The past weekend at Truck was one of the greatest of my life. Sure, some of the bands were great but it really wasn't just about that. Obviously, lying back in the sun with a pint of lovely cider and some great music washing over you is amazing.

But on the whole, and the reason why Truck was so amazing, is the people that were there and the banter and the atmosphere this created. It really is.

I'm still looking forward to Reading and I think it will be great, but you're right, the difference is incredibly pronounced.

you want to get out of it.
Truck is amazing for certain reasons, and the bigger corporate events are amazing for their own ones as well.

I love Truck because it's low key and relaxed. I love the fact that it's devoid of advertising and that 99% of the people there are absolutely lovely.

But bigger festivals have their plus points as well, not least the chance to get to see an abundance of acts that would normally cost £25/ticket in one place.

Personally, I'm staring to gravitate more towards smaller festivals, but I think that's due to the fact that I'm not 17 anymore and I'm not sure I can be arsed dealing with crowds of thieves and wankers at the bigger ones...

check you with the little teaser at the end.

come on then, more details please.
if there are any of course.

i'm sad to say that due to money constraints since i've become ubercool, i've only actually done reading a bunch of times, plus some metallish one dayers. next year when hopefully i have a paying job i'll be doing truck, ATP, glasto and now DISfest

the bands at this year's ATP2 + the unbelievable atmosphere and sense of fun at Truck = near perfection.

Obviously that sort of line-up would be hard to achieve but I'm pretty sure that any festival you lot organised would have a pretty good one. I think the number of people at this year's Truck was ideal, there's something really lovely about being able to bump into people you know every time you walk anywhere.

The only problem Truck had was the organisation of stages - too many non-entities on the main stage and too many very popular bands stuck in the barn or the trailer park. My perfect festival would probably have more than one outdoor stage too.

Truck stands out as the best weekend of an already amazing year for me.

but to be honest, i had way more fun at dour.
even though it was bigger and hotter and dusty, it really was essentially the perfect festival.
i liked the fact that the timing of the bands meant there were few clashes, and that, despite there being loads of people there, you could just walk to the front of the stage. it wasn't rammed, and i liked that.
plus, the line-up was brilliant and the food was awesome.

my mates during Truck.

Here were my conclusions:-

READING/GLASTONBURY
The tiresome 25 minute walks to move between stages or to find your tent are really quite a downer. Also negotiating countless kids showering eachother with grass or water pistols gets on my tits big time.

TRUCK/ATP
Impossible to get lost (bonus!). Easy to move anywhere. The festival goers seems much more friendly and interesting.

I dont really care if the bands are big or small. As long as there is a decent mixture of styles and some of the bands fire in some good performances then I'm easy.

I honestly think next months Reading will be a MASSIVE disappointment after Truck.

Many more small festivals are needed.

to talk even more about any and all festivals check out our special new festivals messageboard
http://www.drownedinsound.com/section/view/33

really was a sensational weekend but my enjoyment of it was not down to the line-up. There was not one single band that I thought I HAD to see, it was just great sitting with friends drinking beer in the sunshine while live music was played in front of you. I would have quite liked to have seen Regina Spektor but there was no way I was going into a sweaty barn on a sunny Sunday evening when I could sit outside with friends and be stupid. The fact the Mystery Jets were playing live at the same time was a great bonus. Basically, Truck was about the atmosphere and the people for me. If you asked me what my favourite bands of the weekend were, I'd probably say the ones where I remember having the most fun while they were playing. I hope this makes sense.

The toliets in the main area at Truck were so much better than I'd expected. the state of the PortaPottys makes a big (read: slight-medium) difference to my festival enjoyment.

Also, getting a programme and band-timetable included in the ticket price at Truck is ace (cf £12 for a programme full of press photos at Reading. Are you reading this Mean Fiddler? Well, ARE YOU?)

Is clearly the key here. Smaller festivals are great because of the slight community feel and the ability to walk places in short amounts of time/find your tent yet the line up can sometimes falter but you can find yourself a new favourite band. I went to The Wicker Man Festival at the weekend and it was a good craic, not as good as past years beacuse the line up was a bit gash and there were loads more people. The pagan element was still there and that made me happy. Still small festivals get more expensive and popular, thus high demand for tickets and selling out early.

Bigger festivals are great because you get to see loads of bands that you would have to pay hella cash for. Still you pay hella cash for the bigger festivals because of the major label/corporate involvement. Glastonbury is a little better than this, as although it has corporate involvement it still clings to its hippie roots that have died out since Mean Fiddler came in to organise the fun out of the place. However sanitised Glastonbury is, i musch prefer it to any other festival because i love the enormity of it, i love the different types of people that go, even if i don't like them as human beings the diversity is what makes it. I like the possibility of being lost and strange things happenning.

Obv everyone is different but a lot of the talk on this here topic smacks of indiekid snobbery (yes i do know where i am posting) or mild aspergers. Is it about the music or the people?

to Roskilde this year and it was absolutely brilliant. I think it was just about the perfect festival for me. They had an hours gap between bands on each stage and the bands went on until 4am.

I don't know what the rules are for live music in England with respect to curfews but I would definitely try and keep it going for as long as possible into the morning!

At a smaller festival this makes everything a lot more relaxed and it's easy for everyone to get to the spot they want in the crowd. The longer gaps also mean everyone actually bothers to eat and drink enough water too. Give out free water everywhere too, I can't stress that enough!

Anyway yes, at a bigger festival the late finishing time is useful because it means that everyone is too tired to get rowdy.

a festival (one dayer) in Belgium this year called Rhaaa Lovely, along with other DiSers, which cost me the sum of 8euros and had free camping for the night, the bands playing were 65Dos, Grails, Deerhoof, amongst others. Basically it was awesome, took place in a primary school, all food was cheap and excellent and the place was advert free which was lovelt. It was one of the best nights of my life, i was delighted that such a small yet wonderful thing could take part in the country i live.
However, i'm also going to the Belgian version of Reading, which is Pukkelpop, largely just to see a bigger number of bands which i adore - Radiohead, Forward Russia, Envelopes, Regina Spektor etc etc. Basically, both had excellent line ups, but the larger festivals have the advantage of being able to put on a greater number of bands. I think i shall try to continue to attend at least two festivals in Belgium next year, obviously Dour would be lovely, but i was skint this year. I was told though that as well as the awesome bands present - Islands, 65Dos, Art Brut - there was a large amount of rubbis bands...another problem which larger festivals have. The smaller the festival the more forgiving you are i think of the less professional nature, at Rhaaa, there were a couple of power cuts, despite this being annoying, it was still an amazing time.

is very important, Truck was brilliant because of the atmosphere. The line-up needs diversity, and also other arts forms - poetry, film etc...

I hope I don't get killed.

:(

I went to Truck last year and my car was damaged to the tune of £80 by fucking chavs on the last night. Don't kid yourself that the place is filled only with decent people, there are plenty of wankers about who're there to shit things up for everyone else.

My perfect festival would be Truck if it had a decent lineup (not the same bands each year for a start, and how about some more serious bands that aren't just what's featured in DiS, The Fly, Sandman and the NME). Really though it needs to be abroad in some country where it doesn't rain whenever outdoor fun is planned.

the End Of The Road festival in september sounds like it has the potential to be something very special indeed! Check it out http://www.endoftheroadfestival.com/

Roskilde festival in Denmark is just amazing. An organisational masterpiece, which is why many people come back year after year after year. This year it actually sold out which usually isn't the case. It only did so two weeks before the start.

They provide free storage facilities so you don't have to worry about valubles. Drinking age in Denmark is 14 or 15 which means that you get people of ALL ages, which adds diversity.

The best evidence for how much people like the festival is that the camping grounds open 4 or 5 days before the main music festival starts. People show up early to make friends and relax. Even I enjoy that part even though I hate camping-life.

As for the music, I think there are usually around 160 bands playing (or maby just 120?), with big acts to draw the general public and smaller bands to draw the true fans.

Most people just chill and drink beer, while younger more energetic music-lovers run from stage to stage to see as much as possible.

Only downside is that if your tent is far from the festical area then you might end up walking 30min to get there (which is why people show up during the "warm-up" week).

I really feel that you have to go to Roskilde once in your life to realise how perfectly organised a festival can get.

I didn't manage any festivals this season (and won't make any in August either).

My works experience was Download 2003 (I think) where you had to wait for 3 hours to get into the camping area and next morining 4 hours to get into the festival grounds.

DENMARK!!!

i wouLd Like to thank everyone off these boards whom i had the pLeasure of bumping into at truck, for being a pLeasure to bump into. i think that's why truck can be so enjoyabLe, because the site is essentiaLLy so smaLL, it's possibLe to see friends on the hoof without trying. other bonuses are being abLe to bring your own aLcohoL to aLL over the site, vastLy reducing the cost of particiaption oif the festivaL, and making you Look dead hunky carrying aLL that cider arround.

the Line up for this truck was probabLy one of the best since i have been going to the festivaL too. the research and colon open bracket were briLLaint. as was that iron maiden band first thing in the morning.

what happened to everyone on the sunday night though? i thought there was going to be a massive fuck off party, but there wasnt, so me and pauL started drop kicking sainsbury's vaLue sausage roLLs trying to get them over the eLectricity pyLon instead. it might have been the mind medning substances, but i remember being fabuLousLy sucessfuL.

compared to truck, reading is rubbish, it's a Lot of waLking and Loads of kids in bLink 182 t-shirts setting fire to pLastic cups and tipping toiLets over, with one constantLy thinking one shouLd be having a better time than one actuaLLy is. Leeds is even worse cos its fuLL of peopLe who couLdnt get into reading, so they're aLready in a bad mood and steaL your shoes out of yr tent, and then steaL your tent pegs. at truck, michaeL even got his waLLet back.

anyway, thanks to aLL the drowned-in-sounders i cam across (not in the bibLicaL sense sadLy), and hope to see you aLL again soon. oh we're headLining on the 5th at cLockwork if anyone wants to come...

beijo!

fideL viLLeneuve
APPLICANTS

The Truck atmosphere was soured for me this year by being camped too close to a bunch of arseholes that were eventually evicted from the campsite by security on Sunday. What fucked me off most was that they were still allowed to watch the rest of the festival but just not to camp.

..was on at the weekend and I attended on the Sunday. Loads of small tents showcasing new talent and plenty of chilled, happy, nice people generally being..well...lovely. Mr Scruff never fails to put a smile on my face and Jimmy Cliff was beautiful. I don't care what anyone says about Jamiroquai I still think they are the fucking Billy Bollox. Revolution 1993. Yes Yes and double yes that’s what I say.

festivals. They are full of idiot hippies and you have to camp. This is why ATP is good. Chalets and all the bands are amazing.