I have been to a lot of festivals in my time, well over 15 in the last 10 years some very small and some really large ones, and as the title suggests this is without a doubt the worst organised festival I have ever been to.  There are a lot of little things that I have issues with but I'll ignore those and just list the main problems.
 
  The lack of water on the site was absolutely disgraceful!!  On Friday there was no water for most of the day, not good considering it was a very hot day.  So you'd think that they would be giving out free bottles of water but no all we got was 1/4 of a plastic cup of water to drink! So Saturday comes and there's still no water at the campsites or in the arena, they did put in a few taps in the arena later in the day which barely worked because the water pressure was so low.  When we got back to the campsite in the evening the taps were working again but the water was unsafe to drink!!! There was 1 information person standing near the taps but they weren't telling everyone about the water, the group of kids camping next to us all filled up there bottles and drunk quite a lot of the water!  I wonder how many people will be seriously ill because of this.  Water is the one thing that you cannot get wrong, it is the most important thing.  If there is a problem of this scale then they should be making announcements on all of the stages so people are aware of the problem. 
 
  The lack of toilets was also quite shocking, there needed to be at least one more block of toilets in the main arena, and twice as many toilets in the campsites than there were.  If you have 25,000 people camping at a festival how can you realistically think that 1 block of toilets per coloured campsite is going to be enough!  And 1 block for all of family camping is beyond a joke! If you had to camp in the top corner of Yellow camping 'B' then you faced a 10 minute walk just to get to some toilets.
 
   The lack of rubbish bins around the site was also quite a surprise but not as much as how often they were emptied, which was I believe once a day probably in the morning before the arena was opened.  Once you'd walked around for ages trying to find a bin to put your rubbish in you then faced the dilemma of which pile to balance it on, because all of the bins were overflowing.  They did decide to solve this problem at the word arena on Sunday by just taking away one of the sets of bins!!
 
  The information people had no information whatsoever.  When you did finally manage to track one down as they were very few and far between, if you asked them a question 99% of the time the response was "I don't know"  If the information people don't know anything how on earth are we supposed to.
 
  There will always be a problem with excessive drinking in the campsites at festivals when you allow people to bring alcohol on site with them but you don't allow them to take it into the arena, but I think it got a bit out of hand this year.  We were camped next to a group of about 20 kids who were all 17 and under and they must have brought in at least 6 or 7 crates of beers with them, I have nothing against people having fun and enjoying themselves but when you let under age kids in with alcohol and then have no concern that they all keep turning up at the welfare sites and making fires burning plastics and other toxic items you have a problem.  One of the girls fell into her tent and then was sick all outside and passed out in her own vomit, my girlfriend ran to the welfare tent to get someone but they couldn't understand what she was saying because they didn't speak english properly.  Now before you start thinking I'm being racist, I'm not, as you'll see at the end of this post, but if you have someone working in a position like welfare in a place that is rife for under age drinking then they need to be able to understand you because it could end up being a life and death situation.
 
  Ah the Festaxi.  When I read about this on the website I thought it sounded like a great idea, when in reality it was not at all.  For a start the only place you could actually get a Festaxi from was in the family camping area, which you can't access unless you had a family camping wristband!  The only other way to get one was to flag one down, but as we didn't see one for the whole weekend that wasn't an option.  One of the people we were with is unable to walk properly and needs to use a walking stick to get around.  By the end of Sunday it was getting too much so we decided that rather than slogging it back to the car we would get a Festaxi to take us back to our car.  We spoke to the information elves in the sunrise area who were very helpful and said they would escort us into the family camping area so we could get a taxi from there.  They spoke to an information person at the exit of the arena, who didn't know anything about the taxis, then they spoke to the information person at the entrance to the family camping area, who also didn't know anything about the taxis, but he said we could wait there for one to pass by!  After 15 mins of waiting I went to the other information post in family camping, who also didn't know anything about the taxis.  I found a security person who told me where the tent was and finally found the taxis.  There were no taxis there and the guy didn't know how long we would have to wait until a taxi was free to take us to the car parks, he did however say that it would be possible to take us but it would cost £20!!!  For the distance travelled that has to be at least 4 times the amount a normal taxi would charge, what a great way to make money out of families that have a lot of stuff and kids who can't be bothered to walk back to their cars.  If you're going to advertise something on you website as being available to all, then you should make it more available rather than just having to hope that one passes by.
 
There were 2 good things that I could think about from the festival.
 
  First of all the toilet attendants.  These people worked around the clock making sure all of the toilets were spotlessly clean and were always stocked with toilet rolls.  They did an outstanding job, especially due to the lack of toilets, and deserved to be commended for their efforts.
 
  And secondly the pixie hatted information elves at the sunrise arena were also very helpful, we had a couple of issues over the weekend and although they didn't know the answer to one of them straight away they went off to find out the answer for us and came back within 10 minutes with all the information we need.  By far the most helpful people we met all weekend

I think some of the comments you have made are rather unfoair. Sure there were a few problems, but EVERY festival has its problems! Some of what you said must be exaggeration, as I was in the same position as you in some cases, and never had those problems.
As for water, there were people giving out bottles, and it's the first year there's been mains water, so there was bound to be some teething problems.

pretty impressive first post though for a 1st time....no idea if its unfoair or not as have no idea what that word means :^)....still...to moan about a festival....hoppo wonder's off muttering about free festivals in the 70's...toilets, we we lucky to have a damp hanky.... 

Only 2 positives - and they don't include any of the bands, comedians or other acts?
 
Ah well, guess we won't be seeing you next year

Some of that criticism is valid.  We were at the camper van end of family camping and had a 15 min round trip to the toilets, and that took longer once the route turned into a quagmire.  We asked an information guy if there were any closer and were told that there weren't.  It wasn't till later that we found out that advice was totally incorrect.
 
More toilets would have been useful, though I think the gist of the complaint is a bit melodramatic.  No one will have been made seriously ill from the water.  You can't stop teens being teens either.  The only way to deter that type of behaviour is to make the line-up even more Radio 4 and hope they go to V instead.

I'm amazed at the complaint about a lack of toilets. I never had to queue once all weekend in the arena. The toilets were a massive improvement on previous years.

Agreed. Some of the points are fair but I think some are unnecessarily over the top. 
 
I do think they should allow people to bring a couple of drinks into the site to alleviate the tendency for kids to binge in the campsites then barge through in a turbo alcopop frenzy.

I never queued - just timed it right.
Water wasn't a problem either - they were giving out bottles of the stuff near the Oblisek at one point and there are plenty of water points.
I walked quite happily by myself through the campsites late at night and I never noticed any out of control teens - quite the opposite.
 

I wasn't saying there weren't enough toilets, they were just clumped together in too few groups, so there was quite a trek if you managed to plonk your tent in an awkward place.
 
Not that it wasn't a problem that couldn't be mostly overcome with the use of an empty Del Monte carton.
 
 

I think someone needs a serious dose of man the **** up

There was a thing about the water on the noticeboard by the arena entrance advising people to throw away any water left over from Friday as there had been a problem with contamination - it looks like they had to bring in an entirely separate supply, hence the tanker trailers. 

Well done FR - bringing in new water for so many people and so many different locations was a logistical feat!
(more info in the arena via the customer services people would have been valuable as to the reasons)

Disgruntled Customer

.....And secondly the pixie hatted information elves at the sunrise arena were also very helpful, we had a couple of issues over the weekend and although they didn't know the answer to one of them straight away they went off to find out the answer for us and came back within 10 minutes with all the information we need.  By far the most helpful people we met all weekend

:-)))

I spoke to the emergency coordinator for Waveney District Council at the site.  He said one sample out of seven had failed.  It was taken from teh family camping toilets, and in his opinion the contamination was probably from there (dirt on the tap) but in the circumstances they had to shut the supply down.  All things considered, I think FR did remarkably well - there was loads of bottled water in the kids area, then those tanker things the next day.  As for toilets - have you really ever been to another festival?  What do they have there, gold taps?

Never knew about the water till we got back, we was told a gasket had gone on the water main.
 
The toilets were a vast improvement and (as a guy) I never queued once.
 
 

hmmmm...it seems his experience was somewhat different to mine.
 
And the loo moan is befuddling....not that there weren't enough....not that they werent cleaned properly....just wants more blocks so that he can happily pay no attention to where they are when he pitches his tent in the safe knowledge there will be one exactly the right distance away when he opens his eyes?!?!?!?!?!?! Um...

Ah, Festaxi. A bunch of chancers.
 
We were worried on Sunday just how we were going to get all our gear out of Tangerine Fields up to the car the next morning through the swamp, especially as I have mobility issues. We saw a taxi and thought it could be the solution so flagged down the driver to see if it would be possible to arrange. He just grunted and gave us a card before hurtling off again.
There appeared to be 2 numbers on the card. The first was some poor guy who's number they'd printed by mistake and had been kept up all night with calls, and the second was a breakdown service who'd taken a micropscopic ad on the card and were nothing to do with taxis.
 
May I suggest a little more vetting of service providers to ensure a basic competency before granting licences.

I didn't see any notice about the water supply so I think they maybe should have made a little more effort to get that info out there as I was using that water all weekend (by the way what was it contaminated with?).
I didn't have any trouble binning stuff while there and did get handed bin bags on the way in (ty one made a very fetching skirt to keep my trousers dry on Saturday and Sunday).
You aren't told where to camp so if toilets are your priority camp nearer to them.  (OK I accept this may be different in family /camper but I've not been there)
If you are bothered by drunk teens maybe consider not camping in yellow!
I wondered if the Festaxi had failed in the mud as I only ever saw one but never thought it was that far to walk really so wouldn't have wasted my money on it.

SimonW


There was a thing about the water on the noticeboard by the arena entrance advising people to throw away any water left over from Friday as there had been a problem with contamination - it looks like they had to bring in an entirely separate supply, hence the tanker trailers. 

I didn't even see that! Spoke to some people who said that the water had been contaminated, but I just assumed that was just some vicious rumor that was making its way around! But I'm still alive and well, so the water can't have been that bad. As for the rest of the above moans, I really don't think that most of them are fair. Info people answered everything I needed (which, admittedly, wasn't much) and the toilets were in superb condition compared to most big events I've been to... 

Some of your complaints here are completely over the top. Having been to latitude since 2007, even then it seemed to run pretty smoothly, and I think this year was the slickest and best organised festival ever. I think they dealt with the water very well, and I had no problems with having enough water and with getting more water. And as for the toilets, I can't see any grounds for what you are saying. There were more than enough in the arena for sure, and I had no problems in the campsite