大象传媒

Festival-goers may remember a footpath near the stage in the woods which they weren't allowed to go up.听 Well, that leads to the 'guest' area where your humble 大象传媒 reporters erected their tents among hundreds of other freeloaders.听

I say freeloaders, but there was a compulsory 拢20 donation to charity for all guests.听 If you paid the 拢112 weekend fee, I'm sure you won't be sympathetic.

Actually, my colleague Richard Haugh decided to camp with his chums in the campsite 'proper' and regretted it after his tent was broken into. Having had a sleeping bag and crate of beer stolen from my own tent at Glastonbury in the past, I tried to muster up some sympathy for him.

The press tent provided reliable connections which enabled us to upload our photo galleries while we were at the festival. We had been hoping to use a wireless laptop, but it was as erratic as mobile phone coverage in general across the weekend.听

We'd also been hoping to get a free programme, but they weren't on offer so we had to bite the bullet and stump up 拢8.听 Hard to believe the festival doesn't make a profit with those sorts of prices.

Recycling - or an opportunity for theft?

Rather than creating endless heaps of used plastic pint pots, when buying beer at the festival you had to pay a 拢2 deposit on a hard plastic beaker and keep hold of it.

While the Mean Fiddler's attempts to go green are very noble, we discovered that you had to keep hold of your plastic at all times.听 While putting down our glasses for a quick boogie on Thursday night, we returned to find our drinks had gone.

We soon realised that we weren't leaving a half-drunk beer on a table, we were effectively leaving 拢2.

Photo pits

Once you've got your photographer's pass the rules at the festival were that you can go in front of the barrier for the first three songs only - which is why, for instance, you won't see many close up pictures of the Magic Numbers' Romeo joining Damien Rice for his encores.

You also tend to end up with the same sorts of pictures - looking up the acts' noses from 10 feet beneath them - when you get can sight of them over the monitors.听 Real professional photographers would be better off having foot long lenses and taking their snaps from somewhere near the mixing desk.

Searching for stars

The tricky time-consuming bit for reporters is trying to pin down the stars for an interview.听 The basic rule of thumb is that the bigger the star, the less likely they are to want to do an interview.听

I'd already arranged to interview Au Revoir Simone and Scott Matthews beforehand - it was just a case of praying that our respective mobile phones would connect and we could link up on site.

Otherwise it was trying to nab people while loitering backstage.听 One tactic was to tag along with Lucy O'Doherty from 大象传媒 6music.听 She was doing radio interviews and I was hoping to convince the people she had lined up that it would be good if I could film them as well.

However, some stars don't stick to arranged times and there's a lot a waiting around backstage (not mentioning any names!).

Exceptions were Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes, who was happy to be filmed, but wanted to do it after she came off stage in costume.听 Scott Matthews was ready for his interview as planned after his short, but rocking performance in the Uncut tent and Au Revoir Simone agreed to wander down to the lake for their interview - the scenery being far better than the backstage area.

Plusses and minuses

Personal highlights:

• interviewing Bat For Lashes in a week she was getting a Mercury nomination
• finding out that Au Revoir Simone are closet prog rock fans (well, at least one of them is)
• the 'vibe' in general
• toilet seats that you could sit on rather than using the "hold the door and hover" approach
• being reminded what a star Jarvis is
• discovering Damien Rice wasn't just another drippy sensitive singer/songwriter
• it's not obviously commercialised - you don't have to buy one sort of beer only and it's not "The Nokia Isle Of Wight Festival"
• Arcade Fire closing the show in style
• Having my first ever festival showers - most invigorating
  

Personal lowlights:

• Not getting to see that many bands due to workload
• bleeding from the lip for about 4 hours after failing to bring bottle opener into arena, knocking top off bottle on a hard edge and not realising I'd taken the top of the glass off as well
• 拢8 for a programme (have I mentioned that already?!)
• queues for the bars, toilets and food stalls in the main area - walk-in urinals for men desparately needed next time
• having succumbed to my first ever festival showers - it's not really the done thing, is it?

So, all in all, the festival's in credit with me.听 The question is how big do they want it to grow without ruining its charm?