Weyfest Music Festival - 2008 Feedback

2008 Feedback

'This our first Weyfest and we couldn't fault it'

We have received an overwhelming amount of feedback from Weyfest 2008 and whilst our intention was to publish all the messages we received and because most followed the same themes, we have decided to summarise them here with a few excerpts.

We are pleased to say that the feedback was mostly positive and any negative comments were realistic and balanced by the same writer with a greater amount of positive feedback. We did not receive any feedback that was entirely negative. Nearly all the feedback regarding 'Disliked' was about the weather… so we've had a word with the rainmaker himself and he's going to see what he can do for us this year..

The Weyfest team would like to thank everyone who took the trouble to submit feedback and if your particular comments are not included below it is most likely that it is because someone else has covered them.

In terms of what was 'liked' by our customers:- many complimented us on the size and feel of the festival, the venue (Rural Life Centre or 'RLC') and the organization of the event, the toilets - and of course the music.

'The Music, the small family feel and safety. Good well priced food. Great camping and clean toilets!'

'The 'vibe'. Friendly, laid back, relaxed, straight forward. Great 'smiley' staff. The sense that they were enjoying it as much as the punters and that the music was the point (which is not the case at all festivals). Also seeing the acts wandering around before & after their sets was fun and added to the relaxed feeling.'

'The general vibe - complemented by the location. Well organised and plenty of space'

'I liked that it is small, local and for all age groups. I liked that my 8 year old and I could wander to the front when The Beat were on and had a dance. The fact that I could bring the dog. The atmosphere was good, plenty of loos, I felt the children (8 &10) were safe to go off wandering on their own. Good selection of food and stalls'

'The lawn and the tea rooms (at a music festival!). And good coffee cake. Seriously, I like the fact it was a small festival with everything catered for, and everyone was really friendly!'

'Everything, Line up good, food stalls various and good, staff and stewards polite and very helpful. Good facilities for the children. And for a festival site toilets clean and well maintained, also plenty of them'

'This our first Weyfest and we couldn't fault it'

'Very helpful, friendly and decent staff from security to stage crew. Bloody fantastic atmosphere. The whole site. The Delta girls! The whole set up.'

'Loved the whole ambience of the festival, fun, family friendly..didn't see any trouble whatsoever...extremely well organised. People just having a great time listening to great music in a great location...'

'The setting, the diversity of the music, bumping into the organisers and the artists in the campsite and at the bar, the cleanliness of the loos).....pretty much everything really.'

'It was fantastic! We camped the whole weekend. The organisation was very good. The Music was superb'

'You are doing a great job. Hopefully all your efforts this year will ensure a greater success next year.'

'Wonderful set up, small friendly festival, great relaxing weekend with supurb music, Many thanks to all that were involved.'

'Size of the event. Being able to bring the dog. Friendliness of all officials including security. Food stall were great - loads of variety, better than other much bigger events.'

'Close to perfect'

What was disliked about Weyfest 08 and what we have done about it:-

'No cash point!! (some of us were too disorganised to think about money and instead had to find a nice man to buy us drinks..'

We are looking into the ins and outs of providing a cash machine - it is easily done but we don't want our customers to pay through the nose every time they withdraw cash.

'some entertainment or bar friday night for early campers'

We are pleased to announce that the Old Kiln Café will be open to campers only on the Friday night, serving alcohol and food. There will be acoustic acts in the café from Vikki Clayton and others.

'The Rustic Stage although acoustically excellent and perfectly formed was so popular this year I found it hard to even get near the entrance at times so actually listened to some of the acts from outside. Some of the acts could have filled the room many times over so perhaps an open ended venue like a barn or something like that would take this stage to the next dimension'

'Because of the very good act in the Rustic Stage would like this to be a bit larger as for some acts it was impossible to get in. BUT SAYING THAT DON'T MAKE THE EVENT TO BIG THE SIZE AT THE MOMENT IS JUST FINE.'

We are hoping to change the layout of the Rustic Stage and use a different entrance which will hopefully allow nearly twice the audience.

'Having 5 children with us, really didn't expect to pay for the train ride and the face painting on top of the ticket price.'

Unfortunately we are not able to influence the £2 fare for the diesel light railway as it is a feature of the RLC and runs throughout the year. The fee is necessary for the Old Kiln Trust charity to maintain and preserve the railway and trains.

'The weather! not your problem, though the laying down of the straw stopped most of the mud my boots where the cleanest they have been after any festival this year.'

'Nothing to dislike really (aside from the weather).'

'not being able to smoke'

[As a fellow smoker you have my sympathy!] Sadly the RLC museum does not permit smoking outside of the designated area because of all the wooden buildings and valuable artefacts. However, there is a decent sized smoking area next to the Old Kiln Stage and Café.

'The weather on Saturday!! Otherwise nothing!'

'The price of the beer was a bit steep (minor niggle tho')'

'Running out of beer and cider at 6pm on Sunday'

'Ale ran out very quickly - Seemed to have plenty of Lager though'

'The bar was poorly stocked and not open friday evening. They could have sold a lot more real Ale.'

'get a new barman he is rude'

'Running out of real ale by Sunday Luncthime and then by the end of the night only having Fosters!(oh my God!) My lamb burger was a bit steep at £3.80 also.'

We have changed the bar provider to Appledram who guarantee that they will not run out of beer and that it will be reasonably priced.

'The weather!'

'Noisy generators and bright lights on campsite'

the lack of lighting between the main entrance and the camping area'

'Better bar, less lighting on the camp site, no gensets after 9pm.'

'If it were possible to turn off the portable generators at some point during the night that would allow a little more sleep , we're sadly not getting any younger.'

'The rain! The price of the beer, no lights on campsite Friday night when I most needed them'

'We have quite a large campervan, and were quite worried about getting stuck in the middle of the field - perhaps keeping non 4x4s to the edges would have been good.'

The campsite lighting and associated generators is something that we are planning to improve greatly on this year. Unfortunately the placing of these last year was a tad haphazard as the team got more and more delayed in their duties because of the heavy rain. We simply hadn't the human resources required to cover the venue in straw, which became necessary to prevent a mud bath, and this seemed to take a precedent over the campsite lighting. Apologies for this!

'The food was good quality but the options were a bit limited. Maybe a couple of extra food concessions?'

'more vegetarian food more healthy options'

Lack of healthy and vegetarian options were noted and will be improved on this year.

'Showers would be nice.'

'Some showers in the campsite. Communal canteen for meals.'

We have looked into the costs of placing showers on the camp site and feel that it would drastically increase the price of camp passes to the customer. We will continue to review this as it is a facility we would like to provide at a reasonable cost.

Acts requested for 2009

'So many to choose from, suprise me! I thought that this years line ups were great, as good if not better than Guilfest.'

Literally hundreds of acts have been suggested by you for Weyfest 09 - too many to publish here! However, we have listened to you and of the '2008 return acts' you asked for we have confirmed Jackie Lynton, Leatherat, The Beat, Solid Juice Band & The Flying Tigers (thanks to the person that said 'All of them. They were all GREAT!')

Of the 'New Acts' you asked for we have of course Jethro Tull, Otway & Barratt (Ottway was also requested several times in the '2008 return acts'), Rodney Brannigan, Osibisa and Blimus.

Again, thank you for your feedback - it is important to us! We hope that it will help us to shape Weyfest into an even better festival.

See you in September!

The Weyfest Team