This is my previous experience of this festival - I may have been
optimistic expecting to get treated like this a second time
Perhaps reflecting the rest of the country, and the fact that ATP is
very sadly coming to an end, this festival was a shadow of its former
self.
It was much smaller for a start. What amounted to the 2nd Stage last
time was completely closed this time around, leaving only a much
smaller room as well as the main hall which often featured queues to
get in and out. The ability to wander around nearly all of Ally Pally
was a major feature of last time. I NEARLY convinced someone else to
come along this time just based on seeing Ally Pally itself. For half
a century is magnificent venue has been looking for an event which
exploits it's run down Victorian splendour to the full - seeing PJ
Harvey perform Let England Shake in here before seemed to briefly
capture that potential - is there a promoter out the with the
imagination to do it again?
First shock - no Mojito bar :-(
And mojitos orders at the standard bars were about the worst I've ever
had. As to the other booze, I don't mind paying through the nose for
good beer at a festival, but paying £4.50 to see someone pour beer out
of a can is downright insulting.
Food was heavily cut back to about four or five overused stalls - I bought two (ok) burritos during the day down to lack of choice and they came out with a pungeant vengeance later.
To be fair the venue never looks full to capacity, perhaps because they are careful with hype - not wanting to attract a mass market and go the way of Glastonbury..
Glastonbury Festival moaning
Crazy that people are still fighting for tickets to Pilton when events like I'll Be Your Mirror are being ignored - but then 100,000's of people turn up to Glastonbury just to stagger around drunk for for days, piss on someone else's tent and then go back and claim they are interesting because of it. From being the festival that made me feel like the most boring straight in the world in 1992, Glastonbury now is 90% comprised of people dressed like they've just come back from back packing around Thailand, and today makes me feel like the drug dealer in Withnail and I.
So maybe ATP are smart to keep it small and we were all just lucky to be treated like royalty last time.
After indescribably idyllic drive to and from Devon I find perfect parking opposite flat behind a gorgeous black Lambo. If the TT is an inanimate object how do I know it's grinning?
