Bearded Theory 2024

[Spuddhism]

We arrived about 10am Wednesday and were in the third row near to wristband exchange.

 

Due to the abnormal weather, there was loads of surface water and presumably loads more by the end of the day. I was concerned when the rain came back Saturday and turned everything claggy again that exiting on Monday would be carnage. But put that back of mind and enjoyed the last day tremendously. System 7 to close after the energy of Amyl (the band, not the the substance 😁) left a grin on my tired face.

 

Like a few folks this year, we took our time leaving (we always do, but appreciate that's easier when you don't have kids to consider). Car was packed and we left around 1.30.

 

No standing water, ground felt solid underfoot, and we drove out of the main car park going anti clockwise using the track round the field. Apart from one wet section which wasn't challenging we were straight out onto the road and off. We had a clear night Sunday into Monday, and so clearly when the weather does ease off, the drainage is impressive.

 

Special mention to the marshals for lifting folks' spirits on arrival on Wednesday. Lots of laughter and encouragement, and a phenomenally wet and challenging day will be remembered as a hugely fun one. Moving the Woodlands acts into Convoy for Wednesday and Thursday kept the schedule alive too.

 

Absolutely cracking festival, my second after the super sunny one last year. If anyone went first time this year, and had their fun spoiled by the weather, do go again to exorcise that ghost and witness the already delightful BT atmosphere with the addition of dry ground and footwear that doesn't double in weight 🙂

Edited May 28 by Spuddhism

[Spuddhism]

Negative points, for balance, are few for me:

 

We were among those confused by the ambiguous car park signage on Wednesday, thinking the entrance was for drop-off / pick-up only, and drove past it. No biggy, but the addition of "public camping parking" or something would've avoided this. I wonder how many journeys ended with finding somewhere to u-turn. 

 

I'm no technician, but for me the sound in Meadow was poor this year, and for any band I watched there I tended to stand outside the marquee and to the right of stage, even when there was loads of space inside. Walked away from a few bands that I suspect are much better than they sounded. 

Edited May 28 by Spuddhism

[onemoresolo]

34 minutes ago, Spuddhism said:

Negative points, for balance, are few for me:

 

We were among those confused by the ambiguous car park signage on Wednesday, thinking the entrance was for drop-off / pick-up only, and drove past it. No biggy, but the addition of "public camping parking" or something would've avoided this. I wonder how many journeys ended with finding somewhere to u-turn. 

 

I'm no technician, but for me the sound in Meadow was poor this year, and for any band I watched there I tended to stand outside the marquee and to the right of stage, even when there was loads of space inside. Walked away from a few bands that I suspect are much better than they sounded. 

I'm with you on that other than I thought the sound for Orbital was excellent where I was - better than many proper venues I've been to.

[Benway]

10 minutes ago, onemoresolo said:

I'm with you on that other than I thought the sound for Orbital was excellent where I was - better than many proper venues I've been to.

Orbital and New model Army sounded great in there - others didn't though - the Orb was too quiet (but it was a Sunday)

[Spuddhism]

3 minutes ago, onemoresolo said:

I'm with you on that other than I thought the sound for Orbital was excellent where I was - better than many proper venues I've been to.

Agreed, to my ears Orbital were the exception to the rule in there. Excellent set. The Orb sounded okay too, tho' a bit of competition from Coda at times. 

 

I guess it's all subjective. We walked away from English Teacher due to sound quality, yet I could tell they would be worth watching in a different venue, and some commenters above have listed them as a highlight. 

[Spuddhism]

3 minutes ago, Benway said:

Orbital and New model Army sounded great in there - others didn't though - the Orb was too quiet (but it was a Sunday)

Did NMA play Vengeance or No Rest? I missed the start due to faffing at camp and only caught the second half. Usually sing my throat dry when they get performed. 

[Nobody Interesting]

12 minutes ago, Spuddhism said:

Agreed, to my ears Orbital were the exception to the rule in there. Excellent set. The Orb sounded okay too, tho' a bit of competition from Coda at times. 

 

I guess it's all subjective. We walked away from English Teacher due to sound quality, yet I could tell they would be worth watching in a different venue, and some commenters above have listed them as a highlight. 

 

I found the sound fine (we always get in to a central place) apart from vocals especially male vocals so Orbital would not have had that issue.
The fuller the tent was the less there were any issues. When empty it does echo a bit.

[Gnomicide]

I thought the sound was hit and miss. 

 

Pallet mainly good, Woodland excellent, Meadows varied a fair but, Convoy Cabaret was great on Wednesday, then they seemed to have forgotten to mic up the drums properly, SE an upgrade on previous years.

[gizmoman]

Starting to regret leaving early!, sounds like exiting wasn't half as bad as I was fearing, glad everyone got off o.k. bit of reassurance for future years. Signage is pretty bad, I knew where I was going but anyone new would be confused. Other than that thought they did very well, a big thanks to the staff who worked all day in the teeming rain, everyone was great despite the weather.

[Avalon_Fields]

Yes, in hindsight I didn't need to exit early, my friends got out ok on the Monday without issue.

 

Anyway, as I was mesmerised by the Future Island dancing, here's the clips together:

 

 

 

[Benway]

2 hours ago, Spuddhism said:

Did NMA play Vengeance or No Rest? I missed the start due to faffing at camp and only caught the second half. Usually sing my throat dry when they get performed. 

Don't believe so, I also missed the start..

Here is the setlist according to this site.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/new-model-army/2024/catton-hall-and-gardens-walton-on-trent-england-13a81501.html

[Flaminglippy]

3 hours ago, Spuddhism said:

Negative points, for balance, are few for me:

 

We were among those confused by the ambiguous car park signage on Wednesday, thinking the entrance was for drop-off / pick-up only, and drove past it. No biggy, but the addition of "public camping parking" or something would've avoided this. I wonder how many journeys ended with finding somewhere to u-turn. 

 

I'm no technician, but for me the sound in Meadow was poor this year, and for any band I watched there I tended to stand outside the marquee and to the right of stage, even when there was loads of space inside. Walked away from a few bands that I suspect are much better than they sounded. 

Frustrating because the signage would have been such a simple fix...it defeats the purpose of trying to cut down on traffic if every car is doing 2 or 3 trips up and down the same road trying to find which way to get in. 

 

Thinking about it, dont remember seeing any exit signs either in the main field which given the state of the car parks wasnt helpful. 

[Gnomicide]

Longer version of the video I posted yesterday, if you fancy a 10 minute recap of the festival.

 

 

[Kurosagi]

On the Wednesday night (9-11) at Big Ed I was having a good time dancing away to the prodigy tribute set. There's no real details in the programme, so anyone know who the DJ was and whether it was existing prodigy remixes or newly mixed stuff or just related music with samples? Keen to get hold of some!

[ciderbus]

Another question. Does anyone remember if BT send out a post-event survey to gather feedback?

 

Apropos of nothing here are my 5 top tunes from the weekend, based on enjoying them and they keep popping back into mind.

 

Sprints-Literary Mind
Dinosaur Jr- Freakscene
Sleaford Mods- Nudge It
BC Camplight- Back to Work
Melin Melyn- Hold the Line

 

 

[Lilywoo]

10 hours ago, Paul ™ said:

To answer your query, Accessible camping only went there for the first time last year, the last wet Bearded was in 2014, before some drainage work in the arena was done for the 2015 festival.

Everyone got off fine yesterday, plenty of 4x4 responders to tow anyone that did need help.

 

You do realise how much rain actually fell during the constant 24 hours of it?

 

Oh and the landowner and/or estate management team do not run the festival, nor decide what goes where. They only lease the land to organisers DHP, who are only in their 3rd year of being involved, the previous 2 years were not rainy.

 

 

I've worked in land management, woodland management and horticulture for decades. The landowner and the staff who manage the estate would have known the hydrology of the estate, known the direction of below-ground drainage flows and the effect rainfall would have on particular zones. The festival organisers may not have had all the technical info but should have anticipated that, in Derbyshire, in May, rainfall was likely.

 

The refusal to permit laying of bark chippings was irresponsible and suggests that duty of care to customers, *particularly those with mobility problems*, was at the bottom of the priority list. If there was no intention to do everything possible to ensure the safety of paying customers, that is pushing the boundaries of acceptability. I'm sure the organisers paid a hefty fee for use of the land. The landowner should have been made aware of the need for suitable accommodation of all customers' needs, including laying bark paths. If they won't compromise on that, they have no business taking the money. 
 

When you have difficulty walking anyway, deep, silty mud hugely increases the risk of injury through falling. It's wrong. It's just one more problem to be woven into all the other difficulties faced by us, every single day. It makes you feel even more vulnerable. 
 

Festivals like BT are attended by an older demographic, one which appears to be encouraged (especially bearing in mind the line-up). Yet the set-up seemed to assume we were all fit, young and ready to fight our way through ponds of 6" depth in our campsite (I have photographic evidence). 
 

Personally, I am tired of the general response to those of us highlighting problems, which seems to be 'suck it up, buttercup'. Other festivals get it right. This year, BT did not. It's not the fault of customers. The rainfall was nothing unusual for the area. Camping on a floodplain is not reasonable. The stewards could do nothing. These decisions were made by people of a much higher pay grade, who never have to worry about what happens during the weekend. 
 

Cynical, sickening and completely without care.

[incident]

19 minutes ago, ciderbus said:

Another question. Does anyone remember if BT send out a post-event survey to gather feedback?

 

They definitely did last year.

[Kurosagi]

5 minutes ago, Lilywoo said:

Festivals like BT are attended by an older demographic, one which appears to be encouraged (especially bearing in mind the line-up). Yet the set-up seemed to assume we were all fit, young and ready to fight our way through ponds of 6" depth in our campsite (I have photographic evidence).

I only alluded earlier to the plenty of stories coming out of our campervan field and didn't want to get into specifics because they weren't my stories to tell. But you've nailed it here, a lot of people using campervans do so because they've reached a certain age and have various mobility issues BUT STILL WANT TO PARTY. There were also plenty of young families, another demographic that the organisers actively encourage to attend.

 

There were many people in our field who spent the weekend anxious, stressed and pushed beyond their limits and made worse by feeling abandoned for the weekend. We were ushered into the field by stewards ignoring our views on the swamp adamant that the 4x4s would help us only to all get stuck one after the other. The duty of care shown by those responsible for our field was downright derisory. People were pleading for them to give up with the 4x4s and simply hire a sodding tractor and get people moving in minutes not hours.

 

I was lucky because I'm an old spring chicken and can still leap around with the best of them, but there was a major compassion and empathy loss for those presenting their individual stories and concerns to the stewards. I'm crossing my fingers that the organisers are not dismissing this as a once in a lifetime extreme event and will instead listen and learn because it's obviously a cracking festival when the weather is a bit kinder.

[Kurosagi]

Enjoyed the food choices available. Tried something different every day and never had a bad meal.

 

Not usually a pie man, but it smelt so good that I went full monty and had the cheesy-cauliflower pie with mash, gravy and mushy peas. Dear god that was delicious and set me up for the rest of the day. 10 out of 10.

 

For those that have been before how was the food selection this year - same, better, worse?

[Nobody Interesting]

48 minutes ago, Lilywoo said:

The festival organisers may not have had all the technical info but should have anticipated that, in Derbyshire, in May, rainfall was likely.

 

The refusal to permit laying of bark chippings was irresponsible and suggests that duty of care to customers
 

Yet the set-up seemed to assume we were all fit, young and ready to fight our way through ponds of 6" depth in our campsite (I have photographic evidence). 
 

 

I have taken 3 parts of your post:

Of course they knew it might rain in May - but how on earth could they have known or planned for a record amount of rain in one day from a low pressure that formed and came in from a direction with no president in 100 years of Met Office data?

The land owner makes the rules on what can go down not the organiser. It is their land and part of the agreement. If the festival wants to put things down then they need a new home. Have you any suggestions where they could relocate a festival of this size to?

The set up is probably the easiest of any festival we have ever been to. Flat apart from the odd slight incline and again, how can they have sorted out that much (over 70mm) of rain in 24 hours just before, and then during, the direst day of the festival. How were they supposed to remove the water and make campsites etc free of it?
Should they have cancelled and likely then gone bust as the rain would have been 'an act of God' and therefore not covered on their insurance?

FYI I have mobility issues so know how hard it was - but I also realise how utterly impossible it was anyone to prepare and then change things with zero notice - 48 hours before the forecast was for little or no rain.

[Nobody Interesting]

19 minutes ago, Kurosagi said:

Enjoyed the food choices available. Tried something different every day and never had a bad meal.

 

Not usually a pie man, but it smelt so good that I went full monty and had the cheesy-cauliflower pie with mash, gravy and mushy peas. Dear god that was delicious and set me up for the rest of the day. 10 out of 10.

 

For those that have been before how was the food selection this year - same, better, worse?

 

For me they were good but not as good as last year as my 2 fave stalls were not there but there was more than enough to choose from for a colitis sufferer who is also a veggie.

[Pinhead]

The estate owner may not like straw / chippings / track whatever going down on the land but that's got to be better than having it carved up the way it is now with huge troughs across it which will presumably mean it will have to be rolled flat again or something later. I don't think they need to plan for snow or something that grossly improbable (we don't even get that in winter in England anymore these days), but they will surely need a better plan for locked in high rainfall over a short period of time during or just before the festival now in the future because that now is the future whether we choose to realise it or not. I assume it would form part of a safety contingency plan really which would also contain plans for an evacuation should the river go 2 foot higher next time! Surely the entertainments / site license requirements would stipulate this?

That said, the drainage did indeed cope well despite the ponds and mud given the biblical rainfall experienced - seen worse at Glasto and Beautiful Days years ago.

[Nobody Interesting]

7 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

The estate owner may not like straw / chippings / track whatever going down on the land but that's got to be better than having it carved up the way it is now with huge troughs across it which will presumably mean it will have to be rolled flat again or something later. I don't think they need to plan for snow or something that grossly improbable (we don't even get that in winter in England anymore these days), but they will surely need a better plan for locked in high rainfall over a short period of time during or just before the festival now in the future because that now is the future whether we choose to realise it or not. I assume it would form part of a safety contingency plan really which would also contain plans for an evacuation should the river go 2 foot higher next time! Surely the entertainments / site license requirements would stipulate this?

That said, the drainage did indeed cope well despite the ponds and mud given the biblical rainfall experienced - seen worse at Glasto and Beautiful Days years ago.

 

They have grazing animals hence the no chippings, straw etc.

Give it 3/4 weeks, if we get sunshine, and the grass will grow back and it will be like we were never there.

[Nobody Interesting]

This just posted by Gail who runs the Tea Tent. They know more about what may have happens and what went on oin the background than any of us..............................

""

Firstly - hats off to DHP and the site crews for being so incredibly on it with contingency and safety so that the show could go on. The odds were last minute stacked against Bearded Theory going ahead this year due to the extreme weather - and when I say extreme I was there from Sunday, up every two hours through the night on Tuesday checking our structure, electrics, etc., boots and pockets getting full of water in seconds, feeling the sheer weight of it on my head..that rain was like nothing I’ve ever seen, and as for the River Trent..
I guarantee everything that could be done was. I know I’ve never worked so hard in a field in the 16 years I’ve been doing this.
I’m wincing at the personally affected moans about mud, rain and stuck vehicles, same as I do about 40C sunshine. We were lucky to have such a beautiful event to be part of and lots of us worked very f**king hard to make it so. Fire your disgruntlement for the mental weather we’re seeing at our inactive world governments, and our man made capitalist/consumerist want want want more more more me me me entitled thinking and lifestyles. This is a climate crisis right in our faces, and we are all accountable.
This doesn’t mean I wasn’t feeling for those with accessibility needs - I’ve done a very muddy Bearded Theory in a wheelchair and I know how hard it is, especially on a site that’s generally very accessible.

All of the love to the gorgeous SE crew - from the marquee and build and break, amazing sound, serving (including over 1600 slices of cake - our record!), merch, crew food, front of house and running around - we smashed it! Extra special thanks to those that went above and beyond in such challenging conditions. I appreciate you 

Huge thanks to all of the acts that played our stage - we might not be the biggest, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have some outstanding performances over the five days.
#allstagesmatter 
Due to the forecast for electrical storms on Sunday, and potentially having to temporarily close, I made the call to cancel two acts that weren’t already on site - apologies to Mark Thomas and Reiver’s Gallows and those who wanted to see them - and I moved stuff around so that evacuation would be easier and safer. We then shut for a couple of hours when the storm warning went to amber. Thankfully, it went around the site and not through it, but covering all bases felt like the safest thing to do, so that’s what we did.

By no means least, so many thank yous to every one of you who wandered into the lady garden and through the flaps to support the artists, dance, chill, laugh, engage, eat cake (we initially sold out on the Friday night - another record!), buy merch and stuff from our little shop - our total raised for MAP is now over £700 - and for all the beautiful comments and feedback.

Hot bath, takeaway and much sofa dossing for me before the mud cleaning and admin starts..then it’ll soon be time to start planning next year. See you there? ""

[Pinhead]

50 minutes ago, Nobody Interesting said:

 

They have grazing animals hence the no chippings, straw etc.

Give it 3/4 weeks, if we get sunshine, and the grass will grow back and it will be like we were never there.

So does Eavis and he uses both...