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Ten Years Of ATP: Day 1 Review

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Featured Story 10 Years of ATP

Written By:

Alice Shyy

16th December 2009
At 20:58 GMT

4 comment(s)

The 6,000-odd festie-goers checking in for Day 1 of ATP 10 come as a shock for some. The faithful handful who have stayed on the oddly pacific off-season Butlins Holiday Resort site for the four days in-between this and last weekend's ATP Nightmare Before Xmas emerge from their hangover-hushed chalets, blinking from grey-glaring sun and bewilderment.

Who are all these people? Why are they invading my territory? And how the hell are they already stumbling drunk at 3PM?

But even for non-In-Betweeners who have been to past ATPs, something has changed. Long has ATP been the alternative to the unglamorous inconveniences of larger festivals, but now the line has been blurred. Things seem crowded, impersonal, unruly, unpalatable. Sets are harder to see for the scheduling and harder to hear for the rabble. Although this weekend marks ATP's 10^th birthday, it feels as if it heralds its funeral. And from the fresh grave rises a monster:

The First Inaugural ATPstonbury: Typical!

Queues: Queues at ATP?! Queues for booze, queues for grub, queues for toilets, and most offensively, queues for the venues. Gone are the days of rolling out of bed from your 8PM recharge nap to trod in 15 minutes late to the smallest venue and still waltz to the front 4 rows of people. Our tender senses of privilege are positively bruised!

Loos: Flanked by a dozen cursing men, as for the first time in human history, there is a wait for the men's toilet, whereas the women's room has eight free stalls. A non-woman is spotted taking one of said stalls.

Foodstuff: Grim gruel masquerading as grim curry in grim styrofoam, served out of a grim Finnegan's.

Rudestuff: “All-time best” line-up draws all-time worst crowd. Audience members enact braying sing-alongs as if Stephen Malkmus were Bono. No, no, guys - we actually like hearing these bands.

Perversely, the death of ATP on its anniversary celebration is apt for its rather self-congratulatory tone: It makes us appreciate how just how good it was to us. But, oh ATP - please come back to us as the spoiled muso's haven we know and love! We promise: We won't take taking you for granted for granted again!

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User Comments

Comment By:

Ric

commented 3 months ago

This is a particularly cynical article. You sound like one of those old-timers who sneer their way around the summer festivals having a crap time. I have been to ATP a few times over the years and thought this weekend was amongst the best. The atmosphere was good-spirited and the line-up was both balanced & awesome. You could have heard a pin drop during The For Carnation on the Saturday night, and I have never seen Tortoise or Shellac have so much fun with a crowd before. Queues are an inevitable consequence of a strong line-up and a sell-out crowd. I queued for no more than a couple of minutes even at the busiest times and took those opportunities to chat to other people in the “all-time worst crowd”, who failed to live up to your billing. Maybe you could start your own festival and just invite your friends?

Agree about Finnegan’s though – how do they get away with it?!

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Comment By:

mac

commented 3 months ago

i agree that the article is particularly cynical, however, i could not have heard a pin drop during the for carnation as i could hardly hear the songs for all the bloody chattering going on. shellac always have fun with the atp crowd. both bands were great though.