Beautiful Days 2022

[Skip997]

3 minutes ago, Po-Tay-Toes said:

Anyone know if the caravan area has grey water waste area or anything? Also when the loo gets full is it a trip to the portaloo to empty it or is that frowned upon? First year in the caravan. so many questions!

All the caravan/camper van fields have facilities to empty portable toilets.

It is frowned upon to empty in the portaloos.

[incident]

7 hours ago, Po-Tay-Toes said:

Anyone know if the caravan area has grey water waste area or anything? Also when the loo gets full is it a trip to the portaloo to empty it or is that frowned upon? First year in the caravan. so many questions!

There should be a large Elsan Point next to most (but not all) of the Toilet Blocks in the Live In Fields. If there's not one at the block nearest where you're parked up, ask one of the Stewards and they'll point you in the right direction.

Definitely don't empty stuff into Portaloos.

[guypjfreak]

Piss in a bottle saves space,, save loo for nu 2s

Thats my wize words of the year lol

 

Off. Laters 

[Neil]

you people have some fun, now. 🤓

[spg]

15 hours ago, Neil said:

you people have some fun, now. 🤓

Will do 😁

[Neil]

1 minute ago, spg said:

Will do 😁

good, its an order. you need to drink enough for me, as i'm beerless this weekend. 😛 

[Neil]

Just now, Neil said:

 i'm beerless this weekend. 😛 

i seem to have encouraged my pub buddy to do something else instead.(i'm a fool).

 

[blutarsky]

How’s it going people? 

[Pinhead]

Say hi to the Levs for me tonight!

[spg]

Been a great weekend 

[Quark]

Aye that was a lot of fun. Will post more later, full on work week coming up

[justanotheronethen]

First sober festival since 94 for me. Loved it. Some amazing bands, great food, friendly people and stewards, lots of places to sit. Lovely site art. They were let down at the last minute by the toilet providers which was a shame.

Bob Vylan, Flogging Molly, The Specials, Don Letts and Lowkey were the stand out performances for me but every artist I saw was on top form.

Buzzing

[Skip997]

27 minutes ago, justanotheronethen said:

 They were let down at the last minute by the toilet providers which was a shame.

Again?

Same as last year.

[Skip997]

“Music is great, toilets are awful. Not sure I will come back,” wrote Maggie McCluskey. “Toilets filled to the seat, absolutely disgusting, elderly lady next to me in tears as she can’t ‘hover,’” wrote Clare Foy. “Second year of dreadful toilets already looking at other festivals for next year,” wrote Collette de Stowe.

[justanotheronethen]

34 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

“Music is great, toilets are awful. Not sure I will come back,” wrote Maggie McCluskey. “Toilets filled to the seat, absolutely disgusting, elderly lady next to me in tears as she can’t ‘hover,’” wrote Clare Foy. “Second year of dreadful toilets already looking at other festivals for next year,” wrote Collette de Stowe.

Yawn

[justanotheronethen]

48 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Again?

Same as last year.

I'm sure someone more in the know can provide more details. What I heard is that due to trying to cut costs last year and the subsequent horrible bogs, this year they had 2 suppliers lined up so potentially more and better - day before opening 1 of them ups their fee considerably and threatens to pull out if their not paid, which they weren't, hence fewer decent loos. Loads of urinals though, which is fine for the blokes but by the sound of things a lot of the shitters had no seats and were jammed up by Friday evening

[Skip997]

They need to up their game re the toilet situation and have done for years.

I'll be at Shambala from tomorrow. They have the most superb compost toilets, never full.

[justanotheronethen]

3 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

They need to up their game re the toilet situation and have done for years.

I'll be at Shambala from tomorrow. They have the most superb compost toilets, never full.

True. It's a shame, as up until 2019 they had excellent toilets, Andy's Loos I think. Takes the shine off a superb weekend everywhere else round the site.

Have a good one at Shambala 👍

[just7]

Heard they upped capacity again this year, heard it from a couple of stewards.

might help explain the loo queues 

[Skip997]

20 minutes ago, just7 said:

Heard they upped capacity again this year, heard it from a couple of stewards.

might help explain the loo queues 

There were a lack of loos this year, due to one of the contractors pulling out at the last minute.

IMO the loo situation has always been the worst thing at BD.

Along with the water, can't remember any other event, no matter how small, that has just had stand pipes, no sinks, drainage etc.

[mgillespie]

It wasn't the number of loos, it was the infrequency of cleaning.  Adding a few stand up urinals for the blokes on the campsites would have also alleviated some of the issues..

Also, to the person that decided to take a dump in one of the showers, they really need to take a look at themselves...

[guypjfreak]

Was good.. 

Beth was terrible 

Specials were du

Bimble was cool 

Levs were as always awesome 

But I'll not be buying a ticket until I see the lineup next year... 

Not feeling to great atm tho and found out that baby Eliza had been taken in to hospital but we weren't told so we didn't worry.. 

Nightmare 

I had a moment sat night and was sat down round the corner of main stage... Thank you so to the girl that came and checked that I was OK and a little hug.. Xxxxx

[King James]

Went there and had a great time - arrived Thursday at 8pm managed to find somewhere to camp in North Camping on the hill. 

Was a really great festival with lots going on and friendly people.  I think a lot of people see it as a mini-Glastonbury and the lack of sponsored bars etc etc sets it apart.  Fairground rides, drinks etc considerably cheaper than other festivals.  Great you can bring your own drinks in, fantastic stewarding etc.  Very safe feeling - no sketchy vibes.  Cool having things like the morris dancers, fire jugglers etc.  A lot of activities for kids - would have been happy to take mine to it except for the toilets ... 

I would personally have paid the ransom for the additional toilet contractor as it's such a key element of running a festival.  Was not a good look for them and puts a downer on the whole thing especially for families.  

I think the solution for them toilet wise should be some compost options like Shambala have as someone else pointed out ... then at least have something in addition to what the contractors provide.  

The line-up I thought was very stale and needed a good kick up the arse. Too many old men and mediocre acts on stage.  A Dancehall tent and something playing dance music made AFTER the year 2000 and preferably post 2020 would have been good. Mr Bruce ex of the Correspondents was good, saw a couple of good acts in the Bimble Inn.  Feels like they need some new energy / different people running some of the tents.  Maybe they do need some more non corporate partners ... 

I think they need to have some more contemporary acts as well to pull in younger age ranges and keep the festival going and stop it being for older people only. At points the aging society felt very real. Although I wonder if Covid broke the chain of transmission for younger people at festivals - if you haven't been able to go to one for two years you're not going to pull in your mates etc or get into it.  Hopefully that will start to change with this festival season.   

Rebel Tent - I would not have had the likes of Chris Williamson (something of the night about him) there.  Ditto Lowkey.  Great to see Glenn Jenkins though one of my heroes.  

Food stalls were pretty good I thought - amazing pizza, crab/ fish in particular.  They could have done with a Caribbean place for goat stew.  

Shame they couldn't have fires really this year due to conditions I think that would have been great and presumably was in previous years - we did find a small one by the tea tent one night and was great sitting around it chatting to people. 

Overall though they got way more right than wrong and I had a great time.  

[Quark]

Been thinking about the compost toilet thing.  With the layout of the site and the fact it's so hilly / uneven, I'm not sure whether they actually have that combination of areas of flat ground that are big enough to put them down. Thinking of the composters I've seen elsewhere they tend to be quite large structures, unless you can get them in smaller blocks?  Portaloos just can't cope with the volumes, and the flush mechanisms aren't strong enough to clear them out. On the plus side they were just full this year; last year they were actively revolting.

It's a real shame, as it's really the only negative aspect of the festival I can find. 

Music-wise I'm less worried tbh.  It's a festival squarely aimed at families, so it makes sense that they'll have older acts for the parents (and grandparents) rather than aiming for the younger crowd.  Not every festival has to aim to change it up and target younger people, if they want to target an older crowd then why not? Everyone I saw was having a blast with the music, so why change it up? It is what it is, and par of that is a certain demographic.

Based on the harmless but quite frankly irritating group of younguns camped near us, I'm happy for it to keep that target audience!

[Quark]

58 minutes ago, guypjfreak said:

Was good.. 

Beth was terrible 

Specials were du

Bimble was cool 

Levs were as always awesome 

But I'll not be buying a ticket until I see the lineup next year... 

Not feeling to great atm tho and found out that baby Eliza had been taken in to hospital but we weren't told so we didn't worry.. 

Nightmare 

I had a moment sat night and was sat down round the corner of main stage... Thank you so to the girl that came and checked that I was OK and a little hug.. Xxxxx

Sorry it didn't quote go too peachy Guy, hope Eliza's doing OK.

Agree with Beth, had high hopes for her in that more intimate Big Top setting but....yeah. Took her a few songs to remotely get into her stride, and even then it was just quite flat. Quite a few people leaving from the front where we were. 

Have to disagree on the Specials, I was having a blast!

Levs were on great form, actually best for a while I think. Playing more from the new album now, and Dan really seems to have stepped up in taking on some of Simon's vocal performances.  Some songs just need that slightly harsher, angry tone Simon brings instead of Mark's vocal. Also got a lovely dose of older material and B-sides across both sets, lost my shit when they broke out World Freakshow.

Amazing appearance by Boakes on the didj as well, was sure someone (maybe here?) said he'd retired from live shows so really nice surprise for him to rock up.  Hopefully Simon will end up back on the road with them soon as well.

Edited August 23, 2022 by Quark