I also think there waa notably less food stalls in the arena outwith healthy, although i'd happily be corrected if necessary??

That and the weather (i know some people eat less im the heat) maybe meant less litter in the main arena zones. This could of course be miscculation on my part.

[Cal-L]

I had a fantastic 4 days. Everything went smooth, and the weather was desired after last year. I only really saw 1 fight nearly break out, and funnily enough it was during the View, but apart from that, I found the crowd really friendly over the whole weekend.

Saw some brilliant acts, and I loved the killers. Absolutely tremendous headline set. But Travis was my favourite act of the weekend. The emotion in that tent was unreal.

Stayed in Citizen T and it was great. Nice and laid back, not too crammed, and a Seperate set of toilets and drinking tap.

Agree about the stewards. One guy nearly had his hand inside me! And on the Sunday I stuck a can in my back pocket and walked through the gates. After I was about 20 yards, I heard a voice shouting "excuse me". I just kept on walking, and she shouted a 2nd and 3rd time, and then she ran after me, a good 40 yards and grabbed me. What's in your back pocket she asked me, a can I said. I'll need to take that. I handed it over and she opened it and poured it away.

And when we arrived at the campsite, they seemed more interested in whether anyone had deodorant rather than bottles/drugs.

Healthy T was fantastic. I had wild boar, haggis, the wood burn pizza (queues for that were crazy), and pulled pork.

I don't think they could been that short of a sell out. It didn't look any less busy than the 4 previous times I've been.

Anyway, I'm away for a massage. My shoulders are killing from the constant requests to get up on my shoulders. The joys of being tall!!!

[Shootenanny!]

Had an absolutely brilliant time this weekend! Probably gonna go ahead and book my ticket for next year on Friday too despite the declining line ups.

Saw 32 acts, 31 of whom were good and Azealia Banks who was utterly dire. That's what I get for wanting a good spot for Editors... who fortunately were excellent.

Highlights for me were Frank Turner (best of the weekend), Travis, The Courteeners, The Killers and many more.

As for the TITP virgins thing, I was camping next to some 17 year old who were at their first festival and we got on really well, just there to enjoy themselves and ended up coming with us to see some bands I recommended. I know there's a lot of people in that age range who are clueless about the festival but at least there are still some who are there for the right reasons.

As for stewarding I couldn't believe how tight the restrictions were on booze this year. We went in the cabaret tent which I have loved the past few years and we were shocked by the stewards roaming around it spying into people's pockets for alcohol. I didn't have any problems with staff personally though and in fact thought the guy with the long hair/ponytail on the arena gates was a genuinely good guy.

What did annoy me though was the talking during Mumford & Sons. Its tragic that the crowd at T can't let a band play a couple of quiet songs and actually listen. I'm not saying they have to be into every song but people started making phone calls and stuff did that which I don't think was happening as much a few years ago before the line ups changed.

Also a note on the police/security. There were several fires/flares/fireworks near my tent last year and to be frank I was rattled in case anything started at my tent. Then about five vans turned up and put everything out and had a word with people. Had no trouble for the rest of the night in my bit with police strolling the area, well played to them!

All in all a great year, perfected by weather and although I had my doubts my T In The Park run is definitely not over. Lets just hope for some better big bands next year.

[Jagerman]

Sums up why the crowd at Kreftwerk was so small, some cringey comments in amongst this lot.

[devilman]

Is there any wonder the stewards were strict on drink? T gets its sponsorship from Tennents and heavily relies on the secondary spend of punters at the stalls and bars. This year and last, TCGE has aimed the festival at youngsters in the 15-20 bracket. Even if no booze was sneaked in, this audience is skint compared to older ones and "old man" drinks like lager and cider aren't their favourite even if they are old enough to drink them. In short, they are hurting anyway because of the change in demographic. I personally think Tennents will pull the plug soon. If that audience then decide to sneak their own booze in and ignore the onsite bars then they are going to hurt in a not viable kind of way. The number of bars has declined in the last few years and the queue at them is smaller than it was. There's no wonder they are aggressively trying to reverse the trend. There's the safety issue too, it turns my blood cold when I see buckie bottles lying about, somebody will seriously get hurt by one one day. I've seen half full cans being lobbed too. Well played the stewards I say.

[Gingo]

How was the Afterburner as a new addition to the campsite?A rival for the old Duracell tent/Boombus?

[Gparsfan]

While I agree with the majority of that post Devilman I don't think it's the choice of drink that's a problem for the younger generation, Magners gets sold in the arena and that's the best tasting cider.

Sweeter and goes down easier than Strongbow.

It's all about the price, £4.20 is extortionate.

Edited July 16, 2013 by Gparsfan

[carruthers67]

I also don't disagree with it devilman, but some of the tripe spoken by the stewards this year was just lala. I had a little plastic pouch, similar to the one in the premixed cocktails with vodka. No buckie or mad dog for me, no siree. I had it in my waist band, got past theavtual pat down search and through.

Then some other twat ran over from the side to get at it. Must have spotted the neck at the top of the waist band through the t shirt. Now, this is never gonnna sustain me and my wife for a whole day, it was about a wee bit of sumfin different to go with our extortionate pints. Now i had a verbal with said jobsworth and he said, 'licensed premises innit, can t bring drink from outside innit' imagine my surprise when going back to get my wife a hoodie when the same twat allows two guys throuhh with aroubd 12 cans each in their hand. Iasl him and he says 'they're staff but innit' how does that make any sense when you'r previous argument was that of licensed premises..... he then went on to prove the point of no arguing with a stupid person. And the fact it was cans just blows the safety aspect out the water aswell.

[stu150]

I really couldn't get over the lack of searching over the whole weekend. In our group no one got their bags searched on entry to the campsite and never got bags searched or patted down on our way into the arena once.

Must look a lot less dodgy than I used to!

But we got cans and spirits through into the arena and no one said a thing.

[Paulk2904]

It's all about the price, £4.20 is extortionate.

[nataliealana]

I wasn't overly impressed with security this year. I took sealed water and on the Friday and Sunday had it taken from me and thrown in the bin. I said it was sealed and they went "no drinks in the arena". It clearly says in the press that sealed water is ok. Plus they should have given me the option of taking the empty bottle to fill at one of the well hidden water points in the arena.

My bag check was ridiculous especially on the Sunday. I saw them checking inside peoples wallets at one point. But they opened my sun cream to check it was only sun cream inside, checked inside my glasses case, my camera case and the guy kept insisting the bag still felt too heavy having been through everything and kept barking at me "what else is in here?".

[Siren]

We got our bags checked for the first time in about five years. We were day ticket holders and arrived at the same time both days. Didn't seem to be much bag checking going on on the Saturday but different story on the Sunday. Stewards seemed to have stepped up a gear and I had a half empty bottle of water which he emptied out but gave me the bottle back. Had small bottles of lemonade in my bag which were sealed and he said that was fine. There seemed to be more police around the entrance on the Sunday also.

[harryomatic]

Checks did get pretty tight going in the arena, I had my wallet searched. I think the toughening up was justified though. I saw someone light a flare during Calvin Harris, then throw it forward further in to the crowd. F***ing ridiculously stupid.

I'd grabbed some confetti during Twin Atlantic on Saturday evening and kept it in my wallet. Really confused the security guy on Sunday morning. He asked me what the hell it was, and I just looked him in the eye and said "confetti. I like my life to be sparkling." And walked through.

[thewayiam]

For the price of it and the distance etc I doubt I'll be back but I had a bloody fantastic time. The whole deodorant at the start needs chucking, no it doesn't, just don't admit you have it and hide it. They weren't searching anyone that had their kit roped to a trolley so I was sniffer dogged and that was that, Straight through no worries.

Didn't try and sneak alcohol in and Magners is okay when cold but I'm not a massive fan of it, the toffee apple brothers went down a treat at the campsite which I have to say was awesome times. Saw one fight the whole weekend, two pass outs but that'll happen anywhere with the heat.

Even bar staff making friendly conversation, loads of crowd talking, meeting and banter and were like only too happy for the english to come and enjoy our big festival. We got no crap at all and met some people that I was as gutted to leave as I was the festival.

Nothing like the scary rumors I heard and the crowds I thought were fine, C&S if you didn't get into it could have been intimidating. The weather majorly helped and the campsite to the arena walk was just fine, I think the open plan Sunset strip into the arena is an awesome idea too.

As I said I'll post an honest review after I've been.

[cm107]

This was my 5th T and I had a great weekend seeing some great bands but I was shocked at how small the crowd for some of the performances. Phoenix were amazing on Friday but couldn't believe that we were able to walk into the third row 15 minutes before they started. Generally the running order on stages seemed to mean that you could get an incredibly good spot when turning up to see an act, something which I have never found possible before at T.

Highlight of the weekend was Frightened Rabbit with Scott Hutchison just looking like he was having the best time on stage. Also loved Haim, Frank Turner, Foals, the Killers, the 1975, Alt-J and Earth Wind & Fire. I would agree with some of the earlier comments that often the crowd were super annoying in that they were unable to listen to some quieter songs without talking or clapping - found this a particular problem at Foals and Mumford & Sons.

[PatsInThePark]

Slowly getting back to life again today.

What a weekend that was. Has to be up there with one of my best T's ever. There is no doubt the glorious weather the full weekend had something to do with it though. Only down side about the weather was the amount of dust everyone was kicking up. Ended up dirtier than I did last year!

Highlights for me were Travis, Chase and Status (Minus the moshpits), Calvin Harris, Rudimental, Bastille and The Killers

Fairly disappointed in Disclosure and Stereophonics specially as it was 2 acts I was really looking forward too.

As a few have said, the security at the main arena entrance was a nightmare this year. It suddenly felt like a move in the right direction the fact that you didn't need your ticket for the full weekend and wristband was all that was needed. But the ques weren't long in building when security decided to act like airport security giving everyone bag searches, wallet/purse searches, patting down legs and pockets, and telling you to life your hands up and spin around. Far too over the top in my opinion.

One other thing was, I had a chat with a policewomen on the Friday night and she was telling me she enjoys doing TITP and she has been doing it for a few years now, but then added that she doesn't know what will be happening next year as it isn't going to be in Balado anymore. Not sure what truth is in that though but it stuck with me.

[Gingo]

One other thing was, I had a chat with a policewomen on the Friday night and she was telling me she enjoys doing TITP and she has been doing it for a few years now, but then added that she doesn't know what will be happening next year as it isn't going to be in Balado anymore. Not sure what truth is in that though but it stuck with me.

[devilman]

I saw someone light a flare during Calvin Harris, then throw it forward further in to the crowd. F***ing ridiculously stupid.

[Shootenanny!]

Someone did it close to us at the Roses last year. It fucking stinks and is of no benefit to anyone. If they had thrown it like you say then I would be one of those fight statistics. I would completely lose it with anyone being such a cun.t

What the hell goes though the minds of idiots like that. A flare could ruin someone's life permanently. They have no place at festivals. I see there were 5 arrest because of flares. It's a start.