With two music festivals rained off last weekend, organisers of The Glade festival are boasting that their dance fest was able to go ahead as planned, even though many routes to the festival site were flooded, meaning that festival goers and performers had to be very patient getting there. Though they admit that two hours more rain just before the event might have led to another cancellation.
Festival organiser Nick Ladd told CMU yesterday: "It was an incredible effort by everybody to keep the show going - if it had rained for another two hours we would have had to cancel, but everybody, crew and Glade-goers alike came together and pulled off a massive exercise in positive thinking. What was really amazing was the vibe of the festival itself. English people are hardcore and everybody was determined to have it, despite the rain and the endless mud - the Glade community showed its true spirit, all the stages were rocking, with nobody moaning and everybody looking out for each other and when the sun came out on Sunday it went bananas".
Twelve of the thirteen stages at the festival opened on time and 90% of the acts booked to play did so, despite all the problems caused by flooded access routes. Not only that, but the Glade fire crew found time to help out the local village of Aldermaston which was very flooded and without power.
Elsewhere in the world of dance festivals, the organisers of this weekend's Global Gathering have said they are confident the event will go ahead, despite all the flooding in the Midlands. Event manager James Algate told reporters yesterday that, fortuitously, their Warwickshire site had not been hugely effected by all that rain, saying: "We want to reassure ticketholders that after being on site over the past week, the airfield and traffic routes are totally unaffected by the recent floods. Despite the bad weather our customers have already been calling into the office saying they are determined to enjoy the weekend and that really shows the affection ticketholders have for the biggest dance event in the world".