2023 Festival

[WFD]

22 minutes ago, Metalupyourass97 said:

... all in all fun weekend, would have been way better with rage but what can ya do, PR was a joke this year, prices were horrendous and security were trash, gonna take a massive lineup for me to come again and if I do I sure as fuck won't be camping, if you have kids who go to this festival be careful

My thoughts too. I've said it before but I reckon that's my last full weekend (I was at Leeds).  Even before last night's park exit fiasco the whole weekend felt like a lot of work (I know the heat and dust contributed to that) and overall it felt like they are getting complacent and taking the punters for granted. 

The reduced choice on the stages meant it was hard to put a full day together, and gone are the days when there were six stages running headline acts at the same time. On Leeds Friday it was basically the 1975, or Hybrid Minds way over at the other end of the site, and nothing in between. 

The beer is terrible and over priced, never seen the bars so quiet.  As someone mentioned above they are tilting it towards the crowd who are happy to see 2 maybe 3 currently hot acts a day and go back to the camp site in between.  People were just constantly on the move, yet crowds at many acts seemed low. 

Did like the new street feast area, somewhere to sit and eat and in shade (with its own DJ), but even that was up a hill which I swear got steeper as the weekend went on! 

I saw enough over the weekend to make it worthwhile, the Enter Shikari - Pendulum - BMTH evening was fun but as I said to my daughter after, coming out of Shikari felt like being at an away match, it felt like we were the away following at someone else's home ground. 

I'll focus on European fests and smaller ones like EOTR from now on, and leave R&L to those it is targeting and let them get on with.  

They need to have a rethink in places though, their PR has been shockingly bad this year and if their critics start getting their teeth into them about safety and welfare, they need to be able to handle them better than they have done so far. 

[JamieB1830]

1 minute ago, Benj said:

Deffo seemed to be more kids into the guitar bands/ stuff like Sueco etc.. than previous years

trend seems to be going that way a little I’d say. 

As covered above there’s deffo a load of kids who just come in for the big poppier acts.  May be a bit of a jump but I wonder how many of them are the main participants in the trouble too?

The people my age at guitar acts are the type to pick you up if you fall down, like at courting I had to back out to tie my shoes and someone kept an eye on me. In frank carter someone fell on my ankle and fucked it so they moved me to the back and checked I was okay 

The same age at rap crowds didn’t give a fuck about anyone else

[Metalupyourass97]

Was into courting before I saw them live, wtf is that autotune about? Cringe

[Andre91]

1 minute ago, Benj said:

Deffo seemed to be more kids into the guitar bands/ stuff like Sueco etc.. than previous years

trend seems to be going that way a little I’d say. 

As covered above there’s deffo a load of kids who just come in for the big poppier acts.  May be a bit of a jump but I wonder how many of them are the main participants in the trouble too?

Another reason it felt like the Leeds of old compared to the last few years is because they played loads and loads of rock and metal in the arena between acts. I noticed far more hand t-shirts this year, particularly on Sunday too. The crowds for the heavy bands were great too, particularly Fever 333, who I thought would have an empty tent being up against Dave but the tent was really full and the crowds was madness. Willow also had a massive, massive crowd for someone playing so early. Frank Carter had a good crowd too who were really up for it and he was the first act on of the day. 

 

It felt like *whisper it* that rock music is getting a bit more popular again. 

[JimMacVeigh]

8 minutes ago, wghennessy said:

Really? Half the time the mic was nowhere near her mouth.

 

Really. I’ve seen her a couple of times before, Her vocals aren’t always spot on, or she will sing bits a bit different but I can’t deny she has an over reliance on that backing track of her. Half this set hasn’t involved her singing, just hyping up the crowd!

[Metalupyourass97]

5 minutes ago, JamieB1830 said:

The people my age at guitar acts are the type to pick you up if you fall down, like at courting I had to back out to tie my shoes and someone kept an eye on me. In frank carter someone fell on my ankle and fucked it so they moved me to the back and checked I was okay 

The same age at rap crowds didn’t give a fuck about anyone else

My music taste is very varied but I do lean towards punkier stuff lately, but I've never really noticed a massive difference between genres crowds, rock fans do tend to be better in the mosh helping people up and not going too hard but there's a good proportion of dnb and rap fans who do the same, you get twats in all genres I've even had problems at idles gigs 

[Metalupyourass97]

And guitar music is definitely not just an older crowd atm, London punk and rock scene is very young lately 

[WFD]

23 minutes ago, GodlikeYeezus said:

Leeds was great, the vibe was the calmest I’ve witnessed until Sunday night which was by far the worst- i think hammered youths are giddy off the Woodstock documentary. About half the tents around mine in blue were demolished including a nice eight man a few girls were staying in next to us.

I had texted someone on the Sunday saying less dickheads this year, then realised I'd spoke to soon when coming back through the camps on Sunday.  Saw a few incidents of people throwing full cans into crowds and a girl stood next my daughter's group in a crowd got hit on the head by a metal water flask, and they picked up the flask when it landed and it had a dent in it from where it hit her! 

There did seem to be fewer people charging through crowds seemingly coked up, which I'd got sick of in recent years, and everyone round us in Brown camp seemed sound enough.  But then things did seem to go downhill everywhere on the Sunday night. 

[she bangs the drums]

Sorry I am going to have one more moan about the two main stages! 

I watched Enter Shikari at Leeds and left before the last song as ive seen them many many times and wanted to get a good spot for Fontaines DC.

I power walked from the right hand side and just as I got to the Main Main Stage, they had closed the front section, so i ended up in the second section, which was okay but not the same as being down with the more enthusiastic fans. 

Now i know there is health and safety etc however this just showed me the being able to watch everyone on the main stages does not work. 

As someone said above, many thousands of people did not even attempt to see BMTH put in a great headliner performance to get a view for Arctics.

Less bands, not enough time to get from one stage to another, fans leaving a few signs before the end of sets to get to the other stage, bring back the NME tent and the Pit and save the festival. 

[WFD]

6 hours ago, she bangs the drums said:

It was even more apparent this year that the festival now has roughly two set of clientele.

1) The shirt less lads with bum bags / fanny packs with bra top girls by their side who come to the arena for 2/3 per day such as AJ Tracey or head in to the dance tents 16-24.

2) the rock / indie/ metal fans (mainly 25-50) who are out watching as many bands as they are allowed to see.

I appreciate there is some crossover, however when you see the crowd for Bad Boy Chiller Crew or whatever they were called and AJ Tracey v Enter Shikari, BMTH then it becomes more apparent.

Read this after my post above but yeah that seems to be the case.  To the extent that if they are going to continue with the two main stages they may as well programme them to reflect it instead of having massive crowd moves between stages for consecutive acts from similar genres (or the other thing discussed on the lost thread about people leaving the front section of one stage after a few songs to get a good spot on the other stage).

[she bangs the drums]

1 minute ago, WFD said:

Read this after my post above but yeah that seems to be the case.  To the extent that if they are going to continue with the two main stages they may as well programme them to reflect it instead of having massive crowd moves between stages for consecutive acts from similar genres (or the other thing discussed on the lost thread about people leaving the front section of one stage after a few songs to get a good spot on the other stage).

They also need to think about the many customers they have with accessible requirements as it is not easy getting from stage to stage.

The main stage accessible platforms used to be busy most of the day, now it's just busy the headliners.

I might contact Attitude is Everything to see what there comments are on this. 

[WFD]

13 minutes ago, she bangs the drums said:

Sorry I am going to have one more moan about the two main stages! 

I watched Enter Shikari at Leeds and left before the last song as ive seen them many many times and wanted to get a good spot for Fontaines DC.

I power walked from the right hand side and just as I got to the Main Main Stage, they had closed the front section, so i ended up in the second section, which was okay but not the same as being down with the more enthusiastic fans. 

Now i know there is health and safety etc however this just showed me the being able to watch everyone on the main stages does not work. 

As someone said above, many thousands of people did not even attempt to see BMTH put in a great headliner performance to get a view for Arctics.

Less bands, not enough time to get from one stage to another, fans leaving a few signs before the end of sets to get to the other stage, bring back the NME tent and the Pit and save the festival. 

Haha again you got there first while I was clumsily typing the same thing. 

I said it on the lost thread but it was comical at Halsey, they closed the front section and then people were leaving in droves from three songs in, to get spots fro 1975.  But then they wouldn't let anyone new in to take their spaces, with stewards standing saying "we can't let you in, it's full" as people streamed out behind them.  The front section was nearly empty by the end. 

[FeverDream]

30 minutes ago, JamieB1830 said:

Purple was scary I can’t lie, getting back to my tent after courting to see all our chairs gone was a bit annoying

wont be camping there again lol

We were going to set up camp in Purple but we were quite tired from the trek from the car and found a decent spot in Green under the trees just before we got to Purple so set up there. Glad we did in the end tbh, I’d have probably left Sunday night if we were in Purple.

[Metalupyourass97]

Never related to MCR's song teenagers more than this year at reading Sunday lol

[FeverDream]

Oh the topic of the two main stages this is my first time back since 2019 so was a new experience for me. I honestly have mixed opinions about it. I didn’t find the walk between MSW and MSE at Leeds to be too difficult between acts which I was worried about, but at the same time it was really annoying to have to watch BMTH from afar to be within any chance of getting a half decent spot for Arctics. I understand space is tight, especially at Leeds with the arena being so thin, but I really wish it was set up like Mad Cool where you can see both main stages from each other by turning 90° left or right or Wacken where they’re literally next to each other. I also preferred MSW as it almost had a natural amphitheatre slope to it.

[gfa]

2 hours ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Was it because of the row over the R-Word?

Don’t think so, that had cooled off. Neil said he didn’t know why it got deleted last time so who knows eh

—-

re campsites etc, sounds like some people in this thread might benefit from looking into the eco camping just for the calmer atmosphere but while still being near the arena. I think if we went again we would (aged 21 😂) if its anything like this year. Don’t want my precious fresh n black burnt!

[FeverDream]

3 minutes ago, gfa said:

Don’t think so, that had cooled off. Neil said he didn’t know why it got deleted last time so who knows eh

—-

re campsites etc, sounds like some people in this thread might benefit from looking into the eco camping just for the calmer atmosphere but while still being near the arena. I think if we went again we would (aged 21 😂) if its anything like this year. Don’t want my precious fresh n black burnt!

Going to consider eco too! Only concern is as far as I’m aware there isn’t any parking close by (Leeds) so the trek is quite far.

Edited August 29, 2022 by FeverDream

[Andre91]

37 minutes ago, FeverDream said:

We were going to set up camp in Purple but we were quite tired from the trek from the car and found a decent spot in Green under the trees just before we got to Purple so set up there. Glad we did in the end tbh, I’d have probably left Sunday night if we were in Purple.

Sounds like you were camped really close to me because that’s exactly what we did! 

[FeverDream]

Just now, Andre91 said:

Sounds like you were camped really close to me because that’s exactly what we did! 

Gonna try and explain where we were but might be difficult haha! We were about 20m behind the ice cream van next to the burger place that was opposite the toilets and water station. Was only 3 of us in a 4 man red tent tent but we were near a large group that had a big blue Berghaus inflatable tent with 3 smaller red tents and maybe a couple of others in a semi circle.

[Andre91]

20 minutes ago, FeverDream said:

Gonna try and explain where we were but might be difficult haha! We were about 20m behind the ice cream van next to the burger place that was opposite the toilets and water station. Was only 3 of us in a 4 man red tent tent but we were near a large group that had a big blue Berghaus inflatable tent with 3 smaller red tents and maybe a couple of others in a semi circle.

No way 😂! That’s exactly where we were! We had a big green tent with 4 smaller ones in a circle, a gazebo in the middle and a pasting table under. We were next to a group of about 15 Welsh lads who had a big circle of tents who we had over for beer pong most nights so maybe you heard / saw us? 
 

It’s my favourite spot I’ve ever camped in. I’ve never parked in East before and the walk to the car and back is nice and short. Getting in and out was so quick and painless. I think that’s another reason I enjoyed this year so much. 

[Hirstys 12th Pint]

1 hour ago, she bangs the drums said:

Sorry I am going to have one more moan about the two main stages! 

I watched Enter Shikari at Leeds and left before the last song as ive seen them many many times and wanted to get a good spot for Fontaines DC.

I power walked from the right hand side and just as I got to the Main Main Stage, they had closed the front section, so i ended up in the second section, which was okay but not the same as being down with the more enthusiastic fans. 

Now i know there is health and safety etc however this just showed me the being able to watch everyone on the main stages does not work. 

As someone said above, many thousands of people did not even attempt to see BMTH put in a great headliner performance to get a view for Arctics.

Less bands, not enough time to get from one stage to another, fans leaving a few signs before the end of sets to get to the other stage, bring back the NME tent and the Pit and save the festival. 

I had a decent position for Wolf Alice and thought should I stay there for 90 minutes for the same spot for AM but decided I did not want to miss BMTH.  So lost my decent spot and was a way back for AM but so glad as BMTH stole the show for me and was somewhat underwhelmed by the Monkeys.

Ollie Sykes is an amazing front man and as I went to the same school as both Ollie and 3 of Arctic Monkeys (Stocksbridge High School) was great for Ollie to give it a shout out.

My Son had a spot in the front section and decided to stay there from the Lathams onwards so missed BMTH but had a fantastic view of AM.

 

 

 

[FeverDream]

30 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

No way 😂! That’s exactly where we were! We had a big green tent with 4 smaller ones in a circle, a gazebo in the middle and a pasting table under. We were next to a group of about 15 Welsh lads who had a big circle of tents who we had over for beer pong most nights so maybe you heard / saw us? 
 

It’s my favourite spot I’ve ever camped in. I’ve never parked in East before and the walk to the car and back is nice and short. Getting in and out was so quick and painless. I think that’s another reason I enjoyed this year so much. 

Think I remember seeing the table, must  have walked through your camp a fair few times trying to get to the path! And yeah green this year was great. Walk to the arena wasn’t even that bad either. Coming back was a bit hectic but it always is no matter where you’re camping.

[a6l6e6x]

Never really intended to attend reading or Leeds again unless it offered a insane lineup. Seeing the stuff all over socials about how it turned out I’m not sure I could ever be swayed to attend

I think a lot needs to be done by the organisers to sort this mess out as the reputation is very damaged from what I’ve seen and the comments on here seem to echo the footage on twitter and tiktok

[swede]

6 hours ago, a6l6e6x said:

Never really intended to attend reading or Leeds again unless it offered a insane lineup. Seeing the stuff all over socials about how it turned out I’m not sure I could ever be swayed to attend

I think a lot needs to be done by the organisers to sort this mess out as the reputation is very damaged from what I’ve seen and the comments on here seem to echo the footage on twitter and tiktok

I went 2003-2008 when I was in my early 20's. The Sunday of 2008 was the worst id ever seen, I went back camping in 2011 in tangerine fields and the festival had put safety measures in place to try to minimize the crazy sunday behavior and it seemed to work. 

I've never been camping since but have done 1-2 days in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, getting the shuttle bus in and staying in a hotel and its the only way I would do it now. I took my kids in 2019 on the sunday to see Billie Eilish and Twenty One Pilots and it was one of the friendliest Leeds crowds I've ever been in. 

I think this year could have been a combination of things on the last night. Hot weather all weekend, high prices for booze, the 1st one after the pandemic with zero restrictions, and the woodstock 99 documentary, all creating this storm where people went wild. Id expect people to be much calmer next year. 

I had friends who camped at Leeds all weekend and they had a great time. 

I'm 40 so will never camp at Leeds again, however Id def do a day next year if Kendrick got announced, saw him headline in 2018 and again the vibe in the crowd was fantastic. 

[deadpheasant]

One of the headliners in 2023 will be Sam Fender.