loraaw Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 For years my husband and I have been saying 2007 would be the summer we'd go to Europe - we were just about to scrap it and be more fiscally responsible when I saw Wilco show up at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in Somerset. Wow - this looks cool, a music festival at a RESORT! I'm anti-festival, anti-camping, anti-port-a-johns, but having your own private room onsite! Only the people at the resort get to go to the shows?!??! AND wow, in addition to Wilco, what a lineup! From the research I've done, this seems like it's a new resort for this festival. However, has anyone ever gone to one of these before (music festival at a resort). Is it really as cool as it seems? How crowded are the performances? How crazy does it get at the resort? And am I crazy or does about $600 for 3 nights at a resort INCLUDING concert tickets not seem all that expensive for Europe (for the "4 berth room" the smallest left - that's NOT per person, right????) Anyone ever been to this particular resort (Butlins Minehead)? Any advice from anyone would be much appreciated. We'll probably need to figure this out this week before the last room we could afford sells out. We'd, obviously, stick around Europe for longer than the 3 days of the festival - I'm just trying to figure out if this is something worth working a trip around. Thanks,-Laura Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cunny Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 these 'rooms' will not be the height of luxury, they will be basic in the extremethe Butlin's holiday camps are typically used for downmarket cheap family holidays on the plus side it seems they are building a good quality line up!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
froggie Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 anti-port-a-johns first time i've heard it referred to as that! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Stan Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 http://www.butlinsonline.co.uk/index.cfm?p...y&wt.srch=1 http://www.butlinsonline.co.uk/index.cfm?p...=20061020163375 I think some of the Brits have been to the event in past years. Maybe check back here in a couple of days time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
beadsman Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Welsh Rich Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 Hello! I'm going to this weekend of ATP this year. Very chuffed that Wilco are now on the line-up. I've not been to his resort before, the ATP @ Christmas was here, they did have some problems with people getting between the venues, but apparantly they've sorted that out now. I went to the Camber Sands one last year and the chalets themselves were pretty grim. Small and like something out of the 1950's, which they probably were. We didn't even have a shower in ours so we had to have a bath every morning. But, we didn't really spend that much time in them, the rooms were very close and the line-up was amazing so we didn't really need to be there. We only slept in them and then kicking started the day with breakfast and beers. The one at Minehead is decades ahead of this one and a lot, lot nicer. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
beadsman Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 oops, my evangelizing "by far the best music festival experience I've had. Intimate, friendly, accessible, relaxing festival experience." Camber Sands = 2,500Butlins Minehead = 6,000 No wonder it's not yet sold out. Cuz it was so small, previous ATP's at Camber Sands would sell out by December at the latest on only the announcement of the curator. People who went to ATP @ Camber Sands enjoyed the experience of that intimate a music festival and wanted to return regardless of the details of the lineup. I'm not saying I wouldn't go to the new location for an ATP. But if it were a lineup I liked and it were at Camber Sands, I'd have booked tickets and flights months ago. This new place is probably fine, but the lines and capacity issues sound very un-ATP like. And the new place is further from London than Camber Sands (3 hrs to Minehead vs an hour or so down to Rye). and it sounds like you almost need to drive to get to the new location on time--they don't let you check in until Friday and the bands start that afternoon. Getting from London to Rye by train and then a quick cab ride to the festival site and checked in on time wasn't bad at all. Getting from London to Minehead on Friday and checked in on time sounds like a challenge absent driving a car down there. I understand more people = more $$ = bigger name bands on the lineup (tho I don't think anyone was kicking about previous lineups). But it sounds like they've sorta reduced what made ATP UK so good. If they upped the price of the tickets to the Camber Sands location to cover the cost of the Wilcos and Iggy and Stooges et al, they'd still sell out the 2500 tickets every year. And you wouldn't have issues like these: "So there were some serious line issues at ATP this year. It was kind of alarming, really - like it wasn't like that at Camber, and people were clearly pretty upset about it. They did a fantastic job working with what they had, but, I mean, there were definitely some issues. The security people were ridiculous - I mean, seriously. They were searching people's bags CONSTANTLY. And for what? WHAT? You could bring in a camera? Everyone there was smoking pot and um... seriously. What were they searching for? Over and Over? You couldn't bring drinks from one stage to another - um.. why? And who's gonna travel all the way to Minehead and not have a wristband? Let it go, let it go. We had a mixup with our wristbands so we popped over to get different ones and the organizers were telling us that the capacity of the rooms was 3,000, 2,000 and 1,000 for stages 1,2 and 3 respectively, but that security was stopping people from getting in when there was still 600 empty spaces. They were negotiating to get more people in - not sure how that worked out. BUT, the cool thing is, the organizers were doing everything they could. I'm a bit worried how future ATPs will work out - I mean, the Butlins people didn't seem super happy to have them there. I was thinking about how moving ATP to Minehead was like moving the soul of their whole enterprise. What if it didn't work? Can they go back to Camber? And they have TWO MORE coming up that they're gonna need to do some serious work on before they make it happen. Before the festival, they identified two bands that were going to draw so many people that everyone that wanted to see them wouldn't all fit at stage 1: Iggy and the Stooges and Sonic Youth. In the end, there were more like 7-8 bands that were playing the main stage that more people wanted to see than the room could handle. Luckily the bands were all pretty much awesome and agreed to play multiple shows, so in the end second sets were played by Dinosaur Jr, Deerhoof, The Melvins, and Gang of Four. They did some cool stuff with the MC5 where if you REALLY wanted to see them, you could get a wristband in advance and get priority entrance, so that solved that problem." http://billetdoux.livejournal.com/539191.html "As many of you know, I have waxed on ATP for a long time now, and one of the best things about this festival was the fact that you could see the big named acts in smaller than usual capacity, and the relaxed vibe about the whole thing. Bands/artists mixed with punters, and it was great. However, in the move from Pontins to Butlins a lot of that intimacy has been lost. The Queues Of Doom were a nuisance and I could've really done without them. Frankly, bits of it were utterly shambolic - Melvins, Deerhoof, Gang of Four and Dinosaur Jr all had to play extra shows because of the sheer number of people who failed to get into see them, and there was also a last minute wristband scheme for MC5. You know, I'm not saying organising something like this is easy, but you shouldn't have to put on extra shows. Having enough capacity so everybody can get in to see something (more than once there were queues in all three halls) should be part of basic planning, no? On the other hand the facilities at the new venue are much better, the town is really close and the chalets are much nicer even if they are further away. Despite the blips it was a great weekend." http://www.last.fm/user/indielass/journal/2007/01/27/327355/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Welsh Rich Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 I don't really have a problem with the festival growing, all successful festivals do so. It's still a heck of a lot smaller than most and the environment will be a lot more relaxed. They've admitted they got a few things wrong with their debut and they've fixed and addressed them ready for this one. I'm not worried about it, I'm very much looking forward to it. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
beadsman Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 I dunno how much of the difference is logistics and capacity, problems they can solve (one hopes), and how much of it is expanding the size and having the stages and housing more dispersed with 3x's the people. Seems like they expanded the proceedings to the point where maybe they lost (quite?) a bit of what made ATP UK especially enjoyable. Probably mostly a matter of whether you're coming from the UK or Northern Europe vs from across an ocean--if this festival were in a resort 3 hours away on a beach in western Michigan, it'd be a no brainer to go, Queues Of Doom be damned. But a 7 hour flight, $40 ride on the Heathrow Express, another $100 each way to the festival grounds from London...you'd like to know that you're going to see the band(s) you suffered planes/trains/wrong side of the road driving to see. At Camber Sands you could go back and forth between stages, chalets, the beach so easily at any time, it was great--definitely worth the trek. The Pound being at a 15 year high against the Dollar, $2 = Quote Link to post Share on other sites
loraaw Posted February 28, 2007 Author Share Posted February 28, 2007 Everyone's descriptions made me want to go to this festival all that much more, but the reality is that we get to see Wilco quite often (it's realitively cheap to fly w/in the U.S. from where I live) and it's going to be MUCH more affordable for us to go to Europe on a package some other time than to try to work our trip around this. Sigh. All your advice was useful though - I poured over every word, adding up airfares and routing planes, trains and automobiles. It was a fun little dream to obsess over for a few days ... Maybe next year! Carry on your discussions - I'm sure I'm not the only one who is curious about this Fest. (I wish festivals here were more like this, instead of 40,000 people hoping to get a glimpse of a stage in the far distance). I'm laughing about the stuff about "beans" being cheap. This is why I shouldn't go to Europe - I don't even know what drugs "beans" is slang for. Thanks, and enjoy your beans,-Laura Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cunny Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 And, apparently, it's possible you're not even guaranteed to get into see Wilco while there? how come? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Welsh Rich Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 The queues... But I'm willing to give it a shot. Even at Camber sands trying to get to see some bands was difficult. When Lightning Bolt were doing their sets they kept a lot of people out of the rooms. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cunny Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 so if you have specific bands you want to see you have to get to that stage well before they are due on? is it an open air festival or is it a collection of indoor venues? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Welsh Rich Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Collection of indoor venues... If there was someone I REALLY wanted to see, I made sure I got there early... which is what I'll be doing for Explosions in the sky, Wilco etc... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Synthesizer Patel Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 It's a shame they've moved it from Camber Sands, as it's pretty close to where I live, and Minehead is an eternity away. Camber Sands is pretty grim though, on a hot day where I live you get the urge to go to the coast, and when you turn up at Camber/Dungerness/New Romney (that whole area) you start to wonder why the hell you bothered. Good place to go shrimping though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Welsh Rich Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Yeah, Camber Sands wasn't a nice resort, it's pretty bleak. Minehead is a bit of a drive for me as well, but hey! Who cares Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cunny Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Collection of indoor venues... If there was someone I REALLY wanted to see, I made sure I got there early... which is what I'll be doing for Explosions in the sky, Wilco etc... same here and you can add Mogwai to that list! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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