So what does a good underground festival need ?

[Darchigan]

I can't help wondering if it needs more of this;

Video from : www.youtube.com

We did put on a NYE party however. Some mates built a temporary barn out of a HGV trailer, a fuckton of tarpaulin, and lots of hay bales, and it was a banger......

And less of that;

Video from : www.youtube.com

The Meteor Stage Under Construction, I can't help wondering if the whole Secret Garden Party approach, which can be seen as rather gimmicky, has effectively priced Glade out of existence ?

Just get the basics right and let the people and the music do the rest and fun ideas do not have to be expensive. A festival with a focus on new bedroom DJs could have well known headliners on the first day with acts for the bigger spaces being chosen via simple token based voting system from the unknown names who had performed the day before also role play wide games can be brilliant fun, lots of plain white surfaces with an open invitation to do some graffiti art could be quite inexpensive and I'm sure that there are plenty of other low cost suggestions that could add to the festival experience but I don't think a festival should ever depend on things like that.

[dannybee]

It's a tough one in my opinion. The setting can often be the cherry on the cake but it shouldn't matter. People call the Pyromid a mess but my time there on Sunday afternoon was beyond awesome. The music, weather and people were all just perfect. I always despised the psytrance fans with their beautiful outdoor dancing stage and then we get a day of techno and sun and its smiles all around.

With Facebook being so prevalent these days people look at other people's pictures when deciding on festivals to go to. When it's a dark tent it doesn't sell itself in pictures. This is a sad thing indeed but when you are competing with the amazing things that boomtown do and the budget being spent these days in the naughty corner at Glastonbury and some of the areas at Bestival you have to stand out in some way.

I found the dance off stage and the general posh raver parts of glade a bit off putting. The meteor and Pyromid not so much. I always loved glades lineups and I think maybe Andy C and Sven Vaith were maybe a bit to mainstream for glade. They must all be very expensive bookings.

I really hope this isn't the end for such an amazing festival. Some of my best raving memories have happened over these wonderful weekends. Glade has been through a lot with licence issues, weather and volume levels at wassing. Something I've always been impressed with, is their ability to bounce back.

C'mon Glade! We love you!

[Darchigan]

IWith Facebook being so prevalent these days people look at other people's pictures when deciding on festivals to go to. When it's a dark tent it doesn't sell itself in pictures. This is a sad thing indeed but when you are competing with the amazing things that boomtown do and the budget being spent these days in the naughty corner at Glastonbury and some of the areas at Bestival you have to stand out in some way.

Point taken, but the best facebook photographs for selling events are groups of friends with beaming expressions who are having a great time and lots of happy comments to go with those pictures. My highlight from last year was the South London bass music at Lee Fest in their biggest tent, at one point it turned into a massive mosh pit, I got head butted by a girl backing away from it and we both laughed about it and it was a brilliant small festival that wasn't pretending to compete with any rivals, it was just good on its own terms.

[sim667]

I can't help wondering if it needs more of this;

Video from : www.youtube.com

We did put on a NYE party however. Some mates built a temporary barn out of a HGV trailer, a fuckton of tarpaulin, and lots of hay bales, and it was a banger......

And less of that;

Video from : www.youtube.com

The Meteor Stage Under Construction, I can't help wondering if the whole Secret Garden Party approach, which can be seen as rather gimmicky, has effectively priced Glade out of existence ?

Just get the basics right and let the people and the music do the rest and fun ideas do not have to be expensive. A festival with a focus on new bedroom DJs could have well known headliners on the first day with acts for the bigger spaces being chosen via simple token based voting system from the unknown names who had performed the day before also role play wide games can be brilliant fun, lots of plain white surfaces with an open invitation to do some graffiti art could be quite inexpensive and I'm sure that there are plenty of other low cost suggestions that could add to the festival experience but I don't think a festival should ever depend on things like that.

For this NYE party some guys built a floor in a field, dragged a HGV trailer in to be a stage, built walls out of hay and made a roof out of tarpaulin. Basic bar too.

We're gagging at the bit to do something a little bit more upscale and pretty, but then we know that's more expensive. What we'd really like for a next one is a trailer stage again but to do it in the summer (open air) , not have it as a private party (so we can sell some tickets) and have camping and bogs. A bit of site decor for people who want to show off their stuff.

The reason why out NYE party went off is that even the local ravers with rigs put their nights on in Brighton or London, both an hour on the train for us and with no transport until the next morning. There's no local £3 parties where people can get a £5 taxi home. That NYE party was perfect, and there was a vague charging system so everyone came out in force because there's nothing proper going on locally, even on NYE. Everyone knew each other and just wanted a party which was nice and easy, with a easy going feel, this is what we want to encourage at our ongoing parties.

Anyway we had lots of people asking for us to do it again. So we've got a proper indoor venue to do until 3am nights which is very local for us. So we'll have more coming, drum and bass is what we all grew up on, so there'll be a lot of that.

We're gagging for an out door venue for summer though, where we can get a TEN and do something wicked

[pesh]

people like 'gimmicks'.
i didn't see as many smiling faces in one place anywhere else last year.

[dannybee]

I fecking loved a lot about boomtown. It had something magic in the air. I got into some Reggae and Dub and saw a few other fun things there I probably wouldn't normally have bothered with. However the lineup was missing a bit of chin stroker / electronica / heads music for me. I love a party but there wasn't any music that really threw me off guard. Also there was a lot of shit breaks and wobble.

I'm still back next year though. The atmosphere was incredible. Which proves the gimmicks worked on me. (Shoot me now)

I think with Bloc and looking like Glade going down the toilet where do people who like their beats different go? Hmmm...

Maybe I'm just a fussy old git these days.

[sim667]

people like 'gimmicks'.
i didn't see as many smiling faces in one place anywhere else last year.

I like gimmicks

[Darchigan]

people like 'gimmicks'.
i didn't see as many smiling faces in one place anywhere else last year.

I like gimmicks

And so do I but I reckon there's a kind of gimmickry arms race taking place and trying to compete with that has probably put Glade out of business and also its a very mainstream commercialized way of doing business isn't it? . . . . Bigger, better, badder more like a new fair ground attraction.

[pesh]

I reckon there's a kind of gimmickry arms race taking place and trying to compete with that has probably put Glade out of business and also its a very mainstream commercialized way of doing business isn't it? . . . .

i wouldn't say so.

sticking Steve Angello on a massive bland stage on a disused airstrip somewhere outside Liverpool is a mainstream commercialised way of doing business.

deciding to blow your tent budget on a load of railway sleepers and a spaceship and then bury half your PA and lighting rig under it all, or deciding to buy a perfectly good scrap yard and turn it into a giant fire breathing spider for Rat Pack to toddle about on isn't mainstream or commercial. it's fucking madness.

the people who put these types of festivals and areas on have always been pushing boundaries and trying to do something that makes the punters who turn up and discover it all go WOW. look at that. it's what sets them apart from the mainstream 'get em in, get their cash, get em out' attitude of festivals like Global or Creamfields.

theres definitely plenty of room and need for small low / no budget parties, and it's a crying shame they're so hard to get away with doing and doing well these days, but to say that people like Glade, Arcadia and all the other independent crews and festivals who put the effort in with the creative side of things are having a gimmick armsrace thats actually hurting the festivals themselves is well off the mark.

[BassBin Terrorizer]