Mad Cool 2018

[Cactusgirl]

We had a great day yesterday. No where near the queue for drinks. The sound on all stages was impressive. Went to Franz Ferdinand who were really good. Glad didn't leave for Massive Attack now.

Got the number 8 metro and then stumbled upon a night bus which took us almost to the apartment.

Went to Nos last year and really enjoyed it there. This is much bigger. Also don't miss the walk over the bridge of death every night after!

So apart from the first 3 hours on first day which were completely not acceptable the festival has really picked up.

Can't wait for this evening!!

[johnybegood]

When Massive Attack played Low Festival in Spain, they made Corizonas, a great Spanish rock band, play the part of their set that clashed with Massive Attack, with acoustic guitars and no lights. 

Lot of things are going bad in Mad Cool this year, but Massive Attack issue is not their fault. Justice nailed their show in the same Stage with Kasabian playing in the same Stage where Franz Ferdinand played last night.

Edited July 14, 2018 by johnybegood

[JSmurphy]

36 minutes ago, Red Day said:

I’ve seen both this weekend at NOS. You won’t be disappointed 

You tease! First time seeing NIN too. I haven't been checking their setlists so I'm gonna go in pretty much blind. 

[Wooderson]

You’ve just gotta be smart. Huge queues for a booj at one bar but walk for 2 mins and you’ll get a drink straight away. It’s a new festival and there’ll always be difficulties. Once the entrance snafu was resolved things were grand. 

[Red Day]

2 minutes ago, JSmurphy said:

You tease! First time seeing NIN too. I haven't been checking their setlists so I'm gonna go in pretty much blind. 

If they play same setlist, the first 3 songs will blow you away. They were absolutely brilliant from start to finish 

[Andrej]

day 2 seemed way better than day 1. smaller lines, ate some better food, great sets by Jack White and At The Drive In. sad about missing Massive Attack, somehow feel the story goes deeper than the press release put out by MC. we'll see...

 

 

[SonicSleuth]

5 hours ago, xxialac said:

That sounds much more likely.

Im 100% on massive attack’s side here and we haven’t heard their version.

Who do you trust? 

The totally shambolic disorganised  Mad Cool?

Or the band who have been playing reliably, turning up on time (I’ve seen them almost 10 times), and being consistently professional over the last 30 years?

Dude, you're on crack. Massive Attack have cancelled plenty of shows. This was the *second* time they've dropped out of a festival *I've* attended personally. This was just one year ago:

http://www.allthingsloud.com/festival-news-massive-attack-anderson-paak-cancel-down-the-rabbit-hole-appearances

[ThisIsHappening]

Going with Wolf Alice, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Kaleo, QotSA, DJ Koze, Future Islands, Richie Hawtin and Underworld today. Seeing Depeche Mode next week, but skipping Nine Inch Nails is tough. Maybe catch the second half. 

[Orens]

I'm not at Mad Cool but don't miss out on The Black Madonna. Amazing set at Primavera Sound, so uplifting.

[elias]

Agreed with all those that thought there was a big improvement on the second day. Never waited long for a beer or the loos.

Technically it's fantastic. The sound is great, the stages are huge and easily accessible and the screens are massive and crystal clear once it gets dark.

This doesn't excuse the total balls up at entry the first day. With a bit of forward planning and a lot of luck we were in and watching Gang Of Youths at 6.00pm, but waiting for hours in those roasting temperatures must have been awful.

Some things have improved from last year and some things are worse, but we are having a great time. Getting back to the apartment at the end of the night is a bit of a pain, but certainly do able.

Looking forward to some great bands tonight.

[xxialac]

1 hour ago, SonicSleuth said:

Dude, you're on crack. Massive Attack have cancelled plenty of shows. This was the *second* time they've dropped out of a festival *I've* attended personally. This was just one year ago:

http://www.allthingsloud.com/festival-news-massive-attack-anderson-paak-cancel-down-the-rabbit-hole-appearances

No. Massive Attack have been playing gigs since the late 1980s. There is plenty of evidence of them being professional performers.

Your Rabbit Hole example is pathetic and in no way comparable. That was a tour that got shelved 4 months before.

And in my time in seeing them *zero* times they’ve dropped out of a festival *ive* attended personally out of 9.

They are not divas. There was obviously something completely unacceptable about the mad cool setup.

[The Nal]

Bought some champagne from a stall yesterday and despite explicitly asking for it served at a temperature of 9c it was closer to 11c. 

Worst festival ever. 

[ThisIsHappening]

In queue. Enjoy the last day all!

Edited July 14, 2018 by ThisIsHappening

[Yelo, the Parmiggiana]

Gates open after 15 minutes.

Yesterday 20

The first day 45

 

Hell of an improvement

[charlierc]

When I went to bed on Thursday night, I had a flick through associated social media hashtags and these pages and was expecting a shitshow for my Friday day pass. In reality, I didn't have problems getting in or getting drinks (well, apart from when the water re-fill temporarily ran out), the bands were good, and the stage sound was great, but I do think the festival feels like a work in progress. 

Certainly, not getting the Cercanias line to continue through the night was crap, and the consequent walk to IFEMA was brutal. The special bus after that from Nuevos Ministeros was also weird that it didn't immediately give out destinations, but given its final stop was 10 minutes from my hostal, it sort of worked out. The overflowing water at both the re-fill point and toilets was also kinda gross with the fake grass.

Still, I enjoyed what I saw. Arctic Monkeys were much better than the times I saw them on the AM Tour, Marmozets were great despite the various technical problems, plus I also did like the bits of Snow Patrol, Goat Girl and At the Drive In I caught, and while I thought he was a bit repetitive for the first half of his set, I thought Jack White delivered a solid set.

Was also quite something when Franz Ferdinand began with Alex Kapranos slagging off the huge and at that point empty VIP section, which was then the cue for a mass invasion by people jumping over fences into it. Their set sounded fantastic though. The Massive Attack thing probably still has distance to run, but it seems a strange reason for them to pull the gig. Although the first I heard of the trouble was from some angry Scots on the train home calling them all manner of names for bailing.

[birchtree29]

Yesterday was really good for me too. I was able to see 3 of my favorite artists Jack White, Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand back to back in 5 hours. We especially had a really good spot for Arctic Monkeys. 

[birchtree29]

Also Arctic Monkeys livestream is posted on youtube. Today Queen of The Stone Age will have a livestream

 

Edited July 14, 2018 by birchtree29

[bluenova]

https://elpais.com/cultura/2018/07/14/actualidad/1531574065_132582.html

Not sure how accurate this is, but Massive Attack don't come out well. 

Looks like all the other acts playing agreed to compromise, reducing sound, finishing early or starting later, but this wasn't good enough. 

Looking forward to a "we did it so the fans weren't let down" justification from Massive Attack. 

[The Nal]

Is there coffee anywhere on site?

[Wooderson]

4 hours ago, eFestivals said:

I've seen a lot of complaining over the years.

I don't think I've ever seen anything so consistently saying it's bad, or from so many.

It might not be the worst ever, but it must be close.

Queues in Dublin for booze @ Nick Cave last month were worse mate.

[JSmurphy]

The Loop is incredible.

[rabsi1]

1 hour ago, JSmurphy said:

The Loop is incredible.

Seconded!

[Deckard]

Not at Mad Cool but at Roskilde last week Massive Attack changed their set time late in the day to avoid clashing with David Byrne which makes me go more for the diva theory. Having said that they put on a good show.

[AAlex]

I do think after hearing all the stories it’s a Massive Attack issue rather than a Mad Cool one. Had no issues today other than the security stopping people in the queue, when that worked fine yesterday.

I would agree to an extent what someone else said about residue annoyance from the original entry (which was the worst I’ve ever experienced)... all in all a good two days out of three for me and I get to hear DO YOU WANNA BE MY GIRL and born slippy later, hope everyone else has had a good day. 

[seantizz]

Yep - much better today. 

Speedy access to get in and I got beer and food served pretty instantly. 

Depechr Mode were incredible o thought. 

Still some issues with it as a festival in terms of location & infrastructure but there’s clearly been a lot of learning going on over the past couple of days - and they’ve worked hard to put things right..