Exclusive: Field Day organiser answers festival criticism

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.

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.

"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.

plus I asked for a refund but they haven't bothered to reply.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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??

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.

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.

was supposed to save their asses? bad luck

leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

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.

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. :(

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...

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.

by how strong some of these comments are. I must admit I didn't attend Field Day but I did win tickets which I gave to some mates because I couldnt attend. They' re both veteran gig/festival goers and though they did admit the queues were busy, they were no worse than some other festivals they've attended. They told me that the atomsphere was pretty good but did comment on the sound levels (but it was central London, near a residental area).

However in my opinion the line up on paper was a bargain for £20 odd quid and though I dont know Tom. I've found from personal experience that 'Eat Your Own Ears' events are usually thought out and pretty good. In the past they've given the impression that they're music lovers first, promoters 2nd and do really care what the fans/punters think. Unlike some other organisers/companies I could mention.

Clearly mistakes were made and some of them appear to be a little naive on their part but fair play to them for having a go to try and entertain 10,000 people. I just hope for everyone and for the organisers sake that next year they get it spot on!

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

here!

http://www.artrocker.com/reviews/gigs/field-day

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.

is the idea that everyone should be happy/not ask for refunds because they've learned from the mistakes and it will be better next year. That's largely irrelevant - no one got a ticket to next year's event for their £22.50. this argument shouldn't extend beyond the fact people paid £22.50 this year and didn't get the most basic of facilities. It's arrogant of the organisers to assume that anyone beyond themselves should care about the growth or evolution of the festival. It's comparable to letting someone off with gross negligence because they've 'learned their lesson'.

I queued 1 hour and 2 minutes to go for a pee at the back of the site. There were FOUR CUBICLES there. I would have gone to the urinals but, sorry, I'm female and haven't quite mastered peeing standing up yet. These loos were right next to Homefires and the Bugged Out tent, where there were hundreds of people. At least double the toilets next year? More like quadruple them.

A point no one's made - it was baking hot on Saturday, so to not pass out with sunstroke, you had to drink water. Which we had to throw away on getting into the festival – something that should be made illegal, it's fucking ridiculous. Anyway, when we had water, strangely enough it made us want to go to the toilet. So the choice was piss yourself or pass out. We all left after Battles and TONS of other people were too - the roads nearby were packed with people leaving.

you can only legitimately ask for a refund if some of the bands pull out. Say, for example, Battles and / or Liars pulled out and you'd bought a ticket specifically for them, then you should be entitled to a refund.

If people feel that strongly, then they just shouldn't go next year. Simple as that. Am guessing enough people will see the potential for the event and appreciate what the organisers were trying to achieve that it will, once again, sell out. Everyone who goes will be having a great time, seeing loads of bands for £25; people who decide not to will probably be at home getting angry about having no mobile phone reception or something.

...the same complaints go around and around. Repeating them won't change what happened, and my experience of the festival was one of smiling faces and dancing funny business.

I didn't see anyone in a sulk. I saw people queue because they wanted to. I didn't - I watched bands.

I think mountains are being made from molehills. The festival was a good event. Not great, as someone already commented, but good. It'll be better. Tom and company managed to put on a great bill somewhere where so many of us could easily get to (and back from!), and the few gripes are simply born from inexperience. How many of us were there at the first Glastonbury, or Reading, or even ATP...? Remember the first ATP at Minehead? Bit of a queue nightmare, that (no pun intended). But the next two: amazing.

Look on the bright side. The next Field Day will undoubtably do away with the sour aftertaste of this one.

because I resent the self congratulating atttitude of Tom Baker and his opinion that choosing great bands is the main element when organising a great festival and this makes up for pissing in public and queuing for the better part of a hot day. Clearly some people had a worse time than others, but to gloss over the fundamental issues that people have with "teething problems" is just insulting. The fact that it was "really good" backstage also rankles. I'm glad Mike Diver had a good day, in fact I'm pleased that some people did. I didn't. Nor did my friends. I genuinely hope they do learn from this year's mistakes, but it doesn't stop some punters from this year feeling cheated.

To be fair though, who looks for that? Yo udon't wander past people and try ang guess their mood. It's like walking away through a football crowd trying to guess the score. Unless someone's openly weeping, you're not going to find out just by looking.

It was a good effort to build on. But the mistakes that were made simply shouldn't have been made. I was with a crowd of around 15-20 people, most of whom have posted negatively in one of the threads mentioned above. This, to me, doesn't say that "Most people DID have a good time". It says the exact opposite. Maybe the truth lies somewhere in between? But if it does, that still leaves a few thousand people not happy with one of the events they were most looking forward to over the summer.

think Mike Diver has misjudged the mood of the posters somewhat? Being told to "chill out" makes my blood boil. As I said previously, I'm pleased he had a good day, I'm pleased if anyone did. Doesn't stop those of us who didn't wanting to vent our disappointment and perhaps have our concerns acknowledged and taken seriously. That's why, three days after the event, i haven't chilled out.

But after reading 3 days worth of abuse about the thing, it's clear that he and Tom took a different conclusion from the feedback to most of the population.

For every 1 person who liked an aspect of it, I heard from 3 that didn't I'd say. Though in all fairness, the whingers are a lot more vocal than the backers...

My 2 cents.

Sound was the worst thing. Outside stages were dire. Tents were okay.

Queues were too long, but it was up to you (to a certaain extent) to join them.

Food choice wasn't good enough for vegetarians

The programme was a tad expensive at £3

The sets for some bands were stupidly short

The stages were too close together. And putting the dance tent next to the acoustic open air stage was a slight mistake

bands - some in the tents were ok, the stage ones suffered. Few showed the potential they do normally - but thats a general festival complaint in my mind

This was a disgrace, however I loved Liars or I got to see Battles, The Aliens and Bat For Lashes - incredible".

'THIS WAS A DISGRACE' at the start of a message does not denote a positive.

LOLZ

as far as i know, the tents should have been smoke free, they weren't and there were no notices outside or anywhere...

anti-Facebook group? get a fucking life or a job or counselling or something.

it's rubbish when people make their opinions known isn't it.

you've called someone you've never met "an arrogant cunt" twice on this very thread. Nice.

Surely you should care about fairly representing the views of the users of your site?

didn't see that - i stand corrected :-)

while i find most people's complaints and comments valid and all that, pls count me in for those who still enjoyed it - i thought the bands that i managed to see were all great. as for the sound, i find a lot of gigs too loud anyway and tend to wear special earplugs. and i didn't need to wear those :-))

Yet you didn't know it...

Brilliant.

and I haven't received a reply yet. Cunts.

I think I read somewhere that someone said that they had to work to enjoy it, or enjoyed it despite the organisation, and that's about right.

First off, I only got there at about 5. I had been looking forward to it for ages but didn't get my tickets because of what I assume was an honest mix-up between organisers, record shop and me.

I've no connection with the organisers and never met any of them but when I phoned up a few days before to explain the situation the guy was really helpful and said he could see what he could do and gave me his personal mobile number and email. He really did seem to be in it for the right reasons and the love of music. I phoned him on the day and after a bit it got sorted out. That gets a lot of respect points from me. I was pissed off I missed Chromeo and Foals but it was much better than nothing.

I'd like to add that I didn't see a cynical "look after your mates" attitude at all, just genuine organisational difficulties, naive or otherwise. When I was queuing to get my tickets from the box office, I could see various record label luminaries enduring the (at least) hour long guest list queue along with all the random blaggers (who I'm sure didn't help speed things up).

The girls who were in the box office / guestlist bit weren't slacking either - the one I spoke to had been working since 8 am without stopping for a break or food at all apparently.

Inside, the queue for alcohol was ridiculous and my mate and I did fancy a few drinks. It did take over an hour, so we bought 8 pints. They were a bit of a mission to carry at first but we survived. Didn't queue for more than 10 minutes for any of the food and there were soft drink stands with queue at all if you didn't just go to the nearest one to the stages. Perhaps the queues had just died down since mid-afternoon.

The free water tap did have a queue but it was moving quite quickly (though I didn't join it).

The toilet situation was a shocker. It was easy for me to ignore this, being a guy, but there's no excuse for that and the girls were in a pretty terrible predicament, short of squatting. Had I needed a dump I would have been mighty pissed of as I'd have missed bands unavoidably and no re-entry combined with the facilities balls up was pretty unforgivable here.

I'm told there were queues for food and drinks (not as bad) backstage too.

The sound was really bad on the main stage, thought it was fine in the tents but the bugged out tent was too much of a road block.

What I really liked was how friendly everyone was - I met loads of strangers and happily shared food and drink with them and vice versa, including plenty of people who were happy to go and get drinks from backstage to save the queuing.

I left at the end of it having had a good time overall.

I was also left with the feeling, judging by my limited dealings with the organisers, that they meant well but fcked up. No idea if they turned a large profit or not. If they did, then I suspect the right thing to do would be to plough some of it back into a free gig etc.

who cares what Dis readers, OR writers for that matter, think...

Looksie - some REAL journalists thought it was a piece of poo poo to to: http://music.guardian.co.uk/live/story/0,,2148340,00.html

just a quick note.
the DB restrictions imposed on Glade & Glastonbury are at lowest 95 db, at glade this kicks in at midnight.

Field Day had an 85 DB level imposed.
which is unheard of.
i have NEVER seen that before in any festival / event / venue accross Europe.

thats why it sounded shite.

point over

for battles to only get 25 minutes was a crime considering they were one of the most popular bands. their set was great though.

what happened to archie bronson outfit was awful. they were cut off mid song then told they couldnt play their closing tune. the sound guys said it was sound restrictions, but if thats the case you turn it down, not turn it off. The stage the Archies played on was stuck in a corner too so only people on one side could see.

good on the bookers for getting some great acts but beyond that it was ill thought out.

and doing properly!

The quiet sound ruined my day. Ruined it. Even at the back of the fanfarlo/chromeo (i forget their real names) tents, the sound was so quiet it was hard to enjoy, and when I'm standing a hundred feet away from justice and I can hear the whistly nose the guy behind me has every time he breathes, I don't not just enjoy myself as much as I might, I get a bit down.

Not being able to take water in? I'm a mammal, it was one of the hottest days of the year and I was planning to dance. If you're only going to provide two bars, let me take water in. No, fuck that, I want to take water in anyway. Useless.

Less bands, longer sets. Most bands went on late. Give them more time to set up. easy really isn't it.