Overview

I was so excited to visit Festival No.6 for the first time this year after hearing incredible things. Once there I could see what the festival must have been like in the past because Portmeirion is beautiful and the set up is very quirky. Unfortunately, communication between staff and festival-goers (and with each other) was horrendous - and it was clear that the festival was not prepared for the downpour either at the music venues or the park and ride. People were attempting to escape early only to find their cars beneath water on a floodplain...

Transport & Parking

I arrived by train with Virgin Express which was fantastic. However the communication and release of tickets with shuttle bus details at the festival end was very confusing and last minute. This late release of details extended to those using the park and ride as the festival were deciding whether it would be safe to let people park on a floodplain...From other people's experiences, I heard that this decision-making delay also led to a late release of accessibility information which accompanied tickets.

Access

The accessible camping site was clearly marked, however it was on a hill (although not as steep a hill as the general camping site) and the boardwalks only reached into the middle of the pitches. When the weather deteriorated - this was not ideal. The main field where the Festival No.6 Stage was turned into a dangerous, muddy mess - and staff were reluctant to put more chippings down to make it easier to cross. This made going to see many acts almost impossible. And in fact, lots of acts decided to not bother showing up, which was not communicated by Festival No. 6 - meaning lots of time was wasted in the cold for no-shows. For tented shows - access to the tent was not controlled, so popular acts turned usually resulted in crowds crushing into the tent doors. All of the food stalls were very high up. Signage was limited. Lighting was low, which was a nightmare getting back to tents in the mud - string lights don't cut it I'm afraid. The woodland stages are up fairly steep tracks, although these turned out to be the driest and most compact of all the venues. The easiest access was around Portmeirion village itself which had lovely wide, smooth paths and ramps to the various hideaways and lookouts. I would recommend visiting this village at any other time of the year because it's absolutely beautiful.

Toilets

Even seasoned festival-goers couldn't understand why the condition of toilets at this festival was so bad by day one! We managed to find a permanent public toilet beside the local cafe which was usable, and there was a disabled loo there. It was being used by everyone by the looks of it though. I did not see signage for any other accessible toilets - although they will have been there.

Staff

Three stars because they were very mixed. Some couldn't have been more helpful - handing out bottles of water for free, helping at the welfare tent and being very good with directions. Some were completely unreasonable, being rude to festival-goers or being completely clueless as to what was going on. By the end of the festival, most of the volunteer staff were completely miserable (as they told us themselves).

Anything else you wish to tell us?

This festival according to people who have been before used to be incredible. Unfortunately this year something went very wrong. The festival got too big and it wasn't well managed - particularly with weather preparations.

Photos