Festival Falls Short
13 August 2007
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| The Ordinary Boys - Pic: www.krjphotography.co.uk |
NOT one to go down in the history books but the first Redbourn Festival definitely made for a good day out - especially since it was blessed with such exceptional weather compared to the rest of the summer.
There was a very laid-back vibe during the early part of the day when the lesser-known bands were on stage, with most revellers lounging around in the sun, sipping beer.
Numbers were quite sparse at the beginning but they did seem to pick up as the bigger names began to appear - but attendance was nowhere near to full capacity.
This relatively poor-turnout would definitely have been helped by tickets being available at the gate.
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| Feeder - Pic: www.krjphotography.co.uk |
The Ghosts, best known for their recent hit "Stay the Night", were the first band to really get the crowd going with their popular up-beat melancholic rock.
Next up were Dirty Pretty Things, fronted by Carl Barat who was formerly the partner of Pete Doherty in the now-fallen Libertines.
The popular four-piece band belted out their indie-rock numbers with pure style in a performance which was for me, the best of the entire day.
But after they had gone off, the technical glitches which occurred in between all of the earlier acts and caused delays started to take their toll on the rest of the day.
The Automatic came bundling on with an enormous rock-rave number followed by their well-known track "Monster" to an extremely welcoming and energetic crowd.
But they were quick to point out that they were only allowed 15 minutes on stage because everything was running behind schedule, blaming Feeder for refusing to appear without a full-length set.
They continued to play a few more tracks while frantically running around in between to set each number up. The crowd were clearly disappointed that such a big band was given such limited time and the band themselves were positively gutted.
If all of the bands on before them had been given slightly less time this wouldn't have been such an issue.
Following yet more waiting around, headliner act Feeder finally came on stage to excited chanting from the crowd and they didn't disappoint the fans.
They belted out some of their best-known hits which have gained them such acclaim - sparking some indulgent "moshing" at the front of the stage, an area otherwise known as the "mosh-pit".
Excited fans were frantically jumping in every direction and pushing each other and everyone else around in the process - not a place for the faint-hearted.
Meanwhile the Ordinary Boys were playing on the other stage, practically oblivious to most of the people engulfing the main stage.
Many presumed the band had pulled out or had no time to perform and an announcement to explain the situation would not have gone amiss.
For such a big-name act to be shoved onto the small arena in front of a crowd of perhaps 100 people was completely wrong and exposed the poor organisation of the event.
The screens besides the stages could have been used for information about the day and a timetable instead of random and pointless text messages sent in from the crowd.
Another disappointing factor was the aggressive 10pm shut-down. As soon as Feeder left the stage people were being ushered off-site by lines of security guards.
It begged the question why the bars, at least, couldn't have remained open for a couple more hours to satisfy those revellers eager to continue the evening.
At the very least this would have also staggered the mass-exodus.
Overall it was an enjoyable day but it lacked the organisation you would expect from such an expensive event.
It definitely has the potential to become a popular and successful festival if the mistakes made this year can be corrected for the next - if there is to be one.
* Were you at the Redbourn Festival? What did you think? Why not share your comments with us? E mail us at: webdesk@hertsad.co.uk
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