IN THE ARENA AND SEEING BANDS
What time do bands start playing?
How easy is it to get a decent position when watching bands towards the end of the night on the main stage?
How easy is it to see headlining bands in the tents?
How will I know what time the bands are on?
How long are the sets?
What time do bands stop playing?
What time do bands start playing?
Bands start at 12 midday - the arena entrance opens at around 11:30am, and is open all day. So you can go in and out as and when you please until they close off entry at around 11:30pm. You don't have to stay in the arena all day if you don't want to! All the stages are in the one arena, and you are free to move from one tent to another without having to get your wristband checked.
How easy is it to get a decent position when watching bands towards the end of the night on the main stage?
It's probably better to be down there 2 or 3 bands before , but those who want to be right at the front seem to be there all day! Weirdly enough, you can get a fairly decent spot by standing at the side of the crowd and working your way across, rather than trying to push forwards from behind.
How easy is it to see headlining bands in the tents?
Towards the end of the nights, Radio 1 is very packed, and appears more so from outside the tent. It is merely a case of squeezing yourself through, as you'll often discover that a lot of the time, space is taken up by people sat on the floor at the back. often its best to wait for a band to start and work your way forwards (be brave and run through the middle of circle pits!). and you'll soon find yourself in a good spot. Concrete Jungle is a tough one as it seems to be packed from early in the day, due to it being so tiny, so you either get in early at midday and stay in the tent all day long, or don't expect to hear anything. eventually you get so far outside the tent that all you can hear is the main stage with a faint hint of what's playing in CJ.
How will I know what time the bands are on?
For £6 you can buy a programme and a times card on a cord which goes round your neck. they're really worth buying, and there'll be people selling them everywhere. the times card will tell you who's playing at what time (there's normally a 15 min gap between bands, 30 mins towards the end of the evening) and the times are pretty accurate, but allow for the fact that some bands might come on late or finish later than scheduled. the cards go to print about 2 weeks before the festival, and if there's any further changes to the line up (bands changing days, pulling out etc) then it may have one or two errors. if there's an overlap in time between one band on one stage and one band on another stage then it's up to you to decide whether you'd rather miss the last 10 mins of one band or the first 10 mins of another.
HOWEVER! Bands don't always run to schedule. Be prepared for the fact that sometimes bands will run early, through no fault of their own (generally due to earlier bands getting bottled off). For example, Sunday 2004:
Minus - 12.00 - 12.35
Thrice - 12.50 - 13.25
BIG GLARING GAP OF 70 MINS WHERE NEW FOUND GLORY SHOULD BE ON FOR 40 MINS
The Rasmus - 14.45 - 15.30
Dropkick Murphys - 15.50 - 16.35
So The Rasmus come on early (approx. 13.50) and then get bottled off after 6 minutes. Now the organisers cannot expect the crowds to wait almost 2 hours for Dropkick Murphys to appear, so they come on early too, at about 15:10. Bands seem to accumulate an extra 5-10 mins each to their set, in a bid to use up the time, and they use more time to changeover between bands.
by the time 50 cent has come on, the time has been made up, only for him to get bottled off after 25 mins, leaving a whole hour before Green Day are due on. Now i think Green Day came on about half an hour early, but i can't remember, and people expected them to play for 2 hours, yet they only played for an hour and a half (maybe a bit more). even bands like Green Day need time to rehearse their songs before they can put them onstage, and can't necessarily be expected to pull fully rehearsed songs out of thin air to fill an extra 30 mins.
How long are the sets?
Early on in the day, bands get about half an hour (less on the Carling Stage) and as the day progresses, the sets will get longer, with headlining bands on the Main Stage having around and hour and a half playing time, and headliners on smaller stages having just over an hour. At the beginning of the day, there's usually a 15 min gap between bands for equipment changeovers, and this gap is about 30 mins between bands high up on the bill.
What time do bands stop playing?
They're scheduled to finish at 11:30pm - but bands don't always run to time - if bands have pulled out of the line up at the last minute (a la New Found Glory), or have come off stage early (a la The Rasmus), the headliners may finish early, or choose to throw extra songs into their set to make up the time. Otherwise, that spare time will be divided amongst all the bands on that stage and they might get another 5-10 mins each - this generally causes some bands to run very early (finishing about the time that the times card said they'd come on!) and slowly running closer to time as the day goes on. But sometimes bands will run late and won't finish until nearer midnight.
