"Don't panic!"
Ace pix as ever
I really liked this one ....
Ace pix as ever
I really liked this one ....
WOMAD, 24-28 July 2008, Charlton Park, Wiltshire -- who's going??
- Thread starter William of Walworth
- Start date
>caroline1973
Well-Known Member
i had a great time at WOMAD - enjoyed loads of great music, highlights for me were Lo Cor de La Plana doing polyphonic harmonies, getting everyone running around holding hands and slagging off Sarcozy, a nostalgia fest from Reprazent, and jumping up and down to Burkovina Orkestar - wooh - i AM a disco partizan hooray! Thought Transglobal Underground were tired and dull tbh, but Radio 3 stage was beautiful, Siam and Red tent mostly fab, and loved the steam fair!
Agree organisation was mostly good - apart from the entrance which was a hassle - thought the recycling was especially impressive, having all biodegradable packaging so you could just put your food and plate straight into the compost bin was really handy, and the cup return policy worked brilliantly - if only we could have the same scheme in london, put a 10p deposit on all rubbish, then kids everywhere would pick up all the litter for pocket money!
Agree it was a bit too suburban and that allowing fires (not neccessarily on the ground - could have used fire bowls) would have made for a cooler night time vibe.
also i think it would make it less 'suburban' if there was less emphasis on CONSUMING and more on PARTICIPATING, and less of a feeling of commercilisation and class stratification! This was the main difference i noticed with the Big Green Gathering that I normally go to. For example £10 for thursday night camping, £13 to use the (actually not at all posh, i went once) 'comfy crapper' loos, £75 for the (not very posh, i peeked) spa, hardly ANY food under £5, hundreds for the teepee camping, etc. It was great to see a few enterprising kids busking around the site but would have been nice to encourage this with more open mike areas. Also would have liked smaller & more intimate stages, an official fly pitch area (why not?!), more campaigns / information stalls / talks (the charities were too tucked away), and definitely more workshops for adults - the singing one was brilliant but the others were really over-subscribed.
However on balance i didn't mind the suburbia too much and I was quite glad of the lack of 15 year olds off their heads on ketamine and special brew, which i am old enough to find faintly disturbing!
Agree organisation was mostly good - apart from the entrance which was a hassle - thought the recycling was especially impressive, having all biodegradable packaging so you could just put your food and plate straight into the compost bin was really handy, and the cup return policy worked brilliantly - if only we could have the same scheme in london, put a 10p deposit on all rubbish, then kids everywhere would pick up all the litter for pocket money!
Agree it was a bit too suburban and that allowing fires (not neccessarily on the ground - could have used fire bowls) would have made for a cooler night time vibe.
also i think it would make it less 'suburban' if there was less emphasis on CONSUMING and more on PARTICIPATING, and less of a feeling of commercilisation and class stratification! This was the main difference i noticed with the Big Green Gathering that I normally go to. For example £10 for thursday night camping, £13 to use the (actually not at all posh, i went once) 'comfy crapper' loos, £75 for the (not very posh, i peeked) spa, hardly ANY food under £5, hundreds for the teepee camping, etc. It was great to see a few enterprising kids busking around the site but would have been nice to encourage this with more open mike areas. Also would have liked smaller & more intimate stages, an official fly pitch area (why not?!), more campaigns / information stalls / talks (the charities were too tucked away), and definitely more workshops for adults - the singing one was brilliant but the others were really over-subscribed.
However on balance i didn't mind the suburbia too much and I was quite glad of the lack of 15 year olds off their heads on ketamine and special brew, which i am old enough to find faintly disturbing!
newbie
undisambiguated
I've been advocating this for years, cept in london it wouldn't be only kids collecting, but also all those who have no legal way to earn, ecept maybe seeling the Big Issue.
samosas £1.50 at the Asian Grub Foundation; chicken satay £1 at the Thai stall next to Leons... bioth very good... I was actually pleased it wasn't all full meals.
newbie
undisambiguated
Organisers of festivals including Womad, Creamfields, Bestival, Electric Picnic and Big Chill have joined forces to take on their bigger rivals.
They have agreed to work together to help make events better for fans, greener and more cost-effective.
Bestival promoter Rob da Bank said it was important to "ride out the problems and make them better for the customer".
Creamfields owner James Barton said it was a good idea because "smaller festivals are also often overlooked".
He added: "There is a real opportunity to combine our spending power to deliver exciting business ideas.
"It's important we now have a voice to influence decisions being made that impact on our business."
Other festivals which have signed up include Devon's Beautiful Days, the Bloom Festival in Cheltenham and Berkshire's Glade event.
Leicester's Summer Sundae, Ireland's Electric Picnic and the Secret Garden Party are also involved, as are the organisers of London's Field Day event and Scotland's Rock Ness.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7465507.stm
wiskey
Albatross Admirer
nice innit to see kids still being kids at 15 and although they were in herds they weren't in any way threatening, or pissed and I doubt ket even entered their universes.
My fav quote of the weekend was a young lad on the phone trying to organise his mates "my battery's going flat, talk quietly"
I've been contacted by the guy who brought the Children of the Khmer over for the festival. Their photographer had his camera stolen so they have no photos. I've sent him the best of mine but if anybody was in the pit (Plunk / Lisa / anybody) and can let him have some I'm sure it would be appreciated. pm me for e-mail details.
Thanks
Thanks
9. Sharron Shannon, love her. Pretty sure Shane McGowan, listed as a guest, didn't show though, what a surprise
Well if he didn't there was somebody doing a damned good impression of him singing "Wild Rover" when I wandered past!
e2a Evidence = http://www.pbase.com/simonhookey/image/100921702
You probably only saw her solo set. He was only ever due to pitch up for the Ceilidh on Friday night.
Lisarocket
In bed with me dinner
I'm just getting around to finishing sorting my pics out. I've got a few good ones which they can have. No problem.
Well if he didn't there was somebody doing a damned good impression of him singing "Wild Rover" when I wandered past!
e2a Evidence = http://www.pbase.com/simonhookey/image/100921702
You probably only saw her solo set. He was only ever due to pitch up for the Ceilidh on Friday night.
Yeah, that a bit embarassing, we were far from sure he'd turned up, but we realised later -- after one or two net references
-- that he WAS there. I know you mean the Ceilidh bit (we were at both of Sharron's sets). But old Shane made far too little obvious impression on us at the time, we must have been far too cidered up ....Lisarocket
In bed with me dinner
I've finally got over the annoying 'technical problems' i've been having all week with my photo library and website (in case you were wondering, like )
So here's a linky to my photos from Womad. There are 3 sets that can be accessed from the main page
http://web.me.com/therockets/Site/Music_and_Festivals_Home.html
Had a great time. It was my first Womad apart from going for a day last year. Was lovely to camp with William and Debs and hang out with assorted other urbs.
My favourite things from the weekend were the Tashi Lhumpo Monks, Chic, Rachid Taha, Speed Caravan, Eddy Grant, Jah Wobble, Sa Dingding and Transglobal Underground.
Also, a huge surprise for me was that i really loved Roni Size even though i've never really liked d'n'b. Was also quite amusing to watch all the d'n'b dads really going for it
My absolute favourite thing from the weekend was the Sufi Night. Sheikh Taha was something else. Really powerful and magical. Monajat Ulchieva was great too
Didn't see a duff act all weekend although Finley Quaye was boring and a bit of a let down...
And William. Having perused the pics i can definitely confirm that you weren't watching Chic ironically or 'just there to see Nile'. You were loving every minute of it and dancing like a disco diva
)So here's a linky to my photos from Womad. There are 3 sets that can be accessed from the main page
http://web.me.com/therockets/Site/Music_and_Festivals_Home.html
Had a great time. It was my first Womad apart from going for a day last year. Was lovely to camp with William and Debs and hang out with assorted other urbs.
My favourite things from the weekend were the Tashi Lhumpo Monks, Chic, Rachid Taha, Speed Caravan, Eddy Grant, Jah Wobble, Sa Dingding and Transglobal Underground.
Also, a huge surprise for me was that i really loved Roni Size even though i've never really liked d'n'b. Was also quite amusing to watch all the d'n'b dads really going for it
My absolute favourite thing from the weekend was the Sufi Night. Sheikh Taha was something else. Really powerful and magical. Monajat Ulchieva was great too
Didn't see a duff act all weekend although Finley Quaye was boring and a bit of a let down...
And William. Having perused the pics i can definitely confirm that you weren't watching Chic ironically or 'just there to see Nile'. You were loving every minute of it and dancing like a disco diva
Yeah yeah so you say ...
Nice pix!!
moose
like some cat from Japan
That's interesting - I usually think of all those as being the 'larger festivals', not the smaller ones. I wonder what they will do, specifically, as a group?
