Blue Dot Festival

[misterM]

What’s the mud like people?

Arriving tomorrow for the Chems. 

Flip flops possible?

looks like a nice sunny day but will my toes be squishing in mud from Friday rainfall?

[michael eavis' beard]

1 hour ago, misterM said:

What’s the mud like people?

Arriving tomorrow for the Chems. 

Flip flops possible?

looks like a nice sunny day but will my toes be squishing in mud from Friday rainfall?

Zero mud. Ground still rock hard. Flip flops fine if that's your bag.

[misterM]

Thanks buddy 

[dingbat2]

Was it ace then?

[dingbat2]

Nuts. I just saw the dates for next years festival, 18th to 21st July 2019. No Bluedot for me again next year as the wife and kids don't break up from school until the following Thursday. Ho hum, the two years we had at Bluedot were great

[offmytrolley]

That was absolutely wonderful!

[Flaminglippy]

Just got back...overall great weekend. Getting in and getting up set up was remarkably easy again (the permanent paths make it so much easier) although Family Camping was rammed (and a lot werent families). Tent got robbed on Thurs night which was bit of a pisser. Food was good but tiny portions for the money. Most of the staff were superb...occasional miserable sod at the bar aside. Virtually all the punters I spoke to were proper sound. Thought Flaming Lips, Future Islands and Chems were all excellent. Probably will go again depending on line up. Bearing in mind I guessed Flaming Lips and Future Islands this year, going for Spiritualized & Primal Scream as two of the headliners for next year (maybe Fatboy Slim or Gorillaz as the third) plus Mystery Jets as a subbie. 

Edited July 23, 2018 by Flaminglippy

[The Night Tripper]

3 hours ago, dingbat2 said:

Nuts. I just saw the dates for next years festival, 18th to 21st July 2019. No Bluedot for me again next year as the wife and kids don't break up from school until the following Thursday. Ho hum, the two years we had at Bluedot were great

Go to Deer Shed then. That's moved from 26th to 28th July for next year.

 

[dingbat2]

45 minutes ago, The Night Tripper said:

Go to Deer Shed then. That's moved from 26th to 28th July for next year.

 

I would have loved to have gone to Deer Shed this year, but it was the same weekend as Bluedot, during term time for us. It had a cracking line up for me and the family. Great (for me personally) that they have moved Deer Shed forward a week next year. I will definitely give it a good look

I don't have any issues with Bluedot being the weekend it is, its just a disappointment for me personally, and my wife and kids.  The first two years were brilliant. I suspect it would cost a lot more to hold it at Jodrell Bank the week after as it will fall during school holidays so I assume they would normally get a lot of tourist income there during the holidays

Really pleased for them that they still managed to sell all of the weekend tickets despite it being during term time (for some of us anyway)

[DJL]

4 hours ago, offmytrolley said:

That was absolutely wonderful!

Yep, totally agree. Just love the vibe, music, location, drinks, science, mini parades - the whole thing. Headliners were diverse and nailed it, enough on the undercard to get you in early and going on after to keep you going.

The roots stage area was bigger after dark this year - less chilled but arguably more fun. Maybe they need a more chilled area elsewhere? 

The weather was was great too which helps. Crazy P in that heat was punishing but excellent.

A couple of minor organisational things they need to improve upon but generally staff were lovely too. 

My group all remarked that they didn’t meet a dickhead all weekend, which was nice. We’ll be back!

[Deckard]

Back from this and enjoyed it. Highlights were loads of great science stuff, PSB, Lamb who did the best they could when their Synth shut down and Chemical Brothers. Only a couple of minor issues relating to Mission Control; sound from the main stage was bad at times and put a couple of speakers off and on the busy last day people were saving empty seats to an annoying extent.

[DDave]

19 hours ago, Flaminglippy said:

Just got back...overall great weekend. Getting in and getting up set up was remarkably easy again (the permanent paths make it so much easier) although Family Camping was rammed (and a lot werent families). Tent got robbed on Thurs night which was bit of a pisser. Food was good but tiny portions for the money. Most of the staff were superb...occasional miserable sod at the bar aside. Virtually all the punters I spoke to were proper sound. Thought Flaming Lips, Future Islands and Chems were all excellent. Probably will go again depending on line up. Bearing in mind I guessed Flaming Lips and Future Islands this year, going for Spiritualized & Primal Scream as two of the headliners for next year (maybe Fatboy Slim or Gorillaz as the third) plus Mystery Jets as a subbie. 

w*nk that your tent got robbed, just shows it can happen anywhere.

I'll go Kraftwerk, Moby and Royksopp again.

[WS_Jack_III]

Did they do the twitch stream this year? I can't find any 2018 stuff in the past broadcast area.

[Tent Peg]

Had a great weekend, really chilled and loved the bands we caught. Easy to get around and not too many queues. We  had out tent robbed on the Thursday night too. It was quite disturbing as I woke up to find someone half in our tent reaching around my wife in her sleeping bag. I heard about quite a few other similar incidents over the weekend. One where a thief was caught and got a severe beating in a tent. Luckily it didn't ruin our weekend as the rest of the festival was great.

[frostypaw]

Wasn't that lovely? Bluedot is still a little gem of a festie - as long as you're into the sciencey and electronica side. Highlights included Caouche which was just beautiful, Vessels excusing the first track where they couldn't hear their drummer, Warm Digits' barnstomer of an early set, Thomas Ragsdale, George Fitzgerald's stomping set and the very impressive Chem Bros show. Flaming Lips gets a special mention for rainbow vomit levels - great fun though - did love one of his chats "I know, I know what you're thinking - Wayne, I don't know the fucking words to your wierd-ass song" Damn right!

 

Sad to hear about the robberies though, did notice campsite security getting a step up. Horrible how just a few can put a real stain on it for so many.

[shoptildrop]

Now that I'm resembling a human again I thought I'd had my comments - IMO this was the best year yet and had a superb time!!

The layout worked so much better this year, as they made more use of the space around the Orbit stage and lesser bleeds between tents due to moving Contact over to south star field.

Interesting see how busy it gets at full capacity (Sunday) which wasn't too bad but you had to time your toilet and food breaks a bit better, even though longest I ever waited was 5 mins which is nothing..

My only grumble was the lesser lager selections in the main bars, as there has been more in the last 2 years but this year they had 2 which was a shame and do worry it may become generic beer selection to satisfy demand rather than different beers across the site like previously. Seems they still need to plan the beer allocation a bit better as real ale tent pretty much ran out of everything early Sunday and they had to close the bar an hour earlier as they actually ran out of everything lol

Oh and paying for the VIP option on Thursday was the biggest waste of money ever!!

Highlights for me was Flaming Lips (as right next to Wayne's zorb landing pad), lamb, International teachers of pop, Warm digits and Chems were just out of this world and even had the International space station fly over during their set  

Can't believe people got robbed, which field was this at and what sort of time? As didn't hear anything about that myself over the weekend. But does show nowhere is safe from thieving scum!!

Will  be back to this next year 

 

 

[shoptildrop]

On the topic of who to have next year, surely Prodigy are in with a shout?? I would love the opportunity to see Sigur Ros there but not sure how popular they would be with the family crowd

[Memory Man]

Really decent festival! My only (very) minor gripes are thusly:

Musical undercard remains weak and needs more money spending on it, with maybe less on the headliners? But obviously the headliners drive ticket sales.... Often there was very little I wanted to see on before 4pm which is a bit rubbish for a camping festival. Perhaps as the event grows things will improve in this respect.

Contact stage was the same used as last year but as, at times, there must have been about twice as many people on site as last year it ended up being woefully inadequate size wise. Twice the capacity of the tent again were sat outside during David O'Docherty. They could step up the comedy element and make a bigger arena for it easily, its the kind of thing their target audience really go for.

We paid for the hot tub which was the biggest waste of £35 in my life. One tiny weak shower to share between 12-15 people, no customer service, the tubs were not secluded or out of the way / private and ours was oversold!! Disgrace. Heartily not recommended especially as we went in on sunday when the weather was hot so sitting in a hot tub was just uncomfortable anyway.

It is still annoying arriving on Friday morning in time to get your tent up and get in the arena for mid afternoon. I cannot see them opening on thursday to camp without further charge though. And we only come from leeds a 90 min drive.

Other than that my experience was much the same as other posters, barely any dickheads, food was fantastic (but expensive) drinks were fairly decent (but expensive) and sneaking your own beers in was pretty easy. Some brilliant acts especially Baloji, Chems, David O'd, Simon Munnery and the utter incredible Paul Currie. Some acts I like but were a bit underwhelming on the day incl Vessels. Sound wasnt brilliant for the later DJ sets but had fun at Gilles Peterson and the unabombers after.

We have been lucky enough to get guest list entry this year and last but if you asked me to pay to attend (as well as the money you spend on food and drink) I would have second thoughts to be honest. Admittedly as a 31 year old with no kids I am not exactly the target audience. Brilliant for families and the older generation for whom a festival like Glastonbury feels like too much of a slog & hard work. Getting in and out is so incredibly easy and the whole place is pretty stress free with very few ques at all. If it stays that way it will always have that going for it, which many events do not. It is great to finally have a reliably decent festival in the north of england year in year out.

 

 

Edited July 24, 2018 by Memory Man

[Flaminglippy]

1 hour ago, shoptildrop said:

Can't believe people got robbed, which field was this at and what sort of time? As didn't hear anything about that myself over the weekend. But does show nowhere is safe from thieving scum!!

 

For us it was sometime after midnight in Family Camping on the Thursday. We lost about £200 but you can't let it ruin your weekend. At least 4 or 5 people were hit based on what the security fella we reported it to said.

Edited July 24, 2018 by Flaminglippy

[shoptildrop]

3 minutes ago, Flaminglippy said:

For us it was sometime after midnight in Family Camping on the Thursday. We lost about £200 but you can't let it ruin your weekend. At least 4 or 5 people were hit based on what the security fella we reported it to said.

That's pretty sh*t  We use the lockups (which do need to be more secure IMO) from most of our stuff but will still have our phones with us, which is one of the hit list items it seems...

Looks like they are going for the quieter areas where people go to bed earlier and lesser chance of people milling about. As it was the same at Bearded... loads of people hit on the 1st night around the family camping area - totally sucks

[Flaminglippy]

4 hours ago, shoptildrop said:

As it was the same at Bearded... loads of people hit on the 1st night around the family camping area - totally sucks

You at Bearded as well?? As a matter of interest which was your favourite of the two? Think Bearded just about edged it for me but very close. Heard about the thefts there (you couldnt help but hear...the compere mentioned it loads). We are definitely doing Bearded again next year, and 95% for Bluedot. Might just wait for the line-up for Bluedot though as less on the music front that is up my street. Wore my Bearded t-shirt to Latitude and had 4 or 5 people come up and start chatting about how much they'd loved it. 

[belewadobis]

Bit of a strange question, but to the tent-dwellers who were blasting out dance tunes all Sunday afternoon in Cosmic Rays camp site... what were you playing? Those were great tracks, but I didn't have the energy to come over and ask.

Edited July 24, 2018 by belewadobis

[Nickyboy]

My first visit to Bluedot, and I really really enjoyed it.  The weather helped of course, but I loved the size and vibe of the whole thing.  Hard to believe there are only circa 6000 on site, it felt much bigger than that.  I thought the area's were split very well, and noise bleed wasn't too bad.

Memory Man was correct that the underbill is a little underwhelming, but we spent ages at talks, in the Space field and the Roots area which was great day and night (when the Fire show started).  We also did a couple of lunch bar-b-q's which is a first for us.

The marshalls came round on Friday to tell everyone about the robberies and warn everyone - it sucks that this happens at such a decent small festival.

Favourites were PSB, Flaming Lips, Gary Newman and Chems.  Of bands we just wandered in to check out who'd we'd never heard of - these tickled my fancy: Tallsaint (best singer of the weekend), Mush, Park Hotel.

Loved it, likely to be back.  Had enough of Glastonbury and its crowds

Edited July 24, 2018 by Nickyboy

[Flaminglippy]

16 hours ago, Nickyboy said:

The marshalls came round on Friday to tell everyone about the robberies and warn everyone - it sucks that this happens at such a decent small festival.

 

You're absolutely right...it sucks! Bluedot is probably a good target for them as its family friendly and quite expensive so people will probably have loads of cash on them.  

Its normally the first night when it happens as its when people have the most money. Think its normally family camping that's hit hardest as well as a) with babbies you are more likely to go to sleep earlier (in theory) and b) they are less likely to go into a tent occupied by a bunch of lads who will pummel the crap out of them if they are caught.

That said I've been going to festivals for 25 years, on average 4 year and this is only the 2nd time its happened so that's an average of about 2% so in context its not that bad.

I caught Mush as well. Saw them a few months back at Long Division and really liked them. Very Pavement-y I thought. Plastic Mermaids who were on one of the days at Bluedot were similar.

 

 

  

[shoptildrop]

19 hours ago, Flaminglippy said:

You at Bearded as well?? As a matter of interest which was your favourite of the two? Think Bearded just about edged it for me but very close. Heard about the thefts there (you couldnt help but hear...the compere mentioned it loads). We are definitely doing Bearded again next year, and 95% for Bluedot. Might just wait for the line-up for Bluedot though as less on the music front that is up my street. Wore my Bearded t-shirt to Latitude and had 4 or 5 people come up and start chatting about how much they'd loved it. 

Bluedot wins by a mile just for the music and science, I did love the layout/vibe of Bearded but for me personally it's not really my type of music and struggled to really like that much all weekend. I know there was a lot of diversity at Bearded but it wasn't quite to my taste... I would go again if I liked the lineup though.

Bluedot is a total 100% given for me as only 30 min drive and I like the science stuff