Womad 2007

[JTG]

Serious question -- how representative do you think those whingers were though?

You were getting grief, which was shit, but there were plenty people there who WEREN'T giving you hassle, I'm sure.

Personally I encountered very few moaners, and plenty more people who were trying their very best to rise above the mud and have a good time.

Will get onto that WOMAD forum to kick arse before long

representative enough to make me feel I don't want to be bothered next year.

I've worked several different festivals now and Womad is the ONLY one where I consistently encounter hassle and unreasonable expectations from punters.

 

[William of Walworth]

Shame you met too many twats and feel like that. I hope you'll reconsider at some stage.

See you at the next one, anyway

 

[JTG]

Post on that forum:

On Sat I asked a steward to help me lay out the plastic track that had been dumped in a pile in the Family Field since Thu.

The steward said that it was not his job.

I did point out that the entrance to the Family Field was thick mud and that toddlers and buggies were having difficulty.

The steward was just not interested and I left later that day.

We are not trained to lay trackway. It is not our job. We are not insured if it goes wrong. If we try to lay it then we risk injury to ourselves and injury to others if we get it wrong.

Other complaints involved us not helping people through the mud - see above. We are not porters, tent erectors, child carriers, handymen etc etc. We are there to ensure that if there are any fires, health and safety issues, security problems, medical emergencies etc then the appropriate response arrives as quickly as possible. We can give directions and try and acquire certain information for festival goers as well - this information may well be out of date, subject to change or just plain wrong but it is almost always the information we have been given by the people running the festival.

Some people were shocked and amazed that stewards were 'drinking, smoking and eating' on shift. Horrors. So long as the drinks were non-alcoholic and the smoking material tobacco based then there is bugger all wrong with this. Advising campers that they may camp anywhere in the overflow campsite is not wrong either. Stewards who attempted to advise campers in the meadow area that further rain was expected and that they could not guarantee that the campsite would not flood were met with abuse about how unprofessional Oxfam/Womad were.

Many (by no means all, or even a majority) of Womad's customers are spoilt arseholes who throw their toys out of the pram as soon as things go even slightly wrong. They don't deserve such a brilliant festival and they certainly don't deserve to be kept safe by such a dedicated and good natured bunch of stewards.

Sorry I'm annoyed, I'll shut up now.

 

[free spirit]

Post on that forum:

We are not trained to lay trackway. It is not our job. We are not insured if it goes wrong. If we try to lay it then we risk injury to ourselves and injury to others if we get it wrong.


Sorry I'm annoyed, I'll shut up now.

sounds like you were missing the A-Team

meanwhile I spent most of the weekend sleeping or getting pissed after finally getting back from glade on friday night (an hour before our club night opened )

 

[Tort]

I just posted this over there in response to a thread of thanks started by Viscount Andover. Top marks to the bloke. You wouldn't see Emily Eavis getting hands on with the punters like this.

VA can I add my voice of thanks to you & your family and the WOMAD organisation as a whole for putting on such a splendid show despite the enormous logistical difficulties. Yes there are some issues that need to be addressed, same as there always is at any other festival. But the fact that such a great show went ahead at all in such difficult circumstances is a testament to the fantastic amount of dedication & hard work put in by so many wonderful people.

Can I also say that as somebody who has posted on festival related message boards for many years, and specifically those for Glastonbury, it is noticeable how many "moaners" come out of the woodwork in the week or so following the festival to express their dissatisfaction over the most petty of negative aspects. It always seems much easier to complain than to praise in this medium. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that these small minority are not in any way representative of the vast number of people who battled on through with a smile & who left WOMAD this year with happy memories.

Look forward to seeing you all again in 2008 .... in the the sunshine

 

[moose]

Many (by no means all, or even a majority) of Womad's customers are spoilt arseholes who throw their toys out of the pram as soon as things go even slightly wrong

Reminds me again why these 2 world music lovers didn't even consider WOMAD this year. We've only been twice and been appalled by the behaviour of people there

 

[William of Walworth]

I didn't annoy you deliberately -- blame the hot and spicey

Reading was, by the end, a terrible site anyway -- I'd blame that for a lot of negative shit there, if anything. I personally think if we'd have had better conditions this time, the new site would have provided a backdrop to an entirely wonderful WOMAD.

I have Rocketno9's take on this -- he acknowledges that there are a fair few ultra annoying, ultra middle class pampered broadsheet readers there, but I think most (normal, non moany) WOMAD lovers find the atmosphere magical and the vast vast majority of people there friendly and up for a party.

We outnumber them so fuck em!

Talked to a girl (the dready one ) on Sunday, who had, I'm nearly sure from what she said, 'liberated' and recycled her wristband from the ground where it had been thrown in disgust by an early departer. Presumably she got quite 'creative' in reattaching it ...

Thats the spirit!

 

[William of Walworth]

It always seems much easier to complain than to praise in this medium. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that these small minority are not in any way representative of the vast number of people who battled on through with a smile & who left WOMAD this year with happy memories.

Exactly, I think there's a danger of overinflating the importance and number of these whingers. You notice them because they make a conspicuous noise.

But most of us were happy!

 

[dash_two]

I was stuck behind mixing desks with my Fostex for most of the festival, but I didn't think people's behaviour was generally at all bad, given the conditions. There were a few daft questions/comments from festival-goers, eg the gentleman who asked to have the bass turned down on the Radio 3 stage because it was giving him a headache. Also, saw a growly exchange between two men in the Siam tent, but that tent seemed to attract more pissheads than any other.

 

[nosos]

A call came over the radio on saturday morning (I think) from a steward saying he had a punter who wished to complain about the mud and where should he direct him?

You didn't sort it out for him? Lazy buggers

 

[Tort]

Here's the rest of the photos

 

[JTG]

Some more classics courtesy of the radio (I was on the same shift as the guy who listed them over on the Oxfam boards and can vouch for their veracity)

:i'm pregnant, organise me a lift back to my tent

:i'm drunk and so are all my mates, organise me a lift back to my tent

:have Campaway got any spare tents we can stay in [saves a walk back to my tent] [this was about 3am monday]

:i have a medical condition which means I have to have a shower right now, open them an hour early for me

:i'm pregnant so i need to camp in disabled camping

 

[Mr Smin]

I have never knowingly met another urbanite and then at womad I found myself working with wiskey and dervish - excellent

 

[JTG]

I have never knowingly met another urbanite and then at womad I found myself working with wiskey and dervish - excellent

oh hello! didn't realise you were here as well!

you were working with me and all

 

[JTG]

If it's any consolation, depending on who else is going I may very well pay to go to Womad next year because the site is brilliant.

 

[innana]

WOMAD is the festival I pay to go to, rather than working at it. We left early (Saturday evening) because the (admittedly older) members of my group couldn't face any more trudging in the mud.

I wouldn't want to steward there - as others have said, there are a significant percentage of moaners amongst WOMAD goers. We returned to the tent on Friday night in exuberant mood, after watching the magnificent Mr Gabriel and then a wee drink or five in the backstage bar, and we were screamed at by someone in a neighbouring tent to keep the noise down! How dare we enjoy ourselves at a festival! We weren't even in family camping, FFS!

 

[William of Walworth]

Where is all this shit coing from??

I didn't really witness any of this sort of thing.

I'm well aware there are moaners and whingers and not very festival aware types, but I can't say I noticed more than one or two myself, and none that caused me any direct bother.

I appreciate others were bothered by this sorta thing, but from my point of view almost everyone I met/encountered/chatted to was nice, friendly, positive.

I suspect that WOMAD-goers' notorious reputation may be reinforcing impressions and inflating (impressionisticly) the numbers and importance of the arsey ones.

They're the ones you notice, get annoyed by (correctly) and (sadly) remember.

Sorted festie goers, of whom there were still a vast number there IMO, don't tend to bother stewards with stupid, moany questions ...

I still thnik WOMAD's great, and after last year's theft-influenced wobble, I'm very glad I came back and I will continue to go.

 

[William of Walworth]

If it's any consolation, depending on who else is going I may very well pay to go to Womad next year because the site is brilliant.

Hope so, I think you'll have a much better time!

 

[Tort]

I didn't really witness any of this sort of thing.

I'm well aware there are moaners and whingers and not very festival aware types, but I can't say I noticed more than one or two myself, and none that caused me any direct bother.

The reason you didn't see them William is because they are probably the same ignorant tossers who park their rows of camping chairs 5 feet from the stage & then get all frumpy when an indignant Tort starts jumping on their Hunter wellies while muttering something along the lines of "it's not the fucking Albert Hall for fuck's sake!"

 

[wiskey]

well i had a wicked time

i really dont get all the people who bailed on Saturday night (bar those with mobility issues) - it rained overnight whilst everyone was asleep and then was blazing sunshine all of sunday and monday sunday night was bloody cold but a lovely evening. by sunday afternoon there were places you could sit down (on your own groundsheet as there were no benches made).

i thoroughly enjoyed babba maal, friction and nehal, dohl foundation and possibly my highlight that i heard but couldnt see was CJ cheanier which i heard from my shift at the oxbox and sounded great.

i didnt enjoy david d'or at all.

i loved walking around and catching a bit of this or that music womad style - and apart from the odd truly wellie sucking spot the mud wasnt that bad and didnt cramp the style of womad at all.

i fell over - into a milkshake consistency muddy lake by wristband 5 on friday afternoon it was really messy but once i'd dried out it was actually not an unpleasant experience.

i ate too much (we love the phillipino kitchen they wrapped my dinner up for me)

i have very little negative stuff to say about the site itself - the meadow field was flooded and they knew it was flooded from days before the festival so they need to re-work that, and less loo's in more places (move them from right by the stages though as they stink) rather than long alleys of stinking tardis's, create some benches, put in more bins, lay trackway, and make the wristbands material rather than plastic and i'll be happy.

i shall definately be back next year. charlton park definately gets my vote

wiskers

 

[wiskey]

oh yeah and the quality of the sound from the siam tent was really impressive and struck me every time i walked past

 

[Tort]

WOMAD's official response to the moaners. I think what it says is what most fair minded people already know. They did a fantastic job to put the festival on at all and against all adversity. Just a shame they need to defend themselves against the wingeing minority!

We have spent the last week managing a difficult festival situation and the last two days getting customers and traders safely away from the site. Now that this has occurred we feel it is important to post an initial position statement in order to clarify some of the issues raised through the festival forum and in a number of phone calls.

There will in due course be a more detailed statement from the company but
at this stage we would like to offer more information in order to correct a
number of misconceptions that are recurring themes in the comments made by
some.

Advance information on the Web Site:

This was accurate. On Wednesday 25 July both campsite and car parks were
accessible by cars under their own power and the site was drying. We had
already decided to delay the opening of the arena in order to allow it to be
rolled, following damage to the ground caused by site vehicles during the build. Rain forecast for the Thursday was for an occasional shower.

Health and Safety and Planning:

Like all events, Womad is scrutinised closely by emergency services and by the local authorities and we make all key decisions in consultation with those
bodies. The site was assessed daily by Womad Health and Safety Consultants
and by Council Health and Safety Officers and we also experienced a visit from the Health and Safety Executive.

As organisers we held an emergency meeting on site with the Emergency
Planning Team from Wiltshire County Council. All of these processes resulted in the unanimous agreement that the festival was safe at all times.

Thursday 26 July:

The events of Thursday were critical. As thousands of cars entered the site,
approximately 22 millimetres of rain fell during two hours of the afternoon. To
put this into a context, it is useful to identify that the average July rainfall on
the site is 12 millimetres for the entire month.

The amount of rain on this day was not forecast until the morning. The
meadow area flooded for only the second time in living memory, the other
time having been in the middle of winter.

The impact of this was that very quickly all campervans and many cars were
having to be towed onto site. The knock-on effect was that before long the
traffic build up was threatening to block the M4. The action we took was to
open up more parking fields immediately in order to alleviate the pressure on
the roads. To do this, we were moving stewards and toilets and other
infrastructure to what was a rapidly expanding site.

The use of tractors meant that the ground underfoot became quickly churned
up and could not be parked as tightly as we had planned to do, meaning that a lot of space was lost. Despite this, we did not run out of parking or camping
space and a contingency camping field remained unused.

From Thursday onwards:

Once there are thousands of people on the festival site, how we manage it
changes; with public safety being the priority. For example, It becomes
impossible to move large vehicles around the site safely and on wet ground
every vehicle movement takes longer to achieve.

Hard-Core, Trackway and Woodchip:

We had more than three hundred tons of hard-core on the site and thousands
of cubic metres of woodchip. This was being constantly delivered throughout
the festival. However, notwithstanding the problems of distributing this safely,
the professional advice we received from the Estate Manager is that it is simply a myth to believe that woodchip is the answer to a boggy site. As well as adding to the quagmire, laying woodchip also delays the drying of the ground.

Woodchip needs to be placed on near dry conditions - something the additional 12 millimetres of rain that fell on Saturday meant we were never going to achieve.

There were several miles of trackway at Charlton Park. Indeed, every available piece of trackway in the country was on the site, much more than we had initially hired in the preparation stages. However, the wet summer has meant that items such as trackway have remained stuck in fields all over the country and we were unable to hire yet further trackway as the wet conditions of last week finally emerged. The limited amounts of trackway available for hire has had a serious impact on other festivals as this summer has moved forward.

Tractors:

At its peak, there were forty tractors on the site, pulling both customers and
traders to safety. These were paid for by WOMAD. If tractor drivers charged
cars it was not on our instruction. When we heard yesterday that this had
happened we instructed the driver concerned to stop.

Stewards:

Oxfam stewards are the best and most experienced in the country. Over the
Womad weekend they were in the frontline of a rapidly changing situation as
key decisions were made. We feel it would be wholly unfair to criticise either
the stewards or their supervisors for any of the difficulties experienced by our
customers over the festival weekend.

Summary:

As organisers, we deeply regret the difficulties our customers experienced at
the festival. We are disappointed that people feel that not enough was being
done when our crew were working 20 hours each day to keep the festival going.

We are disappointed that valued fans and customers believe that in some way
we deceived people about the conditions on the site. We did not.

A massive amount has been learnt by us during this process. Equally, it is with
an enormous amount of experience that as organisers of this festival we were
able to take the event forward safely in what were exceptionally difficult
circumstances.

And Some Thank-Yous:

Firstly, we would like to offer a vote of thanks to you, the customer, who
coped with the conditions and made the festival a huge creative success. As
well as the situation, it’s all about the music and we are delighted to report
that all of the artists enjoyed their experience of the stage very much and
many of them remarked at the warmth of the audience reception.

Thanks also to the tireless staff and crew who worked incredibly hard to keep
the festival going safely.

Thank you to the British Red Cross, Oxfam and the army of volunteers without
whom this event would not be possible.

Thank you to North Wiltshire District Council, Wiltshire Police, Wiltshire County
Council and all of the agencies who supported us in making the festival happen.

Thank you to the local residents of Charlton Village and Malmesbury for
tolerating without complaint the inconvenience caused.

Thank you to the staff and estate workers of the Charlton Park Estate for their support and for the enormous amount of work contributed above and beyond what was expected.

And, finally, many thanks to The Earl of Suffolk, Viscount Andover and family
for their continued support."

Sorry the pagination's a bit crap.

 

[JTG]

This was accurate. On Wednesday 25 July both campsite and car parks were accessible by cars under their own power and the site was drying. We had already decided to delay the opening of the arena in order to allow it to be rolled, following damage to the ground caused by site vehicles during the build. Rain forecast for the Thursday was for an occasional shower.

This was obvious to anybody who was on site on Wednesday. It was damp but drying out and looked OK

Stewards:

Oxfam stewards are the best and most experienced in the country. Over the Womad weekend they were in the frontline of a rapidly changing situation as key decisions were made. We feel it would be wholly unfair to criticise either the stewards or their supervisors for any of the difficulties experienced by our customers over the festival weekend.

Word

 

[William of Walworth]

Excellent statement (just seen it) -- I now hope at least a few of the moaners are educated from it, and now feel a bit more embarassed for whining in ignorance ...

Here is what I posted on the WOMAD forum (the oifficial one : http://www.womad.org then 'Forums') earlier today. it was attached to a thread started by Viscount Andover in his attempt to increase positivity and express his thanks to the WOMAD organisers and attenders ... (Tort quoted his post here, from this same thread, earlier today). Twas partly in a respoinse to a particularly whingey post from 'Theo Cupier' ... now read on ...

Not thatr I'm ever going to arselick an aristo, mind

It's Theo Cupier's loss, and that of anyone else deciding, in my opinion irrationally, to abandon WOMAD next year. Especially while they'll be sat at home in late July while we return and continue to party and enjoy it all.

This year was my tenth WOMAD, and by far and away the muddiest.

I hate rain and mud, but I still had a great time because I'm a festival veteran who loves Glastonbury, WOMAD, and many many other smaller ones.

When we have a bad summer we dig deep into our reserves of resilience and experience, drink more cider, and continue to have a great time. It's the festival way!

I appreciate it's more difficult for those with small children (although many in that category stayed). I know two friends, one a dad of three [Edit : it is 3, isn't it, RockeNo9? ], one a young mum of two under-five year olds, both families left on Saturday. I don't blame them, but they were also not blaming WOMAD or the Suffolk family. Nor were they full of angry indignance-- they could still appreciate plenty of positive aspects to this year, all the more positive for becoming apparant in at times truly dreadful conditions.

They understand and appreciate that in a dry year, as next, everything on that beautiful site will be wonderful and lessons WILL be learned from this time.

Tort's post above [in the thread on the WOMAD forum started by Viscount Andover] sums it up very well. I know him, he's a fellow festie veteran and WOMAD veteran and also a good mate, and he knows the score -- immediately after any festival that has even slightly negative aspects (as all do -- SOME) and especially straight after one dominated by very 'challenging' conditions, you get the indignant complainers, the moaners and whingers.

They're first on forums like this to vent their spleen, while those of us who enjoyed the party are still ahem 'recovering' and only emerge a bit later.

Theo Cupier and his like are not to my mind representative of all WOMAD goers -- in fact I'd go so far as to say he's in a fairly limited minority. I hope his ticket next year goes to someone who knows how to cope -- not that nearly as much coping will be needed -- and who knows how to have fun.

I don't especially respect the aristocracy, but I think the Viscount and his WOMAD-favouring family might be spared come the Revolution!

I'm joking -- or am I??

Grudging kudos anyway to the noble custodian for coming on here to post and read -- I may have a few constructively critical/balancedly positive suggestions for improvements later.

William of Walworth
Festographer
Urban75 and efestivals

 

[wiskey]

my only comment about that official response is to this bit:

For example, It becomes
impossible to move large vehicles around the site safely and on wet ground
every vehicle movement takes longer to achieve.

this was down right stupid

 

[William of Walworth]

Tis a constructive criticism to point out how utterly stupid it was to try and move large heavy mud-churney vehicles through that mud -- I saw some ridiculous attempts ...

And that YouTube clip shows far from the worst example ...

 

[William of Walworth]

Blokey listy WOMAD review

Things to be criticised (not many, just getting them over with first)


Rain and mud (but for that, no-one except God or Exxon Mobil -- whichever is the most powerful -- can be blamed)
Bad distribution of toilets (enough of them, but too many concentrated in limited places). And no urinals, but I think they had understandable problems setting those up??
Beer tents running out of beer (not intended though -- two managers of different tents nicely told me -- in response to my polite qustion -- that they had fully intended to import more Bath Ale, but the conditions/logistics stopped it).
Candi Stanton -- just shit, really, IMO, on any level. I don't like Gospel, which is no doubt ignorant (or atheist! ) of me, and no doubt she was good at what she did, but I just found her evangelical wailing and constant God references fuckin annoying)
Distribution of various crew passes and supposedly relevant wristbands was beyond the comprehension of anyone sane (2 different places, a long way from each other, to pick up these two essentials for photographers/reviewers and no doubt others). I wasn't personally affected, being a pleb, but 5cozzie and Kazric (from elsewhere) and kerplunk all were given the runaround to get sorted.
Excessive reverence given by some of the crowd to the Earl of Suffolk and Viscount Andover when they came on stage to welcome people on Thursday -- they were blandly, poshly pleasant enough, and comparatively harmless, but there's really no need at all for that amount of clapping -- distracts me from measuring them for lampposts!

Probably a few other criticisms, but not that important overall ....

Things to be praised

In the main, the lovely friendly, positive, resilient people.
Site is beautiful. Yes IS -- and will be even more so in next year's mudfree one! To be reluctantly fair, the noble 'owners' made a point of prospectively welcoming people back next year, when they did a Charity Prizedraw late on Sunday)
Bath Gem and Wild Hare (while they lasted)
Hot Spicey Cider
My loudly chanting and self appointed (but not at all objected to!) promotion job highly succesfully drumming up trade for Hot and Spicey Cider ("Not only remarkably Hot, but also especially Spicey! Contains 6% Alcohol from Somerset! Are you cold? Are you wet? Are you miserable? Are you insufficiently drunk? Improve your mood and your warmth and your life and your lovelife and be a better, happier, drunker person with Hot AND Spicey Cider, available right here, right now at this very stall, with free dance Tent attached!!" etc etc etc ) after midnight on Saturday and Sunday nights. Ca. 70 or 80 extra purchasers over two very muddy nights, with a mudbath between path and stall, on top of the hardcore who were always going to drink. I met loads of interesting, nice, mad, drunk people, got free Cider, two with a shot of Cider Brandy in them, bought a great hash truffle on Sunday, and it was FUN! ("Last alcohol stop before the M4" ; [to a Nirvana shirt wearer] : "Kurt would have loved it!" etc etc)
Having a very (un?) reasonable amount to smoke.
Four last pints of Chucklehhead Cider on Friday.
Malmesbury Merchants -- fantastic Indian food from one of the town's few (I suspect) curryhouses -- best veggie curry I've had for AGES -- massive plateful, really really tasty, well and subtly cooked, and cheap for the excellence you got -- even at £6=
Ultra weird illuminated/projected tree-faces on Sunday night, in the place not called the Glade.
Peter Gabriel, especially Blood of Eden. Don't argue!
Toots and the Maytals -- Even better (and unrecognisably good, compared to two weeks ago at Guilfest, where Mr Hibbert had temporarily lost his voice)
Steel Pulse -- Even better -- and the Jamaica/Brum crossover influence showed when they did some Heavy Metal axe hero skanking in deep Dub ... wonderful. But Handsworth Revolution (more Brum!) was especially class
Mr Scruff. You know it!
Sunshine! Amazingly, lots of it -- if you ignored what was knee downwards ...
A new and lovely pal, Dready Lisa from near Bristol, who got in on a 'recycled' wristband (see earlier) and who plans (now!) to come to Endorse It!
BBC Asian Network Tent -- with some HARDCORE Drum and Bass on Saturday night. Was the DJ the geezer JTG was rooting for earlier in this thread? Doesn't matter, a great party central tent to shelter in ...
Sheila Chandra -- truly lovely voice.
Mariza -- great sad Portuguese fado voice, and a wonderfully expressive performer, but I especially loved her ridiculously English introductory phrase "I hope you are all having a very pleasant afternoon" -- 700 plus years of friendly alliance between England and Portugal (until last year, anyway!!), with never a war between the two countries, have got to count for something! She never learnt that phrase from the Yanks!
Bill Cobham (USA -- a very cool Yank). Fifty or so drums in one kit, the best Jazz drummer in the WORLD he's called and I can understand why -- he's been to WOMAD many times, but I'd never seen him until now. Genius.
Unexpectedly impressed, while intending to hate them spot (I was walking past from a beer tent, alright?) : "JC" and BC" that's 'quite well known' pianist Jamie Cullum and his 'better because untainted' bassist brother Ben, I'm afraid -- they got the crowd justifiably roaring, punks, dreads, non 'WOMAD type' people included -- really really good.
Unexpectedly unimpressed, while intending to love them spot : The Warsaw Village Band -- I love the idea of Polish traditional./Eastern European traditional/fast Klezmer/Balkan Wedding gypsy music (apparantly they're meant to throw all these into their mix) but the whole thing was a mess, sadly, and they lost their audience -- many walked off including me! (this one should be in the 'bad tings' list I spose, but what the hell, it follows from the above thematically, just for a contrast ... )
The ultra cool Anarcho-Soviet flag on Sunday -- will post a pic when I can.
Very lovely WOMAD flags as always. More than at Glastonbury, even though they're the same ones ...
Clean toilets with lots of paper at all times.
The pub at Kemble Station on Monday, I arrived at the station nearly two hours early, but I was only entitled to one specific train .... Never mind though! There was plenty of Arkells 3B Ale (superb, even though from Swindon!) and a welcoming Landlord who didn't mind us festie types at all so long as we took our muddy boots off -- no bother, given the lovely sunny conditions and dry garden)

Probably loads more to add, but that'll do for now!

ETA -- 2 more Good Things :
Tinariwen -- only three of them were able to make it (transport problems etc.) , but they were great anyway!
Calexico -- never seen them before, but I loved them.

 

[JTG]

BBC Asian Network Tent -- with some HARDCORE Drum and Bass on Saturday night. Was the DJ the geezer JTG was rooting for earlier in this thread? Doesn't matter, a great party central tent to shelter in ...

Nah, Friction was on on Friday - I think you were probably listening to Clipz, the entire line up in there from 8 till 11 on Saturday was bristol DJs

 

[William of Walworth]

Cheers!!

He was great ....

Another positive thing to add to the above list :

I found all the Oxfam stewards really helpful and friendly (not just saying that, though knowing a few of em helps, obv. )

Oh yes, and the Heliosphere person in Tort's pic earlier, was very very cool ...

 

[William of Walworth]

Here's the rest of the photos

Wonderful pix as ever -- check em out folks!