Blue Dot Festival

[the wonderwhy]

Absolutely no trains back to Manchester tomorrow from the local station so we've sacked off trying to get home after Orbital and are staying for Soulwax. Should be ace. 

Gonna get a taxi to the airport and go from there afterwards. 

[DDave]

Great day yesterday. Very impressed with this festival. Shame it rained during Pixies though. Ezra Furman definitely the highlight for me.

[frostypaw]

The festival are streaming on Twitch: http://www.discoverthebluedot.com/stream/ which is pretty mental but great - damn I'm jealous today :/

[frostypaw]

1 hour ago, sunnydaysblue said:

Watching now - must say it's a very small festival lol

There's more hiding out of view lol but yeah it's pretty small. There's a few more stages and all the sciency stuff - it's rather lovely after mostly big and hectic affairs.

 

orbital are storming it and I am absolutely green with envy lol

Edited July 8, 2017 by frostypaw

[Becki7000]

Orbital are very good, sat watching with a cider :-)

[DDave]

Never been a massive fan but Orbital were fantastic. The weather obviously helped but it was so nice seeing everybody get really into it without any of the dark side that sometimes comes with a big dance act. My 3 and 9 year old loved them. Soulwax finished it off in style as always and I got to meet a Dewaele brother. I am a happy man.

Night night.

Edited July 9, 2017 by DiscothequeDave

[dingbat2]

Great day yesterday, started with Tubular Brass performing Tubular Bells, and ending with my kids (8 an 11) being front row for the always superb Goldfrapp and finally Orbital, my eldest loved Dr Who and we all especially liked dancing to our favourite Where is it Going. Then onto the Park and the fire installations. A lovely end to a lovely day.

We had thought there were fewer science labs this year, but found another set immediately behind the Lovell telescope as well as the ones next to the Galaxy Garden - they have moved them about a bit this year

Illuminarium is great if you haven't checked it out but go early because there can be long queues

Kids looking forward to seeing the real Darth Vader today!

Great stuff

 

Edited July 9, 2017 by dingbat2

[dingbat2]

48 minutes ago, dingbat2 said:

Great day yesterday, started with Tubular Brass performing Tubular Bells, and ending with my kids (8 an 11) being front row for the always superb Goldfrapp and finally Orbital, my eldest loved Dr Who and we all especially liked dancing to our favourite Where is it Going. Then onto the Park and the fire installations. A lovely end to a lovely day.

We had thought there were fewer science labs this year, but found another set immediately behind the Lovell telescope as well as the ones next to the Galaxy Garden - they have moved them about a bit this year

Illuminarium is great if you haven't checked it out but go early because there can be long queues

Kids looking forward to seeing the real Darth Vader today!

Great stuff

 

... Nearly forgot about Tony Walsh starting the day before Tubular Brass, great poet, great energy

[DDave]

Had to leave early today unfortunately due to daughter being poorly so missed well, everything! luckily it's the weakest of the 3 days for me and I've seen everyone I wanted to on the Friday and Saturday aside from Vitalic, which is a shame. Still would have been nice to see the whole thing out but it was not meant to be :-(

So....what a fantastic festival. Clean, well organised, great people and great atmosphere. no trouble. Only minor gripe was the queue for re-entry if you had a lot of camping gear was v.long on day one - that said, to be expected on the first day and the queue went down quite quickly. They definitely take advice on board as the lanes to get in and out were widened to accommodate the trolleys as it was a bit of a tight squeeze on day one. Parking was fine and getting on and off site was a dream - managed to park 4 spaces from the entrance today which was a godsend with the daughter situation Definitely a good idea opening the campsite early. The campsite itself was great and lovely and quiet. Toilets were great as well.

Didn't do a lot of the science things but the kids did and loved it all. 

As for the music, Friday was top drawer all day, not a band below very, very good on the main stage - fairly small crowds up until the Pixies and then it filled up really quickly. Leftfield on the Orbit were obviously a lot of peoples highlight.

Saturdays line up felt a bit lightweight tbh up until Goldfrapp, although Boxed In were very good. Would have been nice to have a bit more strength in depth on the Lovell stage in the day time. Orbital were fantastic and the sound was superb from front of the field to the back. 

Will definitely be back to this festival, depending on the line up of course. Massive thumbs up to the organisers for a brilliant job. The social media side of things has been the best I've seen from a festival to date, especially during it.

 

Requests for next year - Royksopp, Hot Chip, Etienne De Crecy and Doves (if they break their hiatus) and I know he hates touring but Moby would be a great fit for the festival - surely he'd be tempted by playing in a setting like that. Got the songs and is probably about the right size if a UK festival exclusive came in tow.

 

[dirty_dog]

Soulwax easily the highlight for me

[Memory Man]

Really enjoyed it, was a complete contrast off the back of glastonbury - both have their positives!

soulwax pixies orbital factory floor were musical highlights as they were always going to be! Best new thing i saw was john robertson dark room, it was hilarious! Just what was needed on a sunday night a laugh & somewhere to sit down! Toby Hadoke before was brilliant as well. 

Well organised, nice crowd, clean toilets. Very middle class but in a nice way mostly! Something different and refreshing for the north in what is a fairly bleak festival scene up here. (We always have to travel many hours down south usually from leeds)

[dingbat2]

Had a great time again this year, they really seemed to listen to punters views from 2016. The toilets in the camping areas were top notch this year, there seemed to be even more families than last year even though it was during term time. The layout had moved (although it seemed to be a few last changes which weren't on the map such as moving the Iluminarium)

My only suggestions to make it even better would be:

• Make the family camping areas even bigger
• I would swap the family camping area and the night owl fields around. You could hear a quite a bit of noise from the arena in the family camping areas because those fields were the closest to the arena. Didn't affect my kids but it might have affected some hearing that during the early hours. Also might be good to have a few security staff wandering around late at night to make sure there's no noise after hours in the family areas
• Agree with post above about re-entry, I wasn't allowed to take the trolley with the kit in to get back in, unless I queued in the main queue again which was about 30 minutes long on Friday afternoon. Seemed a bit unnecessary so I abandoned the trolley and carried the kit to the campsite

I do have one desperate plea to the organisers though...  please make the festival during the school holidays, you will get even more families to go.  I know there were lots of families this year, but you could get even more having the festival during school holidays, and I really think it would sell out quickly if you did this. From a purely selfish point of view, I wouldn't be able to take the family next year if it wasn't the case, I didn't like taking the kids out of school (they did!) and my wife will be a teaching next year so we wont be able to go

Final shout out to all the punters and crew this year. I have never seen such an impeccably looking site on a Monday morning, almost no litter and no abandoned tents or equipment, a bit different to Worthy Farm! All the crew were lovely and really engaged and had fun with the kids. Everyone was incredibly friendly

Thanks everybody, it was ace. Kids and the missus absolutely loved it... again

Fingers crossed for next years dates announcement!

 

[Zoo Music Girl]

So glad everyone enjoyed it and it was another success. Orbital looked ace from what I saw. May well be back next year, line up depending...

[Memory Man]

Yeah they def need to make family camping a lot bigger. We were a group of 4 in early 30's & specifically didnt want to be camped next to a family with tiny kids & of course we did actually have this happen. We didnt want to go in night owl camping either as we stay up till arena close-ish but then we want to sleep not have the chance of someone chatting at 4am. No happy medium for us.

[Memory Man]

47 minutes ago, dingbat2 said:

 

Final shout out to all the punters and crew this year. I have never seen such an impeccably looking site on a Monday morning, almost no litter and no abandoned tents or equipment, a bit different to Worthy Farm! All the crew were lovely and really engaged and had fun with the kids. Everyone was incredibly friendly

 

Agreed completely! Just shows how valuable the plastic cup scheme is. But it is so much easier to implement for 10k than 200k

areas that were super clean you wouldnt dare drop any rubbish in. If an area is already a little dirty with rubbish ppl feel its ok to add to it, i find. 

My only other gripe which is exactly as per glastonbury as well is i feel food prices at festivals are now getting completely out of control. You can hardly get anything to properly fill you for less than £8. I think it must be festivals themselves putting up the pitch prices & it being passed on to customers? The snacks around £5 are often a false economy as they just dont fill you. £4.50 for just some crap chips & dip is simply outrageous. The kebab place next to contact was brilliant tho and the only food i found worth the money as they were delicious. Feeding a family of 4 must be ludicrously expensive even if you do your own breakfast.

We overheard the toastie van opposite orbit saying they were only going to break even and that is charging £5 for something where the raw materials probably dont exceed 20p per unit. Something is wrong in the system. Admittedly they were complaining about getting a poor pitch on the end so fewer walk by trade

Edited July 10, 2017 by Memory Man

[DDave]

39 minutes ago, Memory Man said:

Agreed completely! Just shows how valuable the plastic cup scheme is. But it is so much easier to implement for 10k than 200k

areas that were super clean you wouldnt dare drop any rubbish in. If an area is already a little dirty with rubbish ppl feel its ok to add to it, i find. 

My only other gripe which is exactly as per glastonbury as well is i feel food prices at festivals are now getting completely out of control. You can hardly get anything to properly fill you for less than £8. I think it must be festivals themselves putting up the pitch prices & it being passed on to customers? The snacks around £5 are often a false economy as they just dont fill you. £4.50 for just some crap chips & dip is simply outrageous. The kebab place next to contact was brilliant tho and the only food i found worth the money as they were delicious. Feeding a family of 4 must be ludicrously expensive even if you do your own breakfast.

We overheard the toastie van opposite orbit saying they were only going to break even and that is charging £5 for something where the raw materials probably dont exceed 20p per unit. Something is wrong in the system. Admittedly they were complaining about getting a poor pitch on the end so fewer walk by trade

Well if they don't make a profit, it won't be my doing. Great mid afternoon snack.

The feedback has been 100% positive from what I've seen on social media.

As for the family camping, I was amazed how quiet and civilized it was. Great going to bed after Soulwax just staring at the telescope with the graphics. The most idiot free event I've ever been to.

 

[Paul ™]

Went on the Saturday, was a decent day and good weather. Liked the site, saw some good acts but not sure I would return, not really the type of festival I prefer these days. 

[frostypaw]

5 hours ago, Memory Man said:

then we want to sleep not have the chance of someone chatting at 4am. 

This is what earplugs are for though, it's still a festival. Fair enough quiet in the family fields with kids and all, but grown ups should be able to handle earplugs.

[danceonfire]

What an excellent festival that was! Beautiful site. Very tidy,very chilled. Sound was great. Highlights we're. Soulwax, Anna Meredith, Ezra Furman, Warpaint and pixies. 

For a little festival there was so much to do. Loved the gardens with the fire instillations. Late night bar was a good idea. Although I never made it past 2am. 

As said above it really was the most idiot free event. 

Will definately go again.

only bad point for me was not being allowed to take your own beer in the arena.

[dirty_dog]

2 hours ago, danceonfire said:

What an excellent festival that was! Beautiful site. Very tidy,very chilled. Sound was great. Highlights we're. Soulwax, Anna Meredith, Ezra Furman, Warpaint and pixies. 

For a little festival there was so much to do. Loved the gardens with the fire instillations. Late night bar was a good idea. Although I never made it past 2am. 

As said above it really was the most idiot free event. 

Will definately go again.

only bad point for me was not being allowed to take your own beer in the arena.

you where camped next to us, that's our tent the big grey one

[shoptildrop]

2 hours ago, danceonfire said:

What an excellent festival that was! Beautiful site. Very tidy,very chilled. Sound was great. Highlights we're. Soulwax, Anna Meredith, Ezra Furman, Warpaint and pixies. 

For a little festival there was so much to do. Loved the gardens with the fire instillations. Late night bar was a good idea. Although I never made it past 2am. 

As said above it really was the most idiot free event. 

Will definately go again.

only bad point for me was not being allowed to take your own beer in the arena.

You weren't too far from us either lol as we're just right of the light grey tent out of frame

I really enjoyed this weekend as such a great festival and it's going to becom5a regular date in the calendar for us

I actually found the night owl area quite subdued th as on the Friday we came back quite late and not a soul in sight lol... it was really misty too as all you could see is the tops of the tents in the dip

[strangegoose]

I thought it was a cracking festival , I will be back again in 2018 

[somethingsomething]

That Soulwax gig blew my mind. Left main stage during Orbital's encore, so was able to walk up to the rail at the front, before most folks came in. Managed to film a couple of minutes, as I realised explaining it all to friends afterwards wouldn't do it any sort of justice. 

 

Great festival all round and, as others have said, clearly the organisers were looking to improve on last year. 

[DDave]

8 minutes ago, somethingsomething said:

That Soulwax gig blew my mind. Left main stage during Orbital's encore, so was able to walk up to the rail at the front, before most folks came in. Managed to film a couple of minutes, as I realised explaining it all to friends afterwards wouldn't do it any sort of justice. 

 

Great festival all round and, as others have said, clearly the organisers were looking to improve on last year. 

Quite something aren't they?  4th time I've seen them and have seen them DJ over a dozen times. Never fail to impress. I mean they're for me the best DJ's in the world but I prefer them as a band. They were absolutely shit hot before but with the three drummers (one from Sepultura if you weren't aware) they are on another level. Was lucky enough to meet Stephen Dewaele and had a short chat and a photo when he was wandering around before the gig. The nicest famous person I've ever met and a massive hero of mine. Pity I couldn't track the other brother down.

[eFestivals]

I can say with certainty that feedback being given in this thread is being noticed by the festival organisers - presumably so that it can be given consideration.