'No food or drink'

I don't imagine that the food will be any more expensive than at other festivals and special dietary needs aside, I don't see a problem with this. This is a 30,000 capacity festival, with tickets priced at under £50. I had to pay £80 face value to see Neil Young on his UK tour, and although I know I won't be getting 3 hours of him this time, I still think this festival offers great value for money. The line-up is excellent and the bands have to get paid! With no corporate sponsorship they can only charge so much for a pitch to sell food and I am sure the vendors need some assurance that they will actually sell food (health and safety aside). Unless you are glutenous (like me) you surely won't need to buy more than two meals there, which should be done for £10, unless you are actually going to drink beer then I don't see the need to spend more than £10-£20 on beer, less for non-alcoholic beverages, making the price no more than Neil Young's UK tour but for seven top quality acts with food and drink into the deal. Also, I can't remember the last time I was able to take food or drink into any kind of one-day gig, so this really comes as no surprise to me.

I think with the outrageous prices of gigs these days, this is one heck of a great value day out, even if we have to buy food and drink from the venue. Personally I am skint, and shouldn't have bought a ticket to this day at the farm, but still can't knock it for value even with the no food or drink policy. And I am glad it's not sponsored as I hate all that cr@p, and it would have made no difference to the cost of food or drink at the venue.

As for no camping, you can't really expect that for a one day event. It may be inconvenient for those living too far to travel back afterwards, but that's the case no matter where a one-day event is held, be it Glasgow or Kent. There are some cheap Travelodge style places not that far from the venue near the Dartford tunnel, either side of it I believe. Some did have some great deals at £25 per night, not sure if any are left now though.

I expect to get slated for bucking the trend of opinion on this one, but I just felt I needed to add an alternative viewpoint - and no, I have no connections to the organisers.

the people who can't afford the food inside the festival may fight the ones who can, it could be all out war!!!

Whilst I'm as much against the overpriced beer and junk food at these events as the next person I must say this is fairly normal practise and doesn't put me off. I'm pretty sure Neil's gig at Finsbury Park in 1993 was the same!

Personally I shall probably have a large pie washed down by "a few ales" before going in...

The worst experience of this kind I had was when I went to see the Manics at Lancashire Cricket Ground in Manchester a few years back. They had a similar rule, but only sold awful Kaltenburg lager which was about 2.8% abv (presumably to prevent anyone actually getting remotely drunk).

fhionnlagh cunnertach wrote:The worst experience of this kind I had was when I went to see the Manics at Lancashire Cricket Ground in Manchester a few years back. They had a similar rule, but only sold awful Kaltenburg lager which was about 2.8% abv (presumably to prevent anyone actually getting remotely drunk).

Given that Vince is supporting local traders, and the local hop and cider heritage, I expect to be able to sample Shepherd Neame ales and Biddenden cider

Given that Vince is supporting local traders, and the local hop and cider heritage, I expect to be able to sample Shepherd Neame ales and Biddenden cider [/quote]

Hear, hear! I drunk Biddenden cider once , in Canterbury, where my daughter will be going to university later this year. All I can say, it's a very good reason to go to Kent - university, music festival whatever; best cider I've drunk in years!

Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I agree that it is the 'norm' nowadays for such festivals to have these rules, and if the beer/ale/cider etc. is really going to be local produce, then I don't mind a slight premium to ensure that the vendors have the opportunity to make a reasonable profit. It's just the principle of the matter, and this festival whilst certainly no worse than most others on principles, is unfortunately no better either.

But at the previous few posters have reminded me, it will not put me off either from a great day of music.

As long as there is no attempt at banning the smoking of cigarettes on the day, I'll be fine. But I seriously have started checking festival by-rules, because it's only a matter of time...lol.

As for the no-camping, it's a shame nothing is available, but again, Hop Farm is just no different. I guess when folks get excited (and quite rightly too!) by the 'no sponsorship, no VIP area', etc. etc., we get our hopes up that further goodnesses may come to pass as well. I guess it's a step-by-step process back to normality when it comes to kicking the BS out of the modern festival. I sincerely hope this festival is a sign of the continuing devolution of festivals back to a purer ideal of what they're meant to be. A celebration of music and culture, as opposed to a very muddy shopping trip to an outdoor mobile phone shop!

See ya all there. I wonder who the 7th and final act will be? The only thing that could top Neil Young would be John and George being brought back from the other world. I will settle for Mercury Rev though (I'm not fussy).

Daniel

Just spoken to a lovely girl at VPMG regarding the food and drink ban and it seems as there as been some change of attitude. It is no longer a health & safety issue but now a ‘green’ one. They don’t want bottles and litter all over the field. Also they are now allowing in your own food and plastic bottles of water but not as I suggested a box of wine! They are trying to champion local wares (which I don’t have a problem with) but could not give me a list of vendors or any indication of prices. They are in talks with British Rail and a transport expert(!) regarding getting people away from the gig and are hopeful of laying on extra trains and shuttle buses away from the site to train/bus stations etc. It is estimated that it will finish around 11:30pm

Jessol wrote:Just spoken to a lovely girl at VPMG regarding the food and drink ban and it seems as there as been some change of attitude. It is no longer a health & safety issue but now a ‘green’ one. They don’t want bottles and litter all over the field. Also they are now allowing in your own food and plastic bottles of water but not as I suggested a box of wine! They are trying to champion local wares (which I don’t have a problem with) but could not give me a list of vendors or any indication of prices. They are in talks with British Rail and a transport expert(!) regarding getting people away from the gig and are hopeful of laying on extra trains and shuttle buses away from the site to train/bus stations etc. It is estimated that it will finish around 11:30pm

Now that's a step in the right direction, esp. with the transport issue, although I hope the transport expert is French, or German, or Japanese, 'cos we don't have any experts on this island... . If the intention is to promote local booze, then cool too I guess. Would have been nice to mix in some Kent cider with my trusty bottle of 4.99 Morinov vodka though.

Thanks for the info Jessol,

Daniel

On reflection, it probably makes sense to not allow glass bottles in, as broken glass trampled into the grass with about 30,000 people milling round could be very dangerous-obviously- but I don't see why booze, soft drinks and your own food can't be allowed as long as they are in plastic containers. let's face it there are many outdoor festivals/events/concerts where these arrangements apply, and the food ventors still seem to do good business- I'm thinking Cropredy in particular, but also many other events where whole families can be seen eating their own prepared food and drink, yet there are still long queues for the Mexican tacos/Indian veggie curries/wholefood flapjack vans. As for helping local produce?- well, yes, fine as long as it is that- and not an excuse to bring in the local (and not so local) greasy burger and hot dog brigade.
I just think people need to have the choice- I also think there is something a bit immoral about telling, say, a family group, (which you will have at a Neil Young concert) that they can't have their own food for a whole day.
As for the no-camping rule? Sorry that is just unreasonable- people will want to have a good time, have a drink, etc. and not worry about driving home, or having to catch late night buses and trains, especially if they need to make late night connections to various parts of the country.

You guys that are getting wound up about no food & drink should look at the web site again because it doesn't say no food allowed. It actually says no glass & alcohol allowed. Have a goodun!

mast2299 appears to be right

the information part on the website says:

Food and Bottled Water allowed on site
No Glass Bottles or Cans

does this mean that you can take beer/cider in plastic bottles?!

This is good news, big thanks to The Vince Power Group for listening to genuine and constructive criticism/suggestions I am sure that the on-site vendors will still sell plenty of stuff.

I'm confused. The info section definitely says "Food and bottled water allowed onsite". Where does it say No food?

Having survived The Who gig at Charlton Athletic (back in the days before H&S) I can understand the prohibition on glass and cans. Surely clear plastic containers shoudn't pose any problem to the ingenious who want to save a bit of money on the alcohol bill.

I will clarify for those coming late to the 'no-drink and no-food' love-in. The festival website originally said 'no food, no drink' to be brought in from the outside. People have complained, and the festival organisers have changed their mind, in the interests of their ticket-holders. So this isn't a case of people getting worked up over nothing; we got worked up over something, and something has been done about it.

Many thanks again to Vince and co. If only other festival organisers thought like this.

PK

cybr40hn wrote:This is good news, big thanks to The Vince Power Group for listening to genuine and constructive criticism/suggestions I am sure that the on-site vendors will still sell plenty of stuff.

Amen to that.