Nightmare Before Christmas 2007: Introduction

It has been said that reading endless write-ups of bands someone has seen at a festival is incredibly dull. If you have said this then this blog is no longer for you, as there will be many such posts coming up – last December I was at the Nightmare Before Christmas festival, and now I am going to start telling you about what I saw.

First, though, let us consider the festival's location – it is in the sunny South West of England, on the edge of Devon, in a Butlins holiday camp outside the town of Minehead. Going there rather than to Camber Sands lent the whole affair an air of novelty. As has been mentioned by previous Minehead ATP attendees, the chalets here are far far nicer than the ones in Camber Sands. Crucially, everyone gets a bed to sleep in, with none of that folding out a living room camp bed shite that makes Camber Sands so uncongenial.

But what of the venues? There are three of them:

1. The Pavillion (sic) Stage was within a giant marquee. It felt like an outdoor venue, partly because the carpet in front of it was green. The sound here was a bit shite, but it suited the kind of bands who do well outdoors. This was the largest stage, but not the most prestigious (because of the sound, basically). And the last bands here would end c. 10.00 pm, probably because of noise restrictions.

2. The Centre Stage was in a room a bit smaller than the upstairs venue at Camber Sands, but with a stage as big. This was the headliners venue.

3. Reds was the smallest venue, but was still probably a little bit bigger than the smaller venue at Camber Sands.

There were also a number of places where people would DJ and stuff.

My chalet mates were Sarah, & Ken, from the Internet, and Irene, my beloved, from Carwash Mansions.