2021 - How was it for you ?

[Wooderson]

Closing up toilet facilities early on Monday was appalling.

[killyourtv]

9 hours ago, swashbubbler said:

Canadians Crack Cloud were there and were magnificent 

All artists should have a little flag after their name in the programme.  And their favourite beer.

Edited September 7, 2021 by killyourtv
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[mario man]

I had the best weekend & can only congratulate the EOTR team for putting that on. I didn’t know about the Garden stage arriving so late, just incredible they were up and running in time on Friday.

My personal highlights were Modern Woman, Damon, Melin Melyn, Jonny Greenwood, Eve Owen, Dana Gavanski & then the Sunday eve as a whole.

I’d not seen BCNR before and despite not having high expectations (a mate of mine saw them at Wide Awake on Friday & wasn’t impressed) I thought they were great. However the set of the weekend for me was Dry Cleaning - a really great set but the last 10 mins took it to a whole different level, the noise and reception of the crowd at the end was incredible, & they seemed blown away by it. And then to finish Richard Dawson was phenomenal, a spellbinding performance.

I’m really really gutted it’s all over. The first time I have cut loose for 18 months and it was so emotional watching live music again. The fact many of the artists were experiencing the same emotions made it a really special weekend.

Edited September 7, 2021 by mario man

[killyourtv]

7 hours ago, mario man said:

However the set of the weekend for me was Dry Cleaning - a really great set but the last 10 mins took it to a whole different level, the noise and reception of the crowd at the end was incredible, & they seemed blown away by it. 

I’m really really gutted it’s all over. The first time I have cut loose for 18 months and it was so emotional watching live music again. The fact many of the artists were experiencing the same emotions made it a really special weekend.

Spot on. The Dry Cleaning set was the only one I watched from the very front and the communal joy in that last 10 minutes is something I took away on Monday morning.  The artists seemed overjoyed by our response throughout.

Shame we couldn't hear Florence Shaw's lyrics though, but she was mesmeric.

[majormajormajor]

Impressive that Dry Cleaning were that good when you couldn't even hear the vocals, which are a huge part of the band's shtick! Will have to check them out on tour. 

[juliadevitt]

Loved Porridge Radio and Wu-Lu so much that we’ve just bought tickets for Rockaway Beach Festival. Has anyone  here been?

[killyourtv]

1 hour ago, majormajormajor said:

Impressive that Dry Cleaning were that good when you couldn't even hear the vocals, which are a huge part of the band's shtick! Will have to check them out on tour. 

Imagine hearing Sonic Youth play "Goo" live in 1990 and being unable to hear the lyrics to "Tunic" but still being carried along by the intensity; a bit like that I guess.

And no, I don't want any variant of Sonic Youth or the Pixies playing EOTR next year, I want the next Dry Cleaning.

[Dancers Stand Very Still]

1 hour ago, juliadevitt said:

Loved Porridge Radio and Wu-Lu so much that we’ve just bought tickets for Rockaway Beach Festival. Has anyone  here been?

Yes, it's bloody brilliant! Really attracts a music loving crowd, it's amazing fun and such great value too. 

I love PR so much (I've seen them 6 times this summer, although all at Festivals) and can't wait to see them headline RB 😊

[juliadevitt]

3 minutes ago, JHad said:

Yes, it's bloody brilliant! Really attracts a music loving crowd, it's amazing fun and such great value too. 

I love PR so much (I've seen them 6 times this summer, although all at Festivals) and can't wait to see them headline RB 😊

Thanks. I’ve heard good things about RB but couldn’t get my head around the whole Butlins thing. It will certainly feel luxurious to be in an hotel room and will break my festival year up nicely 

[IBee]

12 hours ago, Wooderson said:

Closing up toilet facilities early on Monday was appalling.

How early was it?

 

Also, does anyone have strong opinions about the new camping layout?

 

(I didn't go but I am figuring out whether or not to go next year having been a regular for a number of years. The toilet thing would be make or break for me if it isn't sorted. I know there are reasons there were not so many this year as before).

[juliadevitt]

38 minutes ago, IBee said:

How early was it?

 

Also, does anyone have strong opinions about the new camping layout?

 

(I didn't go but I am figuring out whether or not to go next year having been a regular for a number of years. The toilet thing would be make or break for me if it isn't sorted. I know there are reasons there were not so many this year as before).

The toilets seemed to be ok until Sunday when they didn’t seem to get emptied at all )in the camper van field at any rate) They were disgusting from Sunday onwards. Not usable Sunday night/Monday morning. 

The queues in the arena were longer so you had to time it right. A few times I went back to my van rather then queue . I brought my own loo roll and gel so that wasn’t a problem.

I would expect them to be back to normal next year

 

[The Nal]

1 minute ago, juliadevitt said:

The toilets seemed to be ok until Sunday when they didn’t seem to get emptied at all )in the camper van field at any rate) They were disgusting from Sunday onwards. Not usable Sunday night/Monday morning. 

The queues in the arena were longer so you had to time it right. A few times I went back to my van rather then queue . I brought my own loo roll and gel so that wasn’t a problem.

I would expect them to be back to normal next year

 

The ones round the back of the Cider Bus were fine all weekend. Clean and lots of bog roll. They stayed open on Monday too.

[Fat_Buddha]

9 minutes ago, The Nal said:

The ones round the back of the Cider Bus were fine all weekend. Clean and lots of bog roll. They stayed open on Monday too.

The first bog I went to in the camping field on Thursday afternoon had a huge turd clinging to the side. I was only there to put tents up for others so don’t know what they were like after that.

Around the stages they were OK, plenty of urinals for the chaps, and queues for cubicles no worse than usual. The cubicles by the Garden were cleaned Sunday afternoon, there was an amusing disagreement between a bog chap and a steward over how they should exit when the job was done.

Sanitiser and bog rolls would have been an issue if you didn’t take your own

 

 

 

 

 

[Riverneck]

Well done End of the Road for organising another brilliantly unique festival under extremely difficult circumstances.

Highlights in no order :-

Damon Albarn
Black Country, New Road
caroline 
Richard Dawson
Sipho.
Modern Woman
Junior Brother
John Francis Flynn
Chubby and the Gang
Penelope Isles
Arab Strap
Modern Nature
Sleaford Mods
Katy J Pearson
Kikagaku Moyo

[SighMo]

Toilet situation never became areal problem for me as we camped near the wrist band exchanged and just wandered up to the carpark ones.  
 

I overheard part of a conversation by the Garden Stages toilets; while I was in the portaloo. A guy was thanking the contractor who was pumping out, restocking etc, saying what a good job they were doing under the circumstances. The guy who sounded a bit like company official went on to say that he was sorry but he couldn’t agree that they were doing a great job. He said, and I didn’t quite hear this properly, but something like a contractor had pulled out or couldn’t make it and that they filled in at short notice.   He said they only do corporate events and there was no way they would have been able to fulfil this festivals requirements. 

[Fareham Grecian]

2 minutes ago, SighMo said:

Toilet situation never became areal problem for me as we camped near the wrist band exchanged and just wandered up to the carpark ones.  
 

I overheard part of a conversation by the Garden Stages toilets; while I was in the portaloo. A guy was thanking the contractor who was pumping out, restocking etc, saying what a good job they were doing under the circumstances. The guy who sounded a bit like company official went on to say that he was sorry but he couldn’t agree that they were doing a great job. He said, and I didn’t quite hear this properly, but something like a contractor had pulled out or couldn’t make it and that they filled in at short notice.   He said they only do corporate events and there was no way they would have been able to fulfil this festivals requirements. 

Yes, the usual brilliant Andy’s Loos couldn’t do it. I thought the standins *did* do a good job in the circumstances, but the circumstances were pretty tough and so the standard was nowhere near as high as usual. But then I am an unfussy bloke…

[The Nal]

4 minutes ago, SighMo said:

He said, and I didn’t quite hear this properly, but something like a contractor had pulled out or couldn’t make it and that they filled in at short notice.

I suspect similar happened with the bars. Took the poor lad 15 minutes to get me 2 pints, a G&T and a red wine on Thursday. No joke. 15 minutes. 

By Sunday he was moving around like Tom Cruise. 

[Muddy Holly]

How as it for us?  All kinds of wonderful.

Great weather, met some lovely people (Adam at Teleman, the dancing ladies at the front for Lazarus Kane and the punks from Pompey at the Chubby secret set to name just a few) and of course tons of amazing music.

 

Highlights:

Sunday run of W.H. lung >> Crack Cloud  >> Yard Act was as good as anything I can remember since my first EOTR in 2010.  Also really enjoyed Teleman, Hot Chip, The Goa Express, Melin Melyn, Lazarus Kane, Squid, Billy nomates and Katy J Pearson (both sets).

Other highlights:

The food especially, the coconut curry chicken, queuing for breakfast in front of Jason from Sleaford Mods and not realising until afterwards and catching out a little lad in the cricket game at the back of the Woods stage.

 

We’ll done everyone who made it happen - see you all again next year.

 

[shoebox]

Did anyone else see Matthew Baynton from Horrible Histories/Ghosts as a punter? Or did he just have a doppelganger hanging around?

[scrippit]

The Good:

• The weather 🌞
• As ever, a brilliant atmosphere and full of genuine music lovers
• Wesley Gonzales at the Piano stage - what an uplifting start to my festival
• Hot Chip, Warmducher, Squid, BCNR, Jane Weaver, Henn Ogledd, Sleafords
• Dancing at the disco tent
• The food
• People, lovely lot, almost without exception

Not so good:

• We had to go home Sunday afternoon (work commitments)
• Missing Richard Dawson and Arab Strap
• The chap with his guitar in the tent next to us (played Dire Straits and Clapton amongst others, I kid you not)
• Queues for the ladies - unusually long according to my wife
• Missing Beers - even on Friday 
• Avoiding Tipi and Big Top (well only once) meant I missed some of my favourites. I'm very cautious.

Overall: Brilliant considering the difficulties the organisers must have experienced this year. Next year is a must.

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by scrippit

[benali]

2 hours ago, IBee said:

How early was it?

 

Also, does anyone have strong opinions about the new camping layout?

 

(I didn't go but I am figuring out whether or not to go next year having been a regular for a number of years. The toilet thing would be make or break for me if it isn't sorted. I know there are reasons there were not so many this year as before).

There was an extra field opened up behind Family camping which is where they moved Quiet camping to and there was LOADS of room in it. 

Also plenty of room in the section that used to be boutique camping as long as you don't mind being on a bit of a slope.

I didn't go to the normal general camping area so can't comment on that.

[majormajormajor]

What was the story with all the young Indian dudes serving in the bars? Don't mean this in a negative way whatsoever, just curious how they all ended up there? Had some great cricket chats!

[Wooderson]

Toilets behind the cider bus were open along with portaloos at back of main stage but everything else closed by 9am Monday morning. Staff had locked/reversed all other bathrooms. I saw a lad in a queue for the portaloos at the back of main stage holding 3 pints of piss in a massive queue/heat. Rubbish.

[The Nal]

16 minutes ago, majormajormajor said:

What was the story with all the young Indian dudes serving in the bars? Don't mean this in a negative way whatsoever, just curious how they all ended up there? Had some great cricket chats!

As above, I reckon they had a late staffing crisis and pulled the emergency cord. Bloke that served me obviously had never poured a pint or worked a till before. He had absolutely no idea what he was at. Great learning experience/upskilling though. By the end of the festival he was strutting his stuff.

Just now, Wooderson said:

Toilets behind the cider bus were open along with portaloos at back of main stage but everything else closed by 9am Monday morning. Staff had locked/reversed all other bathrooms. I saw a lad in a queue for the portaloos at the back of main stage holding 3 pints of piss in a massive queue/heat. Rubbish.

Thats on him though. All of the other portaloos were open. They just closed the toilets behind the Black Crow and the main toilets. You're only a short stroll from a toilet anywhere on site. Pissing into pint glasses and lenor bottles in your tent is nonsense. A barbarian. Should be banned from attending the festival. 

[Wooderson]

24 minutes ago, The Nal said:

All of the other portaloos were open.

Black Crow/set of loos at the "Boards"/Garden/Woods all closed by 9am.

The tiny set of toilets at the cider bus and the row of portaloos next to the main camping entrance only ones open apart from campsite.