Witnness Review.

Toast

That Truly is the final straw. MCD have ONCE AGAIN shown they are the worst organisers in europe...nay the planet!

Randomly I will say "this is not part of the festival experience" this is when something cropped up that could have been sorted by decent organisation but was left due to laziness and then attributed to part of the festival experience by MCD.

I get a bus from parnell sq at 10.30. The 20min journey finishes 2 and a half hours later. The need to place the festival near a decent infrastructure obviously never occured to MCD. Or perhaps admitting that the campsite would be open on friday night instead of their inexplicable denials which were no doubt to ensure Dublin Bus got maximum money from punters who thought it neccesary to leave on the Saturday. Why Dublin bus couldnt run a service on the Friday night I dont know but was probably union/profit related.

Wander aimlessly in search of camping which had one sign post 2 meters from where it actually was whilst wading through mud.
proceed to queue.
and queue.
and queue.
This is not part of the festival experience! I have never had to que to get into a campsite in any of the english festivals. People get very pissed off.

After 3hrs queing finally get band for campsite try and contact friends. Phone network melts. This actually is part of the festival experience but the continued attempts by all networks to encourage more frivolous mobile phone usage is baffling. Also Vodaphones habit of sending you to someones voice mail when there phone is on but no cell for them is infuriating. Those calls cost me in time and money.

Get into arena after camping on sea of mud. Whilst woodchips are placed in some places to combat mud they dont seem to be put where they are needed not that it matters as they are useless and usually result in a seemingly solid surface giving away to a shoe sucking mess.
The hives remind us they are swedish and they dont care about anyone. Nice reception after 6hrs waiting to get here.

Go see wilt. Further mud as we encounter the perplexing and totally pointless one way system which randomly changes direction depending on the whim of the security in charge of it. It also randomly closes as theres an ambulance track there. WHY? who arranged this thing? Lets have an emergency system cross through an artificially created bottleneck of people! IDIOTIC!

Walk through field that has been demudified by using straw.... straw once again mearly hiding mud underneath. Shoes now consist of mud, woodchips, and straw. Why they couldnt make walk ways out of the plastic covering stuff they used on the entrance to the campsite I cant understand.

Dont let MCD decieve you. Both Reading and Glastonbury which they are trying to imitate so badly have paths made from temp surfaces. Wading through mud to try to get between stages is not part of the festival experience.

Wilt play well enough. Cormac Battle forgets his glasses and squints at the crowd a lot.

Lack of a program and the ability to buy one (i hear they were being sold somewhere at 20 euro a pop. I hope thats a rumour) means I miss sonic youth. Go see GreenDay who were probably the best of the weekend. However set is identical to what they played at Reading last year. Right down to "impromptu" band building. Addition of idiots thinking hurling huge clods of mud into the crowd is funny not really welcome at all.

Foo Fighters play. Dave Grohl takes the piss out of Courtney Love. Two people in the crowd know what hes talking about. The rest throw mud.

Prodigy play. Fail to play out of space. Crowd fall asleep. </sarcasm> . At one stage Maxim actually sits down on the stage and spouts of the same "MCing" hes been doing for the last 5 years. I was a huge fan of these guys but obviously something wrong here. Vocals are very difficult to hear as someone in the sound desk has decide to run the sound through a bass amp a couple of hundred times.

After prodigy.... amazingly poor campsite design requires ages walking through mud to get back. Again lack of temporary surfaces baffling.

Morning brings ques lasting hours for the toilets. the promised 650 portaloos seem to be placed at random intervals miles away from where they are required. Once again these sort of ques rarely last beyond early morning in the english festivals so why they are stilll going at 2 oclock here is beyond me. They are not part of the Festival experience.

Stalls take advantage of people to such an extant that I pay 7.50 for a bacon roll. Overcharging to a certain degree is expected but this is crazy. Beer tents are surprisingly cheep in line with pub prices but a selection of two drinks continues to annoy. Also zero shade means most people look like lobsters soon into the morning. Continued lack of a program and ridiculous one way systems piss me off so much that I finally head back to my tent and fall asleep before leaving at 9.30pm.

In conclusion.... I hate to harp on about this but this is so poorly run compared to both Glastonbury and Reading that any attempt to enjoy the bands has to overlook glaringly poor organisation. What a waste. I wont be going in the future and I recommend to anyone who actually thought it was great to try one of the english festivals next year. The difference is amazing.

Edited because I keep spelling queue wrong

havok*

we've had a really bad spell of rail all this month, what did u expect the ground to be like? chippings where placed on the main path.

Did'nd understand what the story was with the one way system from dance/up to cafe/main/raising. Was pretty pissed that both dance and upstages opened 6 hours late on the first day.

The moblie nets where annoying. I only spent about 4 euro on calless over the 2 days cos the network was down 90% of the time.

On the camping issue, if u just had of walked further up u could have found grass + level ground (there where actully near empty fields up the back untill the end of day one)

Ont the program, i had just copy/pasted the timetable into word and printed it. Did me (and my friends) fine.

Prodigy were'nt the best. Chemical brothers owned the place up rightly tho, absolutly savage. On day 2 groove armada brought the house down. primal scream and basement jaxx where fairly good also.

The beer was muck, i could'nd drink it, luckly we had brought plenty of southern comfort to see us throught the 2 days.

I've been told the organization @ witness has gotton worse and worse every year. I did'nd let niggly problems get to me, i'll be going again next year....

Jim Daniels

Wasn't great then?

cartman

i taut the mud was ****in annoyin and i was wrecked but it was still a great 2days..Damien Rice and David Kitt and NoDoubt were the best of the 2days..Dandy Warhols were a big disapointment and Oasis as i knew wud be complete b*lox..but over all if they got rid of the mud and dat fuc*in one way system dat made the journey 3times as long ,it was a brilliant weekend

Toast

Originally posted by havok*
we've had a really bad spell of rail all this month, what did u expect the ground to be like? chippings where placed on the main path.

something more effective then chippings should have been used. Temp plastic surfaces or metal grids. Also they didnt place the chippings anywhere in the campsite or at the passage to the dance / upstage, near bars, in the rising tent .... basically places were lots of people will be walking by/in.

On the camping issue, if u just had of walked further up u could have found grass + level ground (there where actully near empty fields up the back untill the end of day one)

I was in campsite 8 which was at the back. My major problem with the campsite was that they made no effort to make a decent path through it. That the portaloos were badly postitioned and that it took 3hrs plus to get into it.

Ont the program, i had just copy/pasted the timetable into word and printed it. Did me (and my friends) fine.

This shouldnt be neccesary. They should have had a program available at the festival and people selling them for a reasonable price.

I've been told the organization @ witness has gotton worse and worse every year. I did'nd let niggly problems get to me, i'll be going again next year....

I dont want to come across as whining because it was muddy. It wasnt that it was muddy. Muddiness is to be expected. What got me was that it was muddy and the effort they made to deal with it was pathetic. If I hadnt been to better run festivals I wouldnt be so pissed at this but as it is I have and I am. For not that much more money and the same amount of time I can travel (and will travel) to Reading and have a 3 day festival with a days buffer either end which is a hundred times better than witnness.

The purpose of my post is to set peoples expectations higher so that maybe something will be done by the organisers regards these issues. One person complaining to them is unlikely to make a difference but if people realise that we are basically being shafted by irish organisers when compared to the UK perhaps someone will take notice.

Neil3030

something more effective then chippings should have been used. Temp plastic surfaces or metal grids.

They can't cover the entire area of a place as big as fairyhouse with plastic or metal and whatever areas they did cover would become muddy as **** from people walking onto it from muddy places and then it would become even more dangerous/annoying. I don't know if you experienced the doorway into the rising tent but i nearly took a hopper on 2 separate occasions because the plastic was covered in slippery mud. And that was just me walking. Imagine if 40000 had been jumping around on a surface as lethal as that? I thought that the hay they put down on the second day was pretty effective and the mud dried up significantly aswell.

Toast

A smooth plastic surface is useless as you say but one such as the white stuff they had after the steps into the campsite which was textured for grip would have been fine. Or as I say a metal Grid. There is no need to cover the entire place. just put it in the places I mentioned. They manage it in other festivals!

poobags

Stop whinging. The mucjk is part of the festival.

The only problem i have with witnness is people from close by camping. Like people from dublin who have transport back.

There was too many people camping. Thats what ruined the campsite. It could have been better run but the festival was run quite well .If your goin to whinge about muck and timetables etc.
you take yourself to seriously or your old. **** it. Have fun. Make the best of it.

eth0_

I have to agree with Snipe here. I wasn't at witnness but do have the (dis)pleasure to attend a lot of MCD run concerts and I can honestly say they're the biggest bunch of cowboys around.

I don't think anyone complains to them. But then that's typical of the Irish, to complain amongst themselves and on places like boards.ie which does nothing. Complain to MCD directly.

Toast, you should email your post to them.

Mr E

Mud was bloody annoying alright.......

When you think about it, it didn't help that there was a guy with a hose spraying water all over the place inside the rising tent every half hour (fun at the time, but it made the inside of the tent like a bloody marsh).

At the very least, the main walkways between stages, and the route out at the end should have been a temporary surface.

Mundy, Damien Rice, The Devlins, Dave Couse ... all brilliant. (Only caught half of Couse and the Devlins as they were on at the same time).

No Doubt - not bad. Gomez - not great (I'm not really a fan).

Oasis - I was one back from the rail that divided the main crowd and the pit. About 6 songs in, the crowd got very rough and there was alot of pushing. I got kicked in the head twice from people who were either crowd surfing, or trying to get out. Plus I had some langer called Joe standing beside me with a big backpack on his back who insisted on jumping up and down all the time. W*nker.

Oasis weren't very enthusiastic, were they?? (Probably pissed off at that "Gonna sing at the witnness thing" song! ).

Still, great day. I'll definitely be there next year. I think we should start a "bring back Feile" petition. Its so much easier to get in and out of Thurles - puts Fairyhouse and Slane to shame..........

I'll finish with a question....

Whose dick(s) did Primal Scream suck to get second billing yesterday? God they were bloody awful......... So many other bands would have filled that spot better.

- Dave.

T.G Catter

Have to agree with toast, i'm all for the festival experience, but the state of the ground was a bit too much.. And that nightmare of a ramp thingy to get into the Upstage area,the amount of people who slipped on it and the struggle to get up it, was a joke.. Witnness- wasn't as good as last year have to admit. The best of the Fest was Damien Rice, The Frames, and No Doubt put on a hell of a good show, Gwen Steffani climbing up the scaffolding.... Stage Security nightmare. Chemical Brothers did a great set also... But Why didn't oasis play wonderwall......?

Toast

Originally posted by poobags
Stop whinging. The mucjk is part of the festival.

The only problem i have with witnness is people from close by camping. Like people from dublin who have transport back.

There was too many people camping. Thats what ruined the campsite. It could have been better run but the festival was run quite well .If your goin to whinge about muck and timetables etc.
you take yourself to seriously or your old. **** it. Have fun. Make the best of it.

Your failing to see what im saying. The muck is part of the festival but not doing anything to alleviate it is just laziness and bad organisation. When you cant move from one part of the festival to another or you drop 80% of your pint cause your trudging through mud to get from one stage to another then the organisers arent doing their job. I dont expect them to tackle every drop of mud but to make it so that there is at least some surface to walk on from one stage to another and to places like the toilets and bars........ like, and to repeat myself here, the festivals in the uk! Why should we settle for less?

Molly

Once you got mucky it was brilliant.

Started really really badly. Got there just in time to see Hundred reasons but upstage was closed. Then went to see cornelius who were really really bad. Trapsed around the place for a while trying not to get muddy. Then went to see The Hives who were really really awful, easily the worst band i saw during the entirety of the event. Wandered about till the frames came on. Played a good set and finished classily with there version of debaser Just after Green Day two muck men came over picked up my friend and dunked him in the mud. After that me and all my friends just ended up covered in muck, from that point on me and my friends didn't really care about the muck and just got really really muddy .

Then came my first tough decision Sonic Youth or Green Day. Well i eventually chose Green Day and was pleased with my choice. I was over the right hand side of the stage where the mud slinging began and it was class. Despite my dislike of them i thoroughly enjoyed them live. Watched the foo fighters from next to the main screen, again i enjoyed there performance. Then Prodigy who i was really anxious to see, i waited and waited. Finally they arrived on stage and i couldnt see Keith flint i was ready to cry, then he came out and the next hour was sheer class.

Got seperated from my friends after but found my way back to the tent after a couple of wrong turns. Was tough enough to get to sleep cos the guys in the tent next to me decided to roar out "With a banana" every ten seconds was funny though.Woke up next morning and had to have queue for water and then had chips for breakfast .

First up were Polyphonic Spree who i didn't enjoy at all ( still better then The Hives mind you) Was then gonna go see Hoobastank but didn't bother and wathced Maria Doyle Kennedy, my first mistake . Didn't really pay much attention to her after the first two songs as i thought she was rather pants. Come 2 o clock i went to see Rival schools who played well. Went to see Melaton who were pretty good but there wasn't much of an atmosphere there. Then i went to Cooper Temple Clause who were amazing. I didn't know much about them before the event but i think i'll be purchasing some of there music soon, was also really really bloody loud. Next up were A who played really well in my opinion, again i'm not a big fan of them but since there performance i've been wanting to hear alot more of them Briefly viewed No Doubt and Gwen Stefani in all her glory before i dashed off to see Less Then Jake, who like A and Cooper Temple Clause before them were absolutely amazing. Took a break got some food and then headed over to watch Gomez

I thought they played pretty well but i really wanted to see Damien Rice so left half way through. As usual Damien Rice and Co performed brialliantly. Really good live imo. After that i ran out to see Primal Scream who i hadn't heard much about before but i think i'll be wanting to hear more of in the near future. Again i left them early as i wanted to see Badly Drawn Boy who was absolutely class. Class atmosphere in the rising tent for him aswell. Then went to see Oasis for a while who i thought played pretty well. Mud slinging started again, i wanted to go see Idlewild aswell so i ran back to the rising tent at about 10 to see Idlewild who were really class. Again a class atmosphere in the rising tent

Woke up this morning not knowing how to get back to dubline until a "friendly" taxi man came along and charged 6 of us 70 euro to get from about 2 kilometers from witnness to dublin

Oh well it was a class weekend and provided the lineup is semi decent again next year i'll definetely going back. To those who moaned about the mud, you should of listened to the frames and go play in the mud

This post is brought to you by bad grammar and spelling. Blame Sesame Street.

Gerry

I thought it was fantastic, the mud is part of it, so quit ****ing whinging about it. Being MCD organised, you have to expect some stupidity, but just make the best of it. Do you have another festival in your back garden you can go to? It was far muddier last year. By saturday evening it had dried up loads, and by sunday the ground was mainly soft, not muddy.

If you used your head, you could take shortcuts through the campsites to get to number 8, ie not have to walk around the whole stupid ring. On sunday there was a hole in the fence near the fairground which sorted that problem out anyway.

I was very ****ed up on saturday, but the frames were brilliant, green day also class. Not really that into the foo fighters, but I knew enough of the songs to enjoy them immensely. A lot more than 2 people knew what dave grohl was talking about when he was slagging courtney love off, the fact that you didn't enjoy yourself very much doesn't mean everyone else is so whiney. Prodigy were great, I just wish I had been up the front. Damien Rice ruled, I made it to the dance tent for soul wax, deadly.

About the camping, we had the crack. Yes the campsites were a little crowded, but my crap tent managed to not be completely destroyed by this morning, so that was enough. Everyone on the campsite was in a good, friendly mood, and we were talking to people from all over the place. Overall, its a unique experience, despite its drawbacks.

Toast

Originally posted by Gerry
I thought it was fantastic, the mud is part of it, so quit ****ing whinging about it. ...

...Being MCD organised, you have to expect some stupidity, but just make the best of it. Do you have another festival in your back garden you can go to? ...

...the fact that you didn't enjoy yourself very much doesn't mean everyone else is so whiney...

...Overall, its a unique experience,
despite its drawbacks.

For the last time I will make it clear that I am not whinging about it being muddy. Im annoyed at the way it was dealt with. Go actually read my other posts. Im not going to repeat myself on this.

In the end I did make the best of it and did actually have some fun on the Saturday however thats not what Im posting about. Im trying to show people that we are being fed the crumbs compared to England and probably the rest of Europe. I knew that there would be thousands of people returning here raving on about witnness being the best thing since sliced bread. Im just saying its not. And that statement is based on experience.

Why should we expect stupidity and make allowances for it on behalf of MCD? I paid 137 euro for a ticket. I expect a decent effort at organisation. By organisation I mean an effort to get people in there to see the bands they want with a minimum of fuss. Ive been to enough open air multiday festivals to know to expect some difficulties but never have I met with such stupidity as crazy one way systems, bag searching and no bottle top policies. These were all enacted without too much trouble so its not a problem with executing stuff but actually deciding on what to do in the MCD quarters that is the problem.

In the end it takes 2hrs to fly to Heathrow and get a bus to Reading versus 2 and a half to get a bus to "my back garden". Im going this year and It shall be Glastonbury and Reading again next year instead of Witnness. The difference in price really isnt that much and its worth the extra money I guarantee it. Feel free to ignore my advice but I dont like to see MCD making so much money and fleecing people who dont even realise they are being fleeced. Im sorry I have an over active Public Services gland.

To Conclude Its not a unique experience mearly an imitation of festivals that do it so much better.

eth0_

Originally posted by Gerry
I thought it was fantastic, the mud is part of it, so quit ****ing whinging about it. Being MCD organised, you have to expect some stupidity, but just make the best of it.

THat's a typical Irish attitude. No one should have to 'expect some stupidity' when paying up to €130 for something like Witnness.

You shouldn't have to put up with organisation like that, there's such a thing as a weather forecast and we haven't had the driest summer on record, MCD should have known what to expect and planned ahead.

Fine, if the music was good that's great, but no one should have to Q for three hours to get in and another few hours to get to their campsite. That's just ridiculous.

threefour

Toast yer right on this one. You may have noticed (those of you that were there) that they protected the actual racecourse using metal sheeting material. That sheeting would have provided ample protection for people trying to access the different areas. They didnt need it everywhere just in areas getting from one stage to another. i only went on saturday so i cant really comment on the camping or anything, but i do feel there wasnt enough signposts like you said. I started queueing at the camping entrance when i was trying to get into the ground. There were no marshalls or signs telling me it was the camping entrance. The Dublin Bus thing was a bit of a mess but in my case the police took a convoy of about 10 dublin buses and we got a police escort to the ground from around 5 miles away. We drove on the opposite side of the road for the last 5 miles.It was class.
As for the bands, i tried to see the bands id never seen before. Sonic youth were great and the Warlords of Pez created havok as per usual. I lost my friends and i couldnt get in touch coz of the damn phones. Nothing more to say. It was alright. No worth the 60 europes.

Molly

Heh queing for 3 hours, queing to get into the campsite for a few hours. Think i was at a different concert :rolleyes:

Kali

Im trying to show people that we are being fed the crumbs compared to England and probably the rest of Europe. I knew that there would be thousands of people returning here raving on about witnness being the best thing since sliced bread. Im just saying its not. And that statement is based on experience

hmm i paid €167 for my glastonbury ticket..
5 nights of camping, 3 solid days of acts, a festival magazine and free glastonbury times paper every day, not one fence jumper, 100,000 people and no queue at all on the way in (literally took about five minutes from the time we arrived to pitching tent), twenty minute wait for a bus when leaving, free security lockups, lethal cider buses, huge outdoor cinema in the evenings till aboot 3am, lots of hippies selling strange brownies, temporary urinals (a god send), rolf harris, more than enough food stalls so that you never have to queue (including ostrich burgers, hog roasts, japanese/carribean/indian and welsh food).. the list goes on..

at the same time though, I think wittness had a decent enough lineup this year, but for the money I think their definitely should be a third day, and spread the big acts out a bit so people don't miss out. MCD just need to approach it in a more professional manner, personally I didnt go beacuse three festivals in three weekends aint good for the stomach or the wallet

Gwen Steffani climbing up the scaffolding.... Stage Security nightmare

hehe she done that at glastonbury and got stuck. stupid "look at me im a rebel" attitude

pyure

did anyone go see sonic youth ? were they any good ?
thats the only band i was really sorry i missed coz i couldnt go

i was forced to listen to my 'youth albums, and gently cry myself to sleep...(not really)

anyways comments on their set please

pyure

plastic membrane

Well apart from the stupidity of the organisation, the queues, the bloody mud and the fact we had a psychopathic bus driver that physically assaulted a passenger and apparantly had a nervous breakdown afterwards, it was pretty damn good. The weather stayed brilliant, nobody P issed on our tent, and there was plenty of booze to b had. The Chemical Brothers played a blinder, Basement Jaxx kicked booty, and Gwen Stefani is a beautiful creature up close. The Hives and Groove Armada were storming.

The only regrets were that i missed Mundy and Air, and i got no totty, but thats just griping.

Just to say too that the organisation was remarkably shoddy. Must do better.

biteme

the youth were amazing!

The organisation of the weekend was terrible. There was no attempt made to stop both the event area and the camp site from turning into the mud bath it was. Also The Upstage didn't open until 6 or 6.30. I don't know what happened with the bands that were meant to be playing before hand but it was a joke that it took so long to get it open again.

The one way system was completely pointless. would it have been that hard to make the enterances to the dance and upstage slightly bigger??? They even made the "exit" smaller for some unknown reason!?!

The weekend was great but it was a joke organisation wise. I never found the treatment tent and decided not to go look for it after i was told that it took 2 hours to queue to get the wrist band to get in. Doesn't like the best of "treatment" (pardon the pun).

I just hope that the organisation is better next year!

darthmise

The most p1ss poor organisation of an event i've ever witnessed ( no pun)

THe upstage was a joke. Didn't open till 6 hours after it should have. Gemma Hayes didn't get to play at all afaik. What a ****in joke! along with a few other acts.
And they made it so hard to get from stage to stage, it was a small trek to get from the main stage to the up-stage cos of where it was.

And though i didn't mind the muck at all...(got covered head to toe in it,) what would it have been like if it had rained!?!
****ing awful preparations.


If anyone has a complaint they should register it on the website, cos i would hate to think that there is some fu(king asshole outhere who thinks he did a good job with the festival layout this year.


Still enjoyed myself, though i missed alot of bands i wanted to see. Sonic youth, cornelius, reindeer section, pony club...

the celtic tiger

in my opinion you are all a bunch of twits. what exactly did you expect them to do about the mud?
On sunday morning they scattered lorry loads of wood chippings to try and soak it up, but, as i'm sure you're aware.....no one could have prevented it raining for the weeks before the concert started. would you have preferred if all staff had gone out into the fields with umbrellas to keep the grass dry?

Concert was excellent.
Craic was excellent.
Camping was excellent.

A bunch of nerds whinging about their pants and shoes getting dirty should not go to a festial. My advice, stay at home and nerd it up. Maybe get your mammy to play a sesame street record while she gives you a bath?

darthmise

Originally posted by the celtic tiger

A bunch of nerds whinging about their pants and shoes getting dirty should not go to a festial. My advice, stay at home and nerd it up. Maybe get your mammy to play a sesame street record while she gives you a bath?

I had no problem with the mud at all, it made it a bit of craic, and i got destroyed last year, didn't mind, and got destroyed this year during the mud fight at Green Day. No problems there, but the muck did cause alot of problems with the UP-Stage and some acts didn't get to play. Simple as that. Poor preparation. They could have thrown some of the mountains of saw-dust they had down earlier than they did.

Celtic Tiger don't be a juvenile tit, if you enjoyed the gig then say so.

Toast

Originally posted by the celtic tiger
A bunch of nerds whinging about their pants and shoes getting dirty should not go to a festial.

Heavens forbid you actually read and understand the points being made before going and calling anyone who you disagree with "whinging nerds."

Im glad you enjoyed yourself. I didnt and alot of other people didnt enjoy it due to bad organisation.

So apparently im a Twit because the organisation thats put into English music festivals every year is impossible to carry out over here. Id like to know why as I want something done about it so please enlighten me before I make a fool of myself complaining to MCD and Guinness.

Seriously I also know a lot of other people had a great time. For them and yourself I ask Imagine what that time would have been like with that little bit of extra common sense and effort made by MCD. Some sacrifices have to be made in a Festival environment. Ill go out on a limb and say Ive made many of them many times more than you. However we should demand a level of competency in the organisation on par with the UK. We are getting worse value for money mainly because we are content with the crappy end of the stick.

I apologise to have to keep repeating these points but when people ignore everything Ive said and post saying Im some whining fool who didnt know what to expect from a festival I get very pissed off. Especially when its obvious that Witnness is their only frame of reference.

yellum

Why not organise some sort of letter writing campaign ? We collectively make a list of what was wrong and suggestions on how to make it better.

Then we each send this to the Witnness organisers once we find out who the heck they are. You never know they might actually listen.

vAWOL

The mud was going to be there. 40,000 ppl + sh*te summer + one big field = loads of mud. If ppl were SO concerned with keeping there shoes clean then wear f*ckin wellies or don't go to a festival in Ireland. Besides if you made any attempt you didn't get v dirty. I hear most ppl use washing machines nowadays which have a high success rate on mud. The one way system into dance and upstage was pretty stupid IMO and the trying to get out of upstage going up the ramp after chemical bros was fairly crazy..i'd say i knocked over a few ppl saving myself...

hives...chemical bros rule

basement jaxx best of the festival

therecklessone

Originally posted by poobags


The only problem i have with witnness is people from close by camping. Like people from dublin who have transport back.

Ask me hole!

I got home at 1.40 Sunday morning, only because I managed to spot a mate of mine before the Foo Fighters who had his car with him. Otherwise I faced a bus journey back to the city (which would take God knows how long), and then a choice of one of the following:

(a) 15 mile walk to my house, or
(b) argument with a shed load of taxi drivers over how mucky I was, then beg one to take me home for about 30 euro.

Five hours sleep later, I was up again to meet mate with car, for journey down. Luckily get down in 40 minutes, unlike the three day camel ride that was Dublin Bus on Saturday (anyone else on the charity bus? the one that let evey poxy car and bus that came down the hard shoulder in ahead of him?) I'll be camping next year. See you there.

Toast is right about the organisation, mind. No signs up anywhere. At 5.50 Saturday I ask at info tent who will be playing upstage when it opens in 10 minutes. She didn't know. Thats the information age for you.
One way system was lethal, pure and f-ing simple. Beer was reasonable price, as opposed to the 5 euro at the Chillis, and the 4.50 at Ozzfest.

The no bottle top policy makes sense, particularly after I heard what the scruffy brothers crowd was like Sunday. They are left off to discourage the throwing of bottles of piss. Don't see owt wrong with that one.

One point Toast: place festival near decent infrastructure and you place it close to civilisation, and all the legal challenges, and pissing and moaning from residents, that ensues. You can't win 'em all.

MrJoeSoap

Quit Moaning, it was the best ever line-up in Ireland, the muck couldnt be avoided, and to be honest, nobody cares if you got there late or not, its your own problem.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Jimi-Spandex

My Opinion

Bus took ages, mad traffic barely got there to see Cornelius, which was very good, crowd wasn't into it though. Next, leg it to the main stage for the hives. Absolutely fantastic, Howlin' Pelle is quite the showman, they should have been on last on Sunday instead of Oasis. Twas nearly 6 o clock by this stage, went and got some food. Saw the start of the frames heard the only two songs of theirs I know (Revelate me and God Bless Mom), Back to the Rising tent for Beta Band, 20 mins late on stage but still very good. After that I went to the café stage for the Warlords of Pez, they were absolutely mental, got interviewed after that, just asked me what I thought of them. Green Day were at the main stage then so I watched them for a few minutes, they were putting together a band from crowd members, entertaining but not great. Then to Upstage for the chemical brothers, right up at the front, probably the best gig in terms of atmosphere. I left early to see the last bit of Mercury Rev, top notch stuff. They were in the rising tent and Air were playing after them so I stuck around there for the first half of Air. I was right up at the barrier, Air were good enough but definitely a studio band. Then off to see the rest of the David Kitt, he was very good, played a version of Billie Jean, and about 4 encores, they turned the power off on him in the end, so he just stood up there waving at us. Heard the prodigy were disappointing. That was Saturday.

I went to see Nina Hynes first thing on Sunday, she was pretty good, singer-songwriter stuff but she got nicely rocky at the end. Had a bit of a break then, saw the revs from a distance, then got up close for Starsailor, everyone I was with thought they were great, I wasn't that enamoured to be honest, they were good though, they played Parklife and Let It Be on top of their own stuff, thought that was a nice touch. Went to the dance tent for lemon jelly it was very stuffy so we ended up sitting down outside listening to them twas nice relaxing music, Then I went to the Devlins, they were good, not spectacular, then for my favourite gig of the weekend, Gomez, Absolutely fantastic, the sun was splitting the stones but there was a nice breeze, perfect Gomez weather, once again right up the front, played all my fave Gomez tunes including Las Vegas Dealer, they got the audience to clap the beat for it cept everyone gave up early, loved every minute of it. Went to Badly Drawn Boy at 8, very very good. Then saw the start of oasis, from a long distance, about 2/3 songs later I was fed up and went to soulwax in the dance tent. Loved it, they played some excellent bootlegs, Kylie vs. Nirvana, sacrilege but good nonetheless, Other good ones were the hives vs. Destiny's Child, and something with the dandy warhols. Heard off my friends that oasis only got worse, was glad I went to soulwax. Back home by 5pm yesterday, what a weekend.

Then there was the campsite, which was even better. Madness. Was anyone else part of the good ship walrus singalong (The big pile of woodchippings near the food places on the campsite)?

I didn't mind the mud, tho twas waterlogged at some places which isn't on, and the feckers sterted trying to steal our woodchippings. Only complaint was that it took feckin ages to get water on the campsite

Rabies

i never heard so many people complain about a concert in my life.

i was at witnness working from friday until last night.

all of you dont know the work that was done to ensure that the concert was allowed to go ahead.

on friday night alone 40 lorry loads of wood chippings were brought in to cover the mud.

a 6 foot deep pit was dug in front of the main stage and turned in to a soakage pit. this was because the main stage area was flooded.

the dance tent was extreamly lucky to be opened because it was underwater.

about 100 bales of straw were used to cover certain areas of the site.

the reason some of you were far away from toilets in the camp site was because the campsite was divided in to 8 sections. these became fully extremly fast. the Overflow campsite areas had to be used to cope with the extra campers.

this summer has been the worst on record in decades. with 40,000 people dancing on a wet field do you expect it to stay hard? of course it will turn to mud

a lot more work goes on behind the scenes than people realise. MCD could have handled certain aspects of it better but given the circumstances i think it was handled pretty well.

just to rub it in i was walking around the witnness with a level A red pass and a level A yellow pass (access all areas passes). had access to back stage, dressing rooms, managed to get inside prodigy's tent before they went on stage, got to meet liam from the prodigy.

garthv

i have to say this years witness was well better than last years,although not as good as the first years.
The mud made it all good with everyone tramping about n such ,it was just such a laugh.
The layout was completly arse-about-face,having to walk to f*ckin 15-mile trek from mainstage to upstage(which didnt even play hundred reasons because"they missed their slot" which pissed me off)
but other than the layout being completly f*cked there couldnt of been a better festival,great bands,great beer,great people and an excellent atmosphere
All i say is :Guinness,get your act together and sort out the place better next time,the way you had it for witness 2001 was perfect,dont go changing it

sinus

well the concert was mental...but i spotted a few things that p***ed me off big time

1) The Security Men - Standing behind the barrier behind the pit...several times people around me girls/fellas/etc had asked for water and were shouted at to quit bothering them...WTF?...plus on many occasions at someother outdoor stages ppl were refused water because they didnt have empty water bottles to fill...again...WTF?

2) On some occasions from the main stage was it announced that the ppl trying to queue to get into the pit were asked to take 3 steps back, and refused entry to the pit, the give reason that it was too full...on looking into the pit i saw...ppl lying down...plenty of space, and at one stage a dude asleep in the middle...no room my ass!!! if there was no room, why the hell were there several dudes with passes let in???
ppl were getting injured queuing there , why did they let ppl in to help the situation...

3) there was one dude (refering to point 2 again - queing for the pit) who asked more than twice for a explaination on his refusal...he was delt with by a few sharp blows....WTF?

4) the stupid one way system going to the Upstage and Dance tents....WTF?

5)Oasis - WTF?

6) that stupid "gonna sing at the witnness thing" song.....a reason for drunken A-holes to sing all feckin night till 9am.....that dude on sunday night in campsite 2-3...i am gonna hunt u down and destroy u....!! |:¬|

I had no problem with the mud at all....in fact i think it made the weekend better...walking though dublin on monday, caked in mud..."I was at Witnness, I was at Witnness"

although...i have to say a big respect to the ppl in the medical tent!!! thanks Dr.Colin!

scuzzy

Dandy Warhols were a big disapointment

I thought they were the best act by far. Next to Idlewild...

By and large security were quite cool, ****in excellent line-up, **** layout, cheap beer, and good craic.
And the mud made it all a bit better, cos you didn't have to worry about trying to stay clean.

Gerry

Originally posted by eth0_


THat's a typical Irish attitude. No one should have to 'expect some stupidity' when paying up to €130 for something like Witnness.

You shouldn't have to put up with organisation like that, there's such a thing as a weather forecast and we haven't had the driest summer on record, MCD should have known what to expect and planned ahead.

Fine, if the music was good that's great, but no one should have to Q for three hours to get in and another few hours to get to their campsite. That's just ridiculous.

Don't give me "typical Irish attitude". I complain about everything, but I knew what I was letting myself in for when I bought the ticket. If you were expecting it to be well organised, you were expecting too much. You shouldn't have bought the ticket. If you have been to any MCD organised events in Ireland, you'll know that they haven't a clue but this doesn't mean that you can't have fun. The one way system can be bypassed with a bit of ditch jumping, the only thing that really pissed me off was the cost of the weekend.

No, it shouldn't be too much to expect to have a well organised event, but if you live in Ireland, you have to be prepared to make the best of the ensuing shambles.
I hate MCD, having been to plenty of their crappily organised concerts. The point is though, that its better than staying at home, despite being so expensive and badly organised. People will still go to these things in their droves. Theres no point in directing your vitriol at me, how about organising a petition? I'll be glad to sign it.

Bloody Drunkard

\does anyone remember a bunch of nutters sitting on a wood chip hill singing sons in the campsite on sat night/sun morning


im proud to say i was one of those nutters


p.s. you're all a bunch of crafty butchers

Bloody Drunkard

Witnness was absolutely class two days and nights drunk stoned covered in mud talking to strangers listening to class music sitting on a woodchip hill singing songs and insulting people havin great craic conking out and smoking copius amounts of...

to all those who bitch about MCD when you organise a concert better then you can bitch

So you had to que poor babies we all had to que i just used as an oppurtunity to drink a lot

The funniest thing i saw was when a guy aged 30 wasn't served alchol coz he didn't have id and a 15 year old behind him not getting questioned

Also the tobacoo shop sold rollie skins but no rolling tobacoo god i wonder what those skins were used for

my only complaint was the toilets but hey ****ting in a bucket is quite the experience

P.S. those anyone remember the chain of shouts of TIMMY going round campsite two my mate started that

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

plastic membrane

Originally posted by the celtic tiger
in my opinion you are all a bunch of twits. what exactly did you expect them to do about the mud?

There nothing they could have done. The fact that it was there is enough for me. All things being equal, i would have preferred it if there had been no mud. Can't have everything now, can we ?

the celtic tiger

you decide!

Toast

Originally posted by yellum
Why not organise some sort of letter writing campaign ? We collectively make a list of what was wrong and suggestions on how to make it better.

Then we each send this to the Witnness organisers once we find out who the heck they are. You never know they might actually listen.

I was thinking of something like that but it seems that enough people continue to believe that I am moaning because I didnt know what to expect from a festival. :mad: Also that they were perfectly happy with the crappy organisation. So lest I cause MCD to actually make some changes which would ruin the "festival experience" for everyone else Ill be returning to the UK for my future festivals. All I can do is recommend the same for all. Especially those that actually felt Witnness didnt show a decent level of organisation.

Rabies

Originally posted by Toast
So lest I cause MCD to actually make some changes which would ruin the "festival experience" for everyone else Ill be returning to the UK for my future festivals. All I can do is recommend the same for all. Especially those that actually felt Witnness didnt show a decent level of organisation.

MCD also run festivals in the UK.

Toast

Originally posted by Rabies

MCD also run festivals in the UK.

The ones im going to are run by Mean Fiddler.

the celtic tiger

I know the one you're on about. it's called

'A weekend with mauro piccotto and a load of knacks chomping E in a 10 men tent in dorset'

sounds good.

Gerry

Ah I'm in stitches here. Thats class tct.

Kali

my god what an enlightened response there..

Gerry

Yeah but I think tct brought some much needed humour to the thread.