Field Day swallowed up London’s indie community with little mercy this Saturday just gone – with an excellent bill and a convenient location in its favour, the Victoria Park-staged all-dayer was an on-paper winner. But, it did fall slightly foul of first-time jitters: not enough toilets, too many queues. It’s safe to say that a few punters left early, dissatisfied with their experience. Not all, mind: DiS’s on-site team had a blast for the most part.
But, questions need answering. Following up board posts you can find here and here, DiS went to Field Day organiser Tom Baker with your grievances.
Have you had many complaints about the festival?
If you have a look at the Field Day MySpace obviously there were issues with the toilets and the bars. But if you look at perhaps 90 per cent of the comments, if not more, most of them say: "Yeah, there were these problems BUT the music was amazing” or “This was a disgrace, however I loved Liars or I got to see Battles, The Aliens and Bat For Lashes - incredible". So on the whole there were those issues, which came mainly as a result of us being in our first year. I'm very disappointed as those problems were things I did bring up and the suggested improvements were things that I wanted to happen - I wanted more toilets and more bars but we were assured that it was enough for the capacity. It wasn't oversold - we were within capacity and we were advised that [the facilities] were enough for the capacity.
That 10,000 capacity - was that including the guestlist?
Yeah, that included everyone.
Have you received any requests for refunds at all?
No. I think everyone has said that obviously there were issues but it was the first year and these are things that can be rectified. A festival is about music, and that's why you go - it's not about toilets and bars, though obviously toilets and bars are extremely important. But they are things that can be easily sorted and dealt with.
I think the overall impression of the festival was of the music and that shone through. I think if people had really got pissed off they'd have left - they didn't. At the end Four Tet, Liars and Justice all had huge crowds... no-one asked for refunds on the day and the box office was open 'til the close of the festival. If people had had massive issues with it they'd have asked for a refund on the day. No-one was complaining. People were enjoying the tug o’ war and the tombola and just enjoying the event. I don't think it created an absolute, total nightmare for everyone but at the same time there were things that should have been right, and that's why I'm very disappointed.
There have been some complaints about the low sound levels - were they as a result of any similar problems the day before at Underage?
There were no problems at Underage at all. I think again it's just erring on the side of caution 'cause it was the first year and the council were there on every stage. With every outdoor event held in a central city location you've got levels and you have to adhere to them and I think for the first year they were ultra-cautious because we want to do it again. I didn't get many complaints from bands - a few mentioned it - but on the whole bands were treated really well. Backstage was really good. Of all the bands that I spoke to there were a couple that were disappointed that it wasn't very loud. But, I mean, Four Tet played at Glastonbury and he (Kieran Hebden) complained about the levels there, and when he played Glade similar problems arose there.
Will there be a Field Day next year?
Yeah, totally. The issues that came up this year can be easily resolved - look at Underage, that was a storming success. We'll get three times as many toilets and six bars and look at getting extra advice in... Field Day sold out two weeks in advance, the line-up was strong across the board. With six bars and triple the toilets people would've been buzzing about it, it'd have been the best fucking day ever. The problems are things that can be made right. I think perhaps we suffered because expectations were so high - eyes and ears were on us.
Did you reconsider the number of bars and bogs after you upped the capacity [from 6,000 to 10,000]?
Yeah, we were taking advice from people with 15 years’ worth of experience in the field. We did get our message up on MySpace as soon as we could, as we didn't want to be seen like we were hiding anything. On the day we were taking toilets out from backstage and putting them out front, but obviously it wasn't as easy to do the same with the bars.
Questions answered, look out for DiS’s verdict on the line-up – which included Liars, Battles, Foals, Bat For Lashes, Archie Bronson Outfit, Electrelane, GoodBooks and many more – later this week.
it's more than just beer and toliets...
but there were almost NO vegan/veggie options and food, wine, booze besides beer (wine and sangria) were running out at 6pm. one stage was entirely shut down the day of and the home fires tent was a tiny set-up stuck against a corner, so when it housed headlining acts like gruff rhys, four tet, and bat for lashes, the only people it satisfied were those in the first row--it was just too small of a space all together to house such a heavy-hitter bill.
where was the oxfam jumble sale? did you see any bands at the tug-of-war? what was with all the cops everywhere? how come we weren't allowed to bring our own booze or even water in, while people from backstage carried armfuls of booze out on to the festival grounds?
it was a friggin' zoo! so frustrating, we left early.
yeah
i hate to have a go, cos I had a good day all in all, but there were more problems than just the bars and toilets.
Aye
After defending the promoters against some of the more knee-jerk cretins on the aforementioned threads, I still have to say that the sound WAS a problem; and thatbirdslove is absolutely spot on, re: the Homefires stage - just facing it a different direction would have helped. Even then though it would still have competed (and failed) with the Bugged Out tent.
I do hope that Tom listens to some of the remarks about the sound levels (and sightlines) - frankly the number of people who are saying the same thing means it surely isn't even merely a matter of opinion.
the jumble sale
was a stall next to the bandstand 'meeting point'. It had every deftones album and some dresses.
Stop complaining...
grandma
We met the man from Battles
and as a direct quote he said he could hear "shit all" on stage, and seemed rahter annoyed at the whole thing.
It is a shame, becasue Battles were fantastic, but you could just tell that they could be SO much better without the adversity.
Oh, and with the whole Homefires being too small thing, i think their main problem was too much of a good thing.
There were jsut too many good acts for the amount of space. Which is just absurd! I can't actually believe that is a criticism, but it kind of is.
Sorry but a lot of that doesn't wash with me
"Backstage was really good"
Well that's just great, maybe think about giving the punters an equally "really good" experience next time.
Plenty of people left early and I sure heard a lot of people complaining.
Bleurgh, I'm just repeating myself now.
...
Well, at least you got to see some great bands.
I almost managed to type that with a straight face.
bullshit
plus I asked for a refund but they haven't bothered to reply.
oh stealthy...
maybe
but archie bronson were kicked off stage, so they couldn't have been too pleased
most people i think said they had a good time IN SPITE of the problems - without them it would have been great.
it would have been nice if the organisers were a bit more apologetic over their miscalculations but hey ho
Archie Bronson said
on departing 'we'll see you next time at a proper gig'. I guess they were quite pissed off.
The bands who played are going to be pretty irked with the negative publicity - I just hope that doesn't make it harder to get more good bands next year. As mentioned above, in paper, the festival was a brilliant idea, but in practice, the basics need to work!
I understand that it must be really difficult to put on a festival for the first time, but whoever you took advice from were either taking the piss or out to sabotage your efforts, in my opinion.
£22.50 is incredibly cheap - I'd be prepared to pay £15 more if it means a hassle-free, potentially fantastic day out, without a doubt - and it DID have the potential to be brilliant.
Good luck for next year. I definitely still intend to come, despite the teething problems.
this is fucking stupid
DiS would never have some this kind of letting them off easy "responding to criticisms" thing for Reading festival when people complain about that, an event where generally the faults lie with the punters and not the promoters. But oh, that's run by Mean Fiddler, right...so instead that would get a whole front page thing moaning about it.
more field day gripes...
ugh. all his comments make me feel angrier rather than soothed.
I wouldve asked for a fucking refund, if i could have been arsed queueing again at the box office. D'ya think we can ask for some now?
I left at 6pm, utterly defeated by navigating around queue after queue, not being able to fight nearer stages and having to put up with twats trying to steal drinks i'd had to wait an hour and a half for.
a waste of time and money. not even the prospect of headliners made me stay a minute longer. and all the pubs nearby were full of people with the same stories.
x
plus
they seem to be justifying the faults by saying "oh but we picked some great bands"
So what? I could have picked a load of great bands too but I'd be fecking useless at putting a day festival on. They're trying to avoid the point really.
on the backstage area
i spoke to people from two bands playing there afterwards and the first things they said were 'bad sound, big queues and bad organisation'.the last two were aimed at backstage area.
not being a dick
about things, but this guy saids that 'oh the majority of the people were happy' but by the posts on this site and the event's myspace page saids otherwise. for every "good job" there's about 3 or 4 "what a shambles" posts.
if you're utterly devastated about field day and want a refund, you could contact your local trading standards centre and see what can be done. might be worth a shot and at least that way you'll know where you stand, legally.
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/
course nothing might come of it, but worth a shot?
get a fucking grip!!!!!!!
!
I hold that for 22 quid
we shouldnt have expected more. I travelled from somerset (via the isle of wight) to go. I found it to be good- at least the bands were. To be honest when you pay 12-17 quid to see someone like liars, a couple of quid extra to see those bands was worth it. Very few festivals deserve someone claiming a refund for them- only the really big ones where toilets are less of an inconvenience and more a humanitarian disaster should it be considered, in my view.
i hope they iron these problems out next year- just a case of adding a few more loos but not more tickets, and having more bars with more booze available. not hard problems to resolve. I hope it doesnt get much bigger though, i liked the size of the event, perhaps a larger AITBF tent but thats it really.
The problem is..
That the deluge of festivals springing up to satisfy the trend for live music inevitably means festivals are held at completely inappropriate venues, one can't expect a central London park to provide music at proper levels whilst meeting required volume laws. It was niave of me to go really, I haven't been to a good English festival this year held outside (in england).. Field Day/Galstonbury was very quiet whilst Dot to Dot/Supersonic and Primavera were excellent (Melvins anyone?). I just don't think that first time promoters thrust into large scale festivals can expect to properly cater (and even large scale festivals are being increasingly disrupted by volume requirements). I find it hard to blame the promoters, just the people who push inappropriate festivals out to satisfy their own greed.
Obviously the toilets/bar situation was entirely avoidable, indicative of cost cutting or lack of pre-planning.
the ostrich line of defence dont cut the mustard
I am sorry , I know they have to put a good shine on it but the organiser has his head in the sand. the organisation was shit awful and regardless of it being the first year they were amazingly naive mistakes to make. I have not spoken to one person who came back from Field Happy.
Next year, get more bloody food and beer vendors - use the pitch rental revenue from that to source more toilets and erm...ROOKIE error - wristbands?
security were a nasty bunch too and the police publicly naming and shaming and searching the poor couple in front of the eat your own ears stage - couldnt they have at least had some tact and taken them back stage or something. It was only 20 m from the barrier
People were pissing in the crowd by the end of it and some twat on the benugo stand said he couldnt serve the hog roast at 7.30pm because it wasnt ready yet as it had to reach the perfect temperature - WHHHHATTT? what have you been doing all day except selling overpriced cheese sandwiches - it should have been on ALL day - even more given they were the only stall with hardly any custom - they at least had time on their hands.
Was it just me or were the sets pretty short as well - altho might be imagining that. I know it was the first year so granted you want to make an impression with a stellar line up but next year dont spank so much of your cash on your bookings that you cant cater for the punters or at least find some other source of income so there is a decent infrastructure
I would say that 80% of the people I knew who were there left by 8pm
This Tom bloke
sounds like an arrogant cunt
...
I think some of the complainer people need to get over themelves. There was obvious problems, complaints were made, they have been answered (admittedly not fully, but at least they were answered) and promises have been made for next year.
What's the point in hammering on about isolated stuff like security, who incidentally, seemed fine to me. Get on with your life and look forward to the next festival. Out of the people I was with everyone stayed until the end and overall had a good day, whilst acknowledging it could and should have been much better. It was a bit harder to have a good time with all the queues, but there was still plenty to enjoy.
If it's like that again next year then, fair enough, it will probably not exist as a succesful festival. Until then, give it a break. It would be cool next year if they had some sort of unsigned / new bands stage, could possibly solve the problem of there being too many popular acts.
I saw that
The least likely people to cause a disturbance i've ever seen, he was wearing two fucking tone shorts for chrisake, and they had a picnic blanket. Only to have four law bringers pick apart all their belongings in purple latex gloves. Can't they just stick to beating up youths.
hmmmmm
If you are a promoter with Toms experience working in venues the size of Koko (3 bars 20+staff) you should know that 2 bars is not enough. If you do not understand that you should not be promoting anything. Trying to play it down is a waste of time. Most people left with a bitter taste. A LOT of people left early complaining to anyone who listened.People I was with traveled from Manchester Bristol and Scotland, they had all left by 8pmish without much good to say. They will not be back next year. Not a satisfactory response not a satisfactory festival.Not worth repeating, maybe try something a bit smaller get the hang of it.
profiteering
tom, just how much money did you make from other peoples' abject misery?
apparently
they are making very little, if any, profit. which seems to make sense if you think about it — consider the ticket price versus all the expenses...
My two cents (like you care)
1) Queues for the toilets were large, yes. More needed.
2) Queues for the bars were large. Which put me off getting any beer at all. Big deal, so I wasn't drunk.
3) Set times were short. Annoying.
4) Homefires stage clearly too small for the caliber of the acts.
5) Too manys bands. They could've had fewer bands and longer set times.
6) As far as I was aware, most of the food places were the same (BBQ grill stuff). I was under the impression there was a bit of variety.
7) Stalls and such were pushed very much to the sidelines (almost literally). I thought the main emphasis on this (apart from the bands, obviously) was a "fete" feel to it. Why wasn't that emphasised more?
I can't be arsed to think of any more. But I had a great time, and I would definately go again. That's if another small festival hasn't popped up and taken its place by next year...
hmm...
watching a man dressed as a fox take part in the tug of war was pretty amusing.
i had a cup of peppermint tea. that was nice.
the bugged out! tent looked pretty banging, but there was no way of getting in.
electrelane were so good they almost made me cry.
the shit burger stands were not required.
most of the fete aspects were virtually non-existant.
left at about nine.
would go again.
Seriously,
what??
I travelled down from Nottingham for this, and some of the friends I was with had come from places as far as Hull and north Wales, and I don't think any of us have any real complaints. Well, ok, there *should* have been more toilets, but I personally didn't have to queue once. Just lucky? Maybe. But I didn't ever have to queue for longer than about 2 minutes to get food either.
I accept some of the criticisms - vegan/veggie food was certainly lacking, the Home Fires stage was far too low, the queue at the bar was ridiculous and there seemed to be no information regarding the band tugs o' war - but abject misery?? I had a great day!
I also didn't see anyone all day who looked like they really weren't enjoying themselves. Judging by these responses it seems I might be in a minority, and I'm not going to speak for anyone I don't know, but just to answer the guy who said he didn't know anyone who'd come back happy, well, I can give you the names of eight perfectly satisfied punters. Were we the only 8 of 10,000? Who knows...
really?
summer sundae was so close..
doesn't cut it.
loads of people had left by the time justice had come on. sound wasn't just quiet, it was shite. still i'm glad backstage was lovely.
I didn't go to Field Day so can't comment on the problems
but having read
a) People's posts on the messageboard
b) DiS staff's comments on the problems
c) This article
I have to say this looks more like a propaganda piece than anything I've ever read on DiS. Given the number and nature of complaints on the board, this does seem a set of questions designed to give the organisers the easiest ride possible.
a few things....
1) In general my dealings with Tom have come across well, he seems like a good guy- Homefires in general have been good (but badly attend this year)....All the other Eat Your Own Ears shows seem to go without a problem...
2) Line up was good- adding a couple more thousand tickets at the last- not good.
3) For the same kind of music but a better line up- End of the Road----especially if your going to travel a massive distance-
4)Let this be a lesson to all future festival promoters- Always over budget toilets- then at least you have less complaints- more food stalls ( non meat please)....
5)DIS- if there are big complaints from YOUR readers, you should put up more than the simplist patsy questions.
i.e . our readers have posted lots of complaints- (list some complaints)- how do you answer that?
i came down from manchester for this
i had a brief look at the rules on myspace before setting off.
not being able to bring your own drinks or food in was a joke, especially as none of my friends or i had our bags checked at the entrance.
perhaps had the organisers allowed patrons to bring their own alcohol, the queues for the beer tents wouldn't have been as dense, but also perhaps more people would have been inclined to buy beer from the tents after they had drunk their own, meaning steady but short queues throughout the day. as it was, i didn't buy one drink.
what was the reasoning behind not being allowed re-admittance to the site?
and this probably has not thing to do with the organisers directly, but why did liars take so long to sound check? taking 45 minutes to sort their shit out was the final straw.
at least foals and battles put on good sets.
" I think if people had really got pissed off they'd have left - they didn't."
With all due respect: bollocks. I've got four or five messages alone on my phone from people telling me they'd had enough and were fucking off early.
"No-one was complaining."
Hahahaha!!!
""Yeah, there were these problems BUT the music was amazing” "
Of course. When in this situation, what are you going to do?!? The sound was utter garbage for pretty much everyone, but the bands themselves put on good performances. They're nothing to do with the organisational stuff though are they??
I didn't go to Field Day
but having read a lot of comments about it I feel like I did. I really don't like this attitude that because some people had a good time (I suspect making the best of a bad situation) and the line up was good that peoples' complaints are invalid.
All festivals
are poorly run and over-rated now.
rubbish
there are more good festivals than ever before...
bestival
primavera
the ATPs
green man
end of the road
its just that there are more festivals in general, thus more shite ones. i wouldn't have expected field day to be one of the shitly run ones.
Before I was just annoyed
but now they've actually angered me! They've brushed off all the complaints people had. Their one defence is the "The bands were good". Yeah they were, but that doesn't invalidate evey other other grievance.
But mainly, I'm really, really glad backstage was great. Most of been lovely for you.
this article
was supposed to save their asses? bad luck
the problem with
whinging about sound levels is that they're unlikely to get louder, with the rise of daily mail-ers and wee frees on councils (and in communities) anyone who is seen to be too loud is going to stamped down on to the point of taking the piss.
This
leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
"Backstage was really good"
well, whoop shit. What a cunt.
incidentally
the backstage / VIP bit that I could go in was rubbish. Massive queues for the privilege of paying £3 for a can of Fosters. I'm sure there was a better bit for the actual bands (although quite a lot of the performers were hanging around there).
Anyway, like I said, they fucked up a bit, it will be better next year; it certainly doesn't negate all the really good gigs that EYOE have done. And all these 'what a cunt' posts are completely pointless and unhelpful.
maybe
he does sound like a fucking clueless, arrogant cunt though.
EYOE
R CUNTZ
SOZ
Hmph.
If DiS were bothered about the organisers responding to the criticism surely the questions should have touched on specific points a bit more rather than giving them vague questions they can wriggle out of easily? It's not like punters criticisms aren't well documented on these very boards. :(
No one left?
Thats bollocks.
Liars tent was only just full. Fourtet had less people there than Adem did. Justice was emptying by the second. I stayed til the end and had an alright day, but he's obviously not been reading the same threads / posts that I have. There were some amazing bands there - ture. But there were fewer than 5 decent perfomances during that time.
And where was the Welly Throwing????
Thats the real crime in all this...
Is this the same tom baker
who played doctor who?
If so then i can see why he wouldnt have had much experience putting on festivals.
I want my money back
Im seriously looking into getting my money back it was a shambles. Anyone who says they had a good time must be friends of the organisers or been on drugs...
I'd been looking forward to it for ages and to leave at 7 o clock having spent most of the day queueing left us feeling very angry indeed.
Toms nice new jag
In addition, Im sure Tom will be able to afford a nice new Jag with the money we all wasted, cheers Tom nice one you felching nonce
Attention: People moaning about being stuck in queues
I appreciate it was necessary after 2pm to queue, and that getting food was a bit bad, but come on....
You have the option to get a pint. And buying one of those fellas means you'll be in another queue within the hour I'm guessing.
Just don't blame queuing on you missing lots of bands - you saw the situation,and thought it was worth it. Deal with it...
Festivals are about the MUSIC, and then the food and drink is a bonus. Not the other way around.
I'll get off my high horse now, before I say something rude like "Fuck off back to Gordon Ramsay" or blame you for the dearth of boring Gastro pubs in London...
agreed
I didn't drink anything from about 7pm onwards, yet still stayed until 11pm and enjoyed the music that was on (aside from the sound). People missing bands because they were queuing for a beer
I'm not saying people don't have legitimate complaints, just some people (not all) sound like the sort of people who enjoy complaining. Incidentally, the atmosphere in the dance tent was wicked. Before the indie kids make a broad generalisation about drugs, I think it was an attitude thing more than anything else.
I wish I spent more time in the Bugged Out tent
it looked great but I just couldn't get anywhere near it :(
food and drink is a bonus?
Are you being serious?
Well... yes...
I didn't go there just to get hammered, which is what 80% of the complaints stem from. "They ran out of wine"... "I had to queue for an hour to get a beer"
I agree, the choice of food wasn't varied enough, but aren't peoplee losing sight of what got us all there in the first place.
For me, it was the words:
Fourtet
Justice
Battles
Late of the pier
Liars
Adem
Caribou
Fanfarlo
Chromeo
Duke Dumont
+ £22
have good act is no excuse....
yes they booked good acts, I think if we had the backing and the cash we could all choose a great lineup. However unlike Tom I'm not pretending I can organise a whole festival, which involves lots of logistical challenges, and I think if I did run a festival as poorly as this I don't think I'd act like such an arrogant cunt when it all went balls up.
Apparently they have learnt lessons for next year, well great, I expect a free ticket for next years event, being that it was so piss poor this year or does Tom expect people to pay for his mistakes.
Field Day is the Koko of festivals. They get good acts but it's always shit.