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Post by mikey on Aug 7, 2018 22:14:46 GMT
Perhaps most people are shallow and only go for festivals with big headline acts. “I don’t think that applies to a typical Womad customer “ 😀😀😀😀 Of course not and is the reason why so man of us buy early bird tickets without knowing who is booked to perform. 😃 |
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Post by dorsethelen on Aug 8, 2018 12:38:10 GMT
We didn’t go for the first time in years. Mainly cost related - we have retired now so we either have a holiday or treat WOMAD as our holiday. Too risky. Two of the last 3 Womads were wet and with a dodgy hip I worried about slipping in the mud and ending up in hospital We had a week in a beautiful cottage in The Yorkshire Dales for the Tour de Yorkshire instead and the week including food was cheaper than WOMAD once you add on the extras (we always buy spa tickets not for the spa but for the showers and for somewhere to collapse when the hip gets too bad - long walk back to meadow park and camp!). The event we always looked forward to most was the Sunday morning Cerys Matthews R6 show on Charlie Gillet in conjunction with R3- but they didn’t do that this year so if we had gone we would have been disappointed . Gone the same way as several of our favourite food stalls, Chai Chapel, Frank Water, the wonderful CD tent with music you couldn’t get anywhere else...... We also love Taste the World but from what we could see there wasn’t so much on there this year and you have to get there so early to sit anywhere you can see anything that you miss other things. We never bothered with Ecotricity - again unless you were at the front you couldnt see see anything. Did love Charlie Gillet though - that always has an outstanding line up and it’s easy to see and hear everything even if you are well back.
Lack of big names wouldn’t have worried us but I can see that it might affect day ticket sales. We still go to Purbeck which is amazing value, food stalls and bars all affordable prices, some great acts though all UK not World. Nothing corporate or too commercial. Just fun on a farmyard with amazing music and loads of other free activities. Also lots of small town festivals round here with free music acts or low priced evening gigs so been to loads of things.
We thought we would really miss WOMAD but we didn’t which surprised us. We half expected ourselves to be so upset at missing it that we would throw caution to the wind and buy last minute tickets even if just day tickets but we didn’t get to that stage. We have slowly fallen out of love with it - or with some aspects of it. Too many of the things that made it so special (eg Chai Chapel) have gone. That’s not to say we wouldn’t love to go again, it just isn’t quite as appealing as it once was.
So, we may be back to WOMAD - it is still a wonderful festival and there is nothing else like it, but having missed a year and found we didn’t miss at as much as we expected , we will need to think carefully and weigh up the costs (especially having seen all the comment about food stall price hikes)
We did miss all our wonderful forum friends though and waved at you all madly on the webcam!
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Post by Zenrider on Aug 9, 2018 18:09:17 GMT
A lot of people like me have not had a pay rise in 10 years, it is beginning to hit, folks just cant afford it any more, And that is a lot of it. Even when people get a raise it's 2% or less. Where inflation has been growing at much a higher rate. People who have 'good' jobs and have been able to entertain denial are starting to feel the pinch of the failed 'trickle' down policies. I think a lot of people are getting nervous about spending money on extra things with the politics of the world so volatile. I know I am. |
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Post by calndel on Aug 11, 2018 19:46:40 GMT
We didn’t go for the first time in years. Mainly cost related - we have retired now so we either have a holiday or treat WOMAD as our holiday. Too risky. Two of the last 3 Womads were wet and with a dodgy hip I worried about slipping in the mud and ending up in hospital We had a week in a beautiful cottage in The Yorkshire Dales for the Tour de Yorkshire instead and the week including food was cheaper than WOMAD once you add on the extras (we always buy spa tickets not for the spa but for the showers and for somewhere to collapse when the hip gets too bad - long walk back to meadow park and camp!). The event we always looked forward to most was the Sunday morning Cerys Matthews R6 show on Charlie Gillet in conjunction with R3- but they didn’t do that this year so if we had gone we would have been disappointed . Gone the same way as several of our favourite food stalls, Chai Chapel, Frank Water, the wonderful CD tent with music you couldn’t get anywhere else...... We also love Taste the World but from what we could see there wasn’t so much on there this year and you have to get there so early to sit anywhere you can see anything that you miss other things. We never bothered with Ecotricity - again unless you were at the front you couldnt see see anything. Did love Charlie Gillet though - that always has an outstanding line up and it’s easy to see and hear everything even if you are well back. Lack of big names wouldn’t have worried us but I can see that it might affect day ticket sales. We still go to Purbeck which is amazing value, food stalls and bars all affordable prices, some great acts though all UK not World. Nothing corporate or too commercial. Just fun on a farmyard with amazing music and loads of other free activities. Also lots of small town festivals round here with free music acts or low priced evening gigs so been to loads of things. We thought we would really miss WOMAD but we didn’t which surprised us. We half expected ourselves to be so upset at missing it that we would throw caution to the wind and buy last minute tickets even if just day tickets but we didn’t get to that stage. We have slowly fallen out of love with it - or with some aspects of it. Too many of the things that made it so special (eg Chai Chapel) have gone. That’s not to say we wouldn’t love to go again, it just isn’t quite as appealing as it once was. So, we may be back to WOMAD - it is still a wonderful festival and there is nothing else like it, but having missed a year and found we didn’t miss at as much as we expected , we will need to think carefully and weigh up the costs (especially having seen all the comment about food stall price hikes) We did miss all our wonderful forum friends though and waved at you all madly on the webcam! you were missed this year by us and you could have helped out eating some of the cheese |
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Post by dorsethelen on Aug 11, 2018 20:51:53 GMT
We missed you too and we do love a bit of cheese!
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Post by nigenet on Aug 11, 2018 20:57:12 GMT
The organisers have said there were 35,000 people there this year (5000 fewer than the capacity), although how many of those were on day tickets and not there all the time I don't know. The campsite certainly felt less busy, so I imagine there were quite a few daytrippers.
One thing that may have affected the numbers is that it is now sharing the weekend with several other festivals, eg, Kendal Calling (25,000 capacity), Y-Not (30,000 capacity) and Camp Bestival (30,000 capacity). It's possible that many casual "let's do a festival" people, or the crowd that do the circuit, may have gone for one of these instead.
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