2023 - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...

[carwynnen]

Ok, full disclosure: 2023 is the first EOTR I wasn't at since 2011 (Mogwai, M. Ward, etc?) - and I missed it terribly.

Roll on 24, but living vicariously and hugely invested, what and who were great, and what and who were not?

[benali]

Good: Saturday. An astonishing run of wildly different acts. All of Mabe Fratti, Avalanche Kaito, They Hate Change and Moin were up there with the best of the festival and they all came in a row. The best day I've had at a festival.

Special mentions also to Kara Jackson, Arooj Aftab, Crack Cloud, Wilco, Deerhoof and Joan Shelley.

The bad: Nothing was bad but I was very indifferent to Bar Italia. Some good songs but not a great band. Settling up in the rain on Thursday was vaguely miserable but all forgotten very quickly.

Ugly: Wasps were a bit of a pest. Southampton's 5-0 hammering on Saturday during that great run of acts wasn't great and the look of horror on some chaps face who was wearing their shirt when I told him the score was only offset by the hilarity which ensued as his mates took the piss.

[zahidf]

Good: music was generally good! Really enjoyed yeule, wilco, last dinner party, ezra, angel oslen, Charlotte adgiry

Bad: the Internet going down (again) on the Thursday closing half the bars

 

The ugly: the tents were way too hot on the Sunday. The toilets ( see other thread)

 

Generally had a great time. Will go again next year but I hope they add a lot more urinals.

[Stillill42]

First timer here and I fecking loved it!! What a spectacular site! Garden stage is stunning but I liked Talking Heads just as much. Caught Miki Berenyi doing her book chat there Saturday morning, Sam Burton did a beautiful set there Sunday evening, H.Hawkline also lovely there. Arooj pretty magical on the Garden stage, loved Scott Lavene in the folly, Geese chaotic but great in the Big Top, Lee Fields for the feel good factor in the sun, Personal Trainer great both times, Angel fantastic Friday night and OF COURSE Wilco majestic. I'm leaving a shed load of great stuff off that list, too many to mention. I hope you veterans appreciate what you have here. I loved how much the acts were part of the festival, loads of them wandering around, watching other acts etc, talked to Sam Burton, MF Tomlinson, one of the Personal Trainer guys, the Courettes drummer. It's really cool, that notion that we're all part of it, no stars, no big egos. Lovely vibe around the place, had loads of lovely little interactions, people were sound.

I also really loved the dact that every act had a sizeable crowd and that every crowd was respectful and warm and appreciative. Also that I hardly saw a phone up at a gig all weekend. 

No negatives apart from maybe the much maligned loos and the fact that I didn't find a beer that I really loved. The Laser juice was grand but I should have done a bit of homework on the other stuff.

Tldr, ye have an outstanding festival on your hands there lads. 

[sadimmock]

Another first timer here who had a great time. The good: general diversity of music, the beautiful site and lovely crowd. For me musical highlights were Angel Olsen, Sweet Baboo and The Last Dinner Party. I also really enjoyed Wilco, Sylvie and King Gizz. The variety of food and booze was also a significant step-up from other festivals we had been to this year 

The bad: not much really. The much discussed bogs were pretty awful and the heat did stop us from getting around as much as we wanted to (didn't wander too far or venture into the tents much on Sunday. 

All in all I'm really glad that we went and will look out for next year! 

 

Edited September 4, 2023 by sadimmock

[Hooskerdoo]

Good: Deerhoof, Scott Lavene, Bodega, the decision to put Bodega on the main stage, Crack Cloud, Courettes, Ulrka Spacek, Part Chimp, High Vis, King Gizz. The showers, loads better. The sun, when it turned up. Better late than never.

Bad: Future Islands. God, it was awful, hee-hawing and belching his way through it like some old p*sshead at a karaoke night. I was waiting to meet someone, before you ask. I left as soon as I could.

Ugly: the toilets. They were foul. I suspect they will be there to stay though. 

Otherwise, the question of whether UMO were big enough to headline was comprehensively answered. The sparsest crowd I have ever seen for a headliner. Out of curiosity, I walked straight to the barrier during the second song. The bit I saw was pretty boring as well. Meanwhile, both the Garden and Folly were rammed. 

Wet Leg? Not my thing, but fair play, it was a good booking. The back story was nice as well. Also meant I could go and enjoy Crack Cloud without FOMO.

I don't like the Big Top. It's just not a nice place to see bands, which is a shame because there was loads of stuff I was excited to see. Oppressive, claustrophobic and sweltering when it's hot. I don't know what can be done about it though.

I had a good weekend. I still think the lineup as a whole was weak. Not sure about early bird, for the first time. Not long to think about it though, on sale tomorrow.

[Hooskerdoo]

Oh, and this is what a sold out camper van field looks like, if you were wondering. Taken Sunday morning.

[KevRP]

The Good,

Future Islands were simply fantastic, they never fail to disappoint - Samuel Herring was at the very top of his game and displayed his unique, unequalled stagecraft. 

Cass Mccombs, Wilco, CVC, The Courettes and Say She She were great.

MadMadMad and Scott Lavene were outstanding. 

However, the set of the weekend was Bridget Call Me Baby. Their lead looks like James Dean and sounds like Morrisey/Elvis, a star in the making. An outstanding performance which blew us away. 

The bad

The prices were above other festivals we've been to this year 

Ugly 

Toilets for wonderwife 

Overall, a fantastic festival with simply the best music of all. 

[Bee bird]

Good: Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul put on an absolutely stunning show which was my favourite set of the festival; Fatoumata Diawara; Deliluh; The Anchoress; Personal Trainer; Ezra Furman (My Zero and cover of Gloria particularly); Deerhoof; Enys Men live score; Open Sesame kebabs!

Bad: I felt very sorry for The Anchoress being unlucky enough to clash with Wet Leg as she was great. Also Saturday evening being so jam-packed between 8-10pm that I missed Crack Cloud, Lime Garden and most of H Hawkline.

I really enjoyed UMO's set but the crowd was sparse and there was so much talking which did spoil it. Things improved when the volume was turned up midway through.

Boat stage still not quite working with a big crowd

Being too shattered to make it to the secret sets on Sunday night

The ugly: Ezra going on indefinite hiatus and of course the toilets 

[athene]

I hadn't been since 2007 so a lot had changed! It still feels 'small' and charming though, loved that there were so many shady spots to escape the sun. The Talking Heads stage is stunning. Really lovely friendly atmosphere, and a great range of ages. I was there with my teenager and we both felt at home. My teen also remarked (approvingly) on how few people were filming on their phones. In general I though the lack of signal was brilliant - really helps to be in the moment and enjoy. 

Good: Kokoko! were off the charts - one of the best things I've ever seen live. What a show! Also really enjoed Alogte Oho and his Sounds of Joy. Divorce were terrific opening the main stage on Sunday - great energy and quirky songs. Saw the first two songs of Wet Leg and thought they were suprisingly great. Then left to see Runnner in the Folly who were excellent. 

Really enjoyed Rob Auton's set on the comedy stage. Superb fit for the festival. 

Wake Up Singing was really fun and brought a lovely crowd of people together. 

Family camping was so enjoyable - really spacious and a lovely atmosphere. I didn't enjoy the toilets but I appreciate why they were chosen. Maybe there is a way of dealing with some of the accessibility issues for next year. 

Food choices were good and most had some cheaper options. Most of the main meals were plenty for 2 people. 

Bad: A small quibble but it would be great to have a full and up to date listing for Talking Heads on the boards. I missed a talk I wanted to see because the programme was wrong. It's also difficult to keep track of the line up changes for the day time comedy. 

For my taste, I'd like to see more upbeat music in the line up. Maybe I'm just at the wrong festival, but a lot of the bands felt quite underwhelming to me. Really appreciated the efforts to book a diverse line up, and would like to see the festival go more in this direction, with more world music. 

Ugly: nothing, it was a beautiful weekend! 

 

[Llamasausage]

Best EOTR we've done hands down. Not sure if I've still got the festival buzz or not, but I think Kokoko -> Angel Olsen -> Panda Bear / Sonic Boom was the best festival night I've ever had. Left a bit of mind in at that sonic boom set. If you see it, please return.

Everyone I saw was good, most I saw were very very very good.

Unexpected random good finds: Sweet Baboo, They Hate Change, Allah-Las.  Master Peace even though I went to the wrong place wanting to see Sculpture 🙂

Wet leg worked for me. I'm into Gizzard so obvs that was amazing.

 

I even thought I finally 'got' future islands, but I tell you that deep gutteral bits he does are well odd.

So, wet leg and future islands, makes me a c**t then 🙂

Food was tip top. Rendang me up. Those smoking Joe's burgers. The pizza place. The ice cream by the garden, and their ice coffee. Glad they got shot of metro land, this year's selection was better.

I have to say that my experience was greatly improved by not drinking myself stupid until much later on in the day, which was a bit of a revelation. As was taking a festival shower for the first time in 30+ years of going to them. It was most pleasant. Why didn't anyone tell me?

Toilets? Maybe could be better, but I thought better than last year tbh. Wasps don't bother me but I get if you're allergic or something.

[killyourtv]

11th EOTR (though last year was just a Thurs and Sun night due to family drama) and I still got teary leaving this morning in that beautiful sunrise. Glad to read first-timers.

Took Mrs KYTV and 24 year old lad again and we pretty much ended up in the same places though he inexplicably left Heloise Werner early to catch the start of King Giz !

 

HIGHS

The site; never bore of gardens, the art, peacocks, the quirkiness. I let the lad beat me at marbles.

All the music was (at worst) enjoyable, and the variety was astonishing; Joan Shelley to Divide and Dissolve to Alogte Oho for instance.

Macie Stewart (with the sax)on Friday in the Boat was an all-time top 5 EOTR set, also love Alogte and Kokoroko, and the guitarist with Sam Burton was astonishing. Caroline's cover of Low's "Nothing but heart" was very moving.

Sound quality was great throughout; the Garden in particular was better than I remember.

Food was good quality (though I miss Bhatti Wraps) and decent value; we paid far more off the site at the Museum pub in Farnham we always walk to. The 8% Verdant on the craft beer bar was the beery highlight.

Enjoyed a couple of films, All the Beauty and Bloodshed and Five Easy Pieces, for the first time. Quite a lot of noise bleed from the Boat so nice they put subtitles on.

Only heard an hour of comedy on the Sunday but laughed a lot at the Shed W****r.

 

LOWS

I'd listened to music by all the artists in August and thought there was the usual great spread of styles, but perhaps a few less real discoveries than, say, 2021.  My lad thought the headliners very weak compared to Green Man, perhaps an unfair comparison (but look at EOTR 2015 for contrast).

Yes, the garden is treated as a picnic site where you chat to your mates, and even at the front there's too much talking, but audiences were immaculate by and large in the Folly, Boat and Talking Heads.

The toilets. Terrifying at first, once I learned to not look down I thought they were OK, but as one lady noted in the Folly "It's an easier ride for the guys", and that's fair.

 

Thanks to all you lot for being so nice and maintaining EOTR's low dickhead quotient.

 

[gregory]

2 hours ago, Hooskerdoo said:

Bad: Future Islands. God, it was awful, hee-hawing and belching his way through it like some old p*sshead at a karaoke night. I was waiting to meet someone, before you ask. I left as soon as I could.

 

[Llamasausage]

Buying tickets tomorrow 

[Llamasausage]

Oh yes. Biggest drama: the peahen that ran her peateans through the garden at dusk last night, got freaked, then flew away and left them! It even made me want to call the kids! Omg nature! 

[PassingCloud]

First time. 
 

Good: nice size for a few days, and lovely to be able to pop back to tent easily. So much room in the campsites too. 
Good spread of decent music. 
Sound was good on all stages. 
Great alcohol choices, loved the craft ale bar (didn’t find it until Saturday, I think). 
Very friendly atmosphere. 
Trolley hire is excellent idea. Cost me £6 to save myself 2x back breaking trips. 
Farmers Market coffee is amazing and barely ever a queue, god knows why everyone is queueing at the other one. 
Taking your own booze around the site.  
 

Bad: by Sunday I was feeling a bit bored of the site. Certainly couldn’t be a day longer. They need a bit more stuff for slightly older children in the 10-15 age range. 
Though very nice, food was pricey and the £3 per helter skelter slide was a con. Make that stuff free. As is the £15 programme fee. I thought a lot of the stalls were selling  massively expensive wares too. £70 for a cycling shirt 😳

Though I like it’s friendliness, it’s overall a bit tame (ie not so much wild behaviour). Not a fan of moaning about things being white and middle-class, but it’s quite that. 
Needs a load more urinals, including female. But toilets weren’t that bad. 
 

Ugly: Wasps! Piano stage piano is f**king awful, bring in a decent in-tune one! 
Though not a fan of people constantly yakking through performances, it’s a festival so it’s to be expected somewhat and so I find the ‘shushhers’, of which there  were quite a few, even more irritating. 
‘Bacon’ stall saying they can’t adjust the order — my son asked for no sour cream and they refused to change it despite them bringing it out and covering it in SC as the very last act! 😆 boycotted them. 
Power outage ruining Panic Shack set. 
 

Definitely grew on me and I would go back. 
 

 

[Fareham Grecian]

10 hours ago, KevRP said:

The Good,

Future Islands were simply fantastic, they never fail to disappoint 

I suspect this is not what you meant to say - though I am more on the Hooskerdoo side in this debate

[Ortiz34]

Another fantastic weekend. In no particular order the highlights for me were:

Ezra Furman, Gretel Hanlyn, Lee Fields, Say she she, John Francis Flynn, Angel Olsen. Everyone else I saw were good apart from Bar Italia who I had been looking forward too but just didn’t have it on the day and Cass Mccombs who noodled away with some pretty tunes but was very one note.

As ever talking heads was well curated and enjoyed all 6 author discussions I heard. Food wonderful and beer  choice excellent.

weak points were showers going down on Friday morning in general camping but after that very good and as others have mentioned the Garden being overrun with chairs and blankets particularly on Sunday. Toilets were fine for me but more urinals would make sense.

can’t wait for next year.

[paulwa]

I went through the usual phases of initial disappointment at the first announcement of acts, followed by some hope based on Simon et al always just getting the template right. And so it came to be again. A lack of big names, but probably the strongest overall bill, with great quality across many genres from start to finish. Special highlights were High Vis, Angel Olsen, H. Hawkline, Jon McKiel, Adwaith, Scott Lavene, The Courettes, KGLW.

[KevRP]

1 hour ago, Fareham Grecian said:

I suspect this is not what you meant to say - though I am more on the Hooskerdoo side in this debate

Indeed not, typed at the end of an over indulging fantastic festival with the foggy headed blues!

I've been on-board with Future Islands for a long time and enjoyed watching their progress. I totally agree with the 'Loud and Quiet' review X'd by #EOTR:

"The key to that lies in the irresistible magnetism of Samuel T Herring, who surely must be the most captivating frontman currently operating" 

The atmosphere down at the front was absolutely incredible.

One person's trash is another person's treasure. 

The beauty of the #EOTR festival can be seen on this forum page. So many people at the same event enjoying such a wide range of totally different fantastic music. 

[The Nal]

1 hour ago, Ortiz34 said:

Lee Fields

Lee Fields asking blokes in the crowd "does this lady belong to you?" split the crowd!

[Chip Batch]

The good - Scott Lavene (amazing!), Wet Leg, King Gizzard, Yeuele, The Murder Capital, Personal Trainer, Bodega. The kebab place's chicken loaded fries, made in dough, £6 bhajis, sitting at the back of the garden stage in the shade on Sunday afternoon. The weather from what was predicted in the week before. The bar, benches and toilets through the Folly

The bad - Panic Shack power cuts, lack of urinals, I saw some nice stuff but not much pull in the headliners and 'bigger' acts for me this year - will probably wait for the line-up and Twickets next year. 

 

 

[jplewes]

The good:
Pretty much everything we saw! My favourites were Panda Bear & Sonic Boom, Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals and Angel Olsen. The Angel to Panda Bear run was so awesome.

Catching Samia on piano stage was a highlight for me, just happened to walk past a few mins before. 

Wet Leg aren't usually my cup of tea but it was a great (and big) booking and I enjoyed it. I also thought the headline situation suddenly made more sense if might have wanted Wet Leg/Angel Olsen as two headliners.

I've not done signings before at EOTR, but Future Islands did make my wife's weekend for being so absolutely lovely (and to be honest mine)! We both loved their set too and it was great being down the front for it.

Finally the likes of Personal Trainer, bit I caught of Big Piig, They Hate Change... who all helped bring me to life when energy was sapping.

Also the showers in boutique camping - they were great. Pressure, warm, space with a little cubicle and queue wasn't too bad/went quickly. Way better than last year. Also everyone was super friendly in the cafe in boutique and so every day just started on a lovely note.

Bad:
Echo the wasp chat. Seemed to be everywhere! 

Minor gripe as it's loads better than other places, but who is going 15-20 rows from the front of a Wilco show and talking through the entirety of Jesus etc, and getting a good spot for Angel Olsen then chatting through Sister? Thankfully isolated as such a vast proportion of people at the festival love their music and aren't that obnoxious, and yes you can stand somewhere else... just seemed a bit ridiculous. 

The Big Top was a million degrees at points - was very excited for Geese but was tough in there and the lead singer said as much! Think it needed some air blowing in or something IDK what the thing to do is but I don't remember it being quite so bad before!

The ugly:
Nothing. The ugliest thing is that I'm not sure I can go next year as may not be in the UK. 

I thought it was my favourite EOTR of the three I've been to, even if the lineup was initially not my favourite and I didn't have as long a list of key bands to see. It really is the absolute best.

Edited September 5, 2023 by jplewes

[killyourtv]

45 minutes ago, KevRP said:

Indeed not, typed at the end of an over indulging fantastic festival with the foggy headed blues!

I've been on-board with Future Islands for a long time and enjoyed watching their progress. I totally agree with the 'Loud and Quiet' review X'd by #EOTR:

"The key to that lies in the irresistible magnetism of Samuel T Herring, who surely must be the most captivating frontman currently operating" 

The atmosphere down at the front was absolutely incredible.

One person's trash is another person's treasure. 

The beauty of the #EOTR festival can be seen on this forum page. So many people at the same event enjoying such a wide range of totally different fantastic music. 

"The beauty of the #EOTR festival, so many people at the same event enjoying such a wide range of totally different fantastic music." is spot on. Every year I never seem to have seen ANY of the acts other people most enjoyed, or the ones the national papers rave about this morning.

[Yokel Again]

Didn't go this year - but always love reading this thread. Undecided about next year (depends on £) but I do love this festival.