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Post by cyfarthfa on Aug 21, 2008 14:09:09 GMT
"Did you bring the Diablo? ... In which case you're forgiven." Yup, thanks for that!
I don't want to sound smug, especially not with folk in 'the other place' offering eachother virtual 'right you.. round the the back NOW' but the camping side worked really well. Inspite of the rain we stayed dry, and were able to dry off and get changed, there was plenty of room too, which kept all happy.
I bought a fancy new stove with a grill with the result that we were able to feed eight adults and ten children with ease. A mini barrel each of Rhymney Dark, Bitter and lager completed the scene of domestic bliss, and a solid base for musical adventure- of which there were many moments. Ah well, back to work Tuesday, but at least 9Bach are playing in the pub in a couple of weeks.The only downside is that the damn tent is only just dried.
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Post by peridot on Aug 21, 2008 21:18:34 GMT
A mini barrel each of Rhymney Dark, Bitter and lager completed the scene of domestic bliss, and a solid base for musical adventure- of which there were many moments. Sod the folding camper ... I'm pitching a tent beside you next year ;D
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Post by nickfish on Aug 22, 2008 9:12:30 GMT
I though the sound was fine for the most part, but unfortunately whoever was mixing Archie Bronson Outfit left the vocals far too low. (I still really enjoyed their set though.) We thought exactly the same but my mate asked the sound engineer and apparently it was how the band wanted it... makes you wonder why they bother writing lyrics. High for me was Howlin' Rain just can't get enough of that band, though if they play again they should change their name to Blazin' Sun... Low point was just the disappointment of the rain coming on the saturday after a pretty sunny thurs/fri. This was my third GM and I had thought the law of averages must mean it will be sunny... oh well fingers crossed for next year.
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Post by fergal on Aug 22, 2008 22:05:51 GMT
Fantastic festival High was Iron & Wine - first time to see them live and they blew me away. Low was so few people turning up to the forum meet that faeriekisses took the trouble to arrange - consider your wrists slapped Also loved King Creosote, SFA, Richard Thompson, Damian Jurado, Spiritualised and many more. Was a little disappointed with Black Mountain - they don't do it for me, and my opinion that, with Pentangle, the whole is less than the sum of the parts remains unchanged. I agree with rogerio that the FD stage is better where it was last year. I know there was some noise conflict with the main stage, but I thought it much worse with the FD impinging on the literature tend and the rumpus room on the cinema tent. Anyway ... roll on GM2009 I got there a bit late and the flag was taken down however I did bump into the flag a bit later.
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Post by Chris on Aug 26, 2008 8:33:18 GMT
Highs - Friday, sitting all day in the sunshine and just letting the procession of bands come along to entertain us at the Main Stage, thinking how lucky we were to have such great weather for Green Man this year.
Lows - The bad weather obviously, but as others have said, you've got to expect that at a British outdoor event. Saturday was ridiculous rain, and a bunch of of us went back to the camp for a while after Devon Sproule because we were soaked through our supposedly waterproof gear, but we ventured out to watch Super Furry Animals when the rain stopped.
I was a bit disappointed to see the camp fire joined by the Rumpus Room etc., so it couldn't be the ace late-night guitar and chat spot that it was last year. I never made it up there for a late one, which was something I'd been looking forward to.
All in all though a great weekend, and I'll be back next year with bells on.
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Post by Chris on Aug 26, 2008 9:56:53 GMT
PS - sadly another low point has been reading through the angry and argumentative posts over on the official board.
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Post by blackpumpkinhead on Aug 26, 2008 16:56:15 GMT
To be fair most people are being positive but there are a few going over the top with their moaning--i can't believe someone expects a partial refund because of rain. I had a great time--roll on next year.
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Post by Chris on Aug 27, 2008 9:05:10 GMT
On the plus side, nice to see that the organisers have chipped in with a "we're listening" post. You don't see that sort of thing from other festivals very often.
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krasnyi
Respected Member
Posts: 176
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Post by krasnyi on Aug 27, 2008 9:30:50 GMT
Just back from an extended post-GM camping holiday on the Gower (yeah, it rained) and was about to check out the message board on the official site but might have to have a quiet fag first if people are moaning on there. Jesus what's the matter with some people?!! Bloody great festival - so yeah the FD stage might not have been in the perfect position and the Cafe stage gets too crowded and yeah it was muddy . . 45 minutes of King Creosote cancels all of that out and more. . . not to mention 45 minutes of Caribou or 30 minutes of the wonderful young Gorky's - Radio Luxembourg.
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Post by cyfarthfa on Aug 27, 2008 11:30:47 GMT
Ironic really. You might have thought that this forum would have attracted more grumping and griping than the official forum. Most of it seems a bit daft to me.
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Post by Chris on Aug 27, 2008 12:34:15 GMT
Maybe people feel that they'll get the ear of the organisers over there and post their moans rather than emailing them directly.
Most of it seems daft to me, too, especially the bits where people try to somehow hold the organisers to account for the rain. Looks to me like some people completely lost their sense of humour about it and decided to look for someone to blame. If you don't take some sort of precautions for wet weather to an outdoor festival in Britain, the only person you've got to blame is yourself, IMHO. It's like going on holiday to the North Pole and then writing a letter of complaint when you get home because the snow upset you.
I can see some of the other points, like the tractor people coming along and charging people a tenner to pull them out, and the organisers have made it clear that they didn't approve of that. There was also a disabled person who seems to have a point about disabled access.
I can see the benefit of a clearly-marked "don't be noisy in this area" section for camping, which might be as simple as better signage in and around the family area, and an understanding that if you choose to camp your kids somewhere outside of that area, you can't really complain about noise at night.
Some of the attitudes over there are bang out of order though. IMHO, the organisers are as keen as anyone else to prevent problems from happening more than once, and the only way to help matters is to work with them by leaving constructive comments and suggestions, rather than having a tantrum about it.
No way are they going to have a giant retractable roof covering the whole of Glanusk Park, and no way are they going to build a system of heated covered moving walkways where the sounds of James Last and his Orchestra are piped in as you travel along. But I'm willing to bet that they'll want to do whatever's actually possible to solve problems.
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Post by cyfarthfa on Aug 27, 2008 13:27:41 GMT
Quite. The issues around improving disabled access seem to me real, and calmly expressed. Signage in general was a bit vague but should certainly be more clear about which area is which, but these seem to me to be solvable, the global complaint about the weather not so- there's a reason why the hills are so lush around there- its the rain.
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Post by yanianyan on Aug 27, 2008 14:02:06 GMT
Well i've written to the organisers to complain about my non-attendance this year, bang out of order (It didn't rain here in Edinburgh! A coincidence? TAKE NOTE Jo and Danny!!). Just to add to the debate, The signage wasn't great last year either, solvable as you say cyfarthfa, and one other little, tiny, wee, small thing that some people have pointed out on this and the official site was the lack of walkabout artists during the day. My better half put in a rather hurried and very (very) late application this year but not suprisingly didn't get the gig. So c'mon Jo and Danny, she's excellent, and how can you turn down the chance to see me dressed as an elf, with pointy ears and curly shoes.....
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Post by cyfarthfa on Aug 27, 2008 14:23:07 GMT
'and how can you turn down the chance to see me dressed as an elf, with pointy ears and curly shoes.....'
Make the funny man go away...pleeeeeeeease(!)
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Post by Chris on Aug 27, 2008 15:30:34 GMT
I'm sure I got an email from the mailing list just before the festival that mentioned walkabout acts. My guess is that the stilt walker types wouldn't have lasted very long in the mud!
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Post by rayrad on Aug 27, 2008 16:33:54 GMT
there was that fantastic woman in the red dress and three inch heels though
who seemed to be part of a double act with a guy in white face
i saw them entertaining the kids on saturday
and she'd clearly been over on her backside a few times
mud head to toe
i saw her again the following day, in what appeared to be the same dress
laundered perfectly!
she did though appear to be wearing absolutely nothing underneath it
and gamely pushing on through the mud in those heels
soaked to the skin
considering how miserable i and mrs rad were by then, despite being waterproofed to within an inch of our lives, she was a beacon of dogged perseverance!
so, yes - more of that next year!
cheers ray
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Post by fergal on Aug 31, 2008 13:02:33 GMT
Although the rain was a pain at times I was having too much fun to let it spoil my festival. Perhaps some people were hoping it would chuck it down so they could have a good moan about it. A few things that I saw still bring a smile to my face when the memories surface from time to time when I am wading through the mud pile that is on my desk.
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