thejudge2k
Active Member
Global Gathering 2010 Review
Not quite as good as the White Isle, but still great fun!
We are four lads in our mid twenties who decided to opt for VIP weekend camping tickets. I had been to Global back in 2002 when it was just one day but none of the other three had been before. Here's a review of our 2 days:
Friday
Arrived about 5pm at the site and drove straight in without any queues at all! Had decided to go VIP & as a result parked the car right next to the VIP entrance. Weather was overcast but warm as we headed in - again no queues whatsoever but a heavy police presence. Rule of no food or alcohol allowed into campsite seemed very harsh but a lack of searching meant we easily got some in amongst our stuff.
Exchanged tickets for wrist bands on way in so could freely come in and out of the site throughout the weekend (unlike Creamfields). Seemed like almost everybody had already arrived as camping spaces were few & far between. After a bit of searching we managed to find a decent spot to put our two tents. Neighbours were very friendly, if a little obsessed with their helium balloons!
Campsite was nice - relatively small, proper portacabin style toilets, decent communal showers, a few food stalls & plenty of outside space with umbrellas, picnic benches, etc for chilling.
Music had started at 17:00 and due to the early finishing time on Fri night / Sat morn (02:00) we thought we'd better make the most of it. We headed to the electric tent to catch Marco Carola (from 20:00) who was in typical banging form but wasn't helped by the sheer lack on people. It was one of the smaller tents - more of a marquee style than big top style. Saw his set then headed to the main stage to catch Faithless.
Once again the crowd was reasonably sparse - we assumed this was a combination of the fact that there were only campers on Friday (day tickets only on Saturday) & that it wasn't close to a sell out.
We are all big Faithless fans & have seen them at least 5 times each at various festivals & solo gigs around the world. However tonight they just didn't really do it. In my opinion the latest album isn't the best & Maxi's voice just isn't ageing well. Combine that with below average sound quality & a rapidly diminishing crowd and it meant an OK show but nothing to write home about. Instead we left early to catch the end of Sasha, who was smashing the huge Godskitchen Boombox stage.
Then Eric Prydz stepped up. Sure, he was helped by a massive visual wall around his DJ booth & scantily clad dancers either side, but it was his set that meant he blew the roof off. A 1.5 hour journey combining a smattering of classics with recent tunes meant it just went off - very happy faces all round! By this time it was 12:30 and little time remained.
We passed on Armin van Buuren & headed back to the electric tent expecting Loco Dice. Unbeknown to us a reschedule meant he'd played some 2 hours earlier so it was now Adam Beyer on the decks.
We looked back at the program (nice lanyard, £7) & decided to finish the night with Steve Angello in the house tent. And what a finish it turned out to be! Steve mixed track after track after track, cramming in tunes right, left and centre. The whole place was rocking & the atmosphere was only helped by the pyrotechnics - indoor fireworks, flames, smoke machines & loads of ticker tape. They'd also produced Steve Angello face masks & handed them out to the crowd, resulting in an amusing audience of lookalikes!
Tunes included the new SHM track, Leave The World Behind, Be Vs Show Me Love & the obligatory One - the second rendition of which closed an excellent opening night at 02:00. Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAFPSr82RUk
We headed back to the campsite, chilled out for a while, then grabbed a few hours sleep.
Saturday
Woke up about 09:00, freshened up then grabbed some food. Usual fare of burgers, pizzas, etc. Then chilled out with a few drinks in the VIP area on benches before heading into arena at 14:00 when music started.
Headed straight to the Bedrock arena (electric arena the night before) where Chris Fortier was playing a start of day, summer afternoon drinking, melodic set - perfect for getting us started.
After several Gaymers we decided to leave the Bedrock tent and Chris Fortier for a walk round the site. The dubstep outside stage was beginning to get very busy - clearly despite this being a festival known for trance, the dubstep genre continues to have a strong following. However the atmosphere wasn't helped by a sudden & catastrophic failure of the electrics so we continued our walk.
Next stop - Carl Cox tent - a cavernous arena with a good smattering of people for early afternoon. Jon Rundell was on the decks so we enjoyed a 20 min boogie before heading to the main stage for Jaguar Skills.
I'd not heard of this guy before but he was highly recommended by one of our mates. Wearing a part balaclava across his face & a huge gold chain around his neck he started chopping up all sorts of tunes DJ Yoda stylee. Once again, however, technical problems prematurely halted his set. After a few mins we were back up & running with party classics from the likes of the Prodigy. Was very impressed & think it worked perfectly for the time of day & stage.
Now we decided it was time to hit the Global Gathering X10 outdoor stage - designed to celebrate the tenth anniversary of global by inviting back some of the original DJs to play some classic tunes.
Judge Jules was just finishing of his set & there was a reasonable crowd in attendance. Predictably the demographic was more towards those that would have heard most of the classic tunes first time round. Jules was playing a blend of classics & modern eletro styled house such as Simian vs Justice - We Are Your Friends.
The Judge soon made way for Fabio & Grooverider who did 30 mins each, banging out classic acid house tracks, including A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray. Despite some turntable issues (a combination of high winds & some battered old vinyl) the growing crowd & improving weather meant the atmosphere was spot on. There's something very special about dancing outside in the early evening sun listening to classic house & this was no different!
It was then the turn of Mr Jeremy Healy, who looked much better than I thought he would given his age and previous exploits. He kicked off with a much more modern themed set weaving in both Sidney Samson - Riverside & an acapella of Beyonce - Put A Ring On It. Left after about 30 mins & headed for some drinks and to prepare for the evening ahead.
An air show by the Red Bull Matadors had been billed but had no idea when it would happen as wasn't on program, etc. Sat evening we journeyed back to the car, only to see two planes flying precariously close to each other on the horizon. Suddenly they broke into a whole number of death defying stunts quite literally in front of our eyes before finishing off with drawing a heart in the sky. They seemed to have been directed to fly over the car park rather than main arena so whilst we got a front row seat not sure how much attention people in the arena were paying. For us definitely a cool addition to the whole experience
Having donned suitably amusing fancy dress back at the tent (monk outfits combined with inflatable guitars) we took the 10 min walk back into the arena. Checked out some more of the Bedrock arena then headed to main stage for the end of Dizzee Rascal. Crowd was significantly bigger than for Faithless, but poor sound quality was again an issue, especially with Dizzee's vocals. Decided it was time to get back to the proper stuff in the shape of Bookashade.
The guys were rocking the Carl Cox tent with their live show. Dark beats accompanied with big stage lasers and effects created a great atmosphere. It reached a crescendo with the encore of Body Language – a track made for that kind of sound system.
Next up was the landlord himself – Mr Carl Cox. Everybody was in the mood and the crowd swelled as he rocked the decks. Coxy is still one of my fave DJs and for me he does it almost every time. OK some people don't like the fact he loves getting on the mic, or that he plays some quite commercial tuneage but he always manages to get the right balance between rocking and funky. Needless to say it was a great 2 hour set, but by this stage we were flagging. After a dodgy first mix from Dubfire three of us decided to call it a day. We made it back to the tents and crashed out until mid morning.
My mate stayed and said Dubfire absolutely smashed it – one of the best sets he's seen. Sounded like a cracker for anybody that made it until the end.
Sunday
Got up about 10:00, weather decent so packed up everything, made the short walk to the car and headed off. Hardly any queue for cars getting out of VIP and despite slow going through Stratford Upon Avon made pretty good progress on to the M40 and off home.
CONCLUSIONS:
Tune of the weekend
SHM - One - could be heard all over the arena on both days - from dubstep stage to main stage to house arena where Steve Angello dropped it twice. Definitely the track everybody had stuck in their heads when they left. (
Toilets
Very good - always had loo roll & loads of hand sanitiser & regularly cleaned – quite impressive for a festival this size
Drinks
Prices not great, but OK – can of beer / cider £4, bottle of wine £4, bottle of water £2.50 at all outside stalls, £2 at bars inside tents
Mobile Signal
Full signal and no network issues whatsoever thanks to 4 temporary masts located next to the VIP campsite. Probably not great for your health, but made it very easy to contact mates at all times!
Summary
All in all we had a great time. Weather was good, organisation was top drawer, crowd had a positive mentality and line-up was decent. Think the overall line-up was better in previous years and certainly Creamfields this year looks very impressive. But realistically at a multi-stage festival you'll be lucky to see 5 acts per evening and a bigger line-up just means more clashes and difficult choices to make. Here's to another 10 years of Global!
Not quite as good as the White Isle, but still great fun!
We are four lads in our mid twenties who decided to opt for VIP weekend camping tickets. I had been to Global back in 2002 when it was just one day but none of the other three had been before. Here's a review of our 2 days:
Friday
Arrived about 5pm at the site and drove straight in without any queues at all! Had decided to go VIP & as a result parked the car right next to the VIP entrance. Weather was overcast but warm as we headed in - again no queues whatsoever but a heavy police presence. Rule of no food or alcohol allowed into campsite seemed very harsh but a lack of searching meant we easily got some in amongst our stuff.
Exchanged tickets for wrist bands on way in so could freely come in and out of the site throughout the weekend (unlike Creamfields). Seemed like almost everybody had already arrived as camping spaces were few & far between. After a bit of searching we managed to find a decent spot to put our two tents. Neighbours were very friendly, if a little obsessed with their helium balloons!
Campsite was nice - relatively small, proper portacabin style toilets, decent communal showers, a few food stalls & plenty of outside space with umbrellas, picnic benches, etc for chilling.
Music had started at 17:00 and due to the early finishing time on Fri night / Sat morn (02:00) we thought we'd better make the most of it. We headed to the electric tent to catch Marco Carola (from 20:00) who was in typical banging form but wasn't helped by the sheer lack on people. It was one of the smaller tents - more of a marquee style than big top style. Saw his set then headed to the main stage to catch Faithless.
Once again the crowd was reasonably sparse - we assumed this was a combination of the fact that there were only campers on Friday (day tickets only on Saturday) & that it wasn't close to a sell out.
We are all big Faithless fans & have seen them at least 5 times each at various festivals & solo gigs around the world. However tonight they just didn't really do it. In my opinion the latest album isn't the best & Maxi's voice just isn't ageing well. Combine that with below average sound quality & a rapidly diminishing crowd and it meant an OK show but nothing to write home about. Instead we left early to catch the end of Sasha, who was smashing the huge Godskitchen Boombox stage.
Then Eric Prydz stepped up. Sure, he was helped by a massive visual wall around his DJ booth & scantily clad dancers either side, but it was his set that meant he blew the roof off. A 1.5 hour journey combining a smattering of classics with recent tunes meant it just went off - very happy faces all round! By this time it was 12:30 and little time remained.
We passed on Armin van Buuren & headed back to the electric tent expecting Loco Dice. Unbeknown to us a reschedule meant he'd played some 2 hours earlier so it was now Adam Beyer on the decks.
We looked back at the program (nice lanyard, £7) & decided to finish the night with Steve Angello in the house tent. And what a finish it turned out to be! Steve mixed track after track after track, cramming in tunes right, left and centre. The whole place was rocking & the atmosphere was only helped by the pyrotechnics - indoor fireworks, flames, smoke machines & loads of ticker tape. They'd also produced Steve Angello face masks & handed them out to the crowd, resulting in an amusing audience of lookalikes!
Tunes included the new SHM track, Leave The World Behind, Be Vs Show Me Love & the obligatory One - the second rendition of which closed an excellent opening night at 02:00. Check out the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAFPSr82RUk
We headed back to the campsite, chilled out for a while, then grabbed a few hours sleep.
Saturday
Woke up about 09:00, freshened up then grabbed some food. Usual fare of burgers, pizzas, etc. Then chilled out with a few drinks in the VIP area on benches before heading into arena at 14:00 when music started.
Headed straight to the Bedrock arena (electric arena the night before) where Chris Fortier was playing a start of day, summer afternoon drinking, melodic set - perfect for getting us started.
After several Gaymers we decided to leave the Bedrock tent and Chris Fortier for a walk round the site. The dubstep outside stage was beginning to get very busy - clearly despite this being a festival known for trance, the dubstep genre continues to have a strong following. However the atmosphere wasn't helped by a sudden & catastrophic failure of the electrics so we continued our walk.
Next stop - Carl Cox tent - a cavernous arena with a good smattering of people for early afternoon. Jon Rundell was on the decks so we enjoyed a 20 min boogie before heading to the main stage for Jaguar Skills.
I'd not heard of this guy before but he was highly recommended by one of our mates. Wearing a part balaclava across his face & a huge gold chain around his neck he started chopping up all sorts of tunes DJ Yoda stylee. Once again, however, technical problems prematurely halted his set. After a few mins we were back up & running with party classics from the likes of the Prodigy. Was very impressed & think it worked perfectly for the time of day & stage.
Now we decided it was time to hit the Global Gathering X10 outdoor stage - designed to celebrate the tenth anniversary of global by inviting back some of the original DJs to play some classic tunes.
Judge Jules was just finishing of his set & there was a reasonable crowd in attendance. Predictably the demographic was more towards those that would have heard most of the classic tunes first time round. Jules was playing a blend of classics & modern eletro styled house such as Simian vs Justice - We Are Your Friends.
The Judge soon made way for Fabio & Grooverider who did 30 mins each, banging out classic acid house tracks, including A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray. Despite some turntable issues (a combination of high winds & some battered old vinyl) the growing crowd & improving weather meant the atmosphere was spot on. There's something very special about dancing outside in the early evening sun listening to classic house & this was no different!
It was then the turn of Mr Jeremy Healy, who looked much better than I thought he would given his age and previous exploits. He kicked off with a much more modern themed set weaving in both Sidney Samson - Riverside & an acapella of Beyonce - Put A Ring On It. Left after about 30 mins & headed for some drinks and to prepare for the evening ahead.
An air show by the Red Bull Matadors had been billed but had no idea when it would happen as wasn't on program, etc. Sat evening we journeyed back to the car, only to see two planes flying precariously close to each other on the horizon. Suddenly they broke into a whole number of death defying stunts quite literally in front of our eyes before finishing off with drawing a heart in the sky. They seemed to have been directed to fly over the car park rather than main arena so whilst we got a front row seat not sure how much attention people in the arena were paying. For us definitely a cool addition to the whole experience
Having donned suitably amusing fancy dress back at the tent (monk outfits combined with inflatable guitars) we took the 10 min walk back into the arena. Checked out some more of the Bedrock arena then headed to main stage for the end of Dizzee Rascal. Crowd was significantly bigger than for Faithless, but poor sound quality was again an issue, especially with Dizzee's vocals. Decided it was time to get back to the proper stuff in the shape of Bookashade.
The guys were rocking the Carl Cox tent with their live show. Dark beats accompanied with big stage lasers and effects created a great atmosphere. It reached a crescendo with the encore of Body Language – a track made for that kind of sound system.
Next up was the landlord himself – Mr Carl Cox. Everybody was in the mood and the crowd swelled as he rocked the decks. Coxy is still one of my fave DJs and for me he does it almost every time. OK some people don't like the fact he loves getting on the mic, or that he plays some quite commercial tuneage but he always manages to get the right balance between rocking and funky. Needless to say it was a great 2 hour set, but by this stage we were flagging. After a dodgy first mix from Dubfire three of us decided to call it a day. We made it back to the tents and crashed out until mid morning.
My mate stayed and said Dubfire absolutely smashed it – one of the best sets he's seen. Sounded like a cracker for anybody that made it until the end.
Sunday
Got up about 10:00, weather decent so packed up everything, made the short walk to the car and headed off. Hardly any queue for cars getting out of VIP and despite slow going through Stratford Upon Avon made pretty good progress on to the M40 and off home.
CONCLUSIONS:
Tune of the weekend
SHM - One - could be heard all over the arena on both days - from dubstep stage to main stage to house arena where Steve Angello dropped it twice. Definitely the track everybody had stuck in their heads when they left. (
Toilets
Very good - always had loo roll & loads of hand sanitiser & regularly cleaned – quite impressive for a festival this size
Drinks
Prices not great, but OK – can of beer / cider £4, bottle of wine £4, bottle of water £2.50 at all outside stalls, £2 at bars inside tents
Mobile Signal
Full signal and no network issues whatsoever thanks to 4 temporary masts located next to the VIP campsite. Probably not great for your health, but made it very easy to contact mates at all times!
Summary
All in all we had a great time. Weather was good, organisation was top drawer, crowd had a positive mentality and line-up was decent. Think the overall line-up was better in previous years and certainly Creamfields this year looks very impressive. But realistically at a multi-stage festival you'll be lucky to see 5 acts per evening and a bigger line-up just means more clashes and difficult choices to make. Here's to another 10 years of Global!