Electric Picnic 2016 // **Discussion Only / NO Ticket Sales / Requests** //

Tigger99

Does anybody know if Pink Moon do discounted rates if you book very early? EP 2017 isn't on their website yet.

This year's was the best yet and I missed half of what I wanted to see

Kepler21

My take on the weekend.
This is my 5th picnic and I'm over 50. I had the privilege of having my 2 sons with me this year, one 19 and the other 18. The younger one was playing with the Trinity Orchestra, so massive pride at being there to see them perform. Naturally it was brilliant, except for the rain, but completely biased. Commented to son One about great to see a lot of younger people at but, but how few were singing along, and his comment was "Bowie was a generation before us, Dad".

We went for the Yellow car park, normally go for green. There were discussions here on its location; the Staff car parking was where the previous yellow car park was, and the yellow further down the road. It took us 15 mins from car into our camping spot in Warhol, brilliant. We pack up on the Sunday morning and put our stuff in the car for a Sunday night getaway, so handy for that as well. Where we were was relatively quiet, apart from a soundsystem playing Sat night reducing my sleeping hours. I will try for the Eco campsite next year, I met a few people who said it was great, clean and quiet.

Booka Brass Band was the perfect start in other Voices at 4pm. Highlights would be Noel Gallagher, LCD Soundsystem, New Order, Aurora, Glass Animals, Whitney, Wolf Alice, Avett Brothers. I think I got to 34 different acts over the weekend, though some for only one or two songs, such as the 1975 -> Todd Terje -> RTE Concert Orchestra clash. Enjoyed SFA, BSS, Nathaniel Ratecliff, Toots, ABC, even Picture This. Lack of sleep and the rain caught up with me after New Order and just chilled in B&S till time to go home at midnight.

Being with sons is different from a bunch of mates. Our musical tastes sometimes collide and we were at quite a few acts together, while they weren't pushed about some 'old' bands. Son one is into music so we swap bands a lot.

I love the quirkiness of EP and the way it evolves. I love wandering around Global green, Mindfield, Trailer park, and the woods, but usually focus on the music. Hate the corporate places like Sound Atlas, Bold Motel, e-cig awful place, don't mind Casa bacardi too much, but I recognise I'm not the target market. Why would you spend your time in there when there is real music to be had? Love Trailer Park but felt some of the caravans this year were a bit tacky. Jimmie Lees Juke Joint is a must visit. Jerry Fish is great, but suffers from the Sound Atlas placement.

I love B&S and the whole atmosphere in there. Its my go to place when I just want to sit. Tiny Tea Tent is awesome.

There was a lot of very young people this year, but I said that last year as well. I am not very observant about substances, so won't comment. I did feel this year less comfortable towards the front of some of the main stage acts. I am happy to see a mix of older bands and newer ones that cater for the different audiences. I think its necessary to split the crowd and part of the attraction. I love discovering new acts and that is a big attraction of EP, but I like to have enough bands that I know already as well.

A Shopkeeper

Enjoyable weekend. The real dampener for me, every time I go, is the rubbish left over in the campsites on Monday. A disgrace to themselves and their hedonistic ways. Thought Oscar Wilde would be better than Hendrix. It wasn't.

Food was crap, beer was/is over-priced, misbehaving teens barging through crowds were a plenty. Oh, and a few extra wood chippings would've been nice.

That aside...

Really enjoyed These Charming Men on Friday. First night buzzers everywhere, great craic.

Aine Cahill was good. Lynched in Other Voices, Todd Terje, NAO, LCD & Noel G, all good too.

Seeing the 14 year old Ashling Tubridy was a really amazing part of the festival. We found her completely by accident and she has/had one of the best voices I seen all weekend. Checked the app and she wasn't even listed.

Think I'll take a break next year but I'll be back if Daft Punk headline.

Seathrun66

A Shopkeeper wrote: »

Food was crap, beer was/is over-priced, misbehaving teens barging through crowds were a plenty. Oh, and a few extra wood chippings would've been nice.

Undoubtedly lots of it is, but there's loads of really great stuff to be had, most of it by the Mindfield area. All of the below are in that section.

Rathmullan House is excellent, but overpriced. Their crab linguini was the Irish Times' recommended dish this year but at 13 Euro it was out of my price range this year. Their fishcakes also great, but again the wallet.....

Kinvara Kitchen wins the EP food awards every year and has great Pakistani/Indian food - the queues indicate they're still doing the right stuff. Kerala Kitchen across from it was an alternative, and cheaper, option.

Favourite for me again though was Kanum, the best green curry I've tasted in Ireland. Far superior to the stiff in Sabu (though not bad food) and the stodgy Wok n Roll offerings. They also do decent Pad Thai and have shorter queues (for some unjustified reason) so you won't be hanging around for long.
Have a look next year you're there, the stalls tend to keep the same locations.

And yeah, you're right about beer prices.

BullBlackNova

Was Pie Minister there this year?

It was a no-show at a few festivals I was at.

Hoping they haven't stopped coming to Ireland!

scruff monkey

Think they were missing, there was a different crew supplying pies but didn't try them.

Seathrun66

BullBlackNova wrote: »

Was Pie Minister there this year?

It was a no-show at a few festivals I was at.

Hoping they haven't stopped coming to Ireland!

No sign of it in the usual location. The other pie stall across from the Snug Bar was back again. And with longer queues than other years due to the missing PM.

MeatTwoVeg

I had a Beef and Basil Thai curry that was surprisingly and incredibly tasty.
Or it may just have been that I was starving at the time.

Really surprised at the amount of people short changed at the bars. I only had a few pints over the weekend but was shortchanged by a tenner at one of the bars. Seems to be happening too much for it to be accidental and mistake is always in favour of the cashier.

Teddington Cuddlesworth

This year was my first "sleep over" festival.

I really enjoyed it but found the majority of staff were useless.
I got fairly manged on Friday night and wandered off from my group with no phone (I'd no pockets so gave it to herself)
I wandered around for almost 90minutes asking staff for directions to boutique camping and not one of them could direct me to anything other than pink moon.

I highly recommend boutique camping (pricey at 650 between 3 of us) but we were down the very back near the pond and found it incredibly quiet.
The only downside was having to walk through hendrix to get anywhere, even though there is a performer entrance right beside us.
As a first timer I was shocked at Hendrix, the behaviour I saw in there was awful and I don't think I saw a single person use a bin.

The only day I didn't enjoy myself was Sunday, I found the average age dropped massively and was knocked to the ground twice by groups of people running mashed out of there heads near electric arena. I'm 6.1 and weigh 15 stone so it takes a bit to knock me down.

Overall I really enjoyed myself but it'll take a lot of goods acts to make me go back again.

I'm still way to hung over to give a full synopsis but that's the gist of it.

threein99

Teddington Cuddlesworth wrote: »

This year was my first "sleep over" festival.

I really enjoyed it but found the majority of staff were useless.
I got fairly manged on Friday night and wandered off from my group with no phone (I'd no pockets so gave it to herself)
I wandered around for almost 90minutes asking staff for directions to boutique camping and not one of them could direct me to anything other than pink moon.

I highly recommend boutique camping (pricey at 650 between 3 of us) but we were down the very back near the pond and found it incredibly quiet.
The only downside was having to walk through hendrix to get anywhere, even though there is a performer entrance right beside us.
As a first timer I was shocked at Hendrix, the behaviour I saw in there was awful and I don't think I saw a single person use a bin.

The only day I didn't enjoy myself was Sunday, I found the average age dropped massively and was knocked to the ground twice by groups of people running mashed out of there heads near electric arena. I'm 6.1 and weigh 15 stone so it takes a bit to knock me down.

Overall I really enjoyed myself but it'll take a lot of goods acts to make me go back again.

I'm still way to hung over to give a full synopsis but that's the gist of it.

6'1, 15 stones and username Teddington Cuddlesworth

everlast75

*sigh

Here goes my recollection from this year. I say "recollection", but it is only wiht the assistance of photographs and PabloandRoy's app that I can put together a list of what I saw.. well, bands wise anyway.

Friday;
These Charming Men
Broken Social Scene
Jenny Greene & RTE Orchestra
Chemical Brothers
Up to Jerry Fish and then on to All Tvvins

Saturday;
Pleasure Beach
Whitney
Glass Animals
Joey Bada$$
Catfish and the Bottlemen
The Shins
LCD Soundsystem

Sunday;
Editors
Wild Beasts
Wolf Alice
Animal Collective
Bat for Lashes (beautiful rendition of Gypsey by Fleetwood Mac at the end)
New Order
ExMagician
Pantha du Prince


Stayed in Pink Moon again this year and couldn't go back to the other camping as a result. They do screw you over (€15e for a fry), over an hour to get in and processed with your tent etc and the queue to get into the arena can be a right pain but overall worth it.

the bands in bold were stand out stuff. Joey Bada$$ was brilliant - great vibe in the place and one of the most enjoyable acts of the weekend. His song "devastated" is a classic.

I like Editors but their performance was excellent.

Missed a fair few bands because of the rain - I stuck to the tents as a result but on the plus side discovered Pantha du Prince - never heard anything about them before but discovered they were a kinda dance version of Sigur Rós. Brilliant stuff.

Sound was off for a few acts - most noticeably Exmagician in Jerry Fish - couldn't hear the singer at all!

This year there were 4 comedians I wanted to go see but as usual, clashes - clashes everywhere!

Feel utterly dejected today, even though I knew it was coming as it has done every year since I started going. Half of my brain is proud of myself for surviving on 4-5 hours sleep per day and drinking from noon; the other half is disgusted with myself and pleads with me not to do it ever again.

That said, tickets will be bought on Friday.

threein99

How were Catfish and the Bottlemen ?

everlast75

threein99 wrote: »

How were Catfish and the Bottlemen ?

I really really thought they were excellent. I know on here they are lumped in with other mainstream stuff but i'm an indie kid at heart and really rate them

threein99

everlast75 wrote: »

I really really thought they were excellent. I know on here they are lumped in with other mainstream stuff but i'm an indie kid at heart and really rate them

I saw them at the Olympia earlier this year and thought they were excellent. They are playing there again in November

Canneverfindit

Right - My 2016 experience:

I had an absolutely brilliant weekend. Probably my best picnic to date. Unexpected to say the least, mind as I was one of the complete kill joys b1tching earlier in the year that the line up was sh1te and the decision to go was very last minute.

So despite the rain, the mud, the fact my husband had to feck off Saturday evening- Sunday morning to play a (outside) gig, the fact that we're down one unfixable water damaged (week old) iphone and the fact that we DID end up paying a 100 quid more for last minute (trusted) tickets, the fact my husband left the lights on in the car and we had to jump start the car on Monday morning in he horrors (thanks blue van man!) - it.was.brilliant. and totally worth it all.

My biggest regret is that I missed LOADS of what I had intended to see. Didnt see a quarter of what I'd planned and I'm a bit pissed off with myself for that today. The time just flew by on and escaped me. It was over in a blink. I think the rain contributed - we lay in the tent drinking and chatting for far too long Saturday morning whilst waiting for that big shower to pass.

We were then one of THOSE assholes who brought a guitar and had a massive sing song in the campsite during the rain on Sunday (we did ask if anyone minded beside us, by the way and everyone told us to keep going as they were enjoying it/ it was lifting spirits), we stayed at it way too long as more and more people kept joining in. I looked around our tent at one point and there were 5 people in it, with another 5 outside. Singing away.
One guy took the guitar for a bit and started the Oasis songs. I took it off him and told him to stop for his own safety.

I think the main reason our experience this year was so good was because of where we camped. Stayed in Charlie Chaplin (I did hear security closed it from people who came in after us, we must have just missed that - thankfully). There was no sh1te.
People were just having the craic and being sound.

Last year we were in Wilde and it was horrendous - people pissing on our tents, ****ting outside it, over dosing to 'call an ambulance' point, kicking up our pegs for the hell of it, starting rows, robbing tents. I seen none of that at all in Chaplin this year. Met loads of lovely people, had great late night chats and had lovely neighbours.
I met up with a girl on Saturday evening and she said she was sick with the thoughts of having to go back to her tent in Wilde. She said it was horrendous - a group of lads beside her insisted on ****ting on the ground every time they needed to etc. One of her friends had walked human **** into her tent and they couldnt get rid of the smell.
I'm all for people having the craic, lads but I dont understand how your fun can be diminished by just going to the toilet in the toilet when you need to...

Anyway - another friend snuck me into Pink Moon on Saturday evening and it was just fab. Seriously contemplating booking for next year - I was amazed that you can decant your beer on the way out from PM and bring it into the main arena??!! I never knew this?? why did no one tell me? that would be a serious selling point for me next year... I'd save a fortune.

Speaking of - raging I didnt keep more of an eye on my change after hearing all the reports. Never checked. Think I'm a little too trusting.

I missed sooo much: I'm a bit sick about it:
Seen Booka Brass Band on Friday in Other Voices (brilliant as always), Le Galaxie Saturday night were brilliant (packed though - need a bigger stage), was dragged away from Rubberbandits in comedy by friends but caught the start (raging!), Dylan Moran was disappointing (I didnt laugh out loud once), caught 3 bands in The Trailer Park that I really enjoyed but do not have a clue who they are, same for Salty Dog, caught Noel Gallagher on Main Stage (grand), loved James Bay (know you'll all laugh), I'm not commenting on the Trinity Orchestra/ Jenny Greene act as I know I'm in the minority.
Absolutely livid with myself for missing KKC. Ragin. But was steered away by so called 'friends'.

I'll remember more later.
Still a bit shook.

I really didnt notice the increase this year (did notice last year), nor did I see many people being knobs.

A successful picnic for me.

Will definitely be buying a ticket on Friday..

Paddy2012

I thought Catfish were not bad but was glad I left early to see Joey Bada$$. I was surprised by how small their crowd was though, maybe they just don't get as much radio play in ireland as in the UK

roll

Canneverfindit wrote: »

Right - My 2016 experience:




One guy took the guitar for a bit and started the Oasis songs. I took it off him and told him to stop for his own safety.


..

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

The Davestator

Thanks for all the great info from all the Vets here - made this a brilliant first time EP for me.

Stayed in the caravan site and it was perfect. Zero traffic in our out.

Loved the trailer park area and saw some brilliant band on sunday about midnight (Anyone know who they were)

Lana del ray was a shocking act to put on a Sunday night - sucked the life out of me.

Nas - (never heard of him before) was brialliant. Chemical brothers - loved them.

Got too locked to enjoy Noel Gallagher and my photos tell me I was wandering aimlessly around when he was on!

Will be back with some lessons learnt next year.

Lotus Flower

fillup wrote: »

New Order were better than i expected but that version of Love Will Tear Us Apart that they played is rank

They've taken a post punk classic and reworked it as a stadium rock anthem and replaced the melancholic feel of the song with an uplift *shudder*

Love Will Tear Us Apart is the most "anthemic" and well known of Joy Division's songs and they're going to tailor it to a festival set. You can hardly expect them to play something off Closer! (Not that I would complain!)

bodhrandude

Well I enjoyed my weeks stay in Stradbally but like others mentioned I noticed a much younger clientele at EP this year. Absolute madness but couldn't score any pills the whole weekend, wandering about Todd Terje's gig and then the Chemical Brothers gig, half the audience hyper ventilating but no joy although the gigs were tremendous. It was the same at Daniel Avery's gig, trying to score a pill and all I do is get mocked by a bunch of 18 year old scum bags calling me granddad, I wanted to scream at them that dance music has been about since 1987 or possibly longer if you take in the evolution of Chicago House, not taking away from Avery's gig which was splendid. I also heard of creepy stories of spiking, two 18 year old girls who were volunteers who apparently got spiked by someone in the Trenchtown crew as they woke up in the Trenchtown crew campsite, luckily they weren't interfered with or raped. I also heard one of my neighbours, a young fellah in the crew campsite was spiked too and ended up in the medical tent. This is new and not welcoming news for EP. Also the path through the hole in the wall coming from crew camp badly suffered from the rain, no wood chippings laid at all, I belted my left shoulder on Sunday night when I slipped on the way to see New Order. And changes as well for crew I had cans removed from my bag by Specialised Security on the way into the arena, this never happened before, fecking leave the crew alone who have been down there all week, at 7.20 and 7.40 a pint no bloody wonder we take in our own drink.

Highlights or acts I caught:
Friday
Booka Brass Band and Skipper's Alley (trad band) at Other Voices stage.
Shah Smooth at Salty Dog and went for a wander into Hazel Wood which is a nice chilled area.
Todd Terje
Chemical Brothers (I got a bit of a headache from their lights but they were excellent.)
Wandered slowly about Body & Soul and Trenchtown for Friday night.

Saturday
Wandered up to Electric Ireland to watch a bit of Bananarama, curious like and took some video clips for my sisters who liked them back in their time, they actually put on quite a good show to a packed out tent.
Caught a bit of Dylan Moran (Don't really know what to think of his set, it was alright.)
Had a few tunes at the Bog Cottage in Body & Soul with tin whistler Liam Lyons and another fellah which was good for my soul.
DJ EZ ( he was good but a bit cheesy, well using Xfactor sounding female vocals at the start, didn't hang around long enough to see him do the scratch hip hop stuff as it was fairly packed and wild in there and what the actual fcuk is this Whooomp there it is carry on, it practically drowned out the actual music.)
Noel Gallagher (I actually enjoyed his set and he had a nice tight band)
King Kong Company (Watched a bit of their set outside the Cosby Tent, the tent was absolutely rammed and it wasn't raining at the time, a great set.)
LCD Soundsystem (They were fantastic, the main stage had a superb sound and I loved the way they dipped into their last three albums, it was brilliant to hear Someone Great live for the first time. We split after that as I know only too well that Daniel Avery's gig would be jammed. A question here, why did they change the Little Big Tent back to the smaller marquee.
Daniel Avery (A phenomenal gig, two tracks from Drone Logic bookending the gig and probably about another album and a half worth of material played on the night and my god it was hot in there.
Myself and my mate decided to head for crew camp after that as we wanted to get rested and be up at a good time tomorrow to catch the legendary Toots and the Maytals.

Sunday
Toots and the Maytals (Bloody magnificent, they are my favourite reggae act, Toots Hibbert still has an amazing voice and they pulled a nice crowd for the Sunday afternoon reggae act, plus it stayed dry and warm although the sun didn't come out.
Kelly Anne Byrne (Really enjoyed her set at the Bacardi bar, playing soul, funk house or as someone else described it as uplifting house, but the music was more reminiscent to her Saturday radio show on Today FM rather than her Sunday show.) By then slight intermittent drizzle and hotish dry weather.
New Order (Were magnificent, amazing visuals and some classic tracks) Would have caught more of the set if it wasn't for that stupid specialised security guard holding me up and causing me to drink my Spanish absinthe outside of the arena, probably also the intoxicating effect too.
Skepta ( I enjoyed Skepta a lively and wild gig, I wouldn't really know any of his material but his music was pumping, the audience were slightly demented and crazy, a bit much for an elder like me as you will see when I upload the video clip, camera shake not by me by the way ha ha.)

Couldn't take anymore rain after this, my jacket was soaking right through and I lost ambition to go exploring fearing I would get pneumonia and headed for the crew camp.

Easy Rod

I want to give a shout out to the soundest security guard in the world who removed a can of Heineken from my bag on Sunday before shooting me a knowing look and carefully placing it back on the bag for me.

IamMetaldave

My favourites were DJKormac, Plutonic Dust, Overhead, the Albatross, Chemical Brothers, Snap (I know!), New Order, Nas was fun too.

Canneverfindit

bodhrandude wrote: »

I also heard of creepy stories of spiking, two 18 year old girls who were volunteers who apparently got spiked by someone in the Trenchtown crew as they woke up in the Trenchtown crew campsite, luckily they weren't interfered with or raped. I also heard one of my neighbours, a young fellah in the crew campsite was spiked too and ended up in the medical tent. This is new and not welcoming news for EP. .

Ooh on this - you've just reminded me. When we had our 'guests' at the tent for the singsong, people were being lovely - handing us cigarettes and cans (one girl gave me her necklace) as a way of saying thanks (I think). One lad handed me a 2 litre of bottle of coke and something - said it was lovely - (cant remember what he said it was mixed with) to drink it and (idiot that I am) was just about to when his friend - another guy I didnt know, grabbed it out of my hand and shook his head and whispered to me 'dont drink that, theres a lot of sh1te going on this weekend'. He then gave me a sealed can.

Didnt think about it until now but think you might be right.

Canneverfindit

Easy Rod wrote: »

I want to give a shout out to the soundest security guard in the world who removed a can of Heineken from my bag on Sunday before shooting me a knowing look and carefully placing it back on the bag for me.

Same!
I didnt get searched once and at one stage, was going through to the main arena with a plastic pint glass of white wine in hand (fully understanding I'd have to knock it back/ throw it away) when he said "drink that off" I nodded. Didnt. and walked straight through still holding it.

MadYaker

Jaysus bodhrandude, get your stuff sorted before you go to the festival! There's no way in a million years id go wandering around asking randomers for pills, asking for trouble that is.

fillup

Lotus Flower wrote: »

fillup wrote: »

New Order were better than i expected but that version of Love Will Tear Us Apart that they played is rank

They've taken a post punk classic and reworked it as a stadium rock anthem and replaced the melancholic feel of the song with an uplift *shudder*

Love Will Tear Us Apart is the most "anthemic" and well known of Joy Division's songs and they're going to tailor it to a festival set. You can hardly expect them to play something off Closer! (Not that I would complain!)

They're not Joy Division so why bother covering it in the first place if you're not going to do it justice

Why bother covering it if you're going to dance all over it with muddy festival boots?

I have issues with New Order and this cover kinda embodies what they are -

scruff monkey

Does it really count as a cover if they had a hand in performing and writing the original?

Surely they're entitled to do what ever they want with it and if people get a little precious about it then boo hoo?

DC10555

First time going to EP this year, I went on the Sunday and I have to say it left a good impression. The overall atmosphere for the festival seems to be pretty positive. I didn't see any fighting what so ever and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Granted there were a few who had more than than "a few beers" but that's expected at festivals.

I seen some people saying the Sunday line-up could have been better but I have to say I really enjoyed it, discovered a few new bands too. Thought Lana Del Rey was great, much better than I expected her to be. New Order were amazing too, Picture This were savage. I caught White Mice at the Body and Soul area too which were stunning, the lead singer has amazing voice! Discovered ELM too at Body and Soul, thought they were great.

Anyone else experience the vendors short changing? Over the Sunday I made 6 purchases between drinks and food. I was short changed 4 times in total. At one stage I had to have more than a few words to convince the girl at the Orchid Thieves tent that €50 - €6.20 did not equate to €33.80. The highlight of this was at one of the main Heineken areas where the girl "just happened" to have the change in her hand ready to give me when I spotted how she tried to cut me short. I've been to festivals and large outdoor gigs in the past and I've never experienced this, but that's a lesson learned always check your change at any of the beer tents.

Speaking of staff, I'm not sure where they get some of these. While the majority were out their doing their job there were more than a few just their to "impress" with their schitty chat up lines and awkwardly dancing into groups of women. The sort of thing you see on a YouTube cringe video collection in a few years. The staff who were doing their job were great, the festival overall was kept quite clean which was great to see, you weren't tripping over trash all night.

On a positive note the variety of food choices was amazing. Due to the amount of them there never seemed to be any major queue's either which was nice as there is nothing worse than having to queue 20 mins.

One of the things that surprised me enough was the amount of kids there, I understand the festival is family friendly and provides a tonne of activities for them but I genuinely believe they should be out after about 8pm as it can get a little bit messier with people drunk and what not.

AdMMM

Going on what some people were saying before the festival, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Pink Moon was going to be a revelation in luxury. It really isn't.

You're essentially paying a lot of money for making sure you have an atmosphere that's simply taken for granted at other European festivals. And even then you have to put up with queues for toilets, queues for showers, queues to charge your phone and one of the longest queues for coffee that I've ever seen in the morning. I know that they warn you that it's busy in the mornings but given the amount of money they cleared, they could have easily put in an additional bar, more food places and some higher quality toilets towards the top of the site.

That being said, the rear entrance to the arena was very welcome and security were pleasantly lax when it came to checking you for drink on the way through.

Ferris_Bueller

Finally back to reality. Had a brilliant weekend! Thanks to all who had recommended Pink Moon earlier in the year, was my first time staying there and would highly recommend it, it was definitely a factor in why the weekend was so enjoyable. Didn't use the facilities that much tbh but the convenience of getting into the arena combined with the clean and respectable campsite/toilets was so nice to come back to every night compared to the other campsites. The 2 man tents were nicely sized and didn't feel worried about the rain at any point, €90 well spent staying in there.

Left at about 10am on Friday morning and found there was more traffic this early than in previous years, tried taking exit 15 off the motorway for Vicarstown but the gardaí had the road closed off, didn't have a choice in which carpark I was sent to and had to park in red, the worst part of the weekend was walking from here to the pink moon campsite as we were walking through Oscar Wilde, Salty Dog etc there was a lot of foot traffic coming the other direction, took forever with our bags and drink, I think they really need to sort the car park situation as friends of mine who wanted to go to red ended up in green and ones who wanted to go to green ended up in red (this was the only negative I had all weekend).

Once I had the first can open and got a bit of food in pink moon it was full steam ahead for the weekend, it was great being back in that environment again. I must be one of few who actually thought the crowd wasn't as bad as last year, felt there was more people above 30 than last year and less of a messy crowd at it, but maybe that is just in some of the areas I was. Certain stages such as the RBMA and Casa Bacardi do have noticeably young crowds but around the main stage and B&S it was a very nice atmosphere I thought. I love going down to Casa Bacardi during the day for a bit of a boogie but at night time it is very much full of the young crowd that are just there because it's the place to be.

Despite it not being my favourite line up of the past few years, musically I thought it was the best picnic I was at. Saw so many great bands and acts (planned & unplanned) and in general I got around to a lot of different stages rather than spend the weekend floating between one or two which has happened in the past. Highlights of Friday were Todd Terje, Cinema, Chemical Brothers & Le Freak, Saturday was LCD Soundsystem & Plutonic Dust (who were absolutely unbelievable!), enjoyed Glass Animals but was probably too far back in the crowd to hear it properly. Didn't get to do as much on the Sunday but New Order were fantastic.

I've only been going to EP for 4 years and I've noticed a change in that time, so I can only imagine how much of a change there has been for the people who've been going for longer. But to say it is turning into oxegen is harsh IMO, there are so many wonderful people at the festival and so much to do that each year I leave thinking "I'll have to do X, Y & Z next year", even the younger crowd aren't that bad, I didn't see any hassle at all and almost everyone I saw was enjoying themselves and being quite respectful to others, obviously the worst comes out in the campsites late at night but it can be avoided if you are careful where you camp. One of my most memorable moments this weekend was coming out of B&S on Sat night after Plutonic Dust and seeing a random little tent still playing music, it was full of an older crowd all giving it socks to tunes like One Night in Bangkok and Total Eclipse of the Heart, everyone smiling and laughing with each other, it was a perfectly weird moment which is really what I love about these weekends, maybe we have to look a bit harder for moments like this at EP now but there is no doubt in my mind that the magic is still in the air down there.