Last year they were heavily criticised for the bar system, and the queuing. It was one of those horrible token systems - which I hate anyway - and there wasn't enough bar staff to cope with the demand, nor security personnel to manage the queues. They got pretty ripped on social media for it.
Nic took it personally, and when they threw their winter edition back in February they had plenty of bar staff, no queues, and they took cash. It worked so much. A breeze in fact. Without doubt the most hassle free system I've ever seen at a UK festival. A complete 180o turnaround so I would hope & assume that will stay in place.
Noise complaints - there will undoubtedly be some. The venue had a pretty low scale rock concert this weekend just gone actually, and they were a dozen complaints from local residents. (My other half works in environmental health at the borough council so she has seen these first hand!) Could it cause problems down the road. I guess that's always a danger. Nic has been very vocal about his dislike for noise restrictions in our local press. Earlier in the year they actually ran with an anti-noise story on the front page, and then a centre-spread interview with Nic - one of the questions he was asked was if he could change anything, what would it be - "noise restrictions for UK festivals" ! Couldn't make it up.
For the moment he seems to have licensing, the police, press, chamber of commerce all on-side. So no worries there.
In terms of scale, it has doubled in size since the first edition in 2013. Year 1 had 1 main stage big-top and a much smaller 2nd tent.
Certainly rapid growth to go from being a regional, "boutique" festival to going to self-professed biggest underground line-up at any UK festival within the space of 3 years.
The local infrastructure - roads, train stations - they can cope. Accommodation? Not as convinced. All budget hotels are sold out. The more upmarket ones are few and far between. Will definitely be interesting to see how this year pans out!
