Electric Picnic rant....

donegalboy · 01-09-2008 08:27PM #1

Went to my first electric picnic this weekend and had a great time, however....
The camp site, Tangerine Fields, was a complete and utter disaster.
Being old guys in our early thirties we decided to pay €550 to stay in a tipi in a 'luxury' campsite.
When we finally got there we discovered to our horror that there were only four showers for more than 1,000 people and no bloody running water!!
Complained to management and got a typical Irish reply: "like, have you not been to a rock festival before"
What a rip off. Anyone have similar experiences??

kmart6 · 01-09-2008 08:35PM

Well considering you were in a Tipi which is operated by an English company I'm fairly sure it wasn't any form of management you were talking to. Try here if you want to try and get some real answers .

Toast · 01-09-2008 08:43PM

Toilets were bad all over the campsites... thought it was an attempt to push people to fancy camping but sounds like it wasnt much better. I believe the recommendations for this sort of thing is 1 toilet to 150 people so 4 to a thousand is less than recommended but not hugely so.

Evenescent · 01-09-2008 08:50PM

First time at The Picnic.

Much better atmosphere than previous festivals I have attended.

However, screens at the main stage would have been handy - allowing everyone to goof off , sit around, walk about and be able to see what was going on

eth0_ · 01-09-2008 09:21PM

Was there really 1000 people in tangerine fields? Any fest i've been to they've only had maybe 100 tents or less...

But no running water in the boutique camping area is really not on.

As is no screens on the main stage! A cost-cutting exercise, I reckon!

Extraplus · 01-09-2008 10:12PM

donegalboy wrote: »

Went to my first electric picnic this weekend and had a great time, however....
The camp site, Tangerine Fields, was a complete and utter disaster.
Being old guys in our early thirties we decided to pay €550 to stay in a tipi in a 'luxury' campsite.
When we finally got there we discovered to our horror that there were only four showers for more than 1,000 people and no bloody running water!!
Complained to management and got a typical Irish reply: "like, have you not been to a rock festival before"
What a rip off. Anyone have similar experiences??

I have to agree, I have used Tangerine Fields before and I was really disappointed with the facilities at EP. One plus point was that the portaloos in there were pretty clean all weekend.

thecommander · 01-09-2008 10:21PM

eth0_ wrote: »

Was there really 1000 people in tangerine fields? Any fest i've been to they've only had maybe 100 tents or less...

But no running water in the boutique camping area is really not on.

As is no screens on the main stage! A cost-cutting exercise, I reckon!

There was 1500 in the Boutique camping area. They lumped the guestlist/VIP camping in on top of all the yurt, tipis, podpads etc. 6 showers, and 2 portacabin toilets for the lot. A disgrace. Spoke to one of the guys from podpads and he said that the promoter sets the amount of showers/toilets for any given area. They did get a delivery of 8 portaloos on Friday night/Sat morning.

penexpers · 01-09-2008 10:28PM

eth0_ wrote: »

As is no screens on the main stage! A cost-cutting exercise, I reckon!

They've never had big screens at Electric Picnic.

GreenHell · 01-09-2008 10:32PM

Flaming Lips may disagree with you on that one

Toast · 01-09-2008 11:51PM

Flaming Lips brought their own screen.

tman · 02-09-2008 12:52PM

They had a bloody huge screen behind Fatboy Slim at the 2005 one iirc... Think they're just being cheap and leaving it up to the acts to sort it out for themselves (I guess he already had access to it from the Brighton beach parties)

Phibsboro · 02-09-2008 01:11PM

did campervan this year and had a ball - every toilet i used was perfect which is prolly just luck of the draw but defo a better hit rate than previous years

Niggles wise, they really do need to invest in big screens for main area and on friday night one of the beer tents had major issues with the system of single cashier for 5/6 servers. That seemed to be sorted on Sat/Sun, had no issues getting a pint either evening.

Overall had a ball, hopefully next year youknowwho wouldn't buy up all the bloody talent :S

c

Phlann · 02-09-2008 09:23PM

donegalboy wrote: »

Went to my first electric picnic this weekend and had a great time, however....
The camp site, Tangerine Fields, was a complete and utter disaster.
Being old guys in our early thirties we decided to pay €550 to stay in a tipi in a 'luxury' campsite.
When we finally got there we discovered to our horror that there were only four showers for more than 1,000 people and no bloody running water!!
Complained to management and got a typical Irish reply: "like, have you not been to a rock festival before"
What a rip off. Anyone have similar experiences??

The tangerine fields/myhab people weren't to blame for it. They were promised a certain number of showers and toilets which just didn't show up. They were very annoyed with the organisers but there was really nothing they could do about it.

The running water stopped briefly on Saturday (I think) and was back up and running for the rest of the weekend.

JJ · 02-09-2008 09:53PM

Better watch out, if we complain too much about EP then we won't be able to talk about POD events around here anymore.

eth0_ · 03-09-2008 01:03AM

Complaints aren't a problem, libellous comments are.

John Mason · 03-09-2008 08:06AM

Oh noes, there was no running water at a rock festival.

the horror of it all

(PS: i am in my thirties also - so i am not sure what exactly that has to do with anything, as most people there were)

eth0_ · 03-09-2008 09:48AM

It's not a big deal to supply a few taps for every campsite. If they can do it at EVERY festival i've ever been to, they sure as hell can do it at EP. Unless they are trying to force people to go for boutique camping next year.

But it's a good thing we know that the boutique camping is sh*t too! 2 toilets and 4 showers for 1000 people - hahaha. Slums in India have better sanitation than that.

Aspiration · 03-09-2008 09:51AM

Were there any sinks around? I didn't see any sinks at all in the campsites except the ones for drinking water. If I remember correctly last year there were sinks for washing yourselves?

Bluetonic · 03-09-2008 10:02AM

tman wrote: »

They had a bloody huge screen behind Fatboy Slim at the 2005 one iirc... Think they're just being cheap and leaving it up to the acts to sort it out for themselves (I guess he already had access to it from the Brighton beach parties)

They had the big screen in 2005 for the 3D show during his set.

Remember everyone going around with the 3D glasses on, great craic.

fits · 03-09-2008 10:03AM

I didnt find this a problem at all. I brought in my own water and combined with baby wipes and a shower on Sunday, it was grand!

John Mason · 03-09-2008 10:22AM

Aspiration wrote: »

Were there any sinks around? I didn't see any sinks at all in the campsites except the ones for drinking water. If I remember correctly last year there were sinks for washing yourselves?

There were sinks in Charlie Chaplin

fits wrote: »

I didnt find this a problem at all. I brought in my own water and combined with baby wipes and a shower on Sunday, it was grand!

QFT

does anyone seriously want to be sharing showers with a couple of thousand other people anyway?

think of the verrucas (sp?) urrghh

no baby wipes, a bit of spray and you are sorted.:D

the girls beside us, bought shampoo and conditioner and washed their hair outside the tent on saturday and sunday morning, which i thought was complete insane

Toast · 03-09-2008 10:25AM

eth0_ wrote: »

It's not a big deal to supply a few taps for every campsite. If they can do it at EVERY festival i've ever been to, they sure as hell can do it at EP. Unless they are trying to force people to go for boutique camping next year.

But it's a good thing we know that the boutique camping is sh*t too! 2 toilets and 4 showers for 1000 people - hahaha. Slums in India have better sanitation than that.

There was drinking water in many places around the Arena and in the Red campsite. It was signposted as well. No idea what the story with the other campsites or posh camping was but it wasnt a huge walk from posh camping to the drinking water in red.

Also I think the many dead from inadequate drinking water and disease in slums in India would like to have a word with you. This is where we get into potential libel.

fits · 03-09-2008 10:31AM

irishbird wrote: »

does anyone seriously want to be sharing showers with a couple of thousand other people anyway?

Yeah I have to admit I went to a friend's house nearby for the shower and some time out.

Aspiration · 03-09-2008 10:34AM

Yeah sure I was sorted for the weekend with some baby wipes and an beanie but it would have been refreshing if there were a few taps around so you could give your body a whole wipedown with a face towel or something instead of when you wake up and find your wipes and water are in direct sunlight.

The showers are too much hassle. I heard a girl say she was going to queue for the shower at 1 so she'd be ready for her hair appointment at 5 on the Saturday :rolleyes:

catho_monster · 03-09-2008 10:49AM

Phlann wrote: »

The tangerine fields/myhab people weren't to blame for it. They were promised a certain number of showers and toilets which just didn't show up. They were very annoyed with the organisers but there was really nothing they could do about it.

The running water stopped briefly on Saturday (I think) and was back up and running for the rest of the weekend.

The running water was there in the toilets at the beginning of friday, and was gone for the rest of the weekend in the myhab/tangerine area.

The issue is not, as someone said, that there was no running water at a music festival, but that some of us paid extra to be in the myhab, tangerine, yurt and tipi area expecting facilities. Now i dont know about the rest of them, but i specifically decided to stay in the myhab area because their website said that we would be in our own area with showers and toilets for that area. with only something like 100 myhabs we were max sharing with 200 people. we arrived to find that we were sharing with 2000 other people, according to figures given to us by tangerine fields reps. we paid for a service and we didnt get it. the fact that the promoters messed the accomodation providers around is not my problem. if i'd have known the facilities would have been like that, i'd have just camped normally and saved my money. absolute waste.

eth0_ · 03-09-2008 10:49AM

Toast wrote: »

Also I think the many dead from inadequate drinking water and disease in slums in India would like to have a word with you. This is where we get into potential libel.

The drinking water issue and the toilets issue are separate. I was comparing 2 toilets for 1000-1500 people in boutique camping to conditions in a third world slum. I mean for gods sake, how much do portaloos cost to hire? Where did the ticket money go? It sure as hell didn't go on a good lineup.

Toast · 03-09-2008 11:00AM

Maybe if you were at the festival you would know it was one of the largest most varied festivals this side of Glastonbury. It was pretty obvious where the 240 quid went.

Also the number of toilets and the number of people has magically changed from 4 for 1000 to 2 for 1500. Anyone actually have a real figure before we start rolling out comparisons to populations of 61 million to no toilets?

Third_Echelon · 03-09-2008 11:06AM

Lets get things in perspective here...

You are at a music festival for 3 days. Not a weekend in the Morgan...

Seriously. If you let things like this get in the way of your weekend, you aren't going to have a good time.

The vast majority of the people that I went with and met there had very few complaints about the facilities. We all know that there are going to be queues for the loo. They didn't seem any longer than any other year I've been there. They seemed to try a different layout/approach for the campsite loos this year, but I didn't think that they were down any capacity.

The loos do stink. Guess what... 30,000 people are crapping in them

Of all the festivals I've been to over the years, and I have been to quite a few... without a doubt, Electric Picnic is the best run and has had the best facilities onsite for the festival. I've been to some festivals in England for example, where actually emptying the loos every morning is not done... At least they do this at EP and clean the inside as well.

For those that paid for the posh camping... You aren't actually getting your money's worth no matter if they had running water and 15,000 showers. Is having a tap worth 500 Euro to you for 3 days?

John Mason · 03-09-2008 11:37AM

i thought the toilets were actually in pretty good shape considering. much better then previous years.

mind i had a bottle of air fresher with me and was spraying all the loos before i went in.

i thought, it was brilliantly organised and i had great time no complaints well, except for not being able to bring your drink back in after you went out but thats a minor issue

garthv · 03-09-2008 12:37PM

The toilets were a bit of a disgrace, the big troughs they had in the campsites got very messy very quickly. Then again, it is a festival, toilets are expected to be bad.

Beyond the toilets being a bit messy, I think it was a perfectly run festival...as usual! Best Picnic for me so far...thanks Pod/Aiken!

Diggidy · 03-09-2008 12:44PM

Evenescent wrote: »

However, screens at the main stage would have been handy - allowing everyone to goof off , sit around, walk about and be able to see what was going on

The big screens may use alot of electricity, and being an eco friendly festival (to the best of their ability) may have something to do with it. If they get big screens next year they should install a wind turbing or something similar to power them like Glastonbury do.

Electric Picnic rant....

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