Blue Dot Festival

[Stanful]

Thanks @Summertime and @frostypaw!

 

1 hour ago, RobEggleshaw said:

What a d1ck...why when given that information would you go against the actual advice of the people organising it? What would happen if lots if people decided to walk on unpaved roads to the festival? Oh yes, that's right, a load of extra work and assurances when obtaining future licenses and insurance. 

The organisers are just giving some useful advice, as people may not be aware of the type of roads in the area. I live out in the sticks myself and all the lanes round me are like that anyway, so it doesn't bother me, but it's good that they make people aware. It's a recommendation, not a diktat. From forums and Twitter it's clear plenty of people walk from the station, and it's not a problem. The Jodrell Bank visitor centre has the same advice on their site too, it's not specific to Bluedot. Have a great festival!

[Rebexus]

1 hour ago, RobEggleshaw said:

What a d1ck...why when given that information would you go against the actual advice of the people organising it? What would happen if lots if people decided to walk on unpaved roads to the festival? Oh yes, that's right, a load of extra work and assurances when obtaining future licenses and insurance. 

Why the hell can't someone walk? The festival is calling itself a "green" festival then has ZERO links with local public transport. Oh correction, ONE bus from Macclesfield on Thursday (ONE!!!) and ONE on Friday! THAT is ludicrous.

if people want to walk it is up to them. It's a public road not a motorway. And why are you so invested in what other people choose to do?

[RobEggleshaw]

1 hour ago, Rebexus said:

And why are you so invested in what other people choose to do?

I given reasons if you bothered to read it.

[JonXLR8]

It's unrealistic to expect people not to use the local station, I'm arriving into Goostrey on the Friday afternoon. But fair play to Bluedot/Jodrell Bank for warning people about the roads.

It's only a couple of miles up the road so it would have been nice for them to have arranged a shuttle bus back and forth from the train station, I'd happily have paid for that service, but suspect this may have been turned down by the local council as they tend to want people to avoid local villages at events like this.

[Memory Man]

if you look how narrow the roads are (some of them are little more than a glorified dirt track) you could barely even get a bus or coach up them.

[RobEggleshaw]

I think people should respect the wishes of the festival organisers. They obviously have the bigger picture in mind such as the impact on local residents as you mention, but also their license conditions and terms that they agreed to (other factors I'm sure as well, I'm just not privvy to them). If the local roads have no provision for pedestrians, and are unlit and narrow, then it is not unreasonable to request people use public transport for that final stage. If people choose to ignore that request and walk anyway as they believe it is their right to do so, then I think they are being selfish and self-centred (a generally growing trend in today's society). There will be tens of thousands of people arriving in motor vehicles; it takes one small incident on the narrow roads to have a potentially fatal or life changing outcome for someone. That could result in potentially ruinous future license terms & conditions at worst, at best an increased ticket price and/or other conditions.

It's hard work to put on an event in today's UK, the organisers should be supported and respected.

[JonXLR8]

23 minutes ago, Memory Man said:

if you look how narrow the roads are (some of them are little more than a glorified dirt track) you could barely even get a bus or coach up them.

Goostrey Lane / Station Road which runs from the station to the A535 whilst unpaved, is single carriageway so plenty big enough and the station itself has a decent size car park. Buses could have been laid on to run from there up the A535 to one of the gates and back, completely avoiding any small lanes/tracks and the village itself.

Personally I wish more people used car-sharing websites in the UK. I've used sites such as liftshare.com, blablacar.co.uk and gocarshare.com for both giving and receiving lifts and it's a great way of travelling cheaply, quickly and a step towards greener travel and reducing congestion. I gave a couple of Polish backpackers a lift from Bristol to Birmingham when I last drove that route by myself, and they said it is so common in Europe that you can practically get anywhere you want without a car.

Anyway, I hope everyone arrives safely and has an amazing time. I'm really looking forward to it.

[michael eavis' beard]

Goostrey, while close, is a poxy little station.  The festival are quite clear that people arriving by train should head to Macclesfield (which is on the direct line between Manchester and London) and get the coach from there.  There's more facilities at Macc and more room to get coaches in and out.

The festival are never going to recommend or encourage people to walk along those roads from Goostrey.  They look dodgy at the best of times and that's without carrying a load of festival gear.  If that's what you've chosen to do then that's on you (just take care and keep right!), but the festival are doing the right thing trying to discourage it.

[incident]

2 minutes ago, michael eavis' beard said:

Goostrey, while close, is a poxy little station.  The festival are quite clear that people arriving by train should head to Macclesfield (which is on the direct line between Manchester and London) and get the coach from there.  There's more facilities at Macc and more room to get coaches in and out.

That's fine, plenty of festivals say something along the lines of "use this station instead of the nearest one". But generally those festivals have more than 2 coaches across the entire weekend going from the station to the festival site. If they were putting sensible provision in place this wouldn't need to be a discussion.

[Rebexus]

1 hour ago, RobEggleshaw said:

There will be tens of thousands of people arriving in motor vehicles; it takes one small incident on the narrow roads to have a potentially fatal or life changing outcome for someone.

So it is the people walking who are responsible for any accidents and not the "thousands of cars"?? Seriously?
 

Some people don't own cars (shock fact)
Some people cannot afford a £15-20 taxi ride from Macclesfield through rural Cheshire.
Some people don't want to take that taxi as it is the opposite of green transport.
The nearest station is Goostry - 2 miles away. Macclesfield 10 miles away.

Don't blame the pedestrians for the Festival's lack of transport arrangements.
I have been to multiple tens of festivals and never yet seen NO shuttle available from the local transport hub. It is quite shockingly negligent.

[michael eavis' beard]

7 minutes ago, incident said:

That's fine, plenty of festivals say something along the lines of "use this station instead of the nearest one". But generally those festivals have more than 2 coaches across the entire weekend going from the station to the festival site. If they were putting sensible provision in place this wouldn't need to be a discussion.

There's coaches every day from Macclesfield.  I worked on the coaches in the first year when Big Green Coach did them and there was more than 1 coach available each each of the time slots.  From memory they did 1 coach for weekenders and about 2 or 3 coaches each day for the day trippers.  They put more on to meet the demand.  Can't comment on it since BGC stopped though.

[Rebexus]

https://www.tunedintravel.com/events/bluedot-festival-2019
Train

The closest train station to bluedot is Goostrey. As the roads by the station are dark country roads at night, and there are no buses that run to and from the station, we would recommend travelling from Macclesfield train station.

You can get a coach direct to the festival from Macclesfield opposite the train station at 11:15AM Thursday or Friday.

ONE COACH at 11:15am on Friday - this does not constitute festival transport!

Edited July 17, 2019 by Rebexus

[the wonderwhy]

That coach from Macclesfield was also mad expensive. It was the same price as coming from Manchester. 

[shoptildrop]

14 hours ago, ghoulieanne said:

Are all the other stages covered?  I thought the roots stage was outside?  Also the deep space disco- I thought that was a new stage, so do we know if that's covered?

Thanks x

I am going by previous years - all stages in the arena playing stuff (roots is not in the arena) are in tents - orbit, contact, nebula, mission control, star pavilion, space pavilion..

The new stuff this year Big bang stage, Rebel Rebel stage and Deep space disco I don't know if tents as they are new so we'll see tomorrow, but reckon late night Deep space disco will be in a tent so they can control the sound bleed...

My point was apart from Lovell stage all other stages previously had been covered so if it rains it will be fine..... 

[Mistyflip]

Hi space cadets, can anyone enlighten me on the last arrival times for weekend parking site on the Friday (I expect to arrive about 9.30 traffic dependent and if it is possible to travel from the site straight after New order play on the Sunday at say 11pm? Cheers in advance:)

[shoptildrop]

45 minutes ago, Mistyflip said:

Hi space cadets, can anyone enlighten me on the last arrival times for weekend parking site on the Friday (I expect to arrive about 9.30 traffic dependent and if it is possible to travel from the site straight after New order play on the Sunday at say 11pm? Cheers in advance:)

https://www.discoverthebluedot.com/info/opening-times that's for entry, I think you can leave whenever on Sunday

[Summertime]

3 hours ago, Mistyflip said:

Hi space cadets, can anyone enlighten me on the last arrival times for weekend parking site on the Friday (I expect to arrive about 9.30 traffic dependent and if it is possible to travel from the site straight after New order play on the Sunday at say 11pm? Cheers in advance:)

I left the site after Chemical Brothers on the Sunday last year at a similar time no problem.  Lots of others were doing the same.

[DDave]

Weekend tickets have gone back on sale on their website. Plenty of cheap tickets knocking about on ebay and twickets now. Think a few people may have had second thoughts due to the projected weather.

Edited July 17, 2019 by DDave

[shoptildrop]

1 hour ago, DDave said:

Weekend tickets have gone back on sale on their website. Plenty of cheap tickets knocking about on ebay and twickets now. Think a few people may have had second thoughts due to the projected weather.

or maybe people pushing for refunds as not happy with the wristband thing... shame tbh

Plonkers on ebay showing pictures with full barcodes!!!  

Weather is constantly changing...  light rain showers, cloud and sun so basically covering everything lol

I'm concerned about thunderstorms though as I personally hate them (Bearded theory last year was a bit scary) but reckon it will fizzle out as weather in NW is every changing

[JonXLR8]

 

2 minutes ago, shoptildrop said:

or maybe people pushing for refunds as not happy with the wristband thing... shame tbh

Plonkers on ebay showing pictures with full barcodes!!!  

Weather is constantly changing...  light rain showers, cloud and sun so basically covering everything lol

I'm concerned about thunderstorms though as I personally hate them (Bearded theory last year was a bit scary) but reckon it will fizzle out as weather in NW is every changing

Weather forecast doesn't look too bad really. I know what you mean about the thunderstorms though, I was in a bell tent at Lunar Festival last year and it felt like the centre pole was twice as high as it actually is when the jet black clouds were overhead. Although there was some severe rainfall, thankfully there were no lightning strikes.

[shoptildrop]

Just now, JonXLR8 said:

 

Weather forecast doesn't look too bad really. I know what you mean about the thunderstorms though, I was in a bell tent at Lunar Festival last year and it felt like the centre pole was twice as high as it actually is when the jet black clouds were overhead. Although there was some severe rainfall, thankfully there were no lightning strikes.

I think it will be fine... I remember both 1st and 2nd year at Bluedot it absolutely pissed it down Friday night, we got soaked during underworld but actually helped cool everyone down and didn't ruin the set at all - it was fine afterwards 

Enjoy the festival  

[the wonderwhy]

Yeah, rail all day Saturday is a bit annoying although I reckon that probably wont come to pass. Hopefully that thunderstorm fucks off or at least happens tomorrow. 

[frostypaw]

15 hours ago, eastynh said:

Thank you so much.

No alcohol for me on the first 2 days at all. Unfortunately my body just can't take it any more. Looking forward to seeing things clearly this time.

Will have a few beers on the Sunday. Got a lot of pals coming for New Order so will indulge a little then.

My apologies wasn't meaning to pressure you to drink, just answering a few other people's questions too

It's a great festival if you're not 100% as it's all so flat. Was the first one I could dance at again after my thing as I wasn't so knackered from everything else, hopefully will be good for you too

[eastynh]

10 hours ago, frostypaw said:

My apologies wasn't meaning to pressure you to drink, just answering a few other people's questions too

It's a great festival if you're not 100% as it's all so flat. Was the first one I could dance at again after my thing as I wasn't so knackered from everything else, hopefully will be good for you too

I did not think you were pressurising me to drink mate. I managed to get through Glastonbury without relenting to peer pressure so I will be fine anyway.

Not been to Bluedot before but I went to a few of the Transmission gigs at JB. The last New Order gig there is one of my fave ever gigs. I am really looking forward to it now.

[eastynh]

Is the merch stall also cashless?