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

[listenstolotsofcrap]

The Good: First time at the festival, thought it was lovely and a very fun time! Was working at the Crow's Nest (when the Wi-Fi wasn't down) and everyone was great to work with.
Showers in the staff campsite, sorted me out so much when hungover and tired.

Best acts: King Gizzard, The Murder Capital, Donna Thompson, Moin, Bar Italia.

The Bad: Okay I know there's a lot of complaining about toilets so I'll be brief. Compost toilets are good, they're more than fine but... lighting would help, increased cleaning and people actually using them properly. I shouldn't have had to have a conversation with a bloke that compost was for covering his business and not washing his hands with haha.

In terms of acts: Caroline didn't get started at all for me and I think Overmono are getting poorer each time I see them but was still alright, not bad per sey.

Wi-Fi issues at the bars and food. Lost about 2+ hours of my first shift, not that i'm complaining really but seems to be a recurring problem from what I was told and can't be good for business or for those who didn't pack lots of booze.

The Ugly: Nothing! Lovely place, excited to go again as either a punter or working.

[GlitterTea]

 

21 hours ago, Yoss said:

I'm on the lookout for something to do in addition to EotR. Ideally much earlier in the season to bookend the summer.
(Wondered about Bearded Theory but I dunno.)

Bearded Theory is my local festival so got a soft spot for it really. 

It was taken over by a promotion company last year I think and there were a lot of grumbles about changes but overall people seemed happy and dhp run some quality venues so I'm personally not mad about that to be honest. 

The general vibe is a lot more nostalgia leaning than eotr but it's enjoyable and the maui waui and convoy cabaret stages usually have some more interesting acts on. 

Edited September 6, 2023 by GlitterTea

[Mardy]

yeah, I was thinking that about the wifi - they lost over 2 hours worth of bar takings in the main bar onsite on a lunchtime/early afternoon in good weather; I'd imagine into the 10,000s in lost takings. Surely the cost of sorting the IT infrastructure out can't be that much.

[The Nal]

3 minutes ago, Mardy said:

yeah, I was thinking that about the wifi - they lost over 2 hours worth of bar takings in the main bar onsite on a lunchtime/early afternoon in good weather; I'd imagine into the 10,000s in lost takings. Surely the cost of sorting the IT infrastructure out can't be that much.

Astonishing really. 5 bars I think with about 25 POS end points in total.

I spoke to the guys in Third Man records. They were working off a bog standard TP Link extender. Something you'd get in Currys for 20 quid so if thats what the bars are working off theres always going to be issues. 

[robith]

19 minutes ago, Mardy said:

yeah, I was thinking that about the wifi - they lost over 2 hours worth of bar takings in the main bar onsite on a lunchtime/early afternoon in good weather; I'd imagine into the 10,000s in lost takings. Surely the cost of sorting the IT infrastructure out can't be that much.

Three years running there's been a sustained period of outage where the bars can't take orders, with this year's being the longest and most awkwardly time (in hindsight last year, the bar in the folly being unable to take orders at midday on Sunday was probably for the best). It's basic, and known and contributes to my nagging feeling that the fest is fraying a bit under financial pressure because so much of what they do is so slick, but then they keep ignoring the bar wifi???

[The Nal]

9 minutes ago, robith said:

Three years running there's been a sustained period of outage where the bars can't take orders, with this year's being the longest and most awkwardly time (in hindsight last year, the bar in the folly being unable to take orders at midday on Sunday was probably for the best). It's basic, and known and contributes to my nagging feeling that the fest is fraying a bit under financial pressure because so much of what they do is so slick, but then they keep ignoring the bar wifi???

Which only costs a couple of hundred quid to sort out properly. Don't think its anything to do with money. Just poor planning. You could run one of the bars off a hot spot on your phone (if there was signal) but thats how little data a till uses. 

The problems start when you have a cobbled together mish mash of a set up which they apparently do. 

[robith]

2 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Which only costs a couple of hundred quid to sort out properly. Don't think its anything to do with money. Just poor planning. You could run one of the bars off a hot spot on your phone (if there was signal) but thats how little data a till uses. 

The problems start when you have a cobbled together mish mash of a set up which they apparently do. 

I kept trying to log onto the bar wifi by using bait passwords - no success, but I did see the ice cream stand brought their own starlink haha

[Skip997]

6 minutes ago, The Nal said:

The problems start when you have a cobbled together mish mash of a set up which they apparently do. 

The problems start when you decide not to accept cash.

We're going down a dangerous road with this switch to digital currency, but as usual the majority don't seem to give a damn.

 

[The Nal]

 

2 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

The problems start when you decide not to accept cash.

We're going down a dangerous road with this switch to digital currency, but as usual the majority don't seem to give a damn.

 

Whats dangerous about it? Apart from not being able to get a pint for 2 hours.

[Skip997]

5 minutes ago, The Nal said:

 

Whats dangerous about it? Apart from not being able to get a pint for 2 hours.

Total government control of your money, full knowledge of: how much you spend, on what and where.

[Yoss]

I mean if you're gonna put the tin hat on then you probably at least want to know the difference between cashless payments and digital currency.

[GlitterTea]

The Good:

The atmosphere is just magical, the decor in the wooded area is just fantastic. Please someone else donate some good books to the woodland library though.

Panda Bear & Sonic Boom were a highlight for me, love the reset album so that was a joyful time.

Royel Otis were great and seemed genuinely chuffed to be there.

 

The Bad:

The decision to not take cash at the bars was not a great one in my opinion. 

 

The Ugly:

Sorry to say this again, but the toilets were bad.

I really am all for compost toilets, it's a positive move for sure but I've got to echo the requests for lighting, hooks, clear instructions for people who haven't used them before and more urinals.

My legs are too short to navigate any sort of hovering scenario so had to proceed a clean up operation every single time I needed to use the facilities. Frankly, I feel like I should have been paid for my services there.

Edited September 6, 2023 by GlitterTea

[Hooskerdoo]

9 hours ago, noisenoiseandmorenoise said:

My experience of Green Man is that those who come dressed in the bright shiny 'look at me' outfits are more likely to be the ones who barge their way through the crowd, talk loudly for 3 songs then go elsewhere.

The dull blokes in old band t-shirts however are there for to hear the music. So I'll take more of the latter thanks.

Very well put. Am I alone in thinking there was an increase in the former this year? 

[Yoss]

Dull bloke in old band t-shirt here.

Top ten sets (in chronological rather than any other order): Deerhoof, Fat Dog, Bodega, Yeule, Mabe Fratti, They Hate Change (though I only caught the end), The Courettes, Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul, Teke::Teke, Panic Shack.

[paulwa]

15 hours ago, Yoss said:

Dull bloke in old band t-shirt here.

Top ten sets (in chronological rather than any other order): Deerhoof, Fat Dog, Bodega, Yeule, Mabe Fratti, They Hate Change (though I only caught the end), The Courettes, Charlotte Adigery & Bolis Pupul, Teke::Teke, Panic Shack.

I literally saw one band off your list (The Courettes) and yet I bet we both had a brilliant time. I don't want to get all Marvel Metaverse here, but the different pathways and possible experiences always intrigues me.

And being a middle-aged bloke who didn't own a band t-shirt, I aimed to put that right once back at home. Two new t-shirts ordered: Ian Dury and Crass. Not very EOTR! 🤣

Edited September 7, 2023 by paulwa

[LowerMead]

On the bars/wifi issue, I've not got a particular dog in the fight on cash vs cashless society, but it just seems terribly bad business sense to turn away cash when the IT goes down. 

Tills don't work?  Go into contingency mode:  every pint is a fiver, every half £2.50.  The correct money appreciated.

They must have lost thousands at that bar at the Woods stage on Saturday afternoon. 

[Jeel]

EOTR 2024 hot fashion will be cargo shorts and t-shirts. Anyone not wearing them is suspicious and probably a landlord. 

[listenstolotsofcrap]

3 hours ago, LowerMead said:

On the bars/wifi issue, I've not got a particular dog in the fight on cash vs cashless society, but it just seems terribly bad business sense to turn away cash when the IT goes down. 

Tills don't work?  Go into contingency mode:  every pint is a fiver, every half £2.50.  The correct money appreciated.

They must have lost thousands at that bar at the Woods stage on Saturday afternoon. 

As someone working on that bar as a volunteer (all front facing bar staff were) I'm not sure if we'd be contractually allowed to handle cash if a wi-fi error occured as it did. I worked the same company at WOMAD and we had about 1-1.5 hrs out there too. It seems the issue might extend further beyond EOTR issues to also the systems used by different contracters.

[RedRockRick]

11 hours ago, Jeel said:

EOTR 2024 hot fashion will be cargo shorts and t-shirts. Anyone not wearing them is suspicious and probably a landlord. 

I like to think people have been following my lead since 2009. Also wore them out of principle in 2020 whilst watching the stream.

[staffop]

EOTR 23

 

Arrived as mizzle descended for my 14th EOTR - even in such dreich conditions all was lovely. However, the weather gods shone upon us from Friday and the sunshine was glorious

 

Stopped off at Emporium on way in to the music for merchandise - £28 for a t-shirt but they’d already sold out of many sizes!

 

Was worried prices would be similarly inflated throughout but was pleasantly surprised by bar and food costs overall

 

Managed to miss all the Thursday ents due to cider bus shenanigans but did see Wilco who were immense as usual

 

Unfortunately missed most of Last Waltz in Cinedrome (I blame the cider again) but  manage to catch much of Alien - still stands up so well. Tent was packed as little other stuff happening, but nice to see it so busy. The curation over the weekend was exemplary - I could have spent 3 days here if the music wasn’t also so good.

 

Awoke bleary eyed late am and headed in for the usual bacon sandwich from the lovely Tea Bus and a Bloody Mary from the airstream. The queue was too big so slummed it with a couple of tins (very good BTW) we’d brought and a cheeky g&t from the gin bus.

 

Saw a bit of Friendship, much of Royal Otis, and headed to Big Top for FatDog. Had seen them do the early hours set at GM which was excellent and they were on point again for this much earlier set. The tent was oppressive though due to heat/humidity (referenced by the local food vendor who said their food was hotter than the Big Top at OverMono) so listened to the majority outside, and headed to Garden for Horse Lords. Cacophonous but focussed they were excellent. Daniel Norgren followed (lovely) then Mary Wallopers. Narrowly avoiding the threat of a fall into a  Irish hokey/theme band they delivered a blistering set of funny and poignant folk punk, repeated again for the first secret set later that night.

 

Caught the end of Cass McCombs which was lovely, and hung around for Angel Olsen who was sublime

 

Gutted to have missed Part Chimp, we popped over to Talking Heads for Lou Sanders (such a lovely stage) and ended up in Folly for secret sets (Mary W and Bring your own Pet). Latter were serviceable but loved hanging out in the back /bar area. I found the sound in the Folly for the late night sets a bit muddy, though that have just been my mind generally

 

Didn’t love the fact  they removed the urinals however which seems unfair on everyone. Even by Friday, many seemed to be missing locks/seats/handles and the lack of lights was dumb. Do us all a favour next year and bring the pissoirs back, as well as the Green Man female squat urinals please. That said, the efestivals thread on the matter is very entertaining… EOTR stack cups would also be nice - so much easier to carry and less likely to topple in grass

 

Ended up outside cider bus with chips until everything closed, distracted by random conversations with passers by

 

Saturday, woke late as usual, headed to boat for Three Spoons - just lovely. The Boat was one of my favourite stages this year, beautifully curated and lovely to hang out. Over to Garden for beautiful doom folk from John Francis Flynn, stayed for all Avalanche Kaito (extraordinary), and the start of Caroline. They started late and were ponderous at best after they started. Lovely on record, it didn’t translate live. Many I met disagreed, but equally the crowd thinned out significantly as it progressed

 

Back to the Boat for The Courettes (fantastic) and then 75 Dollar Bill - transcendental. Luckily the former also did a later Secret Set which was possibly even better - maybe my find of the festival.

 

Didn’t fancy Future Islands (Vic Reeves singing New Order as it was memorably described) and thought Arooj Aftab might be too earnest. She was extraordinary though and held the crowd spell bound throughout

 

Secret sets were The Courettes and PVA. Although I’d ‘seen’ the former at the Boat (couldn’t get in the tent), I hadn’t appreciated their sound was from just 2 people - extraordinary. The singer crowd surfing on her back playing Duane Eddy licks was amazing. PVA delivered the last set of the night with some pulverising, tent shaking techno

 

Once more into the breach for the final foray Sunday am. Saw second half of Divorce which was great, a tiny bit of the ever charming Sweet Baboo and headed to Boat for Whitney K. Apart from providing welcome respite from the sun, the set was sublime. Strolled over for the Joan Shelley set next at the Garden - so beautiful - then pegged it over to Charley Crockett for maybe the set of the weekend and headed back to layer up for the final push. Heard a fair chunk of University from the van (sounded great) and back in for Caitlin. Always magical, love seeing her always. Allah La’s were nice enough albeit slightly samey, but the evening was all about Ezra really. How amazing was she? Had hoped she would do the last secret set (remember her covers set from years ago?!) but it was not to be. Saw NY old school hip-hop Infinity Knives (not bad) and the surprises turned out to be Hot Wax (no idea) and Personal Trainer. I’d heard positive things for the latter from those who had seen them the previous day and they didn’t disappoint - that said I was possibly too dishevelled to fully appreciate their intensity

 

Lovely to catch up with friends and spend the weekend with a young ‘un there for the first time - reminded me of when my children came a lifetime ago and how magical the Gardens and festival are. So nice to see it through the eyes of someone experiencing it for the first time. The Stick competition may be the best 3 day distraction for children (and thus parents) ever

 

Overall, just beautiful as ever. Early Birds are sorted, see you back next year

 

Food consumption:

Hippie Chippy x 3 - early hours staple, miss the curry sauce though

Bacon and Egg x2 - only way to start a day

Philly Steak Cheese x 1 - great, but soooooo much bread

Vietnamese Noodles - lush but tepid unfortunately

Smoking Joe burger - smash burgers rule

Crispy duck - spring rolls, noodles, loaded fries - worked our way through the menu. Best concession by far

Cheese and Ham Toastie - meh

 

Highlights

Ezra

Charlie Crockett

Courettes

Joan Shelley

Avalanche Kaito

Mary Wallopers

Horse Lords

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Nal]

Oh yeah they Hippy Chippy were back to their best this year

[SighMo]

On 9/7/2023 at 12:54 PM, Jeel said:

EOTR 2024 hot fashion will be cargo shorts and t-shirts. Anyone not wearing them is suspicious and probably a landlord. 

Cargo shorts yeah, but I manage much better in the heat with a scruffy loose shirt which I can undo and waft around a bit 🤣

[robith]

Realised I never actually did this

The Good

It's End of the Road. Its charm, especially with the weather is undiminished. The site deffo felt less tatty than 2022. Angel Olsen and Ezra two very special headline sets in the Garden which I'd never experienced before.

The musical variety and diversity continues to increase without ever feeling incongruent - watching Overmono and Infinity Knives and they all felt like they were at the right place

Beers- the campfire bar was much improved, staff in there were lightening fast and had a great selection of beers. No lageritas though!

First time in a campervan, loved it. We arrived Friday so it was a little bit of a trek but would be hard pressed to do it normally now.

Music wise, I loved Be Your Own Pet, The Mary Wallopers, Overmono, Elkka, Angel, Ezra, MADMADMAD (so early though), Geese, Alogte Oho and Biig Piig.

Overmono in the tent, went off

Absolutely out of our tree walking into the cinema stage and seeing without context the end of the Wild Bunch was possibly the highlight of the weekend. My mate meekly repeating "....but why did all those people have to die?"

Asking anyone I saw in a Luton shirt if they knew what the West Ham score was, when I in fact already knew the score

Food, especially the rendang stand. Never a queue, always slaps.

As a fourth wave coffee snob, I love how much effort is extended on there being good coffee

I actually rated the compost loos, even though if you got a cup of wood everyone knew you were going for a tip out

A friendlier UK festival crowd you will not find, some annoying old people aside

The Mid

No two ways about it, I love what they're doing but the line up was underpowered. Saturday was a lot of wandering around for me. Luckily it's a nice place to do it, but I'm tempted to wait a bit for this year

Sound on Woods was seriously underpowered imo

Wet Leg sounded absolutely dreadful. Left after 3 songs and one of them was saying they were ill, so fair enough, but that doesn't explain why the guitar sounded so bad. Fair play to the fest though, that was a legit coup.

Future Islands. Man alive that was dreary. Only endured it cos I didn't want to ruin Arooj for people who really wanted to see her due to the state we were in

Couldn't get in to Panda Bear 😞

Potato stand selling me hash browns knowing their fryer was done and they weren't going to be able to serve food for like 30 minutes, frauds

Wasps. Rat bastards of the insect world.

3 festivals running the tills have gone down. This was the worst yet. Honestly, it's just a cheque

A Weird Aside

There is a strange tension at EOTR that the crowd is so nice, it sometimes leaves the performance a bit underwhelming? I wouldn't want it to lose its charm, but at the same time I'd like it if the crowd...lost themselves a bit? Every now and then? Maybe why I loved Overmono so much, the one time people in the crowd were going for it

The Future

It remains a tremendous festival, I always have a great time, but I remain a bit concerned about its future re strength of line up and Green Man's continued acceleration, it's become the poor cousin. I love what they're doing with programming but the mid card was really underwhelming this year combined with uninspiring main stage headliners. I'll probably go again next year, but tempted to hold back until the line up to see the possibility of going on the cheap

[robith]

Also good - going back to the merch stand to find they had the shirt I wanted, last one left, in my size with £3 knocked off cos it had a bit of dirt on the collar (came off in the wash). What a touch