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'Friday The 13th' curse strikes Guilfest

United Kingdom | | 13 July 2007

Guilfest was thrown into chaos today (Friday) after a main stage speaker stack collapsed.

No one was injured in the accident which happened just hours before opening band Thirteen Senses were due on stage.

Since the setback, festival staff have rallied to minimise any delays to the opening day's bill. As this story was posted, a crane had been moved in to reinstall the speakers.

The speakers were hanging in a vertical stack, suspended from the spire-like tripod which stands to the left of the stage (see picture above).

It is not known what caused the speakers to tumble to the ground, but Guilfest organiser Tony Scott joked to VF that the curse of Friday the 13th may have been responsible.

Hopefully things will be back on track so that music fans can enjoy sets by the likes of Supergrass, The Ordinary Boys and Rodrigo Y Gabriela, who are all scheduled to play this evening.

We'll bring you full coverage from Guilfest next week.

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Photographer: John Bownas

Guilfest 2007

Comments

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Gui1fest
wrote on Sunday 15 July :
Me & 4 friends left this event early after paying £500 between us. It's the worst festival I've ever attended with regards to facilities. Almost no toilets. I can't recommend anyone who reads this - never camp @ Guilfest. A steward on site told us 'Tony Scott broke even yesterday (Saturday) so he doesn't actually care anymore - anything else is profit'. I don't actually want to dwell on the short comings of this event. A good line up. Spoilt by very poor management.

hellfest
wrote on Sunday 15 July :
DISGUSTING AND REVOLTING. The men's toilets in the family camping area were so backed up I witnessed men using the back of the toilet block as an open sewer - the tap for 'clean' water was just a few feet from left faeces and dirty toilet paper. I spent 3 hours complaining to organisers on Saturday night but they did nothing. This morning I saw children cleaning their teeth, people washing their dishes oblivious to the open sewer.

MissFlipper
wrote on Monday 16 July :
The organisers may say they did not know what they caused the collapse, but I strongly suspect that the piece of ground the tripod had been erected on had become waterlogged from the overflowing toilet block situated uphill and the other side of the main arena entrance. Yes, Guilfest goers, that straw was to absorb urine. I de-camped and left early before the rain started a potential pooh-nami.

cardfile
wrote on Tuesday 17 July :
The collapsing speakers are indicative of the shambolic organisation of the whole event. Sorry Guilfest this sort of thing is not acceptable anymore - you've lost a lot of regulars this year.

GuilFest
wrote on Friday 20 July :
Statement from Tony Scott. We have always tried to provide GuilFest visitors with good quality sanitary provisions and this year we attempted to upgrade our toilet facilities to have hand washing and flushing functions for the first time. Unfortunately it only became apparent that there was insufficient water pressure throughout the site when visitors started to use the toilets in large numbers, and as a consequence many of the toilets became unusable. In order to get the system operational again I ordered in a large number of water tankers to add water pressure to the system, but by this time a considerable amount of problems existed throughout the network. In addition to these problems vandals further exacerbated an already bad situation by causing deliberate damage to toilets; which then had to be closed until our staff could repair the damage. This situation was not foreseen and was not ignored, the problems were not due to lack of care, planning or funding. Every effort was made throughout the weekend rectify the situation, although the outcome was never satisfactory either for visitors or ourselves. I am totally committed to providing the very best possible facilities for GuilFest customers and want to assure our visitors that I will never allow this problem to ever reoccur at any of our future events. Our top priority for GuilFest 2008 will be to provide the very best toilets facilities for our visitors.