Well, i hate to burst anyone's bubble too early on...
... but in my opinion, Homelands is a pretty crappy festival when compared with the others.
There are two main reasons why this is:
1. Keeping in touch with your friends
It is in a natural "bowl" way, way out in the countryside, which means there is basically zero cellphone coverage. Add to that, lots and lots of different zones and 50,000 people and once you lose people, thats it. I went with a group last year and lots of them lost each other at about 8.30pm and never saw each other again till 5am! 19 out of 20 texts you send just won't send, and the one that does send will take 4 hours to arrive. Whereas at Creamfields that I've been to twice (and most of the other big dance festivals that i know of), they are all relatively near a city, and not in a bowl, so although there is the odd text that won't send from time to time, there is usually not a problem and its easy enough for everyone to go off on their mad wanderings and meet up again at anytime they want to.
2. Volume
Although it might be way out in the wops, apparently the local farmers and council are pretty conservative and are pretty strict on the volume levels. My discman connected to a couple of PC speakers plays louder than some of the tents were... ok thats an exxageration, but u know what i mean. Its especailly bummer-ish when you consider that bass travels much further than treble... at Homelands last year I was standing slap-bang in the middle of one of the largest tents, and the bass from neighbouring zones was sufficiently loud that you could definitely hear it interfering with music that was playing in the tent i was in. And i repeat, i wasn't standing near the door, i was way inside the middle of the tent. In terms of all dance thingys i've ever been to, Homelands definitely had the quietest volume ever, and that just doesn't fit with some of the phat tunes they are hearing. At homelands a couple of years ago, Eric Morillo even STOPPED PLAYING cos the bass from a neighbouring zone was interfering with his tent so much!
There are 4 big dance fesitvals in the UK Summer that I know of, Homelands in May, Gatecrasher Global Sound System in June, Godskitchen Global Gathering in July, and Creamfields in August. All 4 have stunning DJ line-ups like the one Spike has posted. I will definitely be going to at least one this summer, but I know it WON'T be Homelands.
Sorry if that sounds like too much of a rip, and i did manage to enjoy myself somewhat at homelands i admit. But given the relative expense of the tickets and the fact there are lots of other great fesitvals with similarly great line-ups over the summer, i'll be saving my pennies for another one.
![[quote]](http://static.biggie.co.nz/img/dis/message_quote.png "Quote message"){kind=small}
