Changes from 2023>2024

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

First off, overall, I thought this year's festival was brilliantly planned out. Big acts on the big stages, packed Secret Sets despite not having the WOW factor of yore, the great Churn Ups ruse, wonderful additions to the site like the Levels, the solid DJ line-up, no flood of complaints RE overcrowding or worrying pinch-points after the festival, an attempt at creating a new and exciting area for Woodsies...

BUT... there will be changes made inevitably. Any ideas? This isn't intended as a dumping ground for oft-repeated complaints, e.g. having less people on site, or gripes about the removal of the William's Green tent, more as a place for constructive thoughts on how to improve on what's already on offer.

Here's my two-cents anyhoo:

- I think Woodsies will be expanded and things added to become a bigger rival to the Park.

- How successful was CarHenge? Perhaps a bigger stage there or perhaps an actual line-up designed specifically for that area.

- More veggies offerings and a clearer effort to advertise the 'Food for a 5ver' initiative.

- It's a bit late now, but I read an idea for adding your top 3 departure locations to tickets so you can only buy coach tickets from those places in the sale in an effort to stop people travelling pre-fest to places hundreds of miles away from where they live just to secure a ticket.

- Ramping up the number of coaches on offer in general.

- Bringing back the pathway from the coaches through Pylon to the western camping areas. Felt like it was a major disadvantage for people who had taken the time out to reduce their carbon footprint.

- More hard rock/metal on offer than just what's on the Truth Stage on a Thursday night.

If a thread is already open like this, then please ignore!

What's everyone else thinking about for 2024? It's hard to improve on what is already the greatest, most magical festival on Earth, but tweaks, anyone?

[Ayrshire Chris]

6 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

It's a bit late now, but I read an idea for adding your top 3 departure locations to tickets so you can only buy coach tickets from those places in the sale in an effort to stop people travelling pre-fest to places hundreds of miles away from where they live just to secure a ticket.

Never travelled by coach but I can understand that when you hear folk travelling long distances to get a coach. Perhaps a coach swap system setup after the sale allowing folk to exchange departure points? 

[Crazyfool01]

Arcadia very likely to get a revamp , Think they will stick with carhenge as it is ...... whatever was / is missing from the Williams green might go elsewhere ? western side of site id like them to change that vast camping hospitality area outside woodsies but don't actually see it happening because that's the route they seem to be taking now , more hospitality and more pre erected .... would think silver Hayes will continue to improve maybe another new stage 

[Ayrshire Chris]

29 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Arcadia very likely to get a revamp , Think they will stick with carhenge as it is ...... whatever was / is missing from the Williams green might go elsewhere ? western side of site id like them to change that vast camping hospitality area outside woodsies but don't actually see it happening because that's the route they seem to be taking now , more hospitality and more pre erected .... would think silver Hayes will continue to improve maybe another new stage 

We had a wee look into that hospitality area and you are correct, it is vast. Partially hidden by its own fence on the walkway from Woodsies to gate A .  Wouldn’t like to see more tickets go to hospitality. We stayed in a b and b pre festival and a few of the other guests had hospitality tickets. They didn’t strike me as being too excited about the festival. (Unlike us who couldn’t fecking stop talking about it!)😉😊

[The Nal]

Assume Williams Green wasn't as busy Wednesday and Thursday this year?

[Jay Pee]

50 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

We had a wee look into that hospitality area and you are correct, it is vast. Partially hidden by its own fence on the walkway from Woodsies to gate A .  Wouldn’t like to see more tickets go to hospitality. We stayed in a b and b pre festival and a few of the other guests had hospitality tickets. They didn’t strike me as being too excited about the festival. (Unlike us who couldn’t fecking stop talking about it!)😉😊

Lol. I hear you. We had access to hospitality bars (not all of em) with staff bands and I nipped in the one near Woodsies for the odd pint.

Random in my mind but quite a lot of folk spending quite a lot of the time in there chatting sh*t whilst us normal folk are planning our next stage dash / clash and getting a quick mead 

[fraybentos1]

2 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

 

- I think Woodsies will be expanded and things added to become a bigger rival to the Park.

 

Is there room for this to happen? I agree it could do with a bit more- defo more food stalls , that cheese toastie place absolutely cleans up cause it has no competition particularly close.

[westholtschic]

They need to bring back the Thursday Silent Disco to spread the crowds around more.

[Nobody Interesting]

The one change we would like to see for 2024 that was not there in 2023..................................

 

US

[bob323]

the whole SE corner needs a revamp or big chunks moved over to Arcadia/ Silver Hays

allowing other places to stay op[en past 3am, with maybe some retrictions - not just SE area. This would reduce the huge exodus to the SE area

deffo more variation in late night music - even Strummerville was playing techno/ DnB type music late night - wtf!!

expand woodies defo

[Bike_Like_A_Mum]

Would just like some more variety in music after dark.... same as everyone else really.

That and some more immersive wierd and wacky stuff like the old alley in Shangri-la. Boomtown has way overtaken the vibe at Glasto now. Make it eccentric again, it's too normal 🤣

[Drinky]

I’d like to see BBC Introducing reinvented. It doesn’t really serve the small acts who play there to compete with much bigger bands 5 mins walk away on at the same time. Instead of one medium sized tent running 12-8pm, maybe have them curate three venues (one in the Park, one in Woodsies, one in Silver Hayes?) with strict sound/capacity limits that run 9pm-3am. Don’t try and book anyone massive, no secret sets, but something late night and live, and chance for smaller artists to play to a few more people.

[ProperTea]

• Expand the capacity of the Other Stage by removing half of Oxylers. Rename it to 'Oxylers' stage and treat it as the second main stage: 6 headliner announcements across Pyramid and Oxylers and 6 headline acts on the poster

• Have a late night rejig - split Block 9, move The Common and expand Shangri-La: move the NYC Downlow and Genosys Sound System to where San Remo is currently, move The Common over to the field currently occupied by NYC Downlow and Genosys. Expand Shangri-La in to the field previously occupied by The Common. No new Shangri-La venues, just more spread out. 

• Reduce general admission by 10,000 and a introduce a new ticket type of 10,000 Friday-Sunday tickets at a reduced price. They could offset the loss by expanding Sticklinch and Worthy View capacity (as demand is clearly there).

• Repeaters at the back of the Pyramid (formerly Row Mead camping) and repeater screens like Download.

[Alvoram]

Wasn't there a post on here from somebody involved that said Car Henge was supposed to have a proper stage and lineup but they were running low on time? Or did I make that memory up? 

[Gingerfish79]

More Metal would be awesome, it’s always been a seriously under-represented genre at the festival of contemporary arts. The worlds best Metal bands are in circulation in the UK and Europe around the time of the festival so there is no real excuse. 

[The Nal]

5 minutes ago, Gingerfish79 said:

More Metal would be awesome, it’s always been a seriously under-represented genre at the festival of contemporary arts. The worlds best Metal bands are in circulation in the UK and Europe around the time of the festival so there is no real excuse. 

Theres no appetite for it. Metallica (who nailed it imo) and are the most well known metal band was fairly sparsely attended.

[gfa]

2 hours ago, ProperTea said:

• Expand the capacity of the Other Stage by removing half of Oxylers. Rename it to 'Oxylers' stage and treat it as the second main stage: 6 headliner announcements across Pyramid and Oxylers and 6 headline acts on the poster

• Have a late night rejig - split Block 9, move The Common and expand Shangri-La: move the NYC Downlow and Genosys Sound System to where San Remo is currently, move The Common over to the field currently occupied by NYC Downlow and Genosys. Expand Shangri-La in to the field previously occupied by The Common. No new Shangri-La venues, just more spread out. 

• Reduce general admission by 10,000 and a introduce a new ticket type of 10,000 Friday-Sunday tickets at a reduced price. They could offset the loss by expanding Sticklinch and Worthy View capacity (as demand is clearly there).

• Repeaters at the back of the Pyramid (formerly Row Mead camping) and repeater screens like Download.

• Would be interested on the results of a poll on this - the Reading 2 main stages is poorly received, i don't see the issue with the other stage currently - why detract from the pyramid anyway!
• I don't think they can move NYC and Genosys (which is set to be replaced hopefully) to San Remos spot without sacrificing the 6am curfew - also what are you doing with San Remo? Its great as it is!! If your going to move anything out of the SE corner it should not be these two venues - Downlow has to stay firmly in the SE corner lol. move the common instead perhaps - and to somewhere else! It would be far easier to relocate something near the SEC and just expand the SEC itself surely
• why? this would increase local disruption with more people coming in and out each day - you don't get the full experience without doing the whole thing either. Also this wouldn't lose them very much i don't think - just price at a 1/3, daytickets more likely to buy booze on site etc and buy meals vs cook etc. Not sure there is a huge demand for new WV and Sticklinch either - it sold out pretty slowly, there's some but not 1000s of new tents just yet

Edited August 28, 2023 by gfa

[William Mann]

Woodsies definitely needs more additions, it’s rather sparse but has potential! Arcadia is supposed to change a LOT next year, so that’ll be interesting to see. The pyramid stage needs far more screens and speakers too

[Crazyfool01]

44 minutes ago, William Mann said:

Arcadia is supposed to change a LOT next year, so that’ll be interesting to see

is that from what you've seen discussed on here ? it won't be the spider so is that a lot that you talk of ? 

[Drinky]

1 hour ago, gfa said:

 

• why? this would increase local disruption with more people coming in and out each day - you don't get the full experience without doing the whole thing either. Also this wouldn't lose them very much i don't think - just price at a 1/3, daytickets more likely to buy booze on site etc and buy meals vs cook etc. Not sure there is a huge demand for new WV and Sticklinch either - it sold out pretty slowly, there's some but not 1000s of new tents just yet

I think OP doesn’t mean day tickets but instead a ticket that’s only valid from 8am Friday, to discourage early arrival. Another way of getting to this would be to introduce a new pre-erected camp (maybe section off what was staff camping in Pylon and use that) and sell inclusive Thursday coach/camp tickets, where the coaches arrive from 5pm onwards. Takes away camp anxiety for late comers, adds some revenue, etc.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

20 hours ago, fraybentos1 said:

Is there room for this to happen? I agree it could do with a bit more- defo more food stalls , that cheese toastie place absolutely cleans up cause it has no competition particularly close.

If they rejigged the no access area and the hospitality areas a bit, there could be space to expand it into the actual field called Woodsies, albeit with a hedgerow cutting right through the area. I think it would be something that evolves over time. Each year, new things will be added or changed. But as ever, the hospitality needs to go somewhere, I guess.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

20 hours ago, westholtschic said:

They need to bring back the Thursday Silent Disco to spread the crowds around more.

I thought the crowds were quite well spread this year. Obviously, I wasn't all over site to witness this. The only thing that struck me as odd the whole time I was onsite was the decision to have Truth Stage and Now/Here stage ending within ten minutes of each other. The crowd surge from NW trying to get past TS was insane, and then shortly after that half the TS crowd tried to leave at the same time.

I'm all in for a silent disco though if they can find a place. Still don't know why they can't set it up in the Acoustic Tent - it's not likely to cause any extra noise on the Wed/Thurs night, is it?

[Crazyfool01]

8 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

But as ever, the hospitality needs to go somewhere, I guess.

Bristol ? 😉

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

3 hours ago, The Nal said:

Theres no appetite for it. Metallica (who nailed it imo) and are the most well known metal band was fairly sparsely attended.

Perhaps there's little appetite on the Pyramid during the day, but Nova Twins, the Hu, Skindred, GnR were all well-attended across other stages when I saw them. They're all too big not to be on the main stages though, but with Earache's Truth Stage takeover, for example, there could be a dedicated hard rock/metal stage the entire weekend and not affect anything too much. It wouldn't even have to be all day, just say in the 9pm-3pm window each night.

I didn't end up staying for Ho99o9 or Alt Blk Era to see if there were big crowds, but I think there's enough people interested in general.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

2 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Bristol ? 😉

Put them on barges on the Whitelake River! 😆