Latest update from Watchet Festival
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We’ve had a lot feedback once again about the size of the queues at the bar. Apologies.
We were aware of the problem from previous years and did bring in a 2nd bar (cider bar) this year to cut the queueing time down. From the feedback we received from staff, we thought the queues at the main bar weren’t as long as previous years.
Given the size constraints we have at Watchet (we are at the top of a cliff remember) what solutions would you suggest we bring in to cut the queuing time down?
We can’t make the bar bigger remember without losing or moving something which we couldn't do as we think the layout of the festival works really well 👍😁 Split bars including a can bar is our best idea so far.
Sensible answers please. Thank you x
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Watchet Music Festival
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37 Responses
I didn’t think the queues were that bad tbh, never waited longer than 10 minutes at any given time and just ordered 2 drinks at a time if a band we wanted to watch was on next.
We didn’t use the cider tent as don’t drink it!!
The guys in the bar tent did a great job of keeping things moving as swiftly as possible.
Is it more the case of inpatient people moaning? 🤔.
See you next year😎
Have you ever visited the fake festival in Taunton? They have a voucher system, which works out at £3.50
Per pint,everything is on tap, so you purchase how many vouchers you would like from a separate cashier system, then walk directly to the bar, hand over you voucher and walk away. From experience I think this works incredibly well cutting down the waiting time at the bar, giving the bar staff time to just serve drinks and not worry about dealing with money. Food for thought;-)
Have tape barriers in the bar to split it into 4 separate queues during the day to ease the huge crowds. I didn’t find them particularly bad this year and it was a great opportunity to talk to new people!
Small pop up bars scattered around the site doesn’t take up much room. Also could you have people walking round selling cans or pouring from a back pack?
Great festival anyway, been coming since 2009, can’t wait till next year. 👍
I will pm you a business idea I have in the pipeline see if of interest to you?
Tokens
Charge people a fee to bring their own drinks in.
luckily we mainly used the cider bar, fab fruit cider and the queues weren’t too bad , it didn’t help that some folk lined their chairs up so you had to battle through rows and rows with hardly any gaps left to wendle your way through hahahha
What queue, where, which bar, who. Obviously some folk were not drinkin proper.
I thought they were better as well xx
I thought the queues were shorter and quicker. The people behind the bar cheery and helpful and the Cotleigh 25 excellent! (This comment from my friend Rog Sheppard who usually finds ‘festival beer’ pretty grim
We have a horse box bar that wouldn’t take up a lot of room
Bring your own beer in….
Queues were not that bad tbh and staff were efficient and friendly under pressure so good job. And when you get a pint of cheddar valley at the end of it worth the wait 😃
Two bars would be good
The 2nd bar to be a can bar only 😊
It wasn’t actually that bad. I’ve waited loads longer at other festival’s, pubs and clubs. Couple of extra staff would sort it x
A separate can bar?xx
Beer tokens, i thought they would be hateful at the Eden project, but wow , its super quick
I don’t think it was worth complaining about if there was a hundred people in the four queues at a time you were at the front within 5 minutes which is about the same time you would wait at any wetherspoons. You will never keep everyone happy so ignore moaners and carry on doing what your doing 👍
Maybe a separate bar for cans?
How about a curved bar – sort of semi circular – so you can get more people round the outer edge?
Let people take their own booze in 😊
Depends on your technique. Do you have a person serving a customer each time or do you pre pour the drinks and have a serving team and a pouring team?
The latter is the most efficient way of dealing with the customers.
Big round bars, take up less room but can serve more people, more room for bar staff x
We thought it wasn’t that bad at all. So much better than previous years.
I took the pushchair so loaded up and lots of people had rucksacks, I thought that was a good idea. One suggested I will make is more baby changing please 🙂
Do it like mcdonalds with ordering kiosks. Or an app that gives you an order number then you just go and collect drinks when they’re ready
Let people bring their own alcohol in like beautiful days and bearded theory festival
It was better than other years. The problem is on there anly hour or so before the big headliners. So how about having a fast track q either end for cans and right money only.
I think the bar is excellent and has been all the 7 times i have been too Watchet! The staff are superb and the prices are brilliant! Bars do get busier at certain times. Just accept it and cherish the festival as a whole. It is amazing!!!
Beer gardens serve literally thousands very quickly by offering very little choice and having it ready. Have a pint bar that serves 3 brews, one lager, one cider, one bitter. In and out in less than a minute.
Everyone benefits because this takes the strain off the other bars selling a wider choice.
Have properly defined queues. My main issue was that it was a free for all and on more than one occasion I ended up wearing half of my drink because I had to fight through the crowd or people didn’t move because they didn’t want to lose their “spot”.
You could have smaller dump bins of canned beers in ice water around the site manned by one or two staff taking cash.
Tokens he same as Jurassic Fields, buy drinks tokens away from bar area then exchange tokens for drinks, easy 1 token = 1 beer 2 tokens = 2 drinks etc. no cash. no hassle.no problem for those serving as there is no change.?
The cider bar was a good idea although the cider there was more expensive than at the main bar which may have stopped people from using it?
Use two pint pots, you only have to queue up half as often 😉