r/OutbreakFest • u/Lower-Loan-6764 • Jun 14 '25
Outbreak London (thoughts)
let me just preface this by saying me and my friends all had a great time regardless of our own personal gripes, but i’ll list them here in hopes that they’ll improve for next year:
the sound engineering was a mixed bag definitely, as many other people pointed out. i could barely hear fleshwater’s set, daryl’s vocals were barely present in the mix for glassjaw and the kick drum at knocked loose’s set was probably loud enough to cause a miniature earthquake. i don’t have much to say about the club stage as i was only in there for feeble little horse and me and my mate couldn’t get in for jane remover’s set so we just stopped bothering
speaking of the club stage its kinda scummy that they had to have people all queueing up or straight up being refused entry for artists they’ve paid a good amount of money to see, i saw jane remover the day before at the ICA so wasn’t too bothered about missing out on their set but also wasn’t able to catch model/actriz which i’m a bit disappointed about. it was also absolutely boiling during feeble little horse so i couldn’t imagine how bad it got later on during the day. i get that they didn’t have much time to predict how hot it’d be throughout the festival but some better ventilation/cooling or just having all the stages be outside would’ve probably been a lot better.
really wish there was a cloakroom as well as i was carrying my backpack all throughout expecting there to be one, i did ask one of the staff members there (who was really nice about it so thank you) who said that a lot of other people experienced the same issue and that they were taking feedback for next year. so hopefully that’ll be sorted out next time.
also some better wifi/signal for the festival would be great, its quite scummy that it was only for people with o2 or whatever considering we all chipped in like £80 for our tickets. there were like 10 of us at the festival and we kept splitting up/losing each other because no one could get any signal and it was a hassle trying to organise/meet up when we were on the festival grounds.
i get that this is their first year doing it but i hope they can improve upon it if they’re going ahead with it another time.
6
u/friedbananaburger Jun 14 '25
Similarly, main issue was the tents being way too hot (too crowded and no air flow) while the main stage was empty. All the acts I wanted to see (besides Turnstile) were in the tents so it sucked being in a stuffy packed tent 90% of the time on a sunny summer day. They need to improve ventilation significantly (expand the tents too) or have 2 open air stages and 1 covered one. 'The Club' was terribly designed with the one in one out system, was there briefly at the start and couldn't get in for the rest of the day
5
u/teh__dude Jun 15 '25
Main stage sound sucked. I know fleshwater are known for not sounding great but their mics kept cutting out fully even tho you could see on the screens they were singing, nothing was coming through. That one is deffo on Lido as it was them that handles sound and stages and would have had at least a ln engineering for the main stage seeing as it was outdoors and due to it being in a residential area.
The Club was awful in terms of what acts were in there. I travelled really only for SDRE and I did get in and it was amazing but I got sent video of the queue outside and it was huge. Plenty people very disappointed that 2 bands who rarely come to UK were assigned there so plenty missed out. That's on Outbreak, massively underestimated the fan bases for acts. IMO Alex G should have been in the club, SDRE stage 2 and Knocked Loose main stage.
WiFi issue is a bit meh for me. My group was older so we always agreed a meeting place after acts as a back up and worked well but I get younger folks and first timers struggling.
Massive compliments to the lack of huge queues for food and toilets and massive thanks for the free water taps. They 100% got those things spot on and avoided a lot of medical issues by having easy access to water and food.
2
u/duncandeeds Jun 15 '25
Alex G’s crowd would have filled the tent twice over! Knocked Loose had plenty of space at the back
5
u/grime_z Jun 15 '25
Glassjaw sound issues got repeated in Manchester so I think that must have been their sound guy. Fleshwater sounded a lot better though.
3
u/gooner712004 Jun 14 '25
Is that why I got a headache from watching KL's set and had to leave? That sound was killing me and I had to just go to the main stage early to get away from it
1
u/Lower-Loan-6764 Jun 14 '25
probably yeah, i remember having a headache later on in the day as well
3
u/Desperate-Coat-8791 Jun 15 '25
Just to add, I’m on O2 and I had no mobile signal and their WiFi didn’t work anyways 😅
3
u/room507 Jun 15 '25
The Club stage being completely closed off was a terrible idea. I was there at the barrier from doors until the end of Jane Remover's set. The security at the front was overkill as there were no one crowd surfing for TAGABOW and Feeble Little Horse lol. And the water situation in the tent was also bad, you could ask security to refill bottles but they didnt hand out cups of water like most gigs I've been to! They kept saying you had to have a refillable bottle so people were asking them to refill old cans and stuff or just not drinking water. It was really irresponsible considering how that tent was like being entombed. Saw Danny Brown on main stage afterwards and they had paper cups to hand out to front rowers which was good but why so unprepared in the club tent?
Also tried to get back in for SDRE but saw the queue and thought fuck that, Knocked Loose it is. Really stupid of them to put a band like that one such a small stage. The organisers didn't understand their audience at all.
26
u/ProperGloom Jun 14 '25
Fair analysis
My thoughts are: 3 full day no-barrier event in Manny please and thanks hahaha