Life Festival

g5fd6ow0hseima

Aye the set was very impressive, as was the sound system.

Psytrance is either something one is all for or really against in my opinion. Its not a genre where someone just goes 'meh'....

Zascar

You're right the visuals etc were excellent, looked good fun - it was just very far from the vibe I was on...

old gregg

I wonder whether the perceived psytrance vibe is in some ways part of the problem ... to explain ... it has always been seen as a predominantly psytrance festival which in most people's minds (including my own) is that the crowd will be mostly ...well, you know .. psytrance hippy types (like myself to a large extent even though I don't do psytrance myself) .. and then this year I get the feeling that there was less of a psytrance focus than previously. I only say this 'cos hardly any if any of the main headliners were psytrance.

So, loads of folks go along expecting a hippy psytrance type of event and find it frequented to a large degree by a non-psytrance audience that includes all the afore mentioned knackers and low lifes who were obviously not there for psytrance. In my jaded state and not being even mildly educated about 21st century dance music I'd have thought it more of a techno festival this time round but am totally open to correction on this one.

Ahhhhhh I'm not explaining this very well but hopefully in there somewhere is a logic that makes some sense. I'm just way too wrecked after the weekend to string together coherent thoughts.

Discussion over on the Britney Spears forum is probably much more simple for an ageing spacer like myself

JC 2K3

The vibe was much less hippy/psytrance-ish this year.

There's discussion that touches on it on the Life Festival forum. Psytrance doesn't pull enough people in Ireland to make an entirely psy festival possible.

Despite the psy stage being the biggest and most impressive, most of the acts were small Irish DJs. Having other genres is not only so that the festival can be more diverse, interesting and enjoyable, but to sell tickets to non psy fans to ensure Life doesn't lose too much money.

Unfortunately, if you tip the scales too much towards other genres, then you lose the great, non-judgemental, easy going, hippy vibe that makes Life so special. This year I believe it wasn't focused enough on the hippy/psy aspect of it, and as a result was lacking a bit in terms of the crowd and the atmosphere.

Executive Steve

old gregg wrote: »

I wonder whether the perceived psytrance vibe is in some ways part of the problem ... to explain ... it has always been seen as a predominantly psytrance festival which in most people's minds (including my own) is that the crowd will be mostly ...well, you know .. psytrance hippy types (like myself to a large extent even though I don't do psytrance myself) .. and then this year I get the feeling that there was less of a psytrance focus than previously. I only say this 'cos hardly any if any of the main headliners were psytrance.

So, loads of folks go along expecting a hippy psytrance type of event and find it frequented to a large degree by a non-psytrance audience that includes all the afore mentioned knackers and low lifes who were obviously not there for psytrance. In my jaded state and not being even mildly educated about 21st century dance music I'd have thought it more of a techno festival this time round but am totally open to correction on this one.

It makes a certain amount of sense, but then most of the "scummers" i saw were down at the psy trance stage so it sort of invalidates that...

Executive Steve

I can't believe all the negativity i'm seeing on threads around and about the internet about it to be honest...

In terms of "Knackers and Pikeys" all i saw was a bunch of lads in tracksuits bottoms, sun hats and celtic tops dancing around with their chicks in fluffy boots around the techno tent and the psy-trance stage... Didn't hear of anyone getting robbed or hurt, although that's bound to happen when you have a few thousand people from all over getting ****faced in a field. And sure they must have consciously gone out to attract them anyway or they wouldn't have booked Sebastian Leger

Weather was ****ing amazing, food was tasty, drink wasn't TOO expensive and as has been said you could easily bring some in...

Music that I heard was pretty cool too, it was great to see such a huge proportion of the acts being locals too, as well as to see them proudly holding their own against the overseas heads as well...

Musical highlights for me were the 20 minutes i caught of Fran Hartnett's set (we took Equinox down there because he didn't want to leave without hearing some proper techno - he was bowled over), Loefah's set - some of the most badboy low-slung bassline malevolence i've ever witnessed, loads of kryptic minds dubplates and the likes, shockingly good, Ricky Force's Jungle set (even had Equinox wondering what some of the tunes were), The entire buzz up at the Liquid Tent on Saturday night - especially when they told us we could switch the rig back on for another hour), having Brez and Julie D blessing the mic over my set, and Equinox smashing the tent to shreds after turning up to Ballinlough straight after a gig in Holland after only 90 minutes sleep.

Lowlights - sleeping through Goldie's set, losing my phone... Errm, that's about it... RSD played one of the worst sets i've ever had the misfortune of hearing, also the generator going on the blink in the liquid tent and the power surges blowing all the fuses in Synergy's rig every so often was very annoying, but not so annoying we didn't have a great time... Every time it did happen the tent would clear, but it would be packed to the rafters again within minutes of the sound starting up so...

Oh, non-musical highlights included being dragged out of my tent to go interview Goldie... Camera was all set up in the portacabin the Guards were using to interview the drug suspects, i stumble in rubbing the sleep from from my eyes, bum a smoke of Goldie, ask him for a sip of his water and he passes me his cup, i take a big **** off swig... and it turns out to be neat ****ing vodka... Thanks G....

Psy trance stage was a proper hoot as well, kept wandering down there for the people watching buzz - all these hippy chicks all smiling at each other and having their chakras blown wide open by THE SAME ****ING RECORD ALL WEEKEND LONG

It's like scientology with kickdrums!

old gregg

[cm]tyranny wrote: »

It's like scientology with kickdrums!

did you make that up? Perfect.

old gregg

then again, that "bunch of lads in tracksuits bottoms, sun hats and celtic tops dancing around with their chicks in fluffy boots" at the psytrance stage will all be back next year with dreads down to the ground "all smiling at each other and having their chakras blown wide open by THE SAME ****ING RECORD ALL WEEKEND LONG"


that's how the whole psytrance thing started in another dimension. A soccer friendly between Celtic and Goa United, chanting on the terraces, someone starts kicking the ball in time with the chant 'and then the next thing you know' ....

JC 2K3

[cm]tyranny wrote: »

It's like scientology with kickdrums!

Hah. I love psytrance, but that is very fitting

[cm]tyranny

[cm]tyranny wrote: »

THE SAME ****ING RECORD ALL WEEKEND LONG

My wife insists that all minimal techno tunes are the same, though she wouldn't accuse them of blowing chakras open as she thinks the one minimal tune is depressing.

I disagree!

g5fd6ow0hseima

[cm]tyranny wrote: »

In terms of "Knackers and Pikeys" all i saw was a bunch of lads in tracksuits bottoms, sun hats and celtic tops dancing around with their chicks in fluffy boots around the techno tent and the psy-trance stage... Didn't hear of anyone getting robbed or hurt, although that's bound to happen when you have a few thousand people from all over getting ****faced in a field. And sure they must have consciously gone out to attract them anyway or they wouldn't have booked Sebastian Leger

Our tents got a seeing to when we were partying on the saturday night, our CD player, along with a good bit of my mates clothes were robbed. Turned out when we went around talking to various neighbours, things had been taken or their tents opened and stuff scattered around the place. A lot of drink was stolen too, which means the acts were committed by people who were partying themselves - security didnt see people leaving with drink anyways.

[cm]tyranny wrote: »

Musical highlights for me were the 20 minutes i caught of Fran Hartnett's set (we took Equinox down there because he didn't want to leave without hearing some proper techno - he was bowled over), Loefah's set - some of the most badboy low-slung bassline malevolence i've ever witnessed, loads of kryptic minds dubplates and the likes, shockingly good, Ricky Force's Jungle set (even had Equinox wondering what some of the tunes were), The entire buzz up at the Liquid Tent on Saturday night - especially when they told us we could switch the rig back on for another hour), having Brez and Julie D blessing the mic over my set, and Equinox smashing the tent to shreds after turning up to Ballinlough straight after a gig in Holland after only 90 minutes sleep.

I was chatting to Equinox for a minute just after he finished, seemed ****in wrecked as he was on about a gig in Holland and the lack of sleep, when he mentioned that he was cancelling the radio show that he was due to do the following night, I was quick to let him off to catch a nap... nice fella though!

[cm]tyranny wrote: »

RSD played one of the worst sets i've ever had the misfortune of hearing,

Who's RSD?

Executive Steve

Siena Jolly Switch-hitter wrote: »

Our tents got a seeing to when we were partying on the saturday night, our CD player, along with a good bit of my mates clothes were robbed. Turned out when we went around talking to various neighbours, things had been taken or their tents opened and stuff scattered around the place. A lot of drink was stolen too, which means the acts were committed by people who were partying themselves - security didnt see people leaving with drink anyways.



I was chatting to Equinox for a minute just after he finished, seemed ****in wrecked as he was on about a gig in Holland and the lack of sleep, when he mentioned that he was cancelling the radio show that he was due to do the following night, I was quick to let him off to catch a nap... nice fella though!



Who's RSD?

Sorry to hear about your tents mate; but pretty much whenever you put X thousand manglers in a field sooner or later something dark is going to happen, it's just one of the rules of the road... sure how many times in your life have you seen randoms kicking off trouble at a house party?

It's just a fact of life, unpleasant as it may be, and notwithstanding your experiences i think we can all agree it was only a very very small minority of people it happened to - we all know how reading these sort of threads one always gets a fairly distorted idea of how much hassle there actually was because it's always the people it actually happened to that turn up and post their bad experiences. sucks though, but sure so it goes...

On the plus side of things I didn't have any Spanish crusties taking dumps in my tent this year - which is a hell of an improvement over last year let me tell you!

Yeah - Equinox is a lovely chap all right; if there were any justice in the world he'd be a lot bigger within DnB than he actually is...

RSD is a Bristol head, used to be the "Smith" in "Smith and Mighty" - who older heads will recognise from their excellent proto-trip hop album "Bass is Maternal"; contemporaries of early Massive Attack... He's been releasing Dubstep the past few years (and the tunes of his I have are actually pretty damn good!) but the stuff he was playing at Life was musical sewage IMO.

conec

Now people, I feel the need to give you my experience of Life Festival. It was the most controlled festival I've ever been at.
The amount of cops that were there was mind boggeling.
The amount of first hand accounts of terrible things that had happened to people at the festival relly shocked me.
First of all we were camped under a set of cameras.

I dont know what can be termed as a load of 'knackers' robbing people but on the first night we had a guy camped next to us who was walking along at night when two guys came up to him. He is Polish and when the guys stopped him they asked him a question, when he didnt immediately understand them they proceeded to beat him up!!!! What the hell?
Another guy I met had all his stuff robbed from his tent, he had no way of getting home so I gave him my ticket back to Dublin coz I managed a lift.
I heard numerous stories of people getting robbed. I will not get into all of them here.
Myself, some prick came up to me and my friend and let off a fire extinguisher in my face. It hurt like hell, my face and eyes were stinging all night (saturday).

So what I cant understand is how come with the most amount of cops I have ever seen in my life at a festival, where they still not able (and couldnt care less) to make sure the 'scumbags werent sought out or kicked out when caught in the act?

Why didnt the cops and security care about making sure that people werent robbed or assualted. Why wasnt this taken seriously?

Why is it with all the cameras there that the people who had been robbed werent able to request that the cameras be looked at.
Are we supposed to accept that when you go to a festival that you expect a few people to be robbed coz thats NORMAL????
Sorry this is bull!

Theres a festival in Germany called Fusion. 45000 people, no cops, no beatings, we dint hear of or see one single incedent.

I will definately not be going to LIfe Festival EVER again and that goes for the majority of people I spoke to during and after.

By the way I have nothing against the good acts and great location.

But the organisers need to get it together because Life is and has gotten a reputation as a festival where there are way too many cops, security who really didnt have a clue. What was that crap about having to give your bottle top to the security at the entrace to the stages??????

I'm sorry but if anyone thinks it is normal and acceptable to expect this kind of stuff to happen at a festival then its not acceptable.

Mouth

conec wrote: »

Now people, I feel the need to give you my experience of Life Festival. It was the most controlled festival I've ever been at.
The amount of cops that were there was mind boggeling.
The amount of first hand accounts of terrible things that had happened to people at the festival relly shocked me.
First of all we were camped under a set of cameras.

I dont know what can be termed as a load of 'knackers' robbing people but on the first night we had a guy camped next to us who was walking along at night when two guys came up to him. He is Polish and when the guys stopped him they asked him a question, when he didnt immediately understand them they proceeded to beat him up!!!! What the hell?
Another guy I met had all his stuff robbed from his tent, he had no way of getting home so I gave him my ticket back to Dublin coz I managed a lift.
I heard numerous stories of people getting robbed. I will not get into all of them here.
Myself, some prick came up to me and my friend and let off a fire extinguisher in my face. It hurt like hell, my face and eyes were stinging all night (saturday).

So what I cant understand is how come with the most amount of cops I have ever seen in my life at a festival, where they still not able (and couldnt care less) to make sure the 'scumbags werent sought out or kicked out when caught in the act?

Why didnt the cops and security care about making sure that people werent robbed or assualted. Why wasnt this taken seriously?

Why is it with all the cameras there that the people who had been robbed werent able to request that the cameras be looked at.
Are we supposed to accept that when you go to a festival that you expect a few people to be robbed coz thats NORMAL????
Sorry this is bull!

Theres a festival in Germany called Fusion. 45000 people, no cops, no beatings, we dint hear of or see one single incedent.

I will definately not be going to LIfe Festival EVER again and that goes for the majority of people I spoke to during and after.

By the way I have nothing against the good acts and great location.

But the organisers need to get it together because Life is and has gotten a reputation as a festival where there are way too many cops, security who really didnt have a clue. What was that crap about having to give your bottle top to the security at the entrace to the stages??????

I'm sorry but if anyone thinks it is normal and acceptable to expect this kind of stuff to happen at a festival then its not acceptable.

jess that is shocking tbh.... i was there 2 years ago.. and it was a completely different account.. i was away in america last year but had wished to be there....

i actually remember going on about there being no gards at the one i was at.. u could walk around with a bong ffs... there was only civil defence who did not care.... i didnt see any trouble at all over the whole weekend even tho there was a lot of drugs at it... like your description paint a completely different picture to my experience two years ago... reminds me of the add about how quickly things can change..... builder" ya that job will not be done for 2 months" ... two min later.. ring ring,,,,, ehh about that we can start next week.... ring ring.... about that job where out side and can start immediatly with half the cost quoted.... ( every builder in the reciession) lol

its a dissaster that life has gone this way cus i was raving on about how it had none of these bad points 2 years ago... pitty... BIg time

e.doobie

Yea, organisers made a huge F*ck up this year. Festival itself was great, but very restricted. Ruined the weekend.

g5fd6ow0hseima

e.doobie wrote: »

very restricted

in what sense?

Hawk Wing

There was law in Gort the last 2 years aswell, not may though... buddies got nailed by DS on the way to the tent at around 6 in the morning

No matter what, the festival is located in Ireland...

With that, you will have Guards who themselves would think nothing about getting alcohol poisoning at the weekends but they hate those "f*ckin hippies" with their poison weeds...

Also, there is always going to be "scum"...it could be anyone who feels like being a wanker about the place irrespective of background...

And last but not least, it's Ireland - prices are going to be c*ntish...