West Mid Show Ground Shrewsbury reviews by real event-goers

mixed feelings

Mixed feelings about this festival.

Its great to see a more indie orientated festival in Shrewsbury, but judging by the numbers of people attending the people of Shropshire are maybe more into their cheesy 80's concerts.

Enjoyed seeing the local bands on early in the day, but there perhaps weren't enough "name" bands on later in the evening to get your average punter in, although Fenech Soler, Sunshine Underground and Charlatans were great and Utah Saints in dance tent were good.

Perhaps it would be better as a Friday evening/all day Saturday festival, with a dance focus on the friday and a more bands focused day on the saturday. Also having someone to MC the main stage would be good to gee the crowd up and let them know about the bands that are coming up.

Felt for the organisers as they had clearly put a lot of effort in and know their music, but clearly the lack of people there was a big down side to the weekend

Nice attempt but 'could do better'!!

Looks like we might all be singing off the same hymn sheet here! Nice try but poor turnout. I also bought just day tickets as i only live 20 mins away and only reason why i did was for Chase n Status. I happened to be on the Festival website trying to look for more info when i noticed they didnt seem to be mentioned anywhere!! I was horrified!! I called the help line and spoke to a lady who sounded embarrassed and gutted and tried to console me by offering me Sunday tickets for Pendulum but i don't like them so no good for me. My beef was that seeing as Chase n Status was booked for the Saturday who was replacing them for that night - no one! so as much as the Charlatans where ok paying £35 for them was too much!!! The Dance areas were pants too. No House music, but that's my personal preference!
Didnt seem to be many there, lots of drunk teenagers in next to nothing but hey thats what being young is about these days!

I will support this and come again next year but only if you learn from this as it's true, Glasto started off small and out of nowhere and look at them now!!
Please book better and more next year, advertise and people will come!!

Where was all the bands????

Totally agree with last post that the acts were not big enough to attract loads of people. I only bought tickets for Saturday and Chase and Status cancelled to be replaced by Pendulum. It was only when I got there that I discovered Pendulum was Sunday night, so basically I paid £35 a ticket to see the Charlatans. There needed to be 2 or 3 big name bands to attract more people. Status Quo did concert with 10CC recently and I think there was 10,000 people so there is the appetite for music events locally but they perhaps need to be bigger names. It's a shame. This was the first year and I doubt the organisers will do it again. Glastonbury must have started somewhere though.

Where was everybody?

The first thing that struck me was the distinct lack of people, it was practically empty! This lead to a rather flat atmosphere and a sense of bewilderment. The Charlatans got the biggest crowd but there only seemed to be between 300-400 maximum.

I don't agree with the previous poster when he mention the lack of information as the schedule was clear and 3 quid wasn't expensive.

On Sunday there were occasions where 10 or less people were watching the acts and that just can't be right, I felt for the artists. My party of 4 left at 16:00 as there was just nobody around and couldn't see how it would improve.

I think that the acts just weren't good enough to attract the large crowds and it all went downhill from there. But it has been pointed out to me that when people were looking for the festival the first thing that came up was the folk festival and once you eventually found the right website there was no info on the schedule so buying a ticket for the day you'd be interested in going on wasn't possible.

I think overall there clearly wasn't enough publicity for the event and it suffered severely in attendance figures.

GOOD MUSIC, BAD ARRANGE

To be honest. good music but no info about stages, no schedule.Never see on any of festivals or concerts so smal 'MAIN STAGE'. DISCO MUSIC TENT, no ventilation, one entry, and **** sound quality.

shrewsbury Fields

Very relaxed staff/stewards. Great venue. Good value. Great music. As usual not advertised well enough. I had a great time.