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Post by kezontour on Aug 20, 2007 22:37:03 GMT
I don't like Devendra too much - but by the end he'd won me over!
Lowlights: Discovering how warm and snug my tent and sleeping bag were, and thus sleeping too much!
Malkmus normally does it for me everytime, but somehow didn't push my buttons on Sunday. Still great to hear Baby C'mon though.
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Post by cyfarthfa on Aug 20, 2007 23:04:51 GMT
Really good. Happy campers. The bit whwn vIctoria williams got it together for the first time was aamazing. STILL couldn't do the queing thing with Pieminister- are they worth it? Gwildor were lovely, so was Lisa Jen. Didn't mind the walk from car to campsite- better than having cars and tents mix. It was very white though. Shirley Coillins was very good, and I like the banjo people/second hand book stall. Didn't think much of Robert Plant, Battles (except on a theoretical level- I could see why people might like them) and I thought the Aliens were taking the piss. The Green Man Cafe bands were the best bits for me, and Alisdair Robert's Lyke Wake Dirge was really good. Weather was as expected- but a bit cold on Thursday night.
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Post by ingenious on Aug 21, 2007 8:47:49 GMT
Highs: Getting there Thursday pm - easy walk from car park, fantastic pitch right by tea & toast van, no queue for Pieminister! King Creosote Euros Childs Tunng Watching the sky lanterns and bubbles while Vashti Bunyan played Bloody gorgeous food, as always Fab loos Lovely, friendly neighbours The cider Kids paddling in the stream on a lovely sunny Friday
Lows: Rain, rain, rain on Saturday Tent flooding and soaking pillow and sleeping bag on Sat night Plant and Battles fighting it out sound-wise - from my tent it sounded as if the world was ending... Waking up with sore throat and shivers on Sunday and having to drive 5 hours home
Despite all the shitty weather, the atmosphere was still great and the increased capacity didn't seem to matter that much. I liked the changes that have been made to the site and the kids had a fabulous time, which always helps. Will be back next year - with sunshine!!
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Post by davegintis on Aug 21, 2007 9:18:36 GMT
Highs -------- Nice weather friday African food stall Euros Childs Cinema tent on friday night Rumpus room Pieminister Malkmus' banter The Beep Seals Malcolm Middleton Cider Richard James
Lows -------- The walk from the car park not having wellies Gruff Rhys (or the sound during him) Devandra Banhart Malkmus not playing anything off his first (and best) solo album Japanese noodle stall running out of prawns and chicken Cider running out Newsom (boring)
Good times all round though.
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Post by davegintis on Aug 21, 2007 9:19:03 GMT
Oh, and the fact that the walk was so long that we missed Gwildor on friday morning, sorry lads!
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Post by bobbyperu on Aug 21, 2007 9:35:23 GMT
Oh yeah, as an addendum to my earlier post, should say that I couldn't believe how good the sound was for a festival. Every stage sounded fantastic. Toilets were still pristine on Monday morning, pies WERE worth the queue!
Yeah, as some above have said, Devendra Banhart wasn't too hot. Just sounded like Santana to me, really didn't go for it at all!
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kerry
Contributing member
Posts: 97
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Post by kerry on Aug 21, 2007 9:51:45 GMT
highs: all the lovely friendly people, particularly everyone I met from here, neighbours and people who helped me yesterday having a pie on the thursday night and avoiding the queues sitting outside the tent on friday morning listening to perry play blues guitar good food, ale and cider dancing to misty's big adventure all the trees and mountains happy children and bubbles musically I think john smith was my favourite, but saw lots of fantastic bands lows: my friends leaving on saturday because of the rain car trouble going up the hill into abergavenny being too tired to watch joanna newsom there was so much I wanted to do and not enough time to do it all, would have liked to get to the cinema tent at some point. I want to go again now ;D
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Post by theinvisiblegirl on Aug 21, 2007 10:00:30 GMT
Cat the duck as the rhythm section for cod liver oil and the orange juice round the camp fire very late sunday morning
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kerry
Contributing member
Posts: 97
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Post by kerry on Aug 21, 2007 10:05:12 GMT
and running into my friend who I haven't seen since he moved to devon having my wellies and waterproof poncho chocolate brownies from the green man cafe remembering I had sloe gin on sunday night good toilets!
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Post by buckar00 on Aug 21, 2007 10:09:05 GMT
Oh yeah, as an addendum to my earlier post, should say that I couldn't believe how good the sound was for a festival. Every stage sounded fantastic. Toilets were still pristine on Monday morning, pies WERE worth the queue! Yeah, as some above have said, Devendra Banhart wasn't too hot. Just sounded like Santana to me, really didn't go for it at all! QFT on Devandra Banhart; I can remember thinking exactly the same - that they sounded like Santana - as I was watching. They were bland, and that's being kind. Re. The sound - a number of acts praised the sound engineers on each of the stages. I chatted to the guitarist from Vetiver and he said the sound that they heard, through the monitors etc, as they played was perfect.
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Post by grasspoint on Aug 21, 2007 10:19:15 GMT
Great music as ever - though don't see the continuing attraction of some of the stalwarts. James Yorkston - why? Also, new crowds that clearly don't get 90% of the bands and whoop with joy every time some hammers out a power chord!
...but...
...the management of the site was badly organised and lazy. Why no forewarning of distances from the car park to the site? Disabled access...ha! And wouldn't a flat-bed truck plying between the car park and main entrance have been an easy thing to organise - even for a small charge. 20 people at a time could have loaded and unloaded their gear at once and I'm sure everyone would have been happy to pay a couple of quid. Bunching of tents at the bottom part of the sute was uncomfortable and sometimes daft. And staking out territory with hazard tape really is unacceptable!
One route round the site was poor.
Beer up 50p and some nice throw away plastic glasses to boot was a nice touch - green, my arse.
Higher proportion of pissheads this year - at least 2 I saw requiring medical attention.
Posh white kids festival...it was about as multi-cultural as, well, best not go there!
No attempt to ease the difficult egress from the car park.
Jo and Danny (and the already uber-rich Alan Sugar family) coining it in.
The music makes it though - still the best line-up of any festival...and I enjoyed it.
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Post by chris3 on Aug 21, 2007 11:23:13 GMT
Bad Stuff
- The long walk from the car park. - The bars being understaffed on the first couple of days, took a long time to get served. I guess this may have been intentional so that people would use the can bars. - The bars now serving with disposable plastic glasses. Again, green my arse. - I didn't go, but from what my friend said there weren't enough showers again. - The folkey dolkey stage and main stage being too close together, if you had a loud band on one stage and a quite one on the other, they seriously interferred with each other. - Main stage sound too quiet some of the time. - People talking and laughing loudly throughout sets. If you're going to do that, don't stand near the front. - The Rain - Misty's Big Adventure
The Good
- The people I went with. - Alela Diane - Joanna Newsom (although this was almost ruined by people talking throughout and also being able to hear tunng from tent). - Monkey Swallows The Universe - Lisa Knapp - PG Six - Vashti Bunyan - Battles - John Renbourn - Devendra Banhart (set not long enough though) - Fernhill (nice surprise)
A lot of moaning there, but I still had a brilliant time.
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maw
New Member
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Post by maw on Aug 21, 2007 11:38:05 GMT
Am i missing something here.......... it was a bloody music festival, getting the music right was the easy bit surely. The rest was a disaster, no contingency plan for the weather.The festival stood in 130 acres of park and farmland. There was enough cut hay in surrounding fields to wrap around the world.Why did'nt someone put the stuff down during the night, along with more chipped bark.The organizers need a kick up the arse, complacency could be their downfall.
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Post by chris09 on Aug 21, 2007 12:05:59 GMT
agree with you Maw.
When I turned up on friday morning I looked around and thought this had the possibility to be the best festival I had ever been to. Great Music, great choice of food, great toilets, good camping, great choice of different beer rather than the normal watered down Carling rubbish you get at Glasto.
BUT,
Greenman, if you going to increase the capacity, great but take a look at what other festivals do to cope with the rain, absolutely no contingency plans for the rain, no attempt to clean up or put straw down to cope with the mud like Glasto, No metal tracks on the major entrance into the arena area like at Reading.
Greenman you got so many things right but risked messing it all up by not thinking what you would do if it rained, something we all knew was going to happen.
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Post by cyfarthfa on Aug 21, 2007 12:54:49 GMT
Yes, the return to chuck away glassess wasn't very good and the rain planning was pretty poor. I didn't get Devendra Banhart. How has he got anything to do with what even loosly called 'folk'? I thought he realy was girly pop. Planty was an odd thing too, like a loud club singer with a passable backing band and attitude. Somethimes legends should stay just that-legends. Are Jo and Danny anything to do with Allan Sugar family? Mind you, the smaller bands were outstanding- Nancy Elizabeth, 9Bach, Fernhill, Victoria Williams and I was immensly impressed by Seasick Steve. And then when we got home someone pinched the tent, stove and windbreak from the car boot parked on our drive.
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Post by rayrad on Aug 21, 2007 13:12:43 GMT
to say that jo and danny are "coining it" is ridiculous
at £100 a ticket, and 10,000 people, that's a million quid turnover
for a year's work, paying all the bands, hiring and equipping the site, security etc. there's no enormous profit in it
they're doing it because they love it
i can't comment on the camping because we didn't - but everything else was fantastic, as ever
anyone who went to the piss poor field day in london the weekend before - with the same number of punters - will know the difference between a well organised and poorly organised festival
i never waited more than ten minutes for food, five minutes for a drink or two minutes for a loo
if you think it's easy to organise a festival, and the way to a quick buck, go ahead - good luck
we already have next year's green man in the calendar
and are practising our best smiling in preparation
cheers ray
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Post by rogerio on Aug 21, 2007 14:05:59 GMT
Hi there. I've been to festivals for many years now, but my first Green Man experience was unforgettable!! The best festival ever, really. Even with rain and mud, the site, the music, the spirit, the people...everything was absolutely perfect!! Don't know much about walking from the car park, as I didn't have a car...But I think the toilet situation was by far the best I ever had in a music festival in Britain, the food was fantastic and Wye Valley ale was great. Music highlights for me:
John Renbourn Connan & the Mockasins (they were great!) Vashiti Bunyan Tunng Joanna Newsom Gareth Pearson Rachel Unthank Lisa Knapp Robert Plant
I had a wonderful time and will definitely go back in 2008!
Rogerio
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Post by palesaint on Aug 21, 2007 14:20:55 GMT
here here..... we live in the uk (weather, live with it) ......... it was my 22nd festival, and the best organised one i have ever been to......
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Post by Chris on Aug 21, 2007 14:32:07 GMT
I don't have a problem with people who go to the effort of putting on a festival for 10,000 people making some money out of it. Why shouldn't they? Most people tend to work for some sort of payment, and if you've got the balls to take the risk of putting on a festival, more power to your elbow, IMHO.
As for the weather and the mud etc., they did have wood chippings down, and the mud was only really on the main pathways if we're going to be honest. Unless they move the festival to Los Angeles I don't see how they can avoid the possibility of mud at an outdoor music festival.
A mop in the showers might have been a good thing, but I think it's a bit harsh to say that the festival was badly organised just because of a bit (and it was only a bit) of mud.
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lawm
New Member
Posts: 26
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Post by lawm on Aug 21, 2007 17:29:00 GMT
just to add to my earlier post.
the sound on the cafe stage was consistently quiet. this only seemed to be rectified by the time of the sunday night headliner.
i find myself areeing with those saying straw and chipping could have eased the mud hassles.
and finally, STILL not getting seasick steve. anyone can play a bit of slide and put on a southern accent :-)
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