at around 5.00am on the saturday morn were sittng chilling with some very low music on the suddenly surounded by 2 up front security vans who pounced out like the fucking SAS, who then started to tell us to pack u and leave, we had kids aged between 3 and 15 with us o refused to go,, then the manager arsehole and his cronies took my mate away in a van and dropped him at the bus stop in dundrennan,,,,

45 minutes it took him to walk back in the pitchfucking black,,

hope the fat sunglasses wearing up front security manager reads this and realises how much of a prick he is,,

the police on the other hand cud not be any more helpful n trying to find him, cheers D&G police,,

rant over, security r arseholes

It's a sad fact of life that security firms attract these sort of people. Give them a badge or a uniform and they are as happy as a pig in the proverbial.

Hopefully they will be answerable. Make an official complaint mate

Hmm .... I'm here by de-fault cos I bought my son a ticket , so sorry! There has already been mention made of another similar incedent but I don't think the outcome was explained. One young lad, who made the mistake of having the wrong coloured hair and had his shirt off, was surrounded by 8 security guards and accused of breaking a fence. Despite there being a lot of witnesses to say this lad hadn't been anywhere near the fence and without getting the person making the complaint to come and see if this lad had indeed been the lad in question, the security guards put him in their car without letting him get his belongings and dumped him outside of the festival. Fortunately he had his mobile and could contact parents for a lift. He'd only been at the festival for 8 hours.

I have to wonder why, if criminal damage had occured the police were not involved from the off - makes you wonder.

once again the high vis vest fits the asshole..... wher might i ask wher these high viz power trippers when the campsite was being robbed on friday/sat morn? U guessed it, throwin someone off the site or huddled together doing fuck all.. ego fucking mainiacs.

Sat nite, very low visability KT tunstall on stage.... perfect conditions for a robbery OH! and wher are they? no where, had to do a patrol myself half way through K.T as i had just heard about the robbery the night before and panic set in. Why wha ther no mention of this robbery by police or up front so that folk could be extra careful????

Up Front are one of the worst companies in Scotland, no idea why the organisers use them (I expect it's the cheapest option for them.. which shows with the level of staff they get)

Also most of them should have had SIA badges on, which they didn't.. I wonder if the SIA would like to hear these stories.

http://www.the-sia.org.uk/home/enforcement /reporting/

Sorry about your ordeal. My complaint about the security is that one of them, who I believe was an economic migrant, asked me to give him £50 just to go through the gate near to the campervan. He then tried to haggle and dropped it to £20! I believe some people did pay up and were allowed access into and out of the fezzie all weekend! Also main gate there was a female security and she pick pocketed my husband for his beer cans. She never even explained that we could not take in beer! She also pickpocketed another of my friends...I think all that beer was intended for their after party. When I wanna give a tip I will but to be haggled and stole from for a tip foooookkkks me off!

AngelJ

A wee thought for next year.....

Could the security people all wear numbered badges and then have a place in the arena where we could vote for who has given the best service each day and the person with the most votes get a £50 bonus? Might make some of them make a bit of an effort and also be an easy way of identifying those who were out of order.

Whatcha think peeps?

Met an elderly man from Kilmarnock in his 70's. Met him at Knockengorroch in May. He told me on fri when I spoke with him about gettin charged £20 to camp in campervan field. I will be well p*ssed off if he has been ripped off.

Numbered badges with a photo of "security guard" for ID would be a great idea. No badge, no chance of being allowed to make up own rules as they go along pickin on the more vulnerable at the festie.

Now that my boy has a chance to catch up o his sleep, his friend was "dropped" in Dundrennan aswell.

I hope the folks of Dundrennan complain aswell as the folks involved!

I'll make some enquiries and see if an old aquaintance of mine is still involved in organising the Wickerman - if so I'll make sure he knows!

This is all horrible stuff and I am honestly very upset. I had many positive experiences with the Up Front crew.

I got the general impression that they approached Wickerman with the same attitude they have at the other festivals. I think they did not realise that the Wickerman crowd are so friendly etc. as they usually have to deal with some real assholes at the likes of TITP.

I really hope that the festival organisers will be as shocked as I am about this stuff and get Up Front sorted out with the correct attitude for next year as I feel they will be sticking with them.

I work for Up Front and some of these comments are quite disturbing to hear, personally I am unaware of any of these specific incidents. However, I have to say that on the whole, the majority of the Up Front crew are decent and worked extremely hard over the weekend. Working very long hours, dealing with a lot of shit and being called "assholes" as you put it. Yes I'm sure there are a few, as there are within most security companies, but its completely unfair to brand us all in this way.

For the compliants made regarding specific members of staff - I would encourage you to make those complaints to Up Front if you feel it nessisary. It will be taken very seriously and with your input, changes can be made.

Treacletart - Im up for that! definatley a great idea. And yeah numbered jackets would be a good idea, in the mean time though, if you do feel a greivence with a staff member then take note of their name. (Commendations too )

Also a note on the SIA badges... ALL SIA security staff were wearing visable SIA badges! This means all the staff wearing orange High vis with 'security' written on them. The staff with blue and yellow high vis are NOT security they are stewards and do not require and SIA badge, they are purely there for saftey, information and help. I know all SIA required staff were wearing their badges as fact because one member of security forgot his badge and so was not allowed to act as security but worked as a steward instead.

On a more positive note, the gratitude we recieved from many of the festival goers for looking after them, reuniting them with lost kids and parents, protecting them and helping the 'over merry' was great, and i'd also like to thank the 'Crew' tent for their hospitality and cups of tea in the early hours. Also the Skiddle crew...for covering me in skiddle stamps...that ink is hard to wash off!

Well I would like to say how very grateful I am to the black guy left of main stage on the gate through to the artist area. I use two walking sticks and at times I get confused. He went out of his way over the weekend to make sure I was OK, helping me with bags etc. In over 25 years of festival going he has to be the most fantastic security guard I have ever met. He wasn't soft, he stood his ground when required but for a young lad he had a sharp sense of knowing how to behave and diffuse a situation.

Also thanks to the two guys who had the night shift at the gate near the Village Shop. I had a laugh with them. Also I hope the guy who did the night shift at the gate near the security portacabin and down and dirty after he had already done a day shift on the Thursday - I hope your sunburn was OK. I think it was his first time and was a little shell shocked by the amount of work involved.

I have to say I had no problems with the security but there are always the usual coulple of power trip trumpets that slip through the net.

I'd like to say thanks to the two security on the entrance next to the cosy camper, they let me in with a bag that was ridiculously overfilled with a 3 ltr sachet of wine. I just got a wink and was let in no bother...!

As for the cops they looked like they were chillin themselves most of the time keeping a low profile. They made me feel safe just knowing they were to hand if needed.

D

moonshine, I can agree with you're sentiments for the most part and agree treacletarts ideas were sound. However, I certainly think both Upfront and the events organisers should be making an effort to contact the folks who were forcibly removed, forced to leave their belongings behind and dumped in a local village for what on both occassions seems for no reaon whatsoever. I would have thought it in everyones best interest to find out who was doing this and trying at least to be seen to making an effort to sort it out and give refunds where they are due.

I live in rural D&G, and being a polite kinda lass, I shall describe living here as thus. If you sneeze, someone nearby grabs the hankies for you. Trust me, the village will have noticed what was going on, and at 5 in the morning folks will have been disturbed. It will be interesting to see what letters hit the local paper this week!

Come on guys the two, and I say two as I think Tim and I may be talking about the same lad, the two incidents are disturbing and pretty serious.

as drjimmy sais above it was kidnap, my mate made it back to his campervan and tried not to let it spoil his saturday, but as they cut his wristband off he was a bit worried about gettin back in , which he did,, i take back that all scurity are arseholes but these guys who were obviously manager types were bang out of order,

my mate has already spoke to the upfront compliance manager ad the police to see if these guys can be dealt with,,

personally i,d rather just give em a doing!!!!

It actually scares me as I am disabled and part of my disability is that I get very confused and sometimes I appear aggressive - when really I am (somewhere deep down) a decent guy. In the past I have been put in the cells because the police thought I was drunk and I would be in a desperate mess if I would have been dumped at 5am to the point were it would have been life threatening.

Not knowing all the facts I can only assume that all mentioned is the truth and if so I can see no reason for such a response under any circumstances. If that would have happened to my son or daughter I would have gone mental and I would cause some serious agro once I got home. I hope that this never happens again

They cut the security wristband off the young lad too. He never made it back in, but to be honest if I'd got an emergency call to go pick my half dressed young son up from Dundrennan, and been told the tale, I would assume the security was so bad it was unsafe.

I have managed to get a mail to my friend who helps organise the event, simply because I think they should be aware of what's going on. I certainly hope the young lads parents make a complaint too