Just wondering if anyone is going to Madcool festival (Madrid) this year, or has been previously?
I wish I was. That line up is incredible.
Was seriously considering it earlier this year but didn’t end up happening.
I’ve heard the organisation isn’t the best. Big queues for toilets etc which put me off.
Yeah, I am really excited about it, but also slightly worried after reading the descriptions of chaos last year. People do make a bit of a fuss about nothing sometimes though! The other concern is that the temperature is forecast to be 36 degrees in the evening, which is a bit much.
Hmmm. While I do agree with this in general, I have been to a lot of festivals and have generally only seen fair criticism of the ones with bad organisation. Truck a few years ago didn’t have enough toilets/had too many people and it really affected my enjoyment as I wasted so much time standing in the queue for the loo! Fortunately, the organisers listened and took the feedback on board and the next time I went it was much better.
I’m going, but just for the Saturday. Gonna be checking in on all the toilet queue chat from days 1 and 2.
Went to MadCool a couple of years ago when Spoon, Wilco, Kurt Vile, Warpaint were on my watchlist. Foos, Green Day and Kings Of Leon headlined… Gave the latter 2 a miss.
The festival has since moved to another, larger site.
Overall impression was really positive, took my teenage daughter and we had a great time.
Spanish crowds were great fun to be around.
Yeah, by all accounts there were several major issues last year. I think they had just moved to a much bigger capacity than previous years.
https://www.thelocal.es/20180716/complaints-flood-in-over-madcool-festival-chaos
It sounds like they have put plans in place to respond to the points raised, so fingers crossed!
@boothyfearssatan - I’m there from the welcome party on Wednesday, so will post my findings!
@Trev - Yeah, think they pretty much doubled the capacity, but reassuring to hear that you had a good time there previously.
Just watching Noel Gallagher and suddenly realised that in a cruel twist of fate he sounds like Lewis Capaldi covering Oasis. One of the worst sets I’ve ever seen.
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Ouch!
How were things like queues to get in/bars/toilets etc? A big improvement on the things in that article?
I didn’t experience any issues with queues for any of the above. Did have to queue a while for food and to get a taxi home after the Chems. It is a bit of a pain having to walk for about 20 minutes from where the taxis drop off to the entrance, but overall no major complaints. Have fun today!
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Fantastic, cheers. Just arrived in Madrid, so going to try and avoid burning up before going up tomorrow. Enjoy this eve!
How was your evening at the festival?
Had a really nice time
-ve
- Long walks from the metro station beforehand and to the shuttle buses afterwards. Had hoped to catch the end of Johnny Marr, and had left time for a walk, but not quite that long!
- The heat. Was quite uncomfortable until the sun goes down. Wondering whether July is the best time to have a 3 day festival in Madrid.
- Would be nice if the shuttle buses could go a bit closer to the centre afterwards.
- Cat Power didn’t quite click with me, but it was during the hottest part of the day, which might be why.
+ve
- Twilight Sad were glorious. Never been a massive Cure fan, but their set was great. Robyn was heaps of fun. Was gutted about the Mogwai/Jon Hopkins clash, but managed to leave Mogwai after Fear Satan, and run straight into Hopkins playing Open Eye Signal which was pretty awesome.
- Really liked the astroturf over the site. Meant you could sit down, and not get too tired from standing up all the time, which is a problem I’ve had at Primavera
- Organisers seemed to recognise the heat issues, and had a cooling off fan, plenty of water stations, and people walking through crowds with sprayers until the sun went down.
- Minimal queues for bars/toilets/entry
- Seemed really easy to get close to the stage. Only time we were more than a few rows back was for The Cure
Overall, it seemed really well organised, and definitely seemed to have solved previous years problems. I’d go back, but would see the lineup first, as although the Saturday had loads I wanted to see, the other two days were a bit sparse.
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That long walk was a real killer in the heat - we ended up getting a taxi to the entrance and hopping over the barriers, but got a stern telling off by the police! I didn’t mind the heat too much once we were in though. Know what you mean about getting to the front easily - didn’t feel like there were 80,000 people there tbh.
I saw pretty much the same acts as you, although stayed at Mogwai until the end and only caught a little bit of JH. That Twilight Sad set! Especially the cover of Keep Yourself Warm. I really wanted to get into Cat Power, but it was just a bit too one-paced given the setting, and seemed to have problems with the sound throughout. Sounded like Avalon Emerson was absolutely destroying The Loop as I was leaving after Robyn, but unfortunately had a plane to catch the next morning.
Saw great sets by Rosalia, Lykke Li, Let’s Eat Grandma, Vampire Weekend, Chemical Brothers, Sharon van Etten, The National, Vince Staples and Slow Readers Club on the other days. All in all a great weekend!
Hah! I don’t blame you. I suspect if we’d been for more than 1 day we’d have been tempted to find a way to avoid the walk! I think I saw that they’d sold about 55,000 tickets for the Saturday, which probably explains why it didn’t feel too packed.
Saw Carpenter Brut after Robyn, who musically were a lot of fun. Felt the visuals were a bit gratuitous at times. Felt like they were trying to pastiche 80s style B movie slasher porn, but instead, were just showing a lot of it. Avalon Emerson was sounding good, but was just too knackered by that point to keep going.
Glad you had a good time on the other days too.
Primavera had AstroTurf down in the big ol’ car park of the main stages this year. made that area so much nicer.
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