maybe keep track of the artists booked incase they make it big and be more proactive about swapping/rescheduling acts? Foster the people was hurrendous. The small tents can't cope with half the attendance wanting to see Pumped up Kicks.
 
I second the food thing, although it didn't seem bad outside of the arena. And If i needed, I used the 'Burger and Fries' van in Blue, who did the best curry and chips i've had from a mobile. I spent about £24 there xD.

concerning food prices, I don't know the politics of why they cost so much, but I got chips from one place in the arena for just £2.80, which seemed like a steal considering all the other chips I saw were being sold for nothing less than £4. 
 
And yeah, in 4 Leeds festivals (08 onwards), I've only ever bought 1 pint, last year. And it was ****ing awful. Sort it out

I got some chips for £2.50 in the village, but it was the tiniest portion I've ever seen

My £2.80 portion was the same as the £4 portions.

£4 chips are the biggest rip off I've ever seen. It costs about 10p to make a portion of chips

Parking was the only problem I suffered this year with;
 
Had some spare time on Friday and needed some medication that the pharmacy in the arena didn't have, so we deicded to go out to Tesco and the pharmacy at the bottom of the A64, via car as it was quicker. Went out fine, I've been out a few times in the past festivals and had no problem parking back up exactly where I came out of. This year? Noooooooo, was initially parked next to my mates car next to the entrance to Green, and we were camped about 40ft away from the entrance, so about 100ft away from the car in total.
 
First girl I came upto on the way back in she said you can try, then after that everyone was just saying "greens closed now". One even had the cheek to lie right to my face and say the road that I initially came in on, on the Wednesday, was one way, just as two of the Leeds festival land rovers passed each other in opposite directions. Now I drive a pretty fast car so had a flash of an idea to floor it down there, but not being a dickhead got the better of me and I just followed orders (I didn't fancy being banned from the festival), and got parked at the arse end of brown, not even in the brown car park that had loads of space in it still, the one behind that one!
 
Now the past few years when I've been out, I've been able to get back where I started. I know you can't really trust peoples word, as they might just be driving around chancing their luck saying they were parked in green when they were not, just so they have a shorter walk. There's no real way around it, the closest I can think of is giving the parking stewards colour coded parking permits to give to you as you enter, I know that can be abused by you going in and giving it to your mate who drives around and parks his car somewhere else, but can somewhat be eliminated by giving the stewards permanent markers and getting them to write down the reg number of the car when it first enters. But I doubt any of that will happen as it isn't that big a problem, as most peoples cars will stay put the whole weekend, would just be nice to make it easier for people.
 
And just to point out; the space next to my mates car was empty for the whole rest of the festival, so I took 1 car, but in effect I used two spaces for the half of the festival :D

I agree with what has previously been said about the way the mud was handled both in the arena and on the main path to/from the campsites. Too little was done on Friday and Saturday - only when the weather was a bit better on the sunday did it seem we had more action taken by putting the straw/wood chippings down. This should have been done on Friday and the situation continuously monitored and rectified which it wasnt properly until sunday.
 
As for the parking situation - nothing really wrong with the parking itself, but what I do have an issue with is the way cars were directed out of the festival. I was parked in red car park very close to the exit/entrance there yet I got directed around in the opposite direction for miles to an alternative exit henceforth causing me to spend more than 1/2 an hour leaving when I could have been out of that exit in a couple of minutes. It seems horrendously short sighted of the organisers to close this exit off for cars parked basically next to it in a day and age when Petrol/Diesel prices are rocketing and everyone is expected to think "green" - driving around a field pointlessly is not what I consider "green" and I hope this situation does not reoccur in following years.
 
The food situation - simple solution, I didnt buy any! So yes the prices set are totally killing the business there at a time when everyone is expected to be tightening up there budgets. If the organisers dont do something about capping the prices much lower than they have been this year then they may as well scrap all the food stalls completely because nobody will be buying it!

Unless the guarantees are there for cheaper food and drink next year I won't take any money. The only reason I bought any food this year is because my Grandma slipped me a 20 when I went to hers on the Sat. I was so disappointed when I got back when I realised how much all the food was (I hadn't checked before then, I'd just noticed the bigger range and thought progression was being made). The Ostrich Burger place had a massive queue but the size of the burgers they were selling for £6 were tiny so I didn't bother. Ended up getting a bacon cheese burger for £5 which was average and a kebab for £6 that was also average but at least had a bit of flavour. At Benicassim the food was infinitely better for a smaller price.
 
I don't think I can stress enough just how bad those prices were for business. I didn't take money due to what it's been like in the past but had the prices been a bit cheaper this year I'd have brought more next year. As far as I see it, the organisers have no real aptitude when it comes to reading their audience. People don't just forget in a year and my guess is that most people will bring their own food and that the food stalls will go out of business and no one will buy anything. 

Another thing worth mentioning that I noticed this year which didnt occur last year was the number of people thinking it was "ok" to smoke inside the stage tents and not putting it out/leaving the tent when told not to by security. It's not really fair on others for them to be smoking in such an enclosed space. There needs to be much tighter control of this - if people cant respect the rules then by all means throw them out of the arena area completely, the attempts this year to stop them were totally inadequate. Of course the other option would be to ban smoking in the arena area completely - not necessarily the best option but probably the easiest to implement for everyone's benefit.

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ANNEE


post your comments here:

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eddie


£4 chips are the biggest rip off I've ever seen. It costs about 10p to make a portion of chips

 
That is actually disgusting

I have also been going since 2000, and can honestly say that this years Leeds fest will not live long in the memory. At least not for the right reasons.
 
I cant really add anything new to this but I can at least add my weight to the points already made and hope that somebody actually takes note.
 
The mud. Now, we've had this problem before in 2008. That was truly awful, but I dont remember it being as bad as it was this year. Like has been mentioned, everybody knew what the weather situation was gonna be, days if not weeks before the event started.
There seemed to be no plan, just an after thought, and a really poorly executed after though at that. Sunday was fine, but the damage had already been done by then. It made journeys between stages impossible, to the point where I had to sacrifice seeing quite a few bands I wanted to see on various stages, and thats not what you need when the line up was as frail as it was.
 
Food prices were just terrible. They wont be there for much longer if they carry on charging these prices. I could maybe understand their plan if there was no alternative, but theres nothing to stop people bringing their own food, so theyre not only competing with each other, but with supermarket bought stuff too. For the price of one Kebab, I could have bought enough food and water to last the entire weekend. Theyre currently shooting themselves in the foot.
 
One plus regarding food/prices was a stall opposite main stage selling burgers/bacon sandwiches etc. One of those farm produce thingys. They gave you a free apple juice with every burger, and that is where all my money went. £4 for a burger and a drink, killed two birds with one stone. Id already made the decision not to drink alcohol in the arena so the apple juice was perfect (and one of your 5 a day :P )
 
The atmosphere has been changing year on year. I cant pinpoint why. It might even be my outlook that has changed, but its not like it used to be. 2006, by my reckoning was the last great Leeds Festival. 2007 and 2008 were ok line up wise but definitely not heading in the right direction. The last 3 years have been very disappointing, albeit scattered with a few stand out performances.
 
All the above, plus a few other smaller points that have seemingly been erased from my memory, twinned with the Janes Addiction cancellation, means that this years festival is ranked bottom, out of all the years I have been.

Please fill in the survey, we need your views.  thanks

I have done the survey.

As have I

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/news/12/120309d.shtml FREE FOOD

Leeds 2011 was my first festival and it was a complete and utter calamity from word go pretty much. 
We pitched our tent next to a path , well the main path leading into the arena, because we were knackered from carrying our stuff. This would later turn out to be a huge mistake. 
I woke up on the friday morning in a pool of water, my tent leaked horribly, all my clothes were soaking so I was uncomfortable for the whole weekend. The rain itself really put a downer on it for me, I wasn't in the mood to drink, and didn't drink the whole weekend which is maybe why it was so bad. Anyway I returned to my tent on the saturday night after 12 hours on the barrier to watch MCR and discovered that my tent had been completely destroyed, which led me to have to sleep in the emergency tent that night, and I left on the sunday night because of it. Most of the problems were due to rain, and it is probably my fault my tent got crushed, I think i could probably write a post on what not to do at a festival. 
 
Anyway for some stupid reason I have bought a Leeds 2012 ticket, lets hope this year I actually have somewhere to sleep for the whole festival, and please could the weather be a little nicer? Thanks :P
 

Don't hope it happens; make it happen!
 
Problem number one - Weather
Bring a poncho and a decent waterproof tent. Put your clothes in a bin liner when you're not wearing them in case of leaks.
 
Problem number two - you pitched your tent near the path
Don't pitch your tent there! If you're tired from carrying it then rest. We usually leave a couple of people watching our stuff while we scout for a good camping spot then go fetch them.

I think she'd probably already worked that out, haha!