Radio 1 Big Weekend

Penfailed

Is coming to Derry (again)! It hasn't been announced officially announced yet though

Penfailed

It's been confirmed that it's happening over three days in May. So far, acts announced are Olly Muirs and Two Door Cinema Club...and wee Soak from Derry

NIMAN

Those 2 artists aren't going to get many excited at this stage, but this event normally has a decent lineup so I would expect to see plenty of bigger names added in the near future.

It will definitely be a good 3 days for the city. Good to see.

Penfailed

The first day is going to be mainly dance music/One Xtra stuff. I'd like to see a lot more local bands get a bit of exposure along with a few big names. TDCC are okay (saw them at Oxegen a couple of years ago) but Olly Muirs isn't my cup of tea. It will appeal to Radio One's target audience though (I'm out of that age range now!)

pow wow

Excited til I saw the post about Olly Murs

I wonder how much the hotels will shoot up that weekend...

Penfailed

pow wow wrote: »

I wonder how much the hotels will shoot up that weekend...

They are already, generally speaking, more expensive over every weekend this year.

NIMAN

pow wow wrote: »

Excited til I saw the post about Olly Murs

I wonder how much the hotels will shoot up that weekend...

According to reports, all hotel rooms are already booked up for that weekend.

Derry has been caught out with this CoC year and the lack of rooms available for people - the Fleadh will also be a problem. There simply isn't enough hotel beds for this year, as this weekend proves.

I think there was meant to be 5 new hotels in time for the CoC year, and only 1 was built.

Penfailed

NIMAN wrote: »

According to reports, all hotel rooms are already booked up for that weekend.

Derry has been caught out with this CoC year and the lack of rooms available for people - the Fleadh will also be a problem. There simply isn't enough hotel beds for this year, as this weekend proves.

I think there was meant to be 5 new hotels in time for the CoC year, and only 1 was built.

Yep - supply and demand. Balls up.

guttenberg

Just lack of coordination to ensure everything gets spread out and not happening at the same time! The Rotary Global Peace Forum is also on that weekend, that was announced months back so everyone involved in that has snapped up most of the available rooms, presumably the BBC blocked booked whatever rooms remained for their staff before they announced the winner so anyone from England etc. that wants to come will have to go Limavady/Coleraine direction for hotels unless they go for B&B's.

Penfailed wrote: »

Yep - supply and demand. Balls up.

I'd say that's more business/land owners fault than the Councils. The fella that owns the former Tillies site wants to build a hotel(only if he gets public funding for it), he's claiming poverty so won't do anything to tidy the site up(or sell it!). I'd say the other proposed hotels were heavily reliant on getting public grants to cover the cost. Didn't the council get a million pounds not so long ago to "clean up" the appearance of many buildings around the town? why spend money cleaning up your building if you might get the Council to help fund it!

citytillidie

The tickets for this are released tomorrow after a site crash today.

45% of tickets for people in the Derry City Coucil area
45% of tickets for the rest of N.Ireland
10% of tickets for Republic of Ireland and the rest of the UK

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qmbnj/features/tickets

guttenberg

Apparently someone did manage to order tickets on the phone before it crashed, any mention on if they'll get to keep them?

NIMAN

Did I hear Alicia Keys mentioned too?

guttenberg

40 minutes wasted this morning for nothing. Would of thought getting people to register then having a lottery would be a much fairer way to give out tickets, 5 or 6 people already have their tickets up on ebay for over 100 quid:mad:

citytillidie

Got tickets for Saturday and Sunday.

martinedwards

guttenberg wrote: »

40 minutes wasted this morning for nothing. Would of thought getting people to register then having a lottery would be a much fairer way to give out tickets, 5 or 6 people already have their tickets up on ebay for over 100 quid:mad:

phoning up IS a lottery.

you have your wish!

guttenberg

martinedwards wrote: »

phoning up IS a lottery.

you have your wish!

No, pre-register and then have a lottery by randomly allocating the tickets to whoevers on the list, thus avoiding lots of people being late for school/work, wasting time on websites that keep crashing/phonelines constantly engaged. I wasn't looking for me, it was for a couple of school aged relatives.

NIMAN

Chatting to quite a few who got tickets today and it didn't appear difficult at all.

Some were able to get tickets for all 3 days without hassle.

Rumours more to be sold at other times too before the actual weekend. If you want to get into it, I think you will.

nedsgarden

Heard they were to be released in stages as well, though R1 website says all gone.

I tried the website on the morning, was waiting got through, entered postcode details, then kicked out, just busy i guess, phone line all but useless.

yenom

Anyone know of any B&Bs that might not be online. Everywhere else, even the Frontier is full that weekend.

NIMAN

http://www.abbeyaccommodation.com/default.asp

http://www.roseparkhouse.com/

http://www.derryhotel.co.uk/

http://www.bandbnorthernireland.com/

http://www.serendipityrooms.co.uk/

http://bogsidebedandbreakfast.com/

http://www.aberfoylebedandbreakfast.co.uk/

http://www.phoenixderry.com/

http://www.troyhall.co.uk/Troy_Hall,_Bed_%26_Breakfast,_Derry/Troy_Hall_B%26B_Derry_Londonderry_-_History.html

http://www.cawcottage.com/

guttenberg

Have you tried all these:
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotels-g186482-Derry_County_Londonderry_Northern_Ireland-Hotels.html

Presumably that's all the local hotels and B&B's worth trying. Will you be relying on taxi's or have you a designated driver? if the latter, I think there is B&B's in places like Eglinton, Carrigans etc. all within 10-15 minutes drive of Derry. If your all young, what about Paddys Palace? it's a hostel for backpackers and it's a short walk from the centre of Derry. I've never heard of any complaints with the place.

http://www.paddyspalace.com/derryhostel.php

NIMAN

Derry taxi's are relatively cheap anyway, so if you have to book on the outskirts then it should not be too much of an expense if there's a few of you sharing.

Keep an eye on the likes of Gumtree and DoneDeal too, there will probably be people/landlords will the odd empty house looking to make a few bob that weekend.

yenom

Thanks, got a last min cancellation out by the airport. Everywhere else in the city and suburbs are full. Good for the local economy.

citytillidie

Full line up
http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e82wrz/performances

irish_goat

Was hoping the Saturday line up was on the Sunday. Not sure if I would be arsed now.

Penfailed

irish_goat wrote: »

Was hoping the Saturday line up was on the Sunday. Not sure if I would be arsed now.

Have you got tickets for Saturday? That's the best day IMHO. I'd love to see Two Door and the Vaccines again. I've yet to catch Biffy live too.

irish_goat

Penfailed wrote: »

Have you got tickets for Saturday? That's the best day IMHO. I'd love to see Two Door and the Vaccines again. I've yet to catch Biffy live too.

Nah I got Sunday tickets.

Two Door and Biffy were the two I had wanted to see.

NIMAN

Get on Gumtree Derry and try a swap, I see a few ads there for swapping tickets.

Also scandalous how tickets are going for £100 - £150 on Gumtree. Hate touts!
One guy had the cheek to say he needed £100 for his tickets to cover 'admin'.

Penfailed

irish_goat wrote: »

Nah I got Sunday tickets.

Two Door and Biffy were the two I had wanted to see.

Well done on getting tickets. Shame about the day though. Good luck with swapping

irish_goat

I've already got tickets for a beer festival on the Saturday though, plus the missus still wants to go on the Sunday anyway so I'll probably just be letting her sister have my ticket.

Penfailed

irish_goat wrote: »

I've already got tickets for a beer festival on the Saturday though, plus the missus still wants to go on the Sunday anyway so I'll probably just be letting her sister have my ticket.

A guy I know has posted on Facebook to say his son wants to swap two Saturday tickets for two Sunday tickets...

ciaramc

Anyone know are they strict with tickets? Would you advise someone on going to Derry and getting spare tickets from people attending the concert? Or would there be problems?

Penfailed

ciaramc wrote: »

Anyone know are they strict with tickets? Would you advise someone on going to Derry and getting spare tickets from people attending the concert? Or would there be problems?

There won't be any problems. I'm meeting a mate in Derry today to get a ticket of him for today's gig

NIMAN

1st night went down a treat from what I have seen and heard.

nedsgarden

Watched it on tv and could hear it outside - seemed great - really good thing for Derry, all enjoy ......

ciaramc

Does anyone know can you go to the entrance of the concert venue and be allow to ask the people for spare tickets that are going in to the concert ? Or is there no chance in any spare tickets? Thx

guttenberg

Due to the heavy police/security presence at the peace bridge/limavady rd entrance I'd imagine any ticket touting would be stopped pretty quickly. Search Facebook/ eBay and I'm sure there is someone with a spare.

ciaramc

Thanks for your help Guttenberg and Penfailed

guttenberg

Great weekend by all accounts, arguably one of the best uses of ebrington square so far. Love the below video: