The Beatherder Festival 2017

[northernsoul]

First time. Love the line up. Any info on how quick the campsite fills up or is their plenty of space? Big tent to put up.

[Ringo_Spar]

Haven't done a full weekend there for a few years. There used to be big queues (2 hours+) for wristband exchange at gate opening time, was a natural filter on the campsites getting busy early.

It's bigger now - unless they've rejigged their wristbanding operation (only been as a guest list blagger for odd days last few years) then it should be fine.

[man next door]

I've found that round the far side of the camping, round the back of the trees, almost round as far as the fortress - there is always loads of space. 

Although it's a longer walk, and quite slopey

[dirty_dog]

thinking of doing this festival myself.

not sure whether to bring my teenage daughter or not as it looks a bit too druggy for that.

 

is everyone friendly enough at this place? 

[man next door]

its generally really friendly - been for 6 years, and mostly just seen smiling happy people throughout. 

One or two incidents last year, and I worry that as it has got bigger it's possibly just started to lose some of that vibe. My wife tells me the feel of the place has changed slightly, but I'm generally too bolloxed to notice, if I'm honest....

so, to answer your other question - yeah, you could say that the effects of mind altering substances other than alcohol can be witnessed around the site.

What it does do very well for a small (ish, still) festival is create lots of different types of place within it - by night time the fortress is chaos - everyone is pretty charged.... but at the other end of the site you can see some fantastic small bands in the less chaotic smokey tentacles area... and there's all sorts going in in between. 

As it says on the website , it's a music festival, not a kids festival (or something along those lines) - depends on how wise your girl is to these things - because if not, it might be a bit much for her.

Its a great party, one of the best, but some of the people are a little 'rough and ready' in a mostly friendly northern kinda way.

hope this helps, not sure if it will or not.

 

 

[man next door]

1 hour ago, dirty_dog said:

thinking of doing this festival myself.

not sure whether to bring my teenage daughter or not as it looks a bit too druggy for that.

 

is everyone friendly enough at this place? 

having just seen your signature, with Festival no 6 and lattitude, I'd advise that it's pretty much the opposite end of the scale to those (barring the pure dance ones like Creamfield / homelands).... 

If you're epxecting anything like those, you may be best off giving it a miss tbh.

[dirty_dog]

2 hours ago, man next door said:

having just seen your signature, with Festival no 6 and lattitude, I'd advise that it's pretty much the opposite end of the scale to those (barring the pure dance ones like Creamfield / homelands).... 

If you're epxecting anything like those, you may be best off giving it a miss tbh.

No not expecting it to be anything like them. after something a bit different.

 

 

[man next door]

Beatherder is quite messy, there's no doubt about it.

It's in my top 3 festivals ever - but I personally use it as a weekend away from our kids. (but they are really little atm)

I think it depends on how comfortable you are with you daughter seeing people who are obviously 'having a very good time' - as that is going to happen.

They are ,of course, nearly all lovely friendly people though. It's certainly not a threatening environment and they squeeze a lot of fun into a relatively small site.

[doobie ninja]

hi

I've had my eye on this festival for a few years, looks great. I'm hoping to go this year, got a few boring questions though im afraid:

It seems fairly small, im guessing the carparks are close to the camping area?

I might not be able to get there when the gates open. i dont mind camping away from the main area (i quite like it) but i hate camping on hills! whats the camping situation like?

Can you take / sneak booze in?

 

Thanks guys

[DDave]

Got back earlier today after doing the Friday and Saturday.

What a fucking great festival! Loads and loads of stuff to do and see. Loved the large number of small stages and loved the weirdness and wonderfulness of it all. Reminded me of the first Bestival but with more great little nooks and crannies. If you don't find something that you like at Beat Herder then you may as well just give up.

Hardly any queues to get in or for drinks, food etc. and easy enough to get on and off site. Very young and very druggy in parts but the kids there were in good spirits and there was none of the moodiness there that I feared beforehand. Did give the Fortress a wide berth so that probably helped. Didn't see anything close to trouble at all.

The working mans club was a massive highlight and we spent a lot of time bobbing in and out of it and even winning the pub quiz.

As for the music, thought it was great - Crystal Fighters, Sugarhill Gang, Stereo MC's, Cabbage, Factory Floor and Kelis were all top drawer. Didn't really see a bad band all weekend and some of the DJ sets were brilliant. The Pretend Beatles were a highlight as well.

Taking your own beer in was a massive plus even though we did drink a lot of the booze on sale. £3.50 a pint and two cans for 6 quid is great - Wish they'd have had another lager than fucking Red Stripe though. 

Only downside was the mud (could have been a lot, lot worse though) 

All in all a brilliant couple of days/nights. Just how a festival should be.

Edited July 16, 2017 by DiscothequeDave

[eFestivals]

15 hours ago, DiscothequeDave said:

Cabbage

the efests reviewer at beat herder had a chat with Joe from Cabbage .... who it turns out used to review for efestivals himself, and reviewed beat herder 6 years ago for efests.

I didn't know that till last night.

</useless info>