Wickerman Festival Site Dundrennan reviews by real event-goers

Review of Wickerman Festival

We had an absolute blast again. Brilliant line up great atmosphere. How did the weather hold off... ! Can't wait for next year . Poor showers could be much better

Review of Wickerman Festival

Great Family Festival, very friendly, lots for the kids to do and the camp site are well provided for. One of the best things is that it does not seem to get too muddy when it rains and being in Scotland it does rain a fair bit. The music can be a bit hit or miss on the main stage but there is always something to grab your attention on the smaller stages.

Review of Wickerman Festival

Line up very very poor.

Review of Wickerman Festival

toilets were £2 more this year yet not as good, car parking charge is just a pure rip off, bar ran out of mojitos early on first day so lessons were not learned from last year, still enjoyed myself though.

Review of Wickerman Festival

It was ok. Not super smashing - it not utterly rubbish.
We got plopped in general parking at 1pm on Thursday afternoon as the family parking was already full. Apparently.
The near empty family car park after a 1/2 mile trek with 6 kids and 3 cars full of stuff nearly brought tears to my eyes. After asking, very politely, to move our cars to family parking we were told 'NO! You have a green sticker and you shall not pass' *said in a Gandalf like voice*
We eventually found a spot to pitch our many tents.
On a steep hill.
Which was fantastic. *not really*
When entering the arena, one of the kids (aka a child) was asked to provide ID. Unfortunately, as we were still in Scotland, we left our passports at home.
And as she was a child, she had no other forms of ID to prove she was a Child.
The *not very helpful at all* "staff" said nope.
So we had to trek to the box office and purchase an adult ticket. For a child. The child, did I mention she was a child, burst out crying and threw an almighty wobbly, thinking she wouldn't get in and see her husband to be, Tom O'Dell. Again, although amusing, it made the younger children cry, as they too thought they couldn't go in to the arena. So, after much snotters and tears, and £80 lighter, we entered the arena!!! But it certainly put a damper on the day. One stroppy child, snapping at the other children, who all started snapping at each other!! It was more snappy than feeding time at the crocodiles, but much more scary. Then they all turned on us poor adults, cos it was all our fault. Obviously. *rolls eyes*
Even a £4 "99" cone couldn't turn those frowns upside down.
Anyway, we managed to passify the kids with the super expensive fairground rides.
The queue to the toilets in the arena were mad busy.
Having been last year, we were prepared, bringing our own loo roll and baby wipes, but the queues were soooooooo loooooooong. *said in a whingy child voice*

Points I feel could make a difference:

1. More family camping car park allocation, next to the family camping.

2. Family camping not on steep hills so the little folk don't roll out of bed or trip and end up rolling down hills. Although amusing, it is tiresome having to go pick them up constantly.

3. Family camping for families!!! Not rowdy teens/twenties/thirties/mid-life crisis-reliving their teens/twenties.
Having the tents next to a bunch of teenagers/twenty something's was even more tiresome than looking after toddlers. They were like large toddlers but much more smelly, and rude.

4. More toilets in the arena.

Overall, I've not had a fantastic experience. I'm seriously debating coming back next year. It's not been as fun for the kids as it was last year.
And now we have a child who thinks she is an adult and wants to be treated like one. *stamps feet*

Review of Wickerman Festival

Great time had again too guid:)))

Review of Wickerman Festival

It was alright.... Act could have been better.

Review of Wickerman Festival

Amazing

Superb as usual

I've been going to Wickerman every year since 2009 (first festival I ever attended in 2005) and each year I have the greatest weekend. Glad to see the tea stall back in the Reggae tent this year. Missed it last year. Toilets were as good as you're going to get at a festival although I'd like to see more of them. I took my Mum last year (just before she turned 60) and she's a convert. She came again this year and is already planning next year! Alabama 3 on the main stage were a triumph and loved Dizzee Rascal. Loved Utah Saints but can we get Craig Charles back for the main stage on the Saturday night some time. Best set I've seen there for all ages.

Best in years!

Loved the location of the family/quiet campsite this year - at first it seemed a bit out of the way but soon the advantages were clear - far away from the noisier campsite Also ideally positioned so those who had to go back to the tent early due to young kids could still get good view of fireworks and light shows and hear the main acts. Toilets were the cleanest ever - not just in Down + Dirties, but all over the site. I did prefer the old style Down + Dirties (porta-cabins) but set up this year did seem to work in terms of cleanliness and not breaking down. Friendlier than in more recent years, it felt like it was more like Wickerman of old and that is a good thing. Utah Saints were amazing and Dizzee Rascal was a revelation!

Wickerman Luxury Camping

We had 2 Yurts, one to sleep 4 people and another to sleep 6. The Yurts themselves offer a very good experience. We had one airbed that deflated but it was replaced very quickly and without a fuss. I must admit that they had all gone down a little by the time we left - but that is pretty normal! I was not aware that we could have paid extra for electricity - it was not explicit on the booking system, I would have paid for it but did not see it on the site as an optional extra.
The yurt team offered a great friendly service and the breakfast hut was ideal - on site and much cheaper than the other arena options.
On the negative side, I must admit there should be another 4 shower block to account for the volume of people. People that have paid for luxury camping are likely to expect to shower at least once a day and probably in the morning... It really felt like the businesses hadn't accounted for that. And the same goes for the running water in the toilets...
But my biggest issue relates to the location of the tents. I will begin by saying that I appreciate that this is supposed to be a more quiet area but it is simply too far from the main arena. I don't see why we couldn't have an exit from our site down to the arena via the 'Wickerman field'. This really came into play when we were leaving on the Sunday morning. There were 10 of us all packed up and in the van heading out of the field at 10.10am and then we hit gridlock and didn't leave the site until 12.30pm. There seemed to be no awareness from the stewards that there was a huge queue leading up the hill that had been at a standstill for over 2 hours and they emptied (more or less) all the lower fields (caravan and quiet sections anyway)first.
I am not sure how much influence the yurt / tipi / cloudhouse / squirt businesses have over the layout of the site and arrangements for entry / exit from the field but I have to say this poor organisation is likely to affect your business in the long term. I was happy to pay for a premium experience but I really expected that to be from start to finish. It has left a pretty bad feeling from what was supposed to be a positive decision...

Luxury Camping

I stayed with my family in a Lotus Belle - fantastic size and staff kindly supplied cotton rug as I did not want sheepskin - very thoughtful. Insufficient toilets and showers resulted in lack of water, including for hand washing, and toilets not kept as clean as they should have been (Down and Dirty were better). Airbeds problematic first night but better after that. Overall an enjoyable stay though.

Wickerman Luxury Camping

The tents were spacious and the welcome was friendly, but the airbeds kept deflating some within an hour of getting them pumped up, we got ours changed and the new ones weren't much better. Extra long queues for the showers as there were only four showers for everyone in the field, and with an estimated 200 tents sleeping up to six people each thats a lot of people for four showers.Then it got worse on Saturday when the water ran out so no showers for all those who weren't quick.

Wickerman 2009

Usual minging toilets, but the music was great

Wickerman 011

Need to sort the sound engineering. Time to get rid of the expensive drink tickets. They are a nuisance and always seem to come home with some because can't be bothered standing in queue for tickets and drink and they're not refundable. Rip off.Need more toilet cleaners.

Bunnymen blow the crowd away!

ANOTHER great WickiWeekend! Weather great, every band a winner, Happy people singing and dancing AND Echo and the Bunnymen!
FAAAAAAAAN-EFFIN-TAAASTIC!

The best Festival in Britain!

This weekend is always fan-effin-tastic! Great music, good people, easy-going atmosphere and, best of all, LOTS OF SPACE TO MOVE AROUND.
Other fests would try to fit twice as many into the site, but here there's no feeling of being penned in. It has an amazing atmosphere of openness and freedom to move from tent to event; there's so much to experience that this is very important.
The music and ambience are very important to the Wickerman experience but the best thing is the overall theme - it may seem strange to admire the 30ft sculpture as a work of Art for three days, then cheer enthusiastically when it burns and the night explodes in a massive fireworks display, but hey, you gotta be there!

Roll on 2012

Love this festival, one of my favourites, the dance tents are non-stop, great atmosphere round the main stage good selection of food and stalls, don't want to big it up too much, it's just the right size, please don't get too big!

Wasnt worth the treck

We trecked up from Lancashire. The dance part was pretty good but other than the scooter tent I found the rest of the festival rather boiring. This was not helped by the rain.

Wickerman 2011

This was my second Wickerman and it certainly wont be my last, Love the place Love the atmosphere, for me one of the best festivals in Scotland,
ok James set was ruined due to the heavy rain getting into the electrics but it would have taken a lot more than that to spoil my weekend.
One or two negatives now, the campervan campsite had very little toilet facilities not all campervans are fitted with a toilet, No lights at all in this section, it was darker than a dark thing in there, No security to pass through to access campervan site we had to pay more for camping yet there was as many tents as there was vans, and my final concern was the fact that it was a bit of a free for all, park your van where you like, no fire lines, I was at T in the P where a van accidently caught fire if that happened here there was little or no access to some of the vans at the top of the field to get to by fire brigade.
Cant finish on a negative a few of my friends were there for the first time and loved it as much as me. Roll on next year