Bearded Theory 2023

[Flaminglippy]

49 minutes ago, Nobody Interesting said:

Which means we are now having this discussion on here and on FB LOL

Have some straws again

Which means I will be completely wrong on both platforms

[Nobody Interesting]

8 hours ago, incident said:

It's over 8 months until the festival. Based on a normal year, and assuming the announcement later is ticket details, we're pretty damn close to the usual schedule. For the 2019 festival, the announcement came September 7th for a ticket sale date of September 15th. For the ill-fated 2020 festival, the announcement came August 31st for a ticket sale of September 7th. The actual lineup announcements have generally been around the end of October or start of November so we're way too early for that (barring 2022, which had a load of rollovers and came earlier).

Only a handful of Festivals have put tickets on sale for next year and to the best of my knowledge none of them have announced anything of substance beyond that.

I'm finding this bitterness about a few teasers and the details not being announced yet to be bizarre. Albeit that's more a comment about facebook than here, quite a few of the people over there are getting downright angry and coming across as right arseholes.. Maybe when the announcement does come it'll give them something actually legitimate to complain about, but surely lets wait and see what it actually says?

For what it's worth, Alt Tickets (the ticketing agency owned by DHP and so who will presumably be handling things this year) have got a page up with a more complete version of the new artwork - https://www.alttickets.com/bearded-theory-tickets

The timeline for sales is as you say close. However prior to ticket sales the old guard would have issued newsletters, normally every month, with updates. They always addressed things that did not work or went wrong.
That is the difference and that is why many people are concerned.
Their concern does not make them arseholes.

[justanotheronethen]

1 hour ago, Gnomicide said:

Yep, don't think it's hints at acts at all, just new artwork though I expect we will get some names later.

Looking forward to the announcement, whatever it is, it will no doubt result in several meltdowns on that Facebook group. Unless of course they announce a reduction in capacity, one toilet per person with New Model Army, Ferocious Dog and Levellers as headliners.

I'm a big fan of these 3 bands and I wouldn't like to see that happen tbh 😁

1 toilet per person though? Heaven

[Nobody Interesting]

2023 DATES ANNOUNCED! 🍄🌳 25-28 MAY 🍄🌳 We are incredibly excited to confirm the dates for next year's festival! As usual, we'll be back at Catton Park on 25th-28th May to mark the start of summer. Plus, the Monday bank holiday is back! Set your ticket reminders now and get online quick to bag yourself an exclusive Early Bird ticket.

SET A TICKET REMINDER HERE

We know the cost-of-living crisis is affecting everyone, so we have frozen our prices for Teen & Child tickets. You can also take advantage of our monthly payment plans, meaning that if you buy next week, you can spread the cost of your ticket from purchase right up to May 2023. We're also very happy to announce that in addition to all our beloved stages, we'll be adding a brand-new big top stage in the main arena, so you'll get to hear more music from more artists, in more places than ever before. We truly cannot wait to be back in the fields with you.

[Flaminglippy]

Big Top is a good addition, particularly if it replaces the fairground. Will presumably mean the Woodland will have smaller acoustic bands so less of a crush. 

Adult tickets presumably increasing (as expected). 

We are debating whether to try for early birds or wait until there has been a line up announcement and some of the other questions have been answered.

[justanotheronethen]

5 minutes ago, Flaminglippy said:

Big Top is a good addition, particularly if it replaces the fairground. Will presumably mean the Woodland will have smaller acoustic bands so less of a crush. 

Adult tickets presumably increasing (as expected). 

We are debating whether to try for early birds or wait until there has been a line up announcement and some of the other questions have been answered.

Nice. I wonder if there will be comedy and performances and that in there, with bands in the evening?

I can understand the prices going up, personally I think I've received good value for the price for years now at Bearded

[Nobody Interesting]

They have just posted this on the FB group - why it was not on the email who knows!!!   Hey everyone! Hope you like the new artwork, we’re also updating our website over at beardedtheory.co.uk We wanted to share a bit more info with you in here to help you plan ahead of next week’s on sale. We’ve frozen our Child and Teen prices at £40 and £65. We have two Early Bird ticket prices this year, the first Early Bird price is £155, then £165 then our final Weekend Ticket price will be £175 (plus booking fees). Our monthly payment plans mean you can split the cost of your ticket from when you purchase right up until May 2023, so if you buy straight away it’ll be around £20 per month until we’re back at Bearded! We’ve also seen some questions about taking your own booze into the festival, we won’t be making any changes to that and you’ll still be able to bring your own alcohol along with you – cheers! We’ll have more updates soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

[dotdash79]

so it looks like you can still take your booze in but the ticket prices have gone up quite a bit

Edited September 10, 2022 by dotdash79

[Nobody Interesting]

3 minutes ago, dotdash79 said:

so it looks like you can still take your booze in but the ticket prices have gone up quite a bit

Considering it has been 3 years since the last sale that is not actually that much more - which makes me wonder if the capacity has gone up more as an additional  new stage does not come cheap

[Nobody Interesting]

and more info just in from them.

"the school will still be on site, our accessibility information is on our website (which is currently having some updates but I've linked it above), the capacity won't be increasing this year."

[dotdash79]

Just now, Nobody Interesting said:

Considering it has been 3 years since the last sale that is not actually that much more - which makes me wonder if the capacity has gone up more as an additional  new stage does not come cheap

Yea just noticed it’s been 3 years and inflation. Maybe they are keeping the capacity the same and not having to keep a festival on life support has allowed a bit more budget. 

[bucko]

The info so far then is capacity is the same as this year, still take your own booze in and a new stage (big top).

Also the school is staying.

No mention yet on what if any stages been cut.

[Nobody Interesting]

2 minutes ago, bucko said:

The info so far then is capacity is the same as this year, still take your own booze in and a new stage (big top).

Also the school is staying.

No mention yet on what if any stages been cut.

No stages cut according to the email - "in addition to all our beloved stages"

[incident]

1 minute ago, bucko said:

The info so far then is capacity is the same as this year, still take your own booze in and a new stage (big top).

Also the school is staying.

No mention yet on what if any stages been cut.

"We're also very happy to announce that in addition to all our beloved stages, we'll be adding a brand-new big top stage in the main arena, so you'll get to hear more music from more artists, in more places than ever before."

Certainly implies at least that none of the stages people care about are gone (by which I mean Pallet, Woodland, Magical Sounds, Maui Waui, Convoy Cabaret).

[Gnomicide]

All very positive so far. New stage should see a less packed Woodland, hopefully it'll be a decent size and be the 2nd stage. 

Never had any need for the school but glad it's still there. No increase in capacity, price is still decent. 

And the big one... still take your own booze. 

All good, nothing bad.

[bucko]

Cool

4 minutes ago, incident said:

"We're also very happy to announce that in addition to all our beloved stages, we'll be adding a brand-new big top stage in the main arena, so you'll get to hear more music from more artists, in more places than ever before."

Certainly implies at least that none of the stages people care about are gone (by which I mean Pallet, Woodland, Magical Sounds, Maui Waui, Convoy Cabaret).

All sounds good for are lot at the moment.

The ticket price looks like a bit of a hike but its been 4 years since i last bought them and was expecting around that.

[incident]

My guess for layout changes to fit the new Big Top stage in - Put it at the Southern end of the Arena, where they had the Variety Club thing and some food stalls this year. That way it's still on the existing production roads and should avoid any sound bleed issues. Should also improve circulation of the crowd across the whole Arena area and allow food stalls etc to be spaced out a bit more evenly.

Can free up space by moving some things (maybe the Craft Area or the Tea Tent) outside the main arena onto an expanded Woodland Walk, which might be a more appropriate location anyway and would make that path a bit nicer.

Despite the "all our usual stages" comment, I'm not convinced that applies to absolutely everything and especially not the Variety Club, as it's not established and whenever I went past this year usually had few (sometimes zero) people in it.

2 hours ago, justanotheronethen said:

Nice. I wonder if there will be comedy and performances and that in there, with bands in the evening?

This is a great shout. It'd be an excellent space to use for "more than music" during the day. My only concern would be the weather - I think a daytime comedy set might empty out very quickly if it started raining.

[Nobody Interesting]

20 hours ago, incident said:

My guess for layout changes to fit the new Big Top stage in - Put it at the Southern end of the Arena, where they had the Variety Club thing and some food stalls this year. That way it's still on the existing production roads and should avoid any sound bleed issues. Should also improve circulation of the crowd across the whole Arena area and allow food stalls etc to be spaced out a bit more evenly.

Can free up space by moving some things (maybe the Craft Area or the Tea Tent) outside the main arena onto an expanded Woodland Walk, which might be a more appropriate location anyway and would make that path a bit nicer.

Despite the "all our usual stages" comment, I'm not convinced that applies to absolutely everything and especially not the Variety Club, as it's not established and whenever I went past this year usually had few (sometimes zero) people in it.

This is a great shout. It'd be an excellent space to use for "more than music" during the day. My only concern would be the weather - I think a daytime comedy set might empty out very quickly if it started raining.

The variety club was excellent with kids stuff in the day then comedy and a great, and always packed, disco in the evening. I think it was a really good addition and hope it remains.

If the comedy moves to the Big Top not sure why it would empty if it started raining as the Big Top's are tents, so it would likely fill up if it rained.

[Gnomicide]

My guess is the big top will be the 2nd stage like when Tornado Town was there, I think that's how Bloodstock does it?

Woodland will be for smaller acts or maybe they'll just rely on the big top taking away some of the numbers trying to get in there.

Either way, exciting times really. Festivals have to evolve to a point but still retain part of their identity. 

[Flaminglippy]

2 hours ago, Nobody Interesting said:

 not sure why it would empty if it started raining as the Big Top's are tents, so it would likely fill up if it rained.

Especially if they erect it upside down

[Flaminglippy]

Hoping they have got more fields for the increased capacity...might be wrong but everything felt slightly more cramped this year. Felt like they had the same footprint as they did when it was 10k. 

Quite looking forward to seeing the impact the changes have

[atomised]

2 hours ago, Flaminglippy said:

Hoping they have got more fields for the increased capacity...might be wrong but everything felt slightly more cramped this year. Felt like they had the same footprint as they did when it was 10k. 

Quite looking forward to seeing the impact the changes have

capacity is the same as this year

[Flaminglippy]

19 hours ago, atomised said:

capacity is the same as this year

Yeah, meant hopefully there is a bit more space than last year when the capacity increased from 10k to 15k. 

[Nobody Interesting]

My logical brain would suggest that all the thoughts about where the new Big Top could go will be answered by looking at this map - from 2019 when the Circus was tried out. Just replace the word Circus with the words Big and Top and it all works. Even the new Knockerdown Inn could stay.

[bucko]

I think the big top tent would have to hold 2000 at least to have any impact on spreading the crowd over the site and need to be on the main support road with enough space to hold a few touring bands and equipment.

Almost like the avalon tent or the big top at beautiful days.

Then it will need a bar and toilets to support it.

When you think of the extra crew and tech support plus the acts its surprising that ticket costs haven't increased more than they have.

Surely they will have to cut back on something, maybe it will be the amount acts or cutting the thursday acts.

Edited September 12, 2022 by bucko