Witnness Review.

Jimi-Spandex

My Opinion

Bus took ages, mad traffic barely got there to see Cornelius, which was very good, crowd wasn't into it though. Next, leg it to the main stage for the hives. Absolutely fantastic, Howlin' Pelle is quite the showman, they should have been on last on Sunday instead of Oasis. Twas nearly 6 o clock by this stage, went and got some food. Saw the start of the frames heard the only two songs of theirs I know (Revelate me and God Bless Mom), Back to the Rising tent for Beta Band, 20 mins late on stage but still very good. After that I went to the café stage for the Warlords of Pez, they were absolutely mental, got interviewed after that, just asked me what I thought of them. Green Day were at the main stage then so I watched them for a few minutes, they were putting together a band from crowd members, entertaining but not great. Then to Upstage for the chemical brothers, right up at the front, probably the best gig in terms of atmosphere. I left early to see the last bit of Mercury Rev, top notch stuff. They were in the rising tent and Air were playing after them so I stuck around there for the first half of Air. I was right up at the barrier, Air were good enough but definitely a studio band. Then off to see the rest of the David Kitt, he was very good, played a version of Billie Jean, and about 4 encores, they turned the power off on him in the end, so he just stood up there waving at us. Heard the prodigy were disappointing. That was Saturday.

I went to see Nina Hynes first thing on Sunday, she was pretty good, singer-songwriter stuff but she got nicely rocky at the end. Had a bit of a break then, saw the revs from a distance, then got up close for Starsailor, everyone I was with thought they were great, I wasn't that enamoured to be honest, they were good though, they played Parklife and Let It Be on top of their own stuff, thought that was a nice touch. Went to the dance tent for lemon jelly it was very stuffy so we ended up sitting down outside listening to them twas nice relaxing music, Then I went to the Devlins, they were good, not spectacular, then for my favourite gig of the weekend, Gomez, Absolutely fantastic, the sun was splitting the stones but there was a nice breeze, perfect Gomez weather, once again right up the front, played all my fave Gomez tunes including Las Vegas Dealer, they got the audience to clap the beat for it cept everyone gave up early, loved every minute of it. Went to Badly Drawn Boy at 8, very very good. Then saw the start of oasis, from a long distance, about 2/3 songs later I was fed up and went to soulwax in the dance tent. Loved it, they played some excellent bootlegs, Kylie vs. Nirvana, sacrilege but good nonetheless, Other good ones were the hives vs. Destiny's Child, and something with the dandy warhols. Heard off my friends that oasis only got worse, was glad I went to soulwax. Back home by 5pm yesterday, what a weekend.

Then there was the campsite, which was even better. Madness. Was anyone else part of the good ship walrus singalong (The big pile of woodchippings near the food places on the campsite)?

I didn't mind the mud, tho twas waterlogged at some places which isn't on, and the feckers sterted trying to steal our woodchippings. Only complaint was that it took feckin ages to get water on the campsite

Rabies

i never heard so many people complain about a concert in my life.

i was at witnness working from friday until last night.

all of you dont know the work that was done to ensure that the concert was allowed to go ahead.

on friday night alone 40 lorry loads of wood chippings were brought in to cover the mud.

a 6 foot deep pit was dug in front of the main stage and turned in to a soakage pit. this was because the main stage area was flooded.

the dance tent was extreamly lucky to be opened because it was underwater.

about 100 bales of straw were used to cover certain areas of the site.

the reason some of you were far away from toilets in the camp site was because the campsite was divided in to 8 sections. these became fully extremly fast. the Overflow campsite areas had to be used to cope with the extra campers.

this summer has been the worst on record in decades. with 40,000 people dancing on a wet field do you expect it to stay hard? of course it will turn to mud

a lot more work goes on behind the scenes than people realise. MCD could have handled certain aspects of it better but given the circumstances i think it was handled pretty well.

just to rub it in i was walking around the witnness with a level A red pass and a level A yellow pass (access all areas passes). had access to back stage, dressing rooms, managed to get inside prodigy's tent before they went on stage, got to meet liam from the prodigy.

garthv

i have to say this years witness was well better than last years,although not as good as the first years.
The mud made it all good with everyone tramping about n such ,it was just such a laugh.
The layout was completly arse-about-face,having to walk to f*ckin 15-mile trek from mainstage to upstage(which didnt even play hundred reasons because"they missed their slot" which pissed me off)
but other than the layout being completly f*cked there couldnt of been a better festival,great bands,great beer,great people and an excellent atmosphere
All i say is :Guinness,get your act together and sort out the place better next time,the way you had it for witness 2001 was perfect,dont go changing it

sinus

well the concert was mental...but i spotted a few things that p***ed me off big time

1) The Security Men - Standing behind the barrier behind the pit...several times people around me girls/fellas/etc had asked for water and were shouted at to quit bothering them...WTF?...plus on many occasions at someother outdoor stages ppl were refused water because they didnt have empty water bottles to fill...again...WTF?

2) On some occasions from the main stage was it announced that the ppl trying to queue to get into the pit were asked to take 3 steps back, and refused entry to the pit, the give reason that it was too full...on looking into the pit i saw...ppl lying down...plenty of space, and at one stage a dude asleep in the middle...no room my ass!!! if there was no room, why the hell were there several dudes with passes let in???
ppl were getting injured queuing there , why did they let ppl in to help the situation...

3) there was one dude (refering to point 2 again - queing for the pit) who asked more than twice for a explaination on his refusal...he was delt with by a few sharp blows....WTF?

4) the stupid one way system going to the Upstage and Dance tents....WTF?

5)Oasis - WTF?

6) that stupid "gonna sing at the witnness thing" song.....a reason for drunken A-holes to sing all feckin night till 9am.....that dude on sunday night in campsite 2-3...i am gonna hunt u down and destroy u....!! |:¬|

I had no problem with the mud at all....in fact i think it made the weekend better...walking though dublin on monday, caked in mud..."I was at Witnness, I was at Witnness"

although...i have to say a big respect to the ppl in the medical tent!!! thanks Dr.Colin!

scuzzy

Dandy Warhols were a big disapointment

I thought they were the best act by far. Next to Idlewild...

By and large security were quite cool, ****in excellent line-up, **** layout, cheap beer, and good craic.
And the mud made it all a bit better, cos you didn't have to worry about trying to stay clean.

Gerry

Originally posted by eth0_


THat's a typical Irish attitude. No one should have to 'expect some stupidity' when paying up to €130 for something like Witnness.

You shouldn't have to put up with organisation like that, there's such a thing as a weather forecast and we haven't had the driest summer on record, MCD should have known what to expect and planned ahead.

Fine, if the music was good that's great, but no one should have to Q for three hours to get in and another few hours to get to their campsite. That's just ridiculous.

Don't give me "typical Irish attitude". I complain about everything, but I knew what I was letting myself in for when I bought the ticket. If you were expecting it to be well organised, you were expecting too much. You shouldn't have bought the ticket. If you have been to any MCD organised events in Ireland, you'll know that they haven't a clue but this doesn't mean that you can't have fun. The one way system can be bypassed with a bit of ditch jumping, the only thing that really pissed me off was the cost of the weekend.

No, it shouldn't be too much to expect to have a well organised event, but if you live in Ireland, you have to be prepared to make the best of the ensuing shambles.
I hate MCD, having been to plenty of their crappily organised concerts. The point is though, that its better than staying at home, despite being so expensive and badly organised. People will still go to these things in their droves. Theres no point in directing your vitriol at me, how about organising a petition? I'll be glad to sign it.

Bloody Drunkard

\does anyone remember a bunch of nutters sitting on a wood chip hill singing sons in the campsite on sat night/sun morning


im proud to say i was one of those nutters


p.s. you're all a bunch of crafty butchers

Bloody Drunkard

Witnness was absolutely class two days and nights drunk stoned covered in mud talking to strangers listening to class music sitting on a woodchip hill singing songs and insulting people havin great craic conking out and smoking copius amounts of...

to all those who bitch about MCD when you organise a concert better then you can bitch

So you had to que poor babies we all had to que i just used as an oppurtunity to drink a lot

The funniest thing i saw was when a guy aged 30 wasn't served alchol coz he didn't have id and a 15 year old behind him not getting questioned

Also the tobacoo shop sold rollie skins but no rolling tobacoo god i wonder what those skins were used for

my only complaint was the toilets but hey ****ting in a bucket is quite the experience

P.S. those anyone remember the chain of shouts of TIMMY going round campsite two my mate started that

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

plastic membrane

Originally posted by the celtic tiger
in my opinion you are all a bunch of twits. what exactly did you expect them to do about the mud?

There nothing they could have done. The fact that it was there is enough for me. All things being equal, i would have preferred it if there had been no mud. Can't have everything now, can we ?

the celtic tiger

you decide!

Toast

Originally posted by yellum
Why not organise some sort of letter writing campaign ? We collectively make a list of what was wrong and suggestions on how to make it better.

Then we each send this to the Witnness organisers once we find out who the heck they are. You never know they might actually listen.

I was thinking of something like that but it seems that enough people continue to believe that I am moaning because I didnt know what to expect from a festival. :mad: Also that they were perfectly happy with the crappy organisation. So lest I cause MCD to actually make some changes which would ruin the "festival experience" for everyone else Ill be returning to the UK for my future festivals. All I can do is recommend the same for all. Especially those that actually felt Witnness didnt show a decent level of organisation.

Rabies

Originally posted by Toast
So lest I cause MCD to actually make some changes which would ruin the "festival experience" for everyone else Ill be returning to the UK for my future festivals. All I can do is recommend the same for all. Especially those that actually felt Witnness didnt show a decent level of organisation.

MCD also run festivals in the UK.

Toast

Originally posted by Rabies

MCD also run festivals in the UK.

The ones im going to are run by Mean Fiddler.

the celtic tiger

I know the one you're on about. it's called

'A weekend with mauro piccotto and a load of knacks chomping E in a 10 men tent in dorset'

sounds good.

Gerry

Ah I'm in stitches here. Thats class tct.

Kali

my god what an enlightened response there..

Gerry

Yeah but I think tct brought some much needed humour to the thread.