Bearded Theory 2024

[Nobody Interesting]

1 minute ago, Pinhead said:

So does Eavis and he uses both...

 

Not on all areas he doesn't but as he is the land owner that is his choice. The Catton Hall landowner chooses differently.

[Pinhead]

Just now, Nobody Interesting said:

 

Not on all areas he doesn't but as he is the land owner that is his choice. The Catton Hall landowner chooses differently.

Then they need to be frank with the land management and come to an agreement what can be done and where for next time because there will be one.

[Nobody Interesting]

7 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

Then they need to be frank with the land management and come to an agreement what can be done and where for next time because there will be one.

I am sure discussions will happen but if the land owner says no and there is no other home for the festival then the choice is do their best (as they did) or no more BT.

I know which version I prefer............................. and we really do need to remember that the rainfall record (on ground with record water table levels for late May) was not just broken it was smashed to tiny bits and nobody could ever have predicted that or planned for it.

[Pinhead]

I'm sure people did their best and no one wants to see the festival move or even end, but it's got to be held in a way that's safe and practical as it is still a business at the end of the day and it has customers who expect not to have to battle or even damage their vehicles getting in or out or compromise their own safety. If the estate wants their regular fee for the ground each year to continue to roll in I'm sure they'll come to a compromise. Records are gonna be smashed every year now for the rest of our lives - that's baked in - so events will need to adapt accordingly to survive.

[Kurosagi]

1 hour ago, Nobody Interesting said:

I made the call to cancel two acts that weren’t already on site - apologies to Mark Thomas

Thanks for posting that as I was wondering why he didn't turn up...now it makes sense. His tweet said about flooding when in actual fact it was to do with the thunderstorm weather warning. Still a lightweight, he could have performed on the busker space outside the Kids area 😉

 

It was interesting on Sunday evening watching the seriously dark skies ditching shed loads of rain in each direction other than the site.

[Pinhead]

Yeah I was watching it from my shift and thinking it could go either way. We were told to come down from fire towers in case we got taken out by lightning.

[balti-pie]

55 minutes ago, Kurosagi said:

 

It was interesting on Sunday evening watching the seriously dark skies ditching shed loads of rain in each direction other than the site

 

Just before Dinosaur Jr started, I looked behind me and there was an absolutely biblical slab of grey just floating, looking like it would lay waste to us all. The band must’ve had a magnificent view! The lightest of showers started . . . And then it just sort of drifted off and didn’t do what it looked all set to do. It was monolithic, kind of beautiful! 

Edited May 28, 2024 by balti-pie

[onemoresolo]

We were actually really lucky with the weather after what was forecast. Dodged some proper storms. Just a shame the extra rain landed on Saturday night.

[Pinhead]

41 minutes ago, balti-pie said:

Just before Dinosaur Jr started, I looked behind me and there was an absolutely biblical slab of grey just floating, looking like it would lay waste to us all. The band must’ve had a magnificent view! The lightest of showers started . . . And then it just sort of drifted off and didn’t do what it looked all set to do. It was monolithic, kind of beautiful! 

Yeah I remember looking at that and it just floated over with it suddenly becoming cold. The sun had lost its influence a bit by then so it didn't drop and instead produced a nice double rainbow as the sun set.

[Paul ™]

17 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. 

Signs in both directions have Pick Up/Drop Off and the Blue P on them, no idea why people missed it.. they were still out on the road yesterday.

 

Quote

This giant letter P on a blue background is the symbol that indicates an area of parking. When used on its own it is usually seen on rural areas to indicate a layby where vehicles can stop so drivers can rest.

 

[Paul ™]

11 hours ago, Lilywoo said:

The rainfall was nothing unusual for the area

Oh yeah 70mm in 24 hours is more than the monthly average for this area in May, and that is very unusual.

 

Maybe email the festival and pass on your knowledge and expertise on subject of land management.

 

info@beardedtheory.co.uk

[Paul ™]

1 hour ago, Paul ™ said:

Signs in both directions have Pick Up/Drop Off and the Blue P on them, no idea why people missed it.. they were still out on the road yesterday.

 

Just been out to check and there is 3 in each direction still there between the S bend at the Trent Live in Field entrance CV1 and the A513 junction, and one at the junction that comes down from Rosliston. 

 

 

[Nobody Interesting]

13 hours ago, Pinhead said:

I'm sure people did their best and no one wants to see the festival move or even end, but it's got to be held in a way that's safe and practical as it is still a business at the end of the day and it has customers who expect not to have to battle or even damage their vehicles getting in or out or compromise their own safety. If the estate wants their regular fee for the ground each year to continue to roll in I'm sure they'll come to a compromise. Records are gonna be smashed every year now for the rest of our lives - that's baked in - so events will need to adapt accordingly to survive.

 

I agree they need to apapt to survive but what levels of rainfall etc do they need to plan for?

In May the monthly average is around 67mm with 8 days rain in the month. From data I can find the previous record was around 35mm in a day. That will now be something like 73mm - but data only comes from weather stations so not exact when rainfall is localised.

Given the previous stats would anyone have planned for over twice the record rainfall and if so does that mean that for future they have to plan for 150mm in a day - cos at that level the whole thing will be cancelled.

It is an impossible situation with no right answer IMHO and 10 miles away on Sunday there was a storm that dropped 15mm in around 30 minutes. I hate to think what would have happened if that had hit the site.

[Nobody Interesting]

4 hours ago, Paul ™ said:

Oh yeah 70mm in 24 hours is more than the monthly average for this area in May, and that is very unusual.

 

Maybe email the festival and pass on your knowledge and expertise on subject of land management.

 

info@beardedtheory.co.uk

 

There do seem to be some who are 'making things up as they go along to fit their own narrative'.

There was nothing usual about the weather hence forecasters being baffled 48 hours out as they had nothing historic to base forecasts on.

I would expect that that posters level of 'fact' on the old FB group but in here it is unusual, but as the account seems new I take much with huge chunks of salt.

[Nobody Interesting]

12 hours ago, Kurosagi said:

Thanks for posting that as I was wondering why he didn't turn up...now it makes sense. His tweet said about flooding when in actual fact it was to do with the thunderstorm weather warning. Still a lightweight, he could have performed on the busker space outside the Kids area 😉

 

It was interesting on Sunday evening watching the seriously dark skies ditching shed loads of rain in each direction other than the site.

 

The site dodged several big bullets on Sunday.

[Tiesto13]

5 hours ago, Paul ™ said:

Signs in both directions have Pick Up/Drop Off and the Blue P on them, no idea why people missed it.. they were still out on the road yesterday.

 

 

 

I've been done by this before at a different festival. Not sure why, but having the mixture of writing 'Drop & Collect' and a blue P sign on the same sign made my brain completely discount the P sign and just read the first bit. Almost as if it was expecting to see 'Parking' written on the sign.  

[kerplunk]

41 minutes ago, Tiesto13 said:

 

I've been done by this before at a different festival. Not sure why, but having the mixture of writing 'Drop & Collect' and a blue P sign on the same sign made my brain completely discount the P sign and just read the first bit. Almost as if it was expecting to see 'Parking' written on the sign.  

 

Yeah exactly that - looking at the words not the symbol. I managed to drive past it too despite knowing the place well - thrown by the drop & collect wording

[gizmoman]

5 hours ago, Paul ™ said:

 

Just been out to check and there is 3 in each direction still there between the S bend at the Trent Live in Field entrance CV1 and the A513 junction, and one at the junction that comes down from Rosliston. 

 

 

Yep these are the confusing signs. The blue P above a sign saying Production suggests that is Production parking. A blue P on a sign saying Pick Up / Drop off suggests you can park for that reason. We need an explicit sign saying weekend camping so people know exactly where to go. 

[Paul ™]

Nothing confusing about them, same signage done by the AA that they use previous years and at many other events.

 

I suggest you just pay more attention to the ones that are out, most managed to find the place without an issue.

 

Having seperate signage out for different things pointing to the same entrances would be even more confusing, signage overload or street clutter. 

 

Also due to having 3 Car Park entrances, 3 Live In Vehicle entrances, along with the PUDO needing to be moved, that's way too many signs to get changed over quickly when traffic management changes are required. 

 

[gizmoman]

4 minutes ago, Paul ™ said:

Nothing confusing about them, same signage done by the AA that they use previous years and at many other events.

 

I suggest you just pay more attention to the ones that are out, most managed to find the place without an issue.

 

Having seperate signage out for different things pointing to the same entrances would be even more confusing, signage overload or street clutter. 

 

Also due to having 3 Car Park entrances, 3 Live In Vehicle entrances, along with the PUDO needing to be moved, that's way too many signs to get changed over quickly when traffic management changes are required. 

 

If regular festival goers are missing the entrance they are not clear enough. Blaming the punters isn't going to work. I knew where I was going so no issue for me others clearly were confused. 

 

[kerplunk]

2 minutes ago, Paul ™ said:

Nothing confusing about them, same signage done by the AA that they use previous years and at many other events.

 

I suggest you just pay more attention to the ones that are out, most managed to find the place without an issue.

 

Having seperate signage out for different things pointing to the same entrances would be even more confusing, signage overload or street clutter. 

 

Also due to having 3 Car Park entrances, 3 Live In Vehicle entrances, along with the PUDO needing to be moved, that's way too many signs to get changed over quickly when traffic management changes are required. 

 

 

Nothing confusing about them - but there it is.

 

For me it was just the final sign at the entrance to public parking that did it - I was expecting to see the words 'public parking' like the 'artist/crew parking' sign I'd just driven by

[Spuddhism]

1 minute ago, kerplunk said:

 

Nothing confusing about them - but there it is.

 

For me it was just the final sign at the entrance to public parking that did it - I was expecting to see the words 'public parking' like the 'artist/crew parking' sign I'd just driven by

Exactly this. It's the final sign by the entrance that matters, not the ones leading up to it.

 

For me, the P being positioned so close to the Pick Up / Drop Off wording made me assume it was Pick Up / Drop Off parking (in graphic design this is the 'proximity' principle of Gestalt design theory).

 

It only needed those few seconds of confusion, and by the time you process that it might be ambiguous, you are past the entrance. With traffic at your arse you can't brake suddenly to correct.

 

Fact is, we aren't thick as pig sh*t, that final sign could've been much clearer.

[Gnomicide]

Yeah, I pulled in OK but was aware that it was the usual entrance, I can see why it would be confusing. 

[ciderbus]

22 minutes ago, Gnomicide said:

Yeah, I pulled in OK but was aware that it was the usual entrance, I can see why it would be confusing. 

Same here. We go every year but I still stopped at the usual car park entrance to ask the steward if I was in the right place, and had to stop twice on the road for people doing U-turns.  
As @Spuddhismmentioned when raising this it’s definitely no biggy in the scheme of things and I appreciate the massive effort to get things in place for us to have a great weekend. There was definitely something catching people out here though.

[Spuddhism]

24 minutes ago, ciderbus said:

it’s definitely no biggy in the scheme of things

Thanks for reiterating this. It really wasn't as big an issue as the discourse implies; I only mentioned it for balance and intended it to be constructive. I had a cracking festival and thought the crew and punters were a delight to spend time with.