SGP 2014. how good?

[doobie ninja]

RIDICULOUSLY GOOD!!!!

Im actually shocked at how good this festival is!! I had more fun there in half a day then I've had in 5 days at other festivals. This is my new benchmark for festivals.

People : it is a young festival, average age maybe 21?? But im 32 and didn’t find it a problem. Was a fair amount of drug use there which I thought was great. What I mean by that is most people were just on a nice level of MDMA, no real trouble or wreck heads and everyone seemed to look after each other and have a great time.

Vibe: Everyone was SO ridiculously friendly that I was taken aback by it. Fancy dress, face paint and glitter are just the norm! If you're not wearing something a little crazy you become the odd one out. There was just simply no dickheads there!

Site: perfect size and so lovely. Yes yes….the weather played a big part as it was roasting. The organisers had gone to so much trouble to make it special, from the fighter planes flying over with neon lights and smoke trails to all the awesome sculptures, games / activities, fire pits, fire works, water slides, lakes and so on and so on and so so much to do.

Stages: best stages I thought were "the Drop" and "the Dance off". They're surrounded by hay bales which you can climb on and dance. But all the stages were great, including all the little DJ's playing in secluded woods here and there. I thought the festival was laid out really well, just enough space for everything.

Shops/stalls: tonnes of food, tonnes of bars. Not just your typical money grabbing bars though, they had cool music, or themes. They had a mead bar and whisky bar too which was nice.

So draw backs then??? Errrmmm????....... I guess if it rained it would different as the one side of the lake (where the stages are) is very hilly, so muddy hills would be impossible.

A few more urinals would be nice but now im really nit picking now.

Just a little tip…..Make sure you hit it hard on the Fri and sat night as the site shuts down at 12 on the Thur and Sun. The sat night is the main night, where everyone dresses up and parties all night!

I'll put up a few photos when i get chance.

[Staff_Sav]

There was definitely at least 3 dickheads there. The person who pushed me, The person who fell into and ripped my tent (it survived the weekend but had to be binned after), and the person who badly assaulted someone after they caught them trying to nick from their tent (heard it over the security radio's). Otherwise pretty spot on.

The amount of art and secret stuff to do, the secret sunflower garden, the 'ice' rink, the badger woods, the two lakes, the paint fight, the fireworks!!!! Oh my god the fireworks, they were truly spectacular, possibly the best firework display I've seen (and i've been to Disney), and when the microlight flew above the crowd dropping thousands of lights that floated out the sky to the tune of 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'

There was also enough late area's that there was never any big queues to get into any of the slightly closed off areas. If there was then there was plenty of other options nearby available.

I dont think its quite worth the ticket price (maybe worth £140 IMO), however you can see that they invest a lot of the money into it what with the arts and sculptures etc. Think it could do with a few more well known acts, perhaps a 2nd big stage on the opposite side of the festival, although I get that this isn't what this festival is about for most people there, and would take away some of what its about.

Also, Prince Harry walked passed us, so that was pretty cool to see =)

[Staff_Sav]

and I agree about bar prices. A bottle of Kopperbourg was only £4.50, which is pretty much what you would pay outside at a bar anyway. Nice to not be ripped off. Food was a tad pricey, but then they are the same stalls that do the festival circuits and you see them everywhere

[doobie ninja]

Staff_Sav - what was the Ice Rink you mentioned? as for the microlight....i saw it, and i also saw loads of little, clear plastic balls everywhere. was that what it was dropping?

there will always be the odd few dickheads but over all i was so shocked at how cool and nice peolpe where. At Glasto (and many others) you get the "cool kids" who wonder waround going "look how cool i am, im drinking and i at a festival whoo hoo"...but, you didnt really seem to get that.

I paid £187 for my ticket as i bought it late, thought it was worth every penny myself (especially when you compare the price to other festivlas)

Thing is.....i now no longer wish to attend busy / packed festvals. SGP was 30k? but as mentioned above, you didnt really queue to get anywhere and wandering around (even when smahed out ya box!) was easy....i mean easy!

As i mentioned this is now my benchmark for festivals......now looking into Shambala, Green Man, Boom Town and Kendal calling for furture trips as they "seem"? a similar vibe

[Staff_Sav]

Staff_Sav - what was the Ice Rink you mentioned? as for the microlight....i saw it, and i also saw loads of little, clear plastic balls everywhere. was that what it was dropping?

there will always be the odd few dickheads but over all i was so shocked at how cool and nice peolpe where. At Glasto (and many others) you get the "cool kids" who wonder waround going "look how cool i am, im drinking and i at a festival whoo hoo"...but, you didnt really seem to get that.

I paid £187 for my ticket as i bought it late, thought it was worth every penny myself (especially when you compare the price to other festivlas)

Thing is.....i now no longer wish to attend busy / packed festvals. SGP was 30k? but as mentioned above, you didnt really queue to get anywhere and wandering around (even when smahed out ya box!) was easy....i mean easy!

As i mentioned this is now my benchmark for festivals......now looking into Shambala, Green Man, Boom Town and Kendal calling for furture trips as they "seem"? a similar vibe

There was an ice rink (it was made of plastic), and you could get some ice skates from a stand next to it (for free) and go around on it for 5 minutes until you were bored and your feet hurt. Was good fun. It was next to the time machine and the igloo that you had to get to by going through the secret cupboard.

I dont think it was the little balls that were dropping from the microlight, but i did see those balls everywhere. When i was stewarding a group of people had collected a load of them and then proceeded to attack me from every angle throwing those balls at me. Made a boring shift a lot funnier =)

[doobie ninja]

There was an ice rink (it was made of plastic), and you could get some ice skates from a stand next to it (for free) and go around on it for 5 minutes until you were bored and your feet hurt. Was good fun. It was next to the time machine and the igloo that you had to get to by going through the secret cupboard.

WHAT??? are we talking about the same festival? time machine....igloo?? how did i miss all this?

I found the sunflower field! (after someone told me where it was!)

[Staff_Sav]

It was between Smallworld and the ferris wheel, in that section. i'll upload a pic of the ice rink when i get the chance

[Staff_Sav]

The Ice rink with the igloo behind it. You can just about make out the ferris wheel in the background as well

[doobie ninja]

oh....well i'll be dammed! i can picture the area you mean but didnt find that stuff!

Certainly on this site, SGP doesnt seem that popular....and i really cant figure out why???

My only real concern / negativity about SGP is that i dont think its set up for rain. if you had bad weather i think the site would be a bit of a mare because of lack undercover and that "spine" shaped hill near the stages would be impossible in mud!

Think im going to try Beat Herder next year.

[Staff_Sav]

Yeah I agree about the rain. Found it hard enough walking up and down some of those slopes and we had great weather pretty much all weekend. I was stewarding at the Massive Fox trying to stop people climbing it when there was the downpour, so piled underneath it with a few other people who were in the area at the time. Even the slope around that became difficult for a time.

There was a water tap outside the Temple of Boom that was getting used a lot and flooded the area around there. Combination of terrible tap placement and the fact that the water that did accumulate in that area had nowhere to drain away to. I imagine if it rained they would just have to started knocking the hay stacks over to absorb the water out the mud.

I got some friends at Boomtown at the moment, apparently the artwork and stuff there is absolutely incredible, even better than SGP. I'm very jealous!

[doobie ninja]

yeah i saw that tap out side the temple of boom, i went to it about 3:00am on the monday morning (we were sat around the fire pits by the mead bar) and yes....very muddy!!

Really really want to do Boomtown because it looks amazing, but i cant block out all the negativity ive read about it. Ive read that if you go back to your tent and your stuff is still there then your lucky! im hoping its all bollocks!!

My problem is (most) festivals arent long enough. SGP shut down at midnight on the thur and sunday, leaving just two nights to hit it hard.

Edited August 11, 2014 by doobie ninja

[Staff_Sav]

There is a thread on the glastonbury chat pages about Boomtown (one that looks more active than the boomtown thread on this page) which is quite informative. apparently it was tamer this year but still good. A bit of a shambles but somehow managed to pull it off. They Were lucky with the weather though.