Green Man 2022

[Jeel]

They have the silent disco etc at EOTR as well. Basically goes on to 2-3 with music, DJ and just disco options.

I guess it's difficult to replicate at GM as there are so many families (who largely probably wouldn't be up for this). It would also need to move the camping further out due to the noise. 

Having said that, adding in a silent disco would negate many of the issues. 

Forgot to mention bands earlier.

Favourite sets of the weekend - Viagra Boys, Lemondaze, Prima Queen, Balimaya Project, Dele Sosimi, Keg, Grandma's House and Lime Garden

[OddRon]

My fault for going too hard at the start but I was gutted to be too tired for Nothern Soul on the Sunday night. Conked out straight after the fireworks. It sounded like it was a lot of fun and I'd prefer after dark entertainment like that way more than some of the stuff I saw. 

[pie_and_a_pint]

4 hours ago, Lionator said:

There were a couple of unsavoury incidents (including a very serious one) having spoken to some of the staff which required police presence on site. 

Oh dear. I sincerely hope that the incidents did not involve the dark, totally unlit and dangerous spaces in the trees behind the Rising stage which were being used as a urinal by lots of men, but would also be a rapist's dream... 😞

We witnessed (and foiled) a theft before Metronomy - a woman accidentally left her phone on the ground when she got up to leave, and the the group next to her quick-as-a-flash leaned over, took the phone, whipped the back off and pocked the cash that was in the case and spread it out between them, then pocketed the phone. I called out to the people that I'd just seen what they did, and got called a c*nt. I was just about to pop off and find a security guard when the woman came back looking for her phone, and I took great delight in telling her that the group just there had her phone and her cash... 

They gave it back, then got up and moved.

[bexj]

Everything just spot on as usual.  Highlights for me were Dactyl Terra,  Maria BC,  Melin Melyn,  The Wedding Present,  The Murder Capital,  Ty Seagall,  Lemondaze and Pictish Trail

 

Anyone else experience the absolute shambles at the coach pick up on Monday?   No traffic management for ages, meaning too many busses in a tiny area with no room to turn.  Expect it caused chaos on the main road too.  Our coach to Sheffield /Leeds left 3 hours late meaning we had a long wait in the rain.   Our poor drivers had set off at 4am, I'm guessing they would have got back to Leeds around 7.15pm.  Complaint has been sent to GM and Nat Express... It seriously put me off travelling by coach again,  which is a shame from a green /cost perspective.   

[Ha French Bread]

5 minutes ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

Oh dear. I sincerely hope that the incidents did not involve the dark, totally unlit and dangerous spaces in the trees behind the Rising stage which were being used as a urinal by lots of men, but would also be a rapist's dream... 😞

We witnessed (and foiled) a theft before Metronomy - a woman accidentally left her phone on the ground when she got up to leave, and the the group next to her quick-as-a-flash leaned over, took the phone, whipped the back off and pocked the cash that was in the case and spread it out between them, then pocketed the phone. I called out to the people that I'd just seen what they did, and got called a c*nt. I was just about to pop off and find a security guard when the woman came back looking for her phone, and I took great delight in telling her that the group just there had her phone and her cash... 

They gave it back, then got up and moved.

That's terrible, well done for sorting the pr*cks out!

[OddRon]

11 minutes ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

Oh dear. I sincerely hope that the incidents did not involve the dark, totally unlit and dangerous spaces in the trees behind the Rising stage which were being used as a urinal by lots of men, but would also be a rapist's dream... 😞

We witnessed (and foiled) a theft before Metronomy - a woman accidentally left her phone on the ground when she got up to leave, and the the group next to her quick-as-a-flash leaned over, took the phone, whipped the back off and pocked the cash that was in the case and spread it out between them, then pocketed the phone. I called out to the people that I'd just seen what they did, and got called a c*nt. I was just about to pop off and find a security guard when the woman came back looking for her phone, and I took great delight in telling her that the group just there had her phone and her cash... 

They gave it back, then got up and moved.

We were playing hide and seek quite late one evening around that bit by Rising and that sort of thing didn't even occur to me. 

There was one evening/early morning elsewhere on site where we were told we'd have to go another way round as there had been an incident, hope everyone involved was okay. 

[Yoss]

First time at GM as an EotR regular. Sadly probably my last for the foreseeable, but not because I didn't love it, I just can't normally get away from work for both, and will be sticking with my regular because it's great and there's a whole bunch of us going every year.

Cracking weekend though. Can't really think of anything to fault from an organisational perspective - maybe if I'm being picky some more prominent information about schedules would be handy, as at EotR where they put the boards up centrally with all the timings, including any changes. Quite a few people were unaware of the Katy J Pearson / Mdou Moctar switch, for example.

The kids debate - there are a lot more than at EotR and I'm not going to pretend that I'm going to be moping around Larmer Tree next week thinking I wish there were more kids here playing diablo. But by and large I found their enjoyment and enthusiasm great to see and that more than outweighed any occasional incident where anyone actively got in my way. I saw very little uncontrolled or bad behaviour. Likewise I didn't have an issue with wagons or families at the stages. And nor was the talking during sets too bad, maybe I was lucky.

The stages are all excellent, the Mountain is such a good ampitheatre, the Far Out less gloomy and oppressive than the Big Top, Walled Garden a lovely spot and Rising worked very well too - pity it can't be located further from the main stage so they could make more use of it. (Nothing to match EotR's Garden stage though, sorry.)

Feels like I saw loads of music, but then it's always interesting to see people list their highlights and they had a completely different festival. My highlights included Umlauts, English Teacher, Melin Melyn, Pictish Trail, Ichiko Aoba, but the best stuff came with the Sunday night run of Ezra Furman (great as ever, my apologies for having doubted her new material), an entertaining interlude from Joe and the Shitboys; and Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul, absolutely outstanding in closing the Walled Garden - Parquet Courts are one of my favourite bands ever but they made me not regret missing them this time round in the slightest.

Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen.

[czuk]

52 minutes ago, benali said:

EOTR has bands playing until the early hours, as above I'd like to see the option at GM too although I do love the dance sets they have in Far Out late at night.

Late night dance sets in Far Out?  We must have missed them unless you are on about EOTR Big Top?

We spent a good few hours either Friday or Saturday night dancing to some great DJ sets in the Big Top last year.  Maybe it's an early morning noise thing, EOTR arena is a bit more separated from the camping areas than GM and they kept the sides on the Big Top whereas GM seems to have made the decision to remove the sides post Covid at Far Out and Round the Twist.

As a fan of dance music, I did find some of the DJing at Round the Twist a bit hit and miss.  Surely as a DJ it's obvious when people aren't dancing and even more obvious when the tent is emptying.  Time to break out a ketty banger, as my youngest would say.

 

[benali]

2 minutes ago, czuk said:

Late night dance sets in Far Out?  We must have missed them unless you are on about EOTR Big Top?

We spent a good few hours either Friday or Saturday night dancing to some great DJ sets in the Big Top last year.  Maybe it's an early morning noise thing, EOTR arena is a bit more separated from the camping areas than GM and they kept the sides on the Big Top whereas GM seems to have made the decision to remove the sides post Covid at Far Out and Round the Twist.

As a fan of dance music, I did find some of the DJing at Round the Twist a bit hit and miss.  Surely as a DJ it's obvious when people aren't dancing and even more obvious when the tent is emptying.  Time to break out a ketty banger, as my youngest would say.

 

Sofia Kortesis and Lone were in Far Out on Friday night, plus Scalping were on Walled Garden. Bicep and Optimo on Saturday.

I didn't watch all of them, mainly due to being so knackered but what I see was great.

[SighMo]

8 minutes ago, czuk said:

Late night dance sets in Far Out?  We must have missed them unless you are on about EOTR Big Top?

We spent a good few hours either Friday or Saturday night dancing to some great DJ sets in the Big Top last year.  Maybe it's an early morning noise thing, EOTR arena is a bit more separated from the camping areas than GM and they kept the sides on the Big Top whereas GM seems to have made the decision to remove the sides post Covid at Far Out and Round the Twist.

As a fan of dance music, I did find some of the DJing at Round the Twist a bit hit and miss.  Surely as a DJ it's obvious when people aren't dancing and even more obvious when the tent is emptying.  Time to break out a ketty banger, as my youngest would say.

 

Sides have been off the Far Out at least since 2017 when I first went. It’s much nicer like that than the Big Top at EOTR. 

[SweepingTheNation]

1 minute ago, SighMo said:

Sides have been off the Far Out at least since 2017 when I first went. It’s much nicer like that than the Big Top at EOTR. 

Problem is of course that the actual area used for EOTR is so smaller that opening the Big Top sides any further, as they would otherwise have surely done last year, would mean sound bleed into Woods and Garden (and there's already sometimes a little of that latte as there is)

They definitely opened the Far Out sides more than usual last year and continued with that as well as adding an extra PA.

[pie_and_a_pint]

42 minutes ago, OddRon said:

We were playing hide and seek quite late one evening around that bit by Rising and that sort of thing didn't even occur to me. 

There was one evening/early morning elsewhere on site where we were told we'd have to go another way round as there had been an incident, hope everyone involved was okay. 

I guess as a woman I'm more alert to dark, dangerous spaces.

[SighMo]

14 minutes ago, SweepingTheNation said:

Problem is of course that the actual area used for EOTR is so smaller that opening the Big Top sides any further, as they would otherwise have surely done last year, would mean sound bleed into Woods and Garden (and there's already sometimes a little of that latte as there is)

They definitely opened the Far Out sides more than usual last year and continued with that as well as adding an extra PA.

Totally agree with the sound bleed issue. Do seem to remember now you mentioned it, that FO was opened up a bit more. Shame they can’t do this at EOTR as that would solve the problems the entrance people have keeping numbers safe. 

[Jeel]

5 minutes ago, SighMo said:

Totally agree with the sound bleed issue. Do seem to remember now you mentioned it, that FO was opened up a bit more. Shame they can’t do this at EOTR as that would solve the problems the entrance people have keeping numbers safe. 

Not to mention the heat in there when it's busy

[OddRon]

40 minutes ago, benali said:

Sofia Kortesis and Lone were in Far Out on Friday night, plus Scalping were on Walled Garden. Bicep and Optimo on Saturday.

I didn't watch all of them, mainly due to being so knackered but what I see was great.

Sofia was excellent 

[OddRon]

23 minutes ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

I guess as a woman I'm more alert to dark, dangerous spaces.

Yeah we were a group of two couples, rather drunk at that point too so naive of something like that.

[Mambonumberfive]

1 hour ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

Oh dear. I sincerely hope that the incidents did not involve the dark, totally unlit and dangerous spaces in the trees behind the Rising stage which were being used as a urinal by lots of men, but would also be a rapist's dream... 😞

We witnessed (and foiled) a theft before Metronomy - a woman accidentally left her phone on the ground when she got up to leave, and the the group next to her quick-as-a-flash leaned over, took the phone, whipped the back off and pocked the cash that was in the case and spread it out between them, then pocketed the phone. I called out to the people that I'd just seen what they did, and got called a c*nt. I was just about to pop off and find a security guard when the woman came back looking for her phone, and I took great delight in telling her that the group just there had her phone and her cash... 

They gave it back, then got up and moved.

There were thefts from two tents by me on the Thursday night (same night) of a phone and bag. Security seemed to think it was ‘organised’ gangs who target festivals but seems a bit over the top. 

[pie_and_a_pint]

53 minutes ago, Mambonumberfive said:

There were thefts from two tents by me on the Thursday night (same night) of a phone and bag. Security seemed to think it was ‘organised’ gangs who target festivals but seems a bit over the top. 

There was some (what seemed to me) quite aggressive checking of wristbands late on Thursday and late on Friday so maybe they had word some folk were on site who shouldn’t be…? 

When we left just after midnight on Sunday / Monday morning there were LOADS of cars parked on verges / in lay-bys on the lane over to Llangynidr and quite a few folk walking about. I guess it’s got to be pretty simple to get in if you’re capable of jumping a small fence. 

[Mambonumberfive]

24 minutes ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

There was some (what seemed to me) quite aggressive checking of wristbands late on Thursday and late on Friday so maybe they had word some folk were on site who shouldn’t be…? 

When we left just after midnight on Sunday / Monday morning there were LOADS of cars parked on verges / in lay-bys on the lane over to Llangynidr and quite a few folk walking about. I guess it’s got to be pretty simple to get in if you’re capable of jumping a small fence. 

Yes I noticed that when I left Monday. I guess it’s also hard to completely police that many wristbands and every person with a connection to an event that size. 

[Ted Dansons Wig]

1 hour ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

There was some (what seemed to me) quite aggressive checking of wristbands late on Thursday and late on Friday so maybe they had word some folk were on site who shouldn’t be…? 

When we left just after midnight on Sunday / Monday morning there were LOADS of cars parked on verges / in lay-bys on the lane over to Llangynidr and quite a few folk walking about. I guess it’s got to be pretty simple to get in if you’re capable of jumping a small fence. 

We were stood next to a group of about a dozen guys in FO Sunday night for Ty Segall and Parquet Courts who wero delighting in telling everyone they'd just walked in. Not a wrist band to be seen.

As an aside - the only time I got asked to show wrist band any any point was at the steps at the right front of Mountain. Which was a change from previous years Ive been there.

[rug568]

2 hours ago, Mambonumberfive said:

There were thefts from two tents by me on the Thursday night (same night) of a phone and bag. Security seemed to think it was ‘organised’ gangs who target festivals but seems a bit over the top. 

I worked it a couple of years on the bounce and there was always reports of thefts on Thursday and a couple of people got caught. General consensus from police/security is a couple of people come down on Thursday, hit as many tents they can then leave. 

It's definitely semi organised/planned as it only every happens on Thursday night

[Mambonumberfive]

59 minutes ago, rug568 said:

I worked it a couple of years on the bounce and there was always reports of thefts on Thursday and a couple of people got caught. General consensus from police/security is a couple of people come down on Thursday, hit as many tents they can then leave. 

It's definitely semi organised/planned as it only every happens on Thursday night

That makes sense now you’ve said it like that. I guess people are more distracted, getting their bearings, excited at being on site and have still got some cash. Also less like to have been hit by random dippers so less vigilant. One word - scum. 

[lessthanwill1]

Hope everyone had an amazing festival!  I’m so sad it’s over and am lamenting a whole year to wait for the next one!  My overly detailed thoughts are below.

Summary

I had an incredible time at my second Green Man.  First and foremost, the music was exceptionally good.  We also had amazing weather, food options and of course the stunning scenery that GM offers.  A couple of mornings I went exploring up the mountains that you can see behind the mountain stage, which was wonderful.  Organisationally, I thought it was superb.  No issues getting in or out by car and the loos were awesome (for a festival!).  

It was my birthday on the Saturday, which was really special.  My friends bought me Jenny Hval’s new album on vinyl and managed to get the Green Man postman to deliver me a birthday card during Lemondaze. Thanks guys!  

Music

The vast majority of what I saw was great/exceptional.  My highlights were Arooj Aftab, Jenny Hval and Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul.  All three of those were up there with my favourite live shows of all time.

I managed to see close to 40 other acts.  I really enjoyed Mdou Moctar, Jonny Francis Flynn, Minyo Crusaders, Sofia Kourtesis, Minyo Crusaders, Ichiko Aoba, Cassandra Jenkins, Orchestra Baobab, Jessie Buckley, BCUC and Carwyn Ellis.  The rising stage was so good this year and thought Deathcrash, M(h)aol, Blue Bendy, Lemondaze and Tapir! were all so good! 

I was very pleasantly surprised by the lack of talkers during Arooj Aftab and Ichiko Aoba, both of whom I was worried would be ruined by that.  You could hear a pin drop during Arooj’s set in particular.

I thought the diversity of the line up was exceptional.  For example, going from Irish folk music, to desert rock from Niger, to the luscious sounds of Cassandra Jenkins, to Senegalese dance music and then on to Zambian psych rock was just so cool and meant things never got boring. 

Slight disappointments were: Torres (sound issues), wish I had seen Kae Tempest and not WITCH, who were a let down as I had bigged them up in my head way too much, leaving Beach House early to get a good spot for Bicep, and then not really enjoying Bicep that much (should have stayed for BH’s full set). Kraftwerk were also a bit of let down, but was kind of expecting that. Cool to see them nonetheless. 

Other comments

- Thought the site was so clean.  Thank you to all the volunteers!

- 99% of people I came across were so nice.  It’s amazing how much of an injection of positivity you get when you enter the site, and that’s a testament to the manner in which GM organise the event and to all the great people who attend.  

- I bumped into @JHadon a number of occasions at the Rising stage, which was cool.  A very nice guy!  

- I personally love seeing the wide variety of ages at GM.  The young children don’t bother me personally and didn’t experience any issues involving entitlement parents (maybe I was just lucky).  It’s so cool to see young kids enjoying the music.  I hope to bring my future children to GM one day.  I do agree that you shouldn’t be bringing young children in wagons to the front of stages though, that seems very dangerous to me. 

- Mountain Stage being open on Thursday was a huge positive and I hope they keep that in place in the future.  I recall it being extremely busy in Far Out for PSB in 2018. 

- I managed to get into that secret Cabaret bar on the last night, but I expect it would have been even funner earlier on in the weekend when I thing the drag acts were actually there!  It was till cool and I think putting late night things on in more intimate places is a good idea.  The FO stage often looks a bit dead for the really late night stuff, and would be a lot funnier in somewhere like Round the Twist (where the current stuff is a bit lacklustre in my experience).

- Being able to walk from one stage to the next in 10 minutes max while always being able to get right to the front provided you arrive just a few minutes before they start is just so good and makes me wonder whether I could ever do Glastonbury!

- I had a lower body massage Saturday morning and we also did the bathing under the sky thing on Sunday morning.  I would strongly recommend both despite the added expense.  Both were so relaxing and made us feel so much more put together for the rest of the day! 

Next year 

I hope to go next year, and every year thereafter, plans permitting!  I really don’t think GM need to change much.  I hope it doesn’t get bigger.

Was thinking about headliners for next year… I really hope Phoebe Bridgers headlines next year if she is still touring (perhaps she will take a break).  I’d also love to see Pavement booked.  GM or EOTR seem like the most likely candidates if they decide to do festivals next year.  I can also see Sigur Ros headlining, as they seem to be pretty active again following the album announcement.

See you in the Green Man 2023 thread! 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by lessthanwill1

[SighMo]

1 hour ago, rug568 said:

I worked it a couple of years on the bounce and there was always reports of thefts on Thursday and a couple of people got caught. General consensus from police/security is a couple of people come down on Thursday, hit as many tents they can then leave. 

It's definitely semi organised/planned as it only every happens on Thursday night

Last year my friend had about £200 stolen from his wallet while he was sleeping on Thurs night Fri morning. Not a drinker but does sleep really well. Only took the cash but left the wallet. 

[Mambonumberfive]

59 minutes ago, lessthanwill1 said:

Hope everyone had an amazing festival!  I’m so sad it’s over and am lamenting a whole year to wait for the next one!  My overly detailed thoughts are below.

Summary

I had an incredible time at my second Green Man.  First and foremost, the music was exceptionally good.  We also had amazing weather, food options and of course the stunning scenery that GM offers.  A couple of mornings I went exploring up the mountains that you can see behind the mountain stage, which was wonderful.  Organisationally, I thought it was superb.  No issues getting in or out by car and the loos were awesome (for a festival!).  

It was my birthday on the Saturday, which was really special.  My friends bought me Jenny Hval’s new album on vinyl and managed to get the Green Man postman to deliver me a birthday card during Lemondaze. Thanks guys!  

Music

The vast majority of what I saw was great/exceptional.  My highlights were Arooj Aftab, Jenny Hval and Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul.  All three of those were up there with my favourite live shows of all time.

I managed to see close to 40 other acts.  I really enjoyed Mdou Moctar, Jonny Francis Flynn, Minyo Crusaders, Sofia Kourtesis, Minyo Crusaders, Ichiko Aoba, Cassandra Jenkins, Orchestra Baobab, Jessie Buckley, BCUC and Carwyn Ellis.  The rising stage was so good this year and thought Deathcrash, M(h)aol, Blue Bendy, Lemondaze and Tapir! were all so good! 

I was very pleasantly surprised by the lack of talkers during Arooj Aftab and Ichiko Aoba, both of whom I was worried would be ruined by that.  You could hear a pin drop during Arooj’s set in particular.

I thought the diversity of the line up was exceptional.  For example, going from Irish folk music, to desert rock from Niger, to the luscious sounds of Cassandra Jenkins, to Senegalese dance music and then on to Zambian psych rock was just so cool and meant things never got boring. 

Slight disappointments were: Torres (sound issues), wish I had seen Kae Tempest and not WITCH, who were a let down as I had bigged them up in my head way too much, leaving Beach House early to get a good spot for Bicep, and then not really enjoying Bicep that much (should have stayed for BH’s full set). Kraftwerk were also a bit of let down, but was kind of expecting that. Cool to see them nonetheless. 

Other comments

- Thought the site was so clean.  Thank you to all the volunteers!

- 99% of people I came across were so nice.  It’s amazing how much of an injection of positivity you get when you enter the site, and that’s a testament to the manner in which GM organise the event and to all the great people who attend.  

- I bumped into @JHadon a number of occasions at the Rising stage, which was cool.  A very nice guy!  

- I personally love seeing the wide variety of ages at GM.  The young children don’t bother me personally and didn’t experience any issues involving entitlement parents (maybe I was just lucky).  It’s so cool to see young kids enjoying the music.  I hope to bring my future children to GM one day.  I do agree that you shouldn’t be bringing young children in wagons to the front of stages though, that seems very dangerous to me. 

- Mountain Stage being open on Thursday was a huge positive and I hope they keep that in place in the future.  I recall it being extremely busy in Far Out for PSB in 2018. 

- I managed to get into that secret Cabaret bar on the last night, but I expect it would have been even funner earlier on in the weekend when I thing the drag acts were actually there!  It was till cool and I think putting late night things on in more intimate places is a good idea.  The FO stage often looks a bit dead for the really late night stuff, and would be a lot funnier in somewhere like Round the Twist (where the current stuff is a bit lacklustre in my experience).

- Being able to walk from one stage to the next in 10 minutes max while always being able to get right to the front provided you arrive just a few minutes before they start is just so good and makes me wonder whether I could ever do Glastonbury!

- I had a lower body massage Saturday morning and we also did the bathing under the sky thing on Sunday morning.  I would strongly recommend both despite the added expense.  Both were so relaxing and made us feel so much more put together for the rest of the day! 

Next year 

I hope to go next year, and every year thereafter, plans permitting!  I really don’t think GM need to change much.  I hope it doesn’t get bigger.

Was thinking about headliners for next year… I really hope Phoebe Bridgers headlines next year if she is still touring (perhaps she will take a break).  I’d also love to see Pavement booked.  GM or EOTR seem like the most likely candidates if they decide to do festivals next year.  I can also see Sigur Ros headlining, as they seem to be pretty active again following the album announcement.

See you in the Green Man 2023 thread! 

 

I would also love PB to headline having seen her in the walled garden a while back and at Latitude this year, but please don’t start that rumour too soon. Her fans are nuts - the last thing Green Man needs is 20,000 Phoebe fans descending on the mountain stage - It would be Limp Bizkit as per Woodstock Trainwreck all over again!