Wickerman Festival Site Dundrennan reviews by real event-goers

wickerman 2009

came last year with my 4 year old daughter who insisted we came back again this year & we brought along her mum for her 1st festival.
we all had a great time enjoying everything we did and watched. really enjoyed more from jim (twice) candy, billy bragg & the burning, fireworks then utah saints was an awesome finale. will be back worth the 210 mile trip!

Fantastic Weekend!!

Fantastic weekend from start (Thursday) to finish! My first time there. Went with my mate Lynn (both aging rockers!)Met a great crowd of people, young and old! Hi to Nicky (Michael Fish!), Gail, Ryan (Irene!), Bruce - your music was fab and your company even better! Hopefully bump into you next year guys.

Showers were great but queues unbelievable! Definitely need far more or sell less tickets! Post loos were great but needed more cleaning up from time to time and better water supply as water ran out a couple of times.

Music was fab, people so friendly.

Definitely be back

Phyl & Lynn

Wickertastic (almost)!

Had a fantastic time - many thanks to all the organisers.

Positives:

- Great music (highlights = Candi Staton, Utah Saints, Zion Train, Some excellent late night house from Sonny Wharton - sorry to all those who were kept awake by it!)
- Brilliant people and atmosphere
- quiet campsite felt safe and friendly
- good toilets (male urinals great idea)
- clean site (punters even using the bins and great wickerpickers!)
- great sound systems especially on the main stage
- good acoustic area

Negatives:

- Even though I was one of the ones still in the Skiddle tent at 5am on Sat I agree with all the comments that it was too near the quiet campsite. One tip I learnt from a festival in Germany was where they lined up all the sound systems and stages and tents so that they were all in a line and all speakers pointing in the same direction. There was no sound bleed and it was really quick to walk from each stage / tent. This also made for more transition of people between areas. Wickerman site easily has enough room to try this arrangement - go on give it a go! Lesson to learn - it's not the distance between sound systems - it's the direction you point them - point them all the same way!

- As said many times above: Commercialism creeping in. Keep the freedom and people will keep on coming. Clamp down like a police state and you'll have soulless empty festival.

Overall:

4 out of 5 - a brilliant weekend and thanks so much to all those who put it on.

Excellent!

First time at the Wickerman and I will definitely be back. After many years at T in the Park and Glastonbury I decided this year to go to the smaller festivals instead - fed up with the number of drunken neds at T. Was not disappointed - lovely atmosphere, perfect setting (but I am biased as I am from Galloway!), fantastic people, great music and the burning of the Wickerman and fireworks was the perfect end to the Saturday night. I only hope that it doesn't become the commercialised monster that T has become.

Good Music, shame about the drinks policy

I've been going for the past few years, and this is the first time they've not allowed alcohol onto the site. The ticket price was already higher this year than in the past, plus having to buy drinks on site hyped up the entire cost altogether. The music was very good though. However, on the Friday, there were problems, I felt with the sound due to interference from sounds from the other tents.

overall weekend

Arrived Thurssday at 4pm and directed to General Campervan field which was over-run either by lots of children or extremely small people. Was quite near the bottom of the field on a SLOPE! also told by marshals hat a toilet block would appear at bottom which it didn't. Hail to my 'en-suite' bucket, don't leave home without one. Beer tokens...utter waste of time, as echoed by TITP comment....why queue twice? I hate TITP and will never go back there after enjoying 4 years at Wickerman......however, the comercial crap is beginning to creep in and that's never a good thing. Price is ridiculous.....it's a festival in Dumfries and not a London club! Really enjoyed the Human League and stumbled acroos Torrents hich was 2 highlights for me. Not so keen on the Saturday although Utah Saints pulled a few good ones out the bag. Definitely misseed the cill out/Eden tent as 2 tents of pumping dance a bit much...even for me who loves that kind of stuff. Will definitely come back but hope to park the van on a slightly more even bit of ground and that more tents again....also where was the Side-winder??

JanPan

This was our second time to the Wickerman (first was 2007) I was very excited to return as or last time was fab, have to agree about the location of the Bass tent, it as felt like I was there all night and I was in the quiet camping! And moving the down n dirty so far from the quiet camping, not a good idea, kiddies can't hold it that long!
On the postive music was good we loved the Zutons and the selection of yummy foods best cheese toastie ever! Kids had lots to do and see but missed the festival circus and did have to pay for kite making and play area, the long greedy arm of the commerical world has a hold of the Wickerman. And we say let go!

Wickervirgin

I'd been to a few festivals before but this was my first time at Wickerman. This despite the fact it's the most local to me and my friends go every year! Why has it taken me so long?!

Thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. The weather was great on Saturday, the atmosphere was really friendly and it was remarkably cleaner than any other festival.

There weren't that many bands that I was dying to see (I'm not really a ska fan) but I did still enjoy quite a few. I'm a massive fan of Idlewild so it was great to see them and they seemed to quite enjoy Wickerman. Thought the Zutons were pretty impressove and pretty impressed with the festival. It was good to see local band More From Jim get a great reception BOTH times they played too.

debs philip

First year at the wickerman and had a good time - Next year bass tent would be better placed where acoustic village was - No sleep for 3 days for us and the kids!
Line up pretty good but Zutons were weak.
Yoga lady was lovely and was a great addition to the festival - as was acoustic village.
dnd passes sounded like a great idea but had to queue an hour and a half for a shower!! Really need to increase the amount for next year. However, posh loos were well worth the money.
Scottish people were lovely and so was atmosphere (we're fr0m Yorkshire).
Met up with our friends which was a real bonus but would have liked to take our own drinks into main arena. Went to V Fest last year and hated the commercialism and level of drugs- enjoyed Wicker much more - Hope it stays smaller scale though!

babylon rule dem

got full interogation from babylon before we got into the campsite,dem a search the whole car and find nothing,festival layout was all wrong as the axis tent was on a slope.the secuity was unhelpfull (i think they thought it was a football match rather than a festival).drink tokens are a total rip-off as i still had 10 left only to be told they are non-rufundable,all in all what started as something for music fans to enjoy is slowly turning comercial and falling to bits.

Wickerman 2009, pros and cons.

This was my third time at the Wickerman.Its normally the only festival I go to now,but this years some things were not as good.
Only one stage, which meant a wait between bands.Can,t take your own beer in, whats that all about. Not as many toilets as last time.Bar tokens??? Less stalls. Bass till 5, next to camping.Champagne and rum bar with extorsionate prices? city centre london maybe, but in a field in Scotland, come on, wots that gotta do with festivals? But on the plus side,
Good bands. Toilets cleaned regulary. Site clean.Constant supply of pear cider. Food good. Friendly. Good burning. location, (there,s none better). Good acoustic set up. Weather fantastic. Prices no prob, only to be expected.Price for ticket.Urinal areas, good idea. More thinks to do, i.e. golfing, mountain biking. Exit from site on sunday better.
All in all a good weekend I just feel that commerciality is creeping in, and the things that make this festival different to others are starting to dissappear.

My5th WM.

Friendly atmosphere. Clean site. Great choice of food.
The layout could do with a reshuffle. I felt sorry for those in camper vans parked on what looked like a 45degree slope. The base camp and wherever that deeeeep booming bass was coming from 'till 5am shouldn't be anywhere near the quiet campsite (or any campsite). Who's idea was that?
Can't bring your own booze in then have to stand in line twice (tokens) to be ripped off. C'mon, please. If people want that they go to T in the Park. The neds and the rip off merchants put me off going there. Please don't go down the same route Wickerman.

Not The Best Ever

This was, I believe, my 7th or 8th Wickerman and overall it was ok.
The music was pretty good (we were lucky enough to hunt down kid british but they should have announced the change in time and venue more at the main stage (or at least on the programme boards))
The weather wasnt bad
There wasnt an overwhelming number of police stegging around
The Wickerman burning was brilliant

However,
The beer tent was overpriced and the token thing was just stupid
Not being allowed to take booze into the arena was balls (i even got my bottle of water taken off me cos it was open...hello dehydration)
As a result I refused to buy booze in there so sobered up pretty quick and kept getting sleepy
Then to get to the tent had to walk all the way out the stupid exit gate and up the hill :(

I will continue to come as the ticket price isnt bad and its local for me but I think they should relax the security a bit (once i counted 8 security people at the entrance gate...intimidating) and let us take our booze in!

PS I miss the wood stage and the chill out zone!

SHIRL

GOOD FESTIVAL DISSAPOINTED PAID FOR FAMILY CAMPING BUT GOT DIRECTED TO GENERAL AREA THAT SAW US PERCHED ON A HILL! THINK MAIN AREA WAS A BIT SPREAD OUT,, PROBABLY WOULD GO AGAIN

Scousers save the day!

First time and had an amazing weekend. Echo comments about the shower passes both of ours went unused but other than that we had a great time. Not many festivals you can see Tommy Sheridan, Bad Manners, Candi Staton and the Uk Subs. Best band of the weekend for me were the Little Eskimos, closely followed by We Were Promised Jetpacks.

Even getting soaked at 7 am taking down the tent and getting to the car to find out I had left my lights on all weekend didn't spoil it. Thanks to the two scousers who tried to help with a bump start and the one who let me borrow his phone to the call the AA if your reading this I am eternally grateful, as opposed to Dumfries and Galloways finest who merely shrugged their shoulders. ACAB!

Quiet Camping ????

1st time at this festival paid for quiet camping only to find the dance tent keeping us awake till 5am, other problem was having to walk to the other camp site to wait an hour for a shower, on the plus side some really good bands but felt the Saturday selection disapointing compared to friday apart from bad manners and utah saints, missed most of kid british as didn't know they had been moved. But il see the lineup next year an probably return.

Knackered but happy :)

What a fantastic weekend! This was my first time at Wickerman. Just the right size, just the right mix of very friendly atmosphere with lovely crazy people! Zion Train rocked!!! They could have easily headlined (they were that good), they had the entire place jumping but I felt they were on too early! So, dear organisers, can we invite them again next year on a later time slot?

Loved Dreadzone, The Magic Numbers, Billy Bragg, The Dangleberries (I'm officially a fan now), Counterfeit Clash (the tent was jam-packed yet people moved over and made room for us, so lovely!) and totally surprising and fun More From Jim (I think that's what they were called, the mega-energetic ska band in the Solus tent, fantastic!). I wasn't personally too fussed about Human League, not my thing and the Zutons put on a good performance but I did think I prefer listening to them through my stereo than live on stage, maybe I was just too tired by then from all the dancing to Dreadzone! :))Of the lesser bands, it's a shame not too many people were there for The Common Empire, totally loveable group of guys who were on first thing on Friday on main stage, they made us giggle and had a decent sound. Candi Staton was a lovely change of pace on a sunny afternoon. The Scooter tent was always good everytime I went in there. The dance tents were just too close to each other though, unless you were right inside with lots of people, it was hard to get into the music with other sounds coming from the other tents and actually I think the sound in the Solus tent suffered because of its proximity to the dance tents.

The toilets and the showers were worth every penny. I hope next year more of these are added as the queues for the showers were getting silly after 8am, and more 'proper' toilets are definitely needed around the main arena as well. Overall, I had lots and lots of fun talking to the friendly food people (nice choice of food too), the merchants and dancing with and chatting to random, wonderful people. I will definitely come back next year with a better tent!

Good Times again

I've been to every Wickerman since it started back in 2001. Back then I'd never heard any of the bands, the highlight was watching the eponymous film on a TV in a tent whilst numerous stoned nutters lay around passing joints to all and sundry. Happy days.

The current version is a rather different beast however and the Health and Safety "make some money" ethos, which the organisers are clearly aware of given the rather defensive posters all over the site explaining where your ticket money went, is concerning. The ticket price is a bargain. No-ones arguing with that. Forcing you to pointlessly buy tokens in one queue then queue again so you can have a drink,though, is absurd. Let people bring in their own food and drink - Brothers will still make their money. The D n D tickets ended up being a waste of money as their weren't enough showers to make the scheme viable. I wonder how many passes went un-used? The 5 people in my party all gave up on the queues after an hour. Thats £60 for nothing.

I had a great time as usual but there are some problems these days. The campsites need reviewed. I paid £25 extra to get into the Campervan section. Why? What advantage did I get? I also requested the family section of the Campervan section. There wasn't one despite assurances so spent considerable time listening to the guy next to us playing dreadful crap at earsplitting volume all night.

Music - strangely sequenced so that everything good was on the Friday with the Saturday feeling like a bit of an add-on. Zutons? Headliners? Am I dreaming?

Sorry to be so critical but I'm a long term Wickerman attendee who's persuaded a lot of people to go. I love the idea of the festival but I'm worried by an increasing sense of commercialisation, bag searches, strange band booking and scheduling decisions and a sense that the wee hippy "free festival" vibe I loves so much seems to be vanishing.

I had a great time overall, but the wonderful sense of freedom and happiness I remember from previous years isnt as apparent as it used to be.

where was eden

Great weekend some really good bands and a good mix. Where was the chill out tent,(i think it was called eden) from last year? Why put the bass zone next to the quiet and disabled camping, surely it would make sense to swap it with the acoustic tent in future.

Wickerman top class

Well it was my 6th wickerman and yes i was devestated to see the amazingly beautiful and original wooden stage had been replaced by the ordinary run of the mill boring metal one!!!!!!! Uct whit can ye dae? I was one of the lucky ones who knew kid british had been moved and they explained that they had been caught in traffic and had arrived too late for their original time. So hats off to the organisers for getting them a slot in the scooter tent at such short notice. Fans weren't disappointed. I was lucky enough to catch all the bands I wanted all the big band provided great shows but my band ot the weekend were WE WERE PROMISED JET PACK a young bunch of lads who played their socks off in the solus tent on the friday night. One other thought is we shouldn't brag too much about how wonderful this festival is as it is getting bigger and bigger every year 28,000 this year. So come on people keep it to ourselves and close friends and family look what happend to T in the Park and Glastonbury I remember when they were wee festivals before the big commercials got their paws into them!!! Anyway top weekend , top variety of music, amazing family atmosphere and luckily good weather to boot. Keep it up wickerman but not too much ;)