Electric Picnic 2013 *Discussion only. NO ticket sales/requests*

alastair

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

Yea, you didn't quote the last part of that sentence "EP is slowly losing it's charm. It's still good, but not what it was. Not everybody who's saying this can be wrong"

Well, they can be. Turn that around - can everyone saying that it's not going downhill be wrong?

I took a three year break from EP before this year, but went to the four before that. It's changed alright, and I thought it was changing for the worse back then - the loss of the independent alcohol sources (particularly the scrumpy from Pieminister), Chai Wallahs, Pussy Parlour, Thisispopbaby, Arcadia, etc. But to be honest this year was enjoyable despite missing all the stuff they used to have. B&S is better than it used to be, the Mindfield side of things is improved, and the outside-arena venues (salty dog, trenchtown, rave in the woods) are better than the previous options. The move to pull in the teenage punter, and have mainstream anchor acts is undeniable, but what do you expect when they lost money hand over fist with the previous formula?

Thundercats Ho

alastair wrote: »

Well, they can be. Turn that around - can everyone saying that it's not going downhill be wrong?

I took a three year break from EP before this year, but went to the four before that. It's changed alright, and I thought it was changing for the worse back then - the loss of the independent alcohol sources (particularly the scrumpy from Pieminister), Chai Wallahs, Pussy Parlour, Thisispopbaby, Arcadia, etc. But to be honest this year was enjoyable despite missing all the stuff they used to have. B&S is better than it used to be, the Mindfield side of things is improved, and the outside-arena venues (salty dog, trenchtown, rave in the woods) are better than the previous options. The move to pull in the teenage punter, and have mainstream anchor acts is undeniable, but what do you expect when they lost money hand over fist with the previous formula?

Exactly, and i've already said i enjoyed it, several times in fact.

If people think it was the best one ever (or still brilliant), then great and more power to them, i just don't agree (and that's allowed isn't it?), and they won't agree with me (and that's allowed too!)

If i say In my opinion It's not as good as it was, will that draw a line under it.

Catmologen

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

Yea, you didn't quote the last part of that sentence "EP is slowly losing it's charm. It's still good, but not what it was. Not everybody who's saying this can be wrong"

So it's losing it's charm because everyone else is saying so? If everyone else jumped off a cliff....

Thundercats Ho

Catmologen wrote: »

So it's losing it's charm because everyone else is saying so? If everyone else jumped off a cliff....

What cliff? When?
point makes no sense.

floyd333

I’m late with my 2 cents! Great weekend overall. The line-up wasn’t brilliant but there was some good up-and-coming acts. Highlights included: Sam Smith, Little Green Cars, Deap Valley, The Walkmen, Matthew E White, The Strypes, The Knife, Andrew Maxwell, Dylan Moran, the Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow. I also enjoyed the sessions with John Healy, Stuart Carolan/Aidan Gillen in the mind field area. I was gutted just to see the end of David Byrne but I had to see Dylan Moran. My absolute highlight was the Terri Hooley DJ set. That man is legend.

I would agree with a lot of what others said here. The security guys were sound and very professional. It’s nice not having a bunch of local hard men doing security. The age profile was a lot younger this year. I did see a lot of the drunken spoilt young girls (I sound like an old codger! ). I had a crutch with me and one of these idiot girls picked it up and tried to walk off with it in the campsite….. What a stupid thing to do.

I though the cut backs were obvious this year. More toilets were needed. The price of drink was ridiculous. €6 for a pint! I’d rather pay an extra 30 quid or so and be allowed to bring in my own drink. It was such a pain having to wait and get searched each time going into the arena.

I’d think hard about going back if they increase the capacity. I prefer the atmosphere and spirit of the Body and Soul/ midfield/ Trailer Park areas. I can see the festival morphing into more of a commercial oxegen type affair. I hope the original spirit of the picnic can be preserved. Time will tell ...

ghostdancer

for me, it wasn't about a younger crowd, or more "scumbags" or people there for a particular type of music or band. there was just a larger amount of arseholes this year. the type who just go to EP because it's the "done thing" and spend most of the day drinking in the campsite, hang around the Bacardi Bar for most of the evening, maybe see 1 or 2 main stage acts, then back to the campsite acting like gimps.

the festival itself cut back on the Friday music. there just seemed to be more tacky stuff in general all around the place. cutting back on general facilities like toilets and security checkers meant long queues. the fact that it was sold out and there were way more people didn't help matters. trying to screw people into buying programs (which would have been printed a week before the festival) yet not releasing the times like previous years was a dick-ish move too.

i can't think of anything this year that made it better than last year. i can think of several things that made it worse.

threein99

floyd333 wrote: »

I’m late with my 2 cents! Great weekend overall. The line-up wasn’t brilliant but there was some good up-and-coming acts. Highlights included: Sam Smith, Little Green Cars, Deap Valley, The Walkmen, Matthew E White, The Strypes, The Knife, ,Andrew Maxwell, Dylan Moran, the Jerry Fish Electric Sideshow. I also enjoyed the sessions with John Healy, Stuart Carolan/Aidan Gillen in the mind field area. I was gutted just to see the end of David Byrne but I had to see Dylan Moran. My absolute highlight was the Terri Hooley DJ set. That man is legend.

I would agree with a lot of what others said here. The security guys were sound and very professional. It’s nice not having a bunch of local hard men doing security. The age profile was a lot younger this year. I did see a lot of the drunken spoilt young girls (I sound like an old codger! ). I had a crutch with me and one of these idiot girls picked it up and tried to walk off with it in the campsite….. What a stupid thing to do.

I though the cut backs were obvious this year. More toilets were needed. The price of drink was ridiculous. €6 for a pint! I’d rather pay an extra 30 quid or so and be allowed to bring in my own drink. It was such a pain having to wait and get searched each time going into the arena.

I’d think hard about going back if they increase the capacity. I prefer the atmosphere and spirit of the Body and Soul/ midfield/ Trailer Park areas. I can see the festival morphing into more of a commercial oxegen type affair. I hope the original spirit of the picnic can be preserved. Time will tell ..

Seriously gutted I missed them, I was listening to their album the last couple of weeks.

floyd333

threein99 wrote: »

Seriously gutted I missed them, I was listening to their album the last couple of weeks.

Yep they were pretty good. They make quite a racket considering there are only 2 of them!

sadie06

ghostdancer wrote: »

the festival itself cut back on the Friday music. there just seemed to be more tacky stuff in general all around the place. cutting back on general facilities like toilets and security checkers meant long queues. the fact that it was sold out and there were way more people didn't help matters. trying to screw people into buying programs (which would have been printed a week before the festival) yet not releasing the times like previous years was a dick-ish move too.

i can't think of anything this year that made it better than last year. i can think of several things that made it worse.

Unfortunately for us, they sold out of those things, which means they'll probably do the exact same thing next year. I found the app quite good, but had to spend an hour queueing to have my phone charged!

Thundercats Ho

floyd333 wrote: »

I would agree with a lot of what others said here. The security guys were sound and very professional. It’s nice not having a bunch of local hard men doing security. The age profile was a lot younger this year. I did see a lot of the drunken spoilt young girls (I sound like an old codger! ). I had a crutch with me and one of these idiot girls picked it up and tried to walk off with it in the campsite….. What a stupid thing to do.

I though the cut backs were obvious this year. More toilets were needed. The price of drink was ridiculous. €6 for a pint! I’d rather pay an extra 30 quid or so and be allowed to bring in my own drink. It was such a pain having to wait and get searched each time going into the arena.

I’d think hard about going back if they increase the capacity. I prefer the atmosphere and spirit of the Body and Soul/ midfield/ Trailer Park areas. I can see the festival morphing into more of a commercial oxegen type affair. I hope the original spirit of the picnic can be preserved. Time will tell ...

ghostdancer wrote: »

for me, it wasn't about a younger crowd, or more "scumbags" or people there for a particular type of music or band. there was just a larger amount of arseholes this year. the type who just go to EP because it's the "done thing" and spend most of the day drinking in the campsite, hang around the Bacardi Bar for most of the evening, maybe see 1 or 2 main stage acts, then back to the campsite acting like gimps.

the festival itself cut back on the Friday music. there just seemed to be more tacky stuff in general all around the place. cutting back on general facilities like toilets and security checkers meant long queues. the fact that it was sold out and there were way more people didn't help matters. trying to screw people into buying programs (which would have been printed a week before the festival) yet not releasing the times like previous years was a dick-ish move too.

i can't think of anything this year that made it better than last year. i can think of several things that made it worse.

Ssshh, you can't say that around here.
EP is as good as it's always been. In fact it's better.

threein99

floyd333 wrote: »

Yep they were pretty good. They make quite a racket considering there are only 2 of them!

Yeah its hard to believe there's only two of them, they remind me of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who I absolutely love as well

pervertedcoffee

The App was a pile of .... unless you were going to be glued to the Main Stage for the weekend (I was only at it twice for the whole weekend :P).

The business about the time tables was not good form! I kind of need a plan in place when I go to festivals because I get panicky in crowds, I was worried I was going to have to wait to get there before I could work out my 'time table'.

But besides that, it was bad form anyway! Us music fans need time to mourn our sacrifices to the Clash Gods. (Gutted Funeral Suits and Overhead, the Albatross clashed...gutted)

Looper007

ghostdancer wrote: »

for me, it wasn't about a younger crowd, or more "scumbags" or people there for a particular type of music or band. there was just a larger amount of arseholes this year. the type who just go to EP because it's the "done thing" and spend most of the day drinking in the campsite, hang around the Bacardi Bar for most of the evening, maybe see 1 or 2 main stage acts, then back to the campsite acting like gimps.

Welcome to the Festival scene 21st century, I've been to festival's aboard and you get the same thing happening there. Just a part of life as long as you enjoyed yourself that's all that matters.

ghostdancer

Looper007 wrote: »

Welcome to the Festival scene 21st century, I've been to festival's aboard and you get the same thing happening there. Just a part of life as long as you enjoyed yourself that's all that matters.

EP seems to attract a far higher amount though, I've been to other festivals over the summer and not had the same complaint tbh...

breakfasttime

ghostdancer wrote: »

EP seems to attract a far higher amount though, I've been to other festivals over the summer and not had the same complaint tbh...

The Irish festival scene is confused at the moment with so many newer ones in the mix and older festivals having some sort of identity crisis. I think picnic has, willingly or not, taken Oxegen's place as Irelands biggest festival to go to and "do the summer festival thing". Hopefully it'll calm down in the next few years.

thunderdog

With regards to the issue with the programmes...can you not just print off a few copies of clashfinder before you leave? Thats what I usually do...or save it to my phone

Catmologen

thunderdog wrote: »

With regards to the issue with the programmes...can you not just print off a few copies of clashfinder before you leave? Thats what I usually do...or save it to my phone

Exactly, they are entitled to charge for a schedule and programme. There are plenty of people who want that option. For those who don't, there were free schedules all over the internet.

ghostdancer

thunderdog wrote: »

With regards to the issue with the programmes...can you not just print off a few copies of clashfinder before you leave? Thats what I usually do...or save it to my phone

Catmologen wrote: »

Exactly, they are entitled to charge for a schedule and programme. There are plenty of people who want that option. For those who don't, there were free schedules all over the internet.

the times weren't up until Thursday, and only because someone went to the bother of tracking down all the different stages from various places, and even then some of it was incomplete. and the main ones weren't officially put up by EP, jsut leaked out to various media groups/sites.

so no, you can't just print them out, because the times weren't known.

they're entitled to do a lot of things. they're entitled hit everyone with a €50 camping fee at the gate if they wish, but it's pretty **** and a dickhead thing to do to not release times in advance, which pretty much every other festival in the world does these days, especially when they had the times finalised well before the festival.

melekalikimaka

2ndcoming wrote: »

It's so bizarre how acceptable this attitude is in middle-class Ireland. It's like someone complaining there were too many cockneys at Glasto.

If you have evidence of anything above the 0.01% troublesome element that attend every major gig or event in Ireland, in line with Garda figures, then fair enough, but it smacks of hearing an accent and turning into Hyacinth Bouquet.

its not just 'hearing the accent, I dont go to these things as a punter,I work across the uk and ireland at them, and deal alot with people, thats where i get my views from. I dont have a chip on my shoulder nor any degree of pretentciousness

Catmologen

ghostdancer wrote: »

the times weren't up until Thursday, and only because someone went to the bother of tracking down all the different stages from various places, and even then some of it was incomplete. and the main ones weren't officially put up by EP, jsut leaked out to various media groups/sites.

so no, you can't just print them out, because the times weren't known.

they're entitled to do a lot of things. they're entitled hit everyone with a €50 camping fee at the gate if they wish, but it's pretty **** and a dickhead thing to do to not release times in advance, which pretty much every other festival in the world does these days, especially when they had the times finalised well before the festival.

It's nice to give 150 euro tickets to everyone who wanted them though isn't it? What major event doesn't charge for a programme? I printed copies out on Thursday and used them for the whole weekend, there were also stage times in the ticket, with was free each day, so I don't really get your point.

MattD

ghostdancer wrote: »

the times weren't up until Thursday, and only because someone went to the bother of tracking down all the different stages from various places, and even then some of it was incomplete. and the main ones weren't officially put up by EP, jsut leaked out to various media groups/sites.

so no, you can't just print them out, because the times weren't known.

they're entitled to do a lot of things. they're entitled hit everyone with a €50 camping fee at the gate if they wish, but it's pretty **** and a dickhead thing to do to not release times in advance, which pretty much every other festival in the world does these days, especially when they had the times finalised well before the festival.

I printed off my clashfinder Thursday afternoon, before I went to work for the night and then EP early Friday for the morning, i.e. the latest possible time before I'm actually at the festival. And I was still missing Trailer Park + Salty Dog times, and some of the times were still inaccurate (I found out from the official programme that I spied) or acts swapped around etc.

Just a completely unnecessary inconvenience!


It shouldn't be up to third parties such as the Ticket, or random punters (such as myself getting the stage time for CHVRCHES from them themselves before EP released it.) And once again, there was no actual complete timetable that I could see that encompassed all stages ever available for this festival but for the clashfinder.

Making the complete timetable available in advance is a costless action that should really be a no-brainer.

mutley18

Catmologen wrote: »

It's nice to give 150 euro tickets to everyone who wanted them though isn't it? What major event doesn't charge for a programme? I printed copies out on Thursday and used them for the whole weekend, there were also stage times in the ticket, with was free each day, so I don't really get your point.

Pretty sure at Glastonbury when you get your armband you also get a free lanyard, although maybe they include it in the ticket price!

pink frost

I went to The End Of The Road festival which is held the same weekend as Electric Picnic and shares a number of the same acts. Parquet Courts, The Walkmen, Merchandise, Matthew E White, Savages, David Byrne etc.</SPAN>
They released their schedule a week before the festival but also sold programs (which sold out) and also had stage times prominently and freely dotted about the site.</SPAN>
You could bring your own booze all through the site but also buy pints for under £4. You had the choice of about 50 types of beer over the 4 days, not one of them was Heineken….</SPAN>
Security was almost non-existent and so was theft.</SPAN>
There were lots of old people (30+) and children and peacocks and baby peacocks.</SPAN>
Jarvis Cocker played Leonard Cohen songs at 4am on a piano in the woods as there is no rave in the woods.</SPAN>
There is a library, croquet, ping pong tables and an internal mail system.
I have been to Electric Picnic twice and mostly enjoyed it both times more so in 2008 then 2011 where the cost cutting became apparent. To all those sad that the picnic aint what it used to be - alternatives are available where you get treated with respect.
Which is a wonderful feeling and well worth the long haul to Dorset.</SPAN>

ghostdancer

Catmologen wrote: »

It's nice to give 150 euro tickets to everyone who wanted them though isn't it? What major event doesn't charge for a programme? I printed copies out on Thursday and used them for the whole weekend, there were also stage times in the ticket, with was free each day, so I don't really get your point.

i never said anything about not charging for a program

pretty much very festival going officially releases times beforehand.

Life Festival
Forbidden Fruit
Body & Soul
Sea Sessions
Longitude
Oxegen
Indiependence
Castlepalooza

all Irish festivals which released their times prior to the weekend.

you printed unofficial copies of the times which, if done from clashfinder, were incomplete and had mistakes.
there were no official times released, and certainly no complete times for stages.
The Ticket wasn't available on Friday, and didn't have most stages listed on it for the 2 days that it was available.

why are you defending them treating customers like sh1t and not doing something that would have been very simple that they did in previous years, and seemingly only didn't bother to do this year because of greed?
every other festival releases the times. EP didn't to make money off people.

lordgoat

Mr.S wrote: »

Someone had to manually input all the clashfinder details though, the fact EP themselves didn't publically release a complete timetable on the website is a bit ****. Obviously if you wanted a printed timetable, there where links on here/twitter etc but it was a bit shady of them to have the timetable completed and not put it online, just so people would buy the lanyards. €10 to know who's playing is a bit cheeky!

I remember an oxegen where they did the same things years ago.

Awful carry on and unnecessary.

johnpatrick81

It just leaves a bad taste in the mouth, rip off republic stuff.

I tell myself "ah €150 is pure cheap so I'd rather the cheap tickets and the non existant stage times" but I use the same reasoning for the weaker lineup, the excessive crowds, and the more expensive beer. The cheaper ticket only covers so much. Eventually if they push it any more it'll be a case of "i'd rather pay that much extra for a much better experience". I really hope the don't push it any more. Adding 5,000 to the attendance could well kill it.

SV

melekalikimaka wrote: »

its not just 'hearing the accent, I dont go to these things as a punter,I work across the uk and ireland at them, and deal alot with people, thats where i get my views from. I dont have a chip on my shoulder nor any degree of pretentciousness

Going by your comments on this and the Oxegen thread I don't think it matters a slight bit whether you work these things or not.
Your comments stink of pretentiousness

alastair

mutley18 wrote: »

Pretty sure at Glastonbury when you get your armband you also get a free lanyard, although maybe they include it in the ticket price!

They do (The Guardian sponsor them iirc), but there's a serious economy of scale going on there. They've a really decent app too - as of this year.

It wouldn't have hurt EP to put the times up online the day before though - people will still buy the lanyards, or want the programme anyway.

ilovemybrick

I've been to all 10.

The festival has changed. In some ways negatively, and in some ways positively. (remember how bad the toilets used to get?)

I agree with melekalikimaka the demographic has shifted towards a younger crowd and that is to be expected. Overall there are morons of every age group. The thing I noticed was the gap in the 23-27 year olds. IE those who have emigrated.

I won't comment on the "classism"/"howiya" element. That ebbs and flows. I remember caning it pretty hard with group of lads from Darndale a few years ago at DJ Shadow and never came across a group of festivallers who were so nice to everyone around them.

The thing I will take away from this year is the following. I genuinely hope there never comes a year where I conciously decide to miss the picnic. It is a f****ing special place.

ilovemybrick

SV wrote: »

Going by your comments on this and the Oxegen thread I don't think it matters a slight bit whether you work these things or not.
Your comments stink of prententionness/

I realise it is ironic but I'd really like those who are accusing people of "pretentionness" (sic) to use google/spellcheck/a dictionary.