Mendip Council - Scrutiny of 2022 festival

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Good to see the worthy view access being  reviewed. To be honest the previous access was safer and easier to negotiate. The new path had too many loose stones and gravel and would have been safer with sections of steps and maybe a handrail.  If it had rained heavily there would have been problems. The view going up and down was nice though! 

Sounds like a stair lift is needed

[phillyfaddle]

3 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Good to see the worthy view access being  reviewed. To be honest the previous access was safer and easier to negotiate. The new path had too many loose stones and gravel and would have been safer with sections of steps and maybe a handrail.  If it had rained heavily there would have been problems. The view going up and down was nice though! 

Agree. New path was very steep, although you were up it quicker. Saw a couple of nasty falls on the way down. We thought that it would be treacherous when wet. View was fab though.

[Chef]

7 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Good to see the worthy view access being  reviewed. To be honest the previous access was safer and easier to negotiate. The new path had too many loose stones and gravel and would have been safer with sections of steps and maybe a handrail.  If it had rained heavily there would have been problems. The view going up and down was nice though! 

I didn't get tickets for this year but usually stay at Worthy View when I do go - how did it differ from previous years? 

[Ayrshire Chris]

Just now, Chef said:

I didn't get tickets for this year but usually stay at Worthy View when I do go - how did it differ from previous years? 

Completely new twisting path up the slope through the undergrowth/trees. The old path was not accessible, blocked off by the food concessions. I was told they had plans to use it if the weather deteriorated and rained heavily. 

[moogster]

I personally thought it was quicker than before and the twists and turns made it possible to "enjoy the view" (=take a break). But yes. Dry weather.

[Ayrshire Chris]

Assess the potential pull of an artist, the size of the stage and the demographic of the audience.  
I thought that was a bit of a problem eg, wet leg on the park and a couple of times at the Avalon stage. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Actually, the path was more stable in the spells after some rain had happened.

May have been a different story in a downpour, but the water helped steady the ground underfoot.

[Skip997]

Just now, Ayrshire Chris said:

Assess the potential pull of an artist, the size of the stage and the demographic of the audience.  
I thought that was a bit of a problem eg, wet leg on the park and a couple of times at the Avalon stage. 

This.

And then create as many "impossible to decide" clashes as possible. Split that crowd.

[parsonjack]

3 hours ago, mazola said:

RE 7.2, if you are the type of arsehole who would piss up the blue tarpaulin instead of waiting 5 minutes to get to a urinal, I doubt a sign is going to change your mind

I find giving the sheet a whack on the opposite side to the offender as you depart particularly satisfying.

[Leyrulion]

3 hours ago, Freddyflintstonree said:

I am astounded that the risk assessment didn't already consider the "potential pull of the artists". 

That explains a huge amount if it's not actually a thing that they've formally monitored before.

 

 

[Leyrulion]

3.2- to consider whether crowd densities could be better distributed across site

Is interesting as there's a tension between effectively putting people in the SE corner to reduce the noise and that getting too busy. Would love to see more late night stuff spread out on other stages (I've said before but it's bonkers that something like BBC introducing tent is closed by 8pm)

 

9.1- It is recommended that Building Control officers continue to liaise with Festival representatives throughout the year to discuss any issues regarding stability of structures and venues. Engagement with the festival liaison meetings at an earlier stage may help to resolve any issues regarding siting/relocation of existing venues or structures and the introduction of new structures. 

Interesting, suggests building control were not happy with something at quite a late stage- I wonder if it's related to genosys (did building control kibosh the mouldy stage?) Or Arcadia?

Edited November 14, 2022 by Leyrulion

[stuartbert two hats]

Mildly surprised not to see anything about the bigger than normal queues for food this year. Unless it was my memory playing tricks on me.

[Neil]

2 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Mildly surprised not to see anything about the bigger than normal queues for food this year. Unless it was my memory playing tricks on me.

everyone got fed, so its not an issue for the licencing?

[stuartbert two hats]

1 hour ago, Neil said:

everyone got fed, so its not an issue for the licencing?

The licensing pointed out loads of stuff that wasn't dangerous, but just contributed to a shitty experience.

[Superscally]

8 hours ago, mazola said:

RE 7.2, if you are the type of arsehole who would piss up the blue tarpaulin instead of waiting 5 minutes to get to a urinal, I doubt a sign is going to change your mind

A good hard slap from the other side of the fence is a decent deterrent I find.

[DeanoL]

20 hours ago, gigpusher said:

I don't understand why any group of adults would want to be in with families unless a rare case of one couple without kids wanting to stay with friends who have kids otherwise all the kids would have you awake really early. 

Quieter so you can get a good nights' sleep (albeit you'll be up early with the kids in the morning) while not being miles out like Rivermead/Pylon.

Edited November 15, 2022 by DeanoL

[mike86]

22 hours ago, Skip997 said:

This section is worrying. It was far too quiet at several stages this year. You really shouldn't be able to hold/hear conversations in the first few rows of any gig.

 

West Holts was so quiet if you weren't in front of the sound stage. It felt like for some bands they only turned the speakers on for the final few songs. 

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, mike86 said:

West Holts was so quiet if you weren't in front of the sound stage. It felt like for some bands they only turned the speakers on for the final few songs. 

Yea was very disappointing. In previous years West Holts has had the best sound of the big stages.

[stuie]

1 minute ago, mike86 said:

West Holts was so quiet if you weren't in front of the sound stage. It felt like for some bands they only turned the speakers on for the final few songs. 

West Holts had a lot of sound issues this year. 

Caribou playing on to their monitor speakers only for about 10 minutes while the crowd shouted 'we can't here you' was a frustrating moment. 

Thankfully it was banging for Bicep.

[idb]

20 hours ago, Chef said:

I didn't get tickets for this year but usually stay at Worthy View when I do go - how did it differ from previous years? 

This year's path

Previous year's path

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by idb

[Chef]

41 minutes ago, idb said:

This year's path

Previous year's path

 

Thanks - I see what people mean how that could be dangerous in the wet. The first time I stayed in WV was 2014 (not sure if that was the first year the festival did it?) and they used the previous path but without steps - that also could have been a bit hairy in the wet, but the next year had put the steps in, and I always thought that worked well. 

[scaryclaireyfairy]

I’ve stayed at Cockmill in a group of adults and in the other family camping. Some of our tribe had babies/toddlers and all camping together meant we could take up some of the strain. Eg read stories or rock babies in the morning while the parents had a wash and got breakfast together etc. Kids are older now and we the child-free have migrated back to Hawkwell. 

[p.pete]

25 minutes ago, scaryclaireyfairy said:

I’ve stayed at Cockmill in a group of adults and in the other family camping. Some of our tribe had babies/toddlers and all camping together meant we could take up some of the strain. Eg read stories or rock babies in the morning while the parents had a wash and got breakfast together etc. Kids are older now and we the child-free have migrated back to Hawkwell. 

I think the issue is when the ratio of adults to children gets larger, or no children in the group at all.  I don't think they'd want rules to say how many children per number of adults there should be, that'd be tedious and unpoliceable.  It definitely makes sense for a few extra people to camp with friends with kids, like you say there is even scope to chip in (must be incredibly exhausting!)  If there are, e.g., 10+ adults with two or fewer kids then that starts to take the piss when other families are trying to access the finite space themselves - unlikely all 10 are chipping in (in any meaningful way) and it starts to seem more like prime camping at others' expense.

[gigpusher]

10 hours ago, DeanoL said:

Quieter so you can get a good nights' sleep (albeit you'll be up early with the kids in the morning) while not being miles out like Rivermead/Pylon.

It was the early mornings that I don’t understand why anyone would deliberately sign up for 😂

[FrankieX]

On 11/14/2022 at 1:56 PM, rgill3 said:

Interesting the point about the paper cups littering. Wouldn't the idea of reusable plastic cups mean they get littered again? Unless the festival was to adopt some kind of metal cups similar to the water bottles they have or a token system in which you'd trade that in when getting a pint otherwise you'd be charged for the cup.

I'm sure somebody could better explain the token system as I'd imagine it'd be in place at other festivals. It was at Strafwerk in Amsterdam this summer, but I had no idea what was going on and ended up with a large collection of tokens.

I think they mean paper cups are better than the thin, single use plastic cups which used to be prevalent at festivals. The thicker, reusable plastic cups for which you pay a deposit won't be littered as often as paper ones although, not being biodegradable, could cause more problems if they are.