Y NOT Festival hit the headlines as the final day was cancelled due to muddy conditions. Becky Lumbard was at the festival.
What once started as an overspilled prom after-party 12 years ago has now transformed in a multi-award winning medium sized festival. Y NOT festival resides in the sometimes-glorious Peak District in Derbyshire on the last weekend of July. The festival has seen massive artist over the years including the likes of Snoop Dogg, Noel Gallagher, and Dizzee Rascal just to name a few.
28,000 festival-goers from across the country were all ready to experience a weekend of music, arts and consuming plenty of alcohol. The Vaccines and Two Door Cinema Club were set to headline but unfortunately, this year transpired into a calamity.
Rumours were circulating that the festival had been taken over by the company Global (the owners of radio stations such as Capital FM and Radio X and other festivals including Truck and Broadmasters). As this year was my third consecutive Y NOT, I was not anticipating such a drastic modification and for it to be so badly organised.
The major talking point was the final day had been cancelled due to the fundamentals of the British weather. To pull the plug on the Sunday due to “adverse weather conditions” seems unheard of in this country as we always put up’ with our temperamental weather. Festival-goers had been battling with the mud for three days already so would an extra day really of made a difference? Two Door Cinema Club, The Happy Monday’s and Maximo Park were all annulled leaving many fans disappointed.
Sunday morning saw people stranded in their cars for hours with no staff directing traffic. People travelling from further afield were unable to return home until the Monday morning as travel could not be re-arranged at such short notice.
Due to the poor weather conditions, it meant shortened sets and no-shows. Clean Bandit were cut and replaced by a DJ set and Friday headliners The Vaccines were advised not to perform. No announcements were made about the cancellations apart from on the screens at the Big Gin Stage. This angered many as not everyone was in the arena all the time.
By Saturday, all the set times had been brought forward meaning many people missed out seeing the favourite acts as again, no official announcements were made.
Security felt non-existent this year which was tremendously infuriating. 60 thefts were reported on the first day which was more than Glastonbury. No security were walking around the campsites unlike previous years, which is where a large majority of the thefts occurred. Police were even spotted enjoying the attractions in the main arena.
Luckily, it wasn’t all doom and gloom. There were some incredible moments throughout the festival. Saturday headliners Stereophonics fought back the rain and gave a prodigious show that Y NOT needed.
Nottingham’s own Jake Bugg distracted everyone’s attention from the weather through his genius lyricism. Grime artist Lethal Bizzle took the roof off The Quarry and gave a high energy performance with people even dancing from outside the tent and embracing the rain
Y NOT have recently announced that they are refunding customers 50 percent of the ticket price due to the cancellations and they have confirmed to return for 2018.
The last two years have certainly intumesced for the festival, having felt slightly more conventional. This could be down to new ownership, but importantly, the management of this year’s festival was just poor.
Hopefully, Y Not can redeem themselves and put on the best show for 2018.
By Becky Lumbard
first comment, yeeey!