Secret sets 2022

[Festival Liam]

2 hours ago, FloorFiller said:

There were originally two listed on the lineup, and I believe somebody had info that that the second was supposed to be Wolf Alice, who then bailed on it and so Metronomy were brought in, who then also bailed and so they just ended up having the one instead. 

Ahh great, that makes sense, cheers.

[D-Low]

Maybe one for the controversial opinions thread but is it about time they just do away with secret sets? Just get everyone on the line up on proper stages. So many people miss out on good bands who could easily be placed somewhere suitable (case in point Paolo Nutini). Thursday's are also a write-off now if you think you can get anywhere near WG.

Just get rid of them completely.

[Ayrshire Chris]

4 minutes ago, D-Low said:

Maybe one for the controversial opinions thread but is it about time they just do away with secret sets? Just get everyone on the line up on proper stages. So many people miss out on good bands who could easily be placed somewhere suitable (case in point Paolo Nutini). Thursday's are also a write-off now if you think you can get anywhere near WG.

Just get rid of them completely.

I tend to agree with you, with social media, leaks etc they arnt really secret anymore.  I’d be happy with maybe a few top notch late announcements just prior to gates opening to add a bit of mystery. 

Edited July 11, 2022 by Ayrshire Chris

[Ashl]

 

2 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

I tend to agree with you, with social media, leaks etc they arnt really secret anymore. 

I do like the investigation though on here, and also other than stupidly small sets for one performance acts like Paolo which are basically not ever going to be attendable (even Nick Mulvey was not on Thursday) if you plan to go if you hear its someone you want to see and are organised and aware that it will throw your plans off you can get a good spot generally for the bigger acts or at least I did for Jack White, Vampire Weekend and The Killers over the last 3 festivals. All of which were brilliant!

[CaledonianGonzo]

20 minutes ago, D-Low said:

Maybe one for the controversial opinions thread but is it about time they just do away with secret sets? Just get everyone on the line up on proper stages. So many people miss out on good bands who could easily be placed somewhere suitable (case in point Paolo Nutini). Thursday's are also a write-off now if you think you can get anywhere near WG.

Just get rid of them completely.

Yup. No more secrets or surprises. Remove the element of mystery and discovery entirely.

[SighMo]

How many people follow Secret Glasto on Twitter now? It would work better if they were able to actually be secrets. I understand this would be very difficult the way the Socials are now but I do quite like that PN played and most of us missed it.

[Suprefan]

1 hour ago, SighMo said:

How many people follow Secret Glasto on Twitter now? It would work better if they were able to actually be secrets. I understand this would be very difficult the way the Socials are now but I do quite like that PN played and most of us missed it.

50k or so. But the thing is how many of those followers are actually onsite is the question. Funny thing is some people responding to their tweets have more insight on whats actually happening anyway. Easily 99% of the people who went to George Ezra didnt find out til he tweeted it. Cause JP was pretty empty from the first act and then slowly filled up. There wasnt just a giant crowd at 11am camped at that stage. Same went for Idles on Sat mid day.

 

I do think they should mostly do away with secret sets unless they put it somewhere that wont cause issues such as the Pyramid or Other. The Williams Green thing on thursday is just a mess now. Announce who it is on the schedule and people can make their own decisions. But that stage is going to be a madhouse regardless on thursday because of the lack of music anyway.
 

Although Thursday has to be addressed somehow but there really isnt a clear solution. Just suggesting more music means there will be something very busy for no reason. Like if they had a couple bands on Other it would easily be rammed regardless of who it was.

[Muppetmark]

10 hours ago, Suprefan said:

50k or so. But the thing is how many of those followers are actually onsite is the question. Funny thing is some people responding to their tweets have more insight on whats actually happening anyway. Easily 99% of the people who went to George Ezra didnt find out til he tweeted it. Cause JP was pretty empty from the first act and then slowly filled up. There wasnt just a giant crowd at 11am camped at that stage. Same went for Idles on Sat mid day.

 

I do think they should mostly do away with secret sets unless they put it somewhere that wont cause issues such as the Pyramid or Other. The Williams Green thing on thursday is just a mess now. Announce who it is on the schedule and people can make their own decisions. But that stage is going to be a madhouse regardless on thursday because of the lack of music anyway.
 

Although Thursday has to be addressed somehow but there really isnt a clear solution. Just suggesting more music means there will be something very busy for no reason. Like if they had a couple bands on Other it would easily be rammed regardless of who it was.

We waited to tweet about ezra because we didn't know if he would still be doing it after his illness. 

 

Jack white we planned to tweet later but it was in glasto free press. 

 

We try to keep a balance between the mystery and people being able to see things. 

[gfa]

15 hours ago, D-Low said:

Maybe one for the controversial opinions thread but is it about time they just do away with secret sets? Just get everyone on the line up on proper stages. So many people miss out on good bands who could easily be placed somewhere suitable (case in point Paolo Nutini). Thursday's are also a write-off now if you think you can get anywhere near WG.

Just get rid of them completely.

Paolo is a joke imo playing that stage. Bastille too quite silly - they would have been fine in WG during the main festival but on thursday...

Ezra and Jack White worked well and it seemed ones like Vampire Weekend/Killers did too. I'm all for secret sets so long as they are actually possible to attend. Paolo was a pisstake.

[Suprefan]

21 hours ago, Muppetmark said:

We waited to tweet about ezra because we didn't know if he would still be doing it after his illness. 

 

Jack white we planned to tweet later but it was in glasto free press. 

 

We try to keep a balance between the mystery and people being able to see things. 

I understand why things are done a certain way and its to make sure you dont cause a panic. But it still shows that most people will wait for the artist to say something moreso than the ones truly in the know. Interesting thing was that the thing causing issues getting into the tent or just the field for Ezra was every idiot who decided that sitting down was a wise thing to do when a few thousand people were going to come walking over anyway. That was the real danger.

[assorted]

The secret sets account currently feels like a clique of forum users who get to find out about secret sets before everyone else, but don't actually announce them at all or until it's too late to plan to get there. Maybe the intentions are good ("safety") but the actuality is the account is near useless other than for the people that run it and their friends.

The only secret set I cared about, Jack White, I saw in the free press that morning before they bothered to announce it.

Maybe next year the forum can encourage those with knowledge to simply post what they know in the secret sets thread, and let the "secret sets" twitter account do whatever they deem in the name of "safety?" This year I saw a bunch of people with Intel told by posters to DM these people running the account instead of publicly posting what they knew, which became practically useless in terms of letting anyone know other than the account holders.

[GeezLouise]

18 minutes ago, assorted said:

The secret sets account currently feels like a clique of forum users who get to find out about secret sets before everyone else, but don't actually announce them at all or until it's too late to plan to get there. Maybe the intentions are good ("safety") but the actuality is the account is near useless other than for the people that run it and their friends.

The only secret set I cared about, Jack White, I saw in the free press that morning before they bothered to announce it.

Maybe next year the forum can encourage those with knowledge to simply post what they know in the secret sets thread, and let the "secret sets" twitter account do whatever they deem in the name of "safety?" This year I saw a bunch of people with Intel told by posters to DM these people running the account instead of publicly posting what they knew, which became practically useless in terms of letting anyone know other than the account holders.

To be fair, we all pretty much knew who the big secret sets were in this thread before heading to the fest. you just got to keep your eye on it. 

[Muppetmark]

1 hour ago, assorted said:

The secret sets account currently feels like a clique of forum users who get to find out about secret sets before everyone else, but don't actually announce them at all or until it's too late to plan to get there. Maybe the intentions are good ("safety") but the actuality is the account is near useless other than for the people that run it and their friends.

The only secret set I cared about, Jack White, I saw in the free press that morning before they bothered to announce it.

Maybe next year the forum can encourage those with knowledge to simply post what they know in the secret sets thread, and let the "secret sets" twitter account do whatever they deem in the name of "safety?" This year I saw a bunch of people with Intel told by posters to DM these people running the account instead of publicly posting what they knew, which became practically useless in terms of letting anyone know other than the account holders.

Williams green was already a disaster by all accounts ahead of bastille without us. We love the fact the festival can put on secret sets and we want to make sure we are not the reason they stop doing them.

This year was especially hard especially after being made aware of the friday night crowd scare in the park area which compounded our fears. We keep trying to learn and adapt our policies to try and find the optimal balance and we can't please everyone. People will always compalin that we announce both too early and too late and most of the info is collected from here anyway.

A lot of the people DM'd us because they DID NOT want that info to be public info so far ahead of the set time. I did not set out the account as a teenager to try and just be a resource to myself. I had never been to the festival and I didn't even have a ticket that year. I did that to help the community. And i'm sorry that you feel like we have not been as helpful as we have in the past but as an extremely small team of volunteers we do our best.

[august1]

1 hour ago, assorted said:

The secret sets account currently feels like a clique of forum users who get to find out about secret sets before everyone else, but don't actually announce them at all or until it's too late to plan to get there. Maybe the intentions are good ("safety") but the actuality is the account is near useless other than for the people that run it and their friends.

The only secret set I cared about, Jack White, I saw in the free press that morning before they bothered to announce it.

Maybe next year the forum can encourage those with knowledge to simply post what they know in the secret sets thread, and let the "secret sets" twitter account do whatever they deem in the name of "safety?" This year I saw a bunch of people with Intel told by posters to DM these people running the account instead of publicly posting what they knew, which became practically useless in terms of letting anyone know other than the account holders.

As one of those in the 'clique' I can tell you a saw a grand total of zero sets and told noone else any of the info other than my posts here, but spent a fair amount of time combing through info to help run it. Literally of no benefit to meyself. 

Pretty much all the info was posted up on here in one guise or another. In fact a few people got annoyed at me for repeatedly saying Jack White is the Sunday Park slot, whilst everyone else was still hoping for Green Day.

Just looking back I posted on here Bastille info 14 June, Jack White 17th June. I think they were the only two we had solid info directly from us, everything else was already out there from other places and we just collate it.

You say to post it up on here but if we do with great certainty it just ends up on twitter and puts the whole thing in jeopardy of not happening. 

From the outside looking in, it may seem glamarous or something to be running the account, but there is literally about 700+ DMs in the space of 4-5 days whilst at the fest to deal with. Worrying about peoples safety, as well not wanting to send out duff info.

 

[august1]

On another related note personally I think the account has gotten so big it can no longer fulfill what it originally set out to do, and could do in its earlier years when it had a few thousand followers and not much of a rep. Was easy to put out info for anyone who followed it to get to all the secrets in good time.

Loads of people still get info and value from it, but sending something to 50,000 people (contextualise that number for a second!) and their friends is obviously a different beast so the approach needs to be adapted.

Whats the answer other than to nuke it?  

Even if that happens, something else will pop up and take its place pretty rapidly.

 

 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Depends on whether it's targeted solely at members of this forum or whether it's for anyone to use.  It's the latter that's got it to 50k followers.

[august1]

16 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Depends on whether it's targeted solely at members of this forum or whether it's for anyone to use.  It's the latter that's got it to 50k followers.

how would you get it back to just being (or mainly) for this forum? genuine question btw. Secret thread for logged in members / new twitter account?

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

Doesn't feel very mysterious or secret when 30k people swarm whatever small stage because the secret has long been out. And if it's been released that morning in the free press, or everyone knows well-in-advance, then there's really no fun left. It's just out there - like the line-up.

Radiohead in 2010 certainly didn't feel very warm and fuzzy and magical. It felt like a shitty booking for one of the UK's biggest bands, on a slippery muddy hill, with terrible sound.

George Ezra too. Big name in a small tent. So many of his fans missed out.

They can keep the secret sets if they actually kept them a secret, or put them on bigger stages. If you hear that Ezra is playing John Peel, you don't know it's too packed before you get there.

Also, if you've traipsed over half the festival to get there and then you can't get in, you've effectively wasted twice as many chances to see a band. Ezra, but also the band you would have seen if you hadn't bothered to go there.

 

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[Crazyfool01]

29 minutes ago, august1 said:

On another related note personally I think the account has gotten so big it can no longer fulfill what it originally set out to do, and could do in its earlier years when it had a few thousand followers and not much of a rep. Was easy to put out info for anyone who followed it to get to all the secrets in good time.

Loads of people still get info and value from it, but sending something to 50,000 people (contextualise that number for a second!) and their friends is obviously a different beast so the approach needs to be adapted.

Whats the answer other than to nuke it?  

Even if that happens, something else will pop up and take its place pretty rapidly.

 

 

I was just about to say this ... its really successful in terms of numbers of followers , perhaps too successful but thats far from the fault of the people who run it and have the info at their finger tips just the advent and growth of social media to blame ... what choices do they have with this info ? keep it and be told they are selfish and use it for their own means , or let it go into the public domain where it will instantly have 50k people knowing ... plus acquaintances , and then its far from a secret as the account name suggests . Would the info be better shared one a forum such as this so people could make their own decisions on who / what to trust ? and possibly a bit more hidden from the overall public domain ? not sure how easy it would be to keep it totally anonomous though ? its an interesting discussion .... 

Edited July 13, 2022 by crazyfool1

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

They can keep the secret sets if they actually kept them a secret, or put them on bigger stages.

 

 

Totally agree.

[CaledonianGonzo]

4 minutes ago, august1 said:

how would you get it back to just being (or mainly) for this forum? genuine question btw. Secret thread for logged in members / new twitter account?

I guess you could nuke the existing account and create a new locked account you can only get added to via a thread on here.

However, dunno if that would decrease the usefulness of the account as you'd dry up the useful info you'd get from random.

[august1]

5 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

Would the info be better shared one a forum such as this so people could make their own decisions on who / what to trust ? and possibly a bit more hidden from the overall public domain ? not sure how easy it would be to keep it totally anonomous though ? its an interesting discussion .... 

the traffic this website gets in the lead up to the fest is huge, and you see the rumours/info on here spill onto twitter/reddit and blow up, and then ironically people then DM SecretGlasto twitter passing it off as their own info.

If we scale it back to just here, that would obviously piss off all the twitter followers and i'd imagine the info to the account would dry up as a result and we'd be back to the efests group think on secrets/getting info from other sources and essentially be collating info rather than getting it.

 

[august1]

1 minute ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

I guess you could nuke the existing account and create a new locked account you can only get added to via a thread on here.

However, dunno if that would decrease the usefulness of the account as you'd dry up the useful info you'd get from random.

just posted below about the self-fulfilling nature of getting info!

[Crazyfool01]

29 minutes ago, august1 said:

the traffic this website gets in the lead up to the fest is huge, and you see the rumours/info on here spill onto twitter/reddit and blow up, and then ironically people then DM SecretGlasto twitter passing it off as their own info.

If we scale it back to just here, that would obviously piss off all the twitter followers and i'd imagine the info to the account would dry up as a result and we'd be back to the efests group think on secrets/getting info from other sources and essentially be collating info rather than getting it.

 

rock and a hard place isnt it ? .... what sort of sources do you have ? im not asking you to name them of course ... but is it leaks that are mostly indirect ? 

[august1]

5 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

rock and a hard place isnt it ? .... what sort of sources do you have ? im not asking you to name them of course ... but is it leaks that are mostly indirect ? 

people/mates connected with the band, stage, people working the stage, people who are close to the fest/area, record label, lots of people on site who have seen a sign/heard something. Its utterly random and very few people with repeat info.

Someone with 60 followers might give us info to amplify it beyond their followers.

For example Jack White this year, a long time follower of the account got in touch, wouldnt put any info down in writing, I had to ring them up, they wanted to give something back after using the account previously, they had rock solid info but wouldnt give it to us unless we promised not to tweet out until the day so we had to sit on it for 11 days, but I more than heavily hinted it on here.