We are a respected independent website that features festival news & festival reviews. We also cover the bands that make festivals great.
Our team have been attending festivals across the UK and elsewhere for the last 25 years. We haven’t just stood in the crowd. We’ve run our own events, and booked bands, managed stages, and provided online web presence. This has been for festivals including Glastonbury, Leeds, Beautiful Days, Download, and more.
This is a non-commercial website with no affiliations to particular events beyond the fact that we know many of the people behind them. We are always amazed by the hard work and passion that goes into putting them on.
Note – no advertising!
Festival reviews – you can read them HERE
We try to write honest and sometimes challenging reviews. If things are perfect, we’ll celebrate that. If things could be done better we’ll make suggestions in a positive spirit.
Do you feel you have a similar perspective and would like to share your own impressions of events you attend? If you do, please do get in touch as we’d love to carry more content than we can produce ourselves on zero income…but 100% love for the spirit of festivals.
We also host and run our own micro-listing and reviews hyper-local music website for Hastings: www.hastingsflyer.com. This model could easily be applied to any other town in the UK… so if you fancy running something similar please get in touch.
What makes our festival reviews score highly?
There are five things that really make a difference regarding whether a festival stands out from the crowd, and you should know these because they are what makes you want to keep coming back. We focus here on music-based mutli-day camping events:
Range of artists
We know not every event has a huge budget to pull in the big names, but there are tonnes of really excellent bands around the UK too, who can put on shows so that your event can rival those with the biggest names in the business. Do your reaserch, have an open mind, and have the courage to book innovative acts – because this is what will leave your audience wanting more.
What to do between the bands?
It’s not all about the music because guests have to eat and sleep and may want to escape the bands for a while. Ensure your food and drink vendors are of the best quality and offer a good variety and value for money. Craft ales and good-sized portions score highly in our eyes. Try and offer camping to suit different lifestyles. Some late-night party animals like to keep the action going into the small hours, whilst other people prefer an early night. If you have the space have sections for both. And don’t skimp on site art and tents where people can do more than listen to music.
Production values
There is no point having great bands performing if nobody can hear them. Invest in good quality PA systems run by people who understand festival environments. And put money into good lights and screens for when the sun goes down.
Communication and information
Your audience are your customers and you have lots of them. If they need to know something make it as easy as possible to find out the answer. If they can’t find it on your website make it easy to get in touch…and answer their questions quickly. On site make sure all staff are fully briefed…and have comms channels so if someone doesn’t know an answer they can quickly find out.
Organised chaos
The best festivals feel chaotic but are safe and well-rganised at the same time. This is a really difficulty trick to pull off, but remember that going to a festival is, for many people, and escape from normality. Let them let their hair down, but don’t take risks.