Knockengorroch
- Thread starter crustychick
- Start date
crustychick
doo-woop-de-doo
*puts up tent in back garden and cries*
han said:
Haven't been on this thread for a bit.
But now I have my tent, rucksack, boots, etc. (plus extra warm blanket!) with me next to my desk at work, I thought I'd drop in ...
...only to find that the notoriously date-confused han
(and jan) aren't coming after all .... 
Big shame you're out of this as well crustychick ... (although I already knew that ... )
Forecast currently not too bad**, according to the BBC
5 day for Dumfries -- cold at night, but wind drops after Friday, and rain not looking too heavy (one drop only, and only on Saturday). And a nice sunny day when we leave on Monday!!
**by Scottish standards
<refuses to look at Metcheck, the ultra pessimists!!!
>
Looking forward hugely ... bad weather or not! 
han
love is the answer
William of Walworth said:...only to find that the notoriously date-confused han
The date wasn't set for the 1st birthday/naming ceremony until about a month ago.....such a shame it clashes, but as they say, you're only 1 once!
Have a fabbo time in bonnie Scotland, guys
*stamps foot*
han
love is the answer
William of Walworth said:...only to find that the notoriously date-confused han
The date wasn't set for the 1st birthday party/naming ceremony until about a month ago.....such a shame it clashes, but as they say, you're only 1 once!
Have a fabbo time in bonnie Scotland, guys
*stamps foot*
It's a real shame you can't make it ...
I' take it there's other festies this summer that you will be getting to?
I' take it there's other festies this summer that you will be getting to?
han said:Oh yes
Just haven't decided yet ! <better get some tix sorted out>
What about you?
LOADS!!
Will chat with you later about this ...
Just got back from the wilds of Scotland and for now, I'll just say that Knockengorroch was SUPERB!!!!!!!
The sun even shone .. for a few hours on Sunday morning ...
rest of the time was divided between raining, and looking like it was about to ... bloody cold at night as well ...
Some great music and an excellent old school festival atmosphere ...
Also
Beautiful remote setting on a riverside site in a glen miles from anywhere. Report to follow!
And Stig has a few pictures, assuming they survive the dampened camera ...
Beautiful remote setting on a riverside site in a glen miles from anywhere. Report to follow!
And Stig has a few pictures, assuming they survive the dampened camera ...
Looking forward to Stig's and Tort's photos ...
The site was spectacular, it was hidden away in a beautiful sheltered valley surrounded by bleak Scottish mountains, but we were camped on the farm by a river next to some trees .... the nearest shop was about 8 miles away and even the main Dumfries to Ayr road was about three miles off ...
About 3,000 or so hippies, crusties, folkies, general alternative types, small-festival fans, random eccentrics and a fair few protesters/Travellers (with a fine collection of vehicles!) and all up for a big party. Dread Collective proportion : about 10% or more ...
I think Tort, Calamity, Stig and myself plus a couple of others had come about the furthest, we had a near-400 mile drrive (Heroic Kudos to Tort for undertaking this!) from Suffolk. We had set off about 5:30 am !!
But most people seemed to be from Scotland or the North of England. Shame free spirit couldn't make it in the end, we also missed crustychick and han and jan's presence ...
The beer tent was well supplied with fantastic heather ale, and other Scottish beer delicacies ... here was the best place (being sheltered, and exactly opposite the main stage!) to gather for random chats with festival drunks ... and to become one yourself .. the other great place to gather was a massive bonfire between the beer tent and the dance tent ...
Musical highlights : very definitely the Baghdaddies on Friday night, they were SUPERB. The Paddyrastas on Sunday lived up to expectations, Celtic electric-folk crossed with reggae, the lead vocalist's toasting was great and pretty original. There were also loads of musicians playing impromptu all around the site at odd times, including some of the main bands who wanted to carry on, apparantly Bellowhead rocked the beer tent til about 5:30 on Saturday/Sunday, and a band called Sheelanagig (Eastern European/gypsy/klezmer type folk with some hints of Celtic as well) kept us up to 1:30 am on Sunday/Monday ... they'd been great on the main stage too!
Wasn't in the dance tent too much but Mungo Hi Fi (from Glasgow) played some excellent roots and dub and versions on Sunday night although I get a bit fed up with the over active MC after a certain point ... top tunage though!
Also, I became convinced that the pizza stall near our camp was just a transparent front for their fuck off huge sound system, this went on all night Friday to Saturday before they were shut down around 10 am Saturday for over 24 hours .... they came back later on Sunday night though. And the pizza on Sunday night was excellent (they'd found the cheese!) despite the chef tripping his head off ...
Virtually no coppers around, and they were mainly bothered by parking issues. Festival security (or were they Council bods?) very low key and laid back, their main role seemed to be enforcing no-smoking in the beer tent and other enclosed spaces, no smoking indoors being the LAW in Scotland. But their patrols weren't around that often
Plenty of recycling facilities and a small but dedicated litter picking crew meant the site was mainly tidy ... although it did get pretty muddy and puddly and churned up!!
Top mashedness award goes to Stig late on Friday, when she walked kneedeep into a bog ...
Some small negatives : weather was largely between indifferent and a bit worse than that : REALLY cold on Saturday night (thank fuck for the great campsite bonfire), ice on the tents by morning, etc., and rain or showers or threats of them a lot of the rest of the time. But we DID get some hazy sun for a while on Saturday morning and some proper, actively warm(ish) sun on Sunday morning. I think I spotted two or three blokes in bare chests and a handful more in shorts, which is hardcore at 17C!
Very few stalls seemed to have real milk, not great for your morning tea/ coffee that, but the best tea tent (Weirdigans) had real cups and real (organic) milk til they ran out of the latter ....
There could have been a somewhat wider choice of food, and the people running the cafe in the dance tent ran some VERY laid back hours ... late or no breakfast!
No other complaints (well those are minor grizzles, really, anyway) at all!
Fantastic festival with a proper old school atmosphere and a really friendly crowd. Great to meet pogofish properly and all of Tort's friends in their camp (which looked like a hippy crackhouse by the end with all the empty nitrous cartridges! )
Will very likely be back next May!
The site was spectacular, it was hidden away in a beautiful sheltered valley surrounded by bleak Scottish mountains, but we were camped on the farm by a river next to some trees .... the nearest shop was about 8 miles away and even the main Dumfries to Ayr road was about three miles off ...
About 3,000 or so hippies, crusties, folkies, general alternative types, small-festival fans, random eccentrics and a fair few protesters/Travellers (with a fine collection of vehicles!) and all up for a big party. Dread Collective proportion : about 10% or more ...
I think Tort, Calamity, Stig and myself plus a couple of others had come about the furthest, we had a near-400 mile drrive (Heroic Kudos to Tort for undertaking this!) from Suffolk. We had set off about 5:30 am !!
But most people seemed to be from Scotland or the North of England. Shame free spirit couldn't make it in the end, we also missed crustychick and han and jan's presence ...
The beer tent was well supplied with fantastic heather ale, and other Scottish beer delicacies ... here was the best place (being sheltered, and exactly opposite the main stage!) to gather for random chats with festival drunks ... and to become one yourself .. the other great place to gather was a massive bonfire between the beer tent and the dance tent ...
Musical highlights : very definitely the Baghdaddies on Friday night, they were SUPERB. The Paddyrastas on Sunday lived up to expectations, Celtic electric-folk crossed with reggae, the lead vocalist's toasting was great and pretty original. There were also loads of musicians playing impromptu all around the site at odd times, including some of the main bands who wanted to carry on, apparantly Bellowhead rocked the beer tent til about 5:30 on Saturday/Sunday, and a band called Sheelanagig (Eastern European/gypsy/klezmer type folk with some hints of Celtic as well) kept us up to 1:30 am on Sunday/Monday ... they'd been great on the main stage too!
Wasn't in the dance tent too much but Mungo Hi Fi (from Glasgow) played some excellent roots and dub and versions on Sunday night although I get a bit fed up with the over active MC after a certain point ... top tunage though!
Also, I became convinced that the pizza stall near our camp was just a transparent front for their fuck off huge sound system, this went on all night Friday to Saturday before they were shut down around 10 am Saturday for over 24 hours .... they came back later on Sunday night though. And the pizza on Sunday night was excellent (they'd found the cheese!) despite the chef tripping his head off ...
Virtually no coppers around, and they were mainly bothered by parking issues. Festival security (or were they Council bods?) very low key and laid back, their main role seemed to be enforcing no-smoking in the beer tent and other enclosed spaces, no smoking indoors being the LAW in Scotland. But their patrols weren't around that often
Plenty of recycling facilities and a small but dedicated litter picking crew meant the site was mainly tidy ... although it did get pretty muddy and puddly and churned up!!
Top mashedness award goes to Stig late on Friday, when she walked kneedeep into a bog ...
Some small negatives : weather was largely between indifferent and a bit worse than that : REALLY cold on Saturday night (thank fuck for the great campsite bonfire), ice on the tents by morning, etc., and rain or showers or threats of them a lot of the rest of the time. But we DID get some hazy sun for a while on Saturday morning and some proper, actively warm(ish) sun on Sunday morning. I think I spotted two or three blokes in bare chests and a handful more in shorts, which is hardcore at 17C!
Very few stalls seemed to have real milk, not great for your morning tea/ coffee that, but the best tea tent (Weirdigans) had real cups and real (organic) milk til they ran out of the latter ....
There could have been a somewhat wider choice of food, and the people running the cafe in the dance tent ran some VERY laid back hours ... late or no breakfast!
No other complaints (well those are minor grizzles, really, anyway) at all!
Fantastic festival with a proper old school atmosphere and a really friendly crowd. Great to meet pogofish properly and all of Tort's friends in their camp (which looked like a hippy crackhouse by the end with all the empty nitrous cartridges!
)Will very likely be back next May!
And I won my bet with Stig that I would see a dready bloke in a kilt ... in fact I saw at least three, the first being about the fifth person I saw after getting on site ...
The Escocia big drumming band (with sax, clarinet, etc., as well) were superb ... our attention was drawn to them when about 20 or so people carrying huge drums etc. walked in a snaking procession through our camp, on their way to a rehearsal in the woods which we went to see ...
The rehearsal paid off cos on the main stage they were great!
The Escocia big drumming band (with sax, clarinet, etc., as well) were superb ... our attention was drawn to them when about 20 or so people carrying huge drums etc. walked in a snaking procession through our camp, on their way to a rehearsal in the woods which we went to see ...
The rehearsal paid off cos on the main stage they were great!
crustychick
doo-woop-de-doo
Sounds like you had a good time
Shame the sun didn't shine much for you, it is excellent when it does, but, saying that, I love a bit of mud me (anyone who saw me at glasto two years ago can testify to that!)
Did you make it to Sam's Sauna? that truely is a treat!
and.... dready boys in kilts?! *drools/faints etc*
see you there in September then?
Shame the sun didn't shine much for you, it is excellent when it does, but, saying that, I love a bit of mud me (anyone who saw me at glasto two years ago can testify to that!)
Did you make it to Sam's Sauna? that truely is a treat!
and.... dready boys in kilts?! *drools/faints etc*
see you there in September then?
crustychick said:Sounds like you had a good time
Shame the sun didn't shine much for you, it is excellent when it does, but, saying that, I love a bit of mud me (anyone who saw me at glasto two years ago can testify to that!)
Did you make it to Sam's Sauna? that truely is a treat!
and.... dready boys in kilts?! *drools/faints etc*
see you there in September then?
Tort may very well be there in September, but should we return (great idea!!), it'll be in May next year. Too many other festie commitments this year!!
Worth being aware that the plans for an Urban 75 Festival being hatched in Community (see threads over there) have (at this early stage) mooted the weekend around Saturday 16 September for it, which is when I think the Autumn Knockengorroch is. The Urban festie, if it happens, probably does need to be late on in the season, so as not to clash with other festies and thing ...
Was intending last weekend to get into Sam's sauna, but I was too lazy to get out of even a very cold tent on Sunday morning ... the sauna was JUST too far to walk to make the effort ...
wiskey said:
Altogether : ca 3,000 to 3,500
Urbanites : Stig, me Tort, Calamity (occasional poster) and pogofish
Tort's festival crowd (are they from Virtual Festivals or TOS Tort? -- I think the latter) : about 20 to 25? -- the ones in our camping area anyway.
Tort said:
No wonder I was unclear --I hadn't really picked up on that!!
crustychick
doo-woop-de-doo
ah, sams sauna is the place to be on a cold sunday morning. nice warm, wet, hippies. lovely....
crustychick said:ah, sams sauna is the place to be on a cold sunday morning. nice warm, wet, hippies. lovely....
Maybe next year ...
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