The Good:
- Toilets. Immaculate all weekend both in the campsites and arena. Always stocked with loo roll too. Big up the toilet team for doing an excellent job!
- Weather. Aside from getting drenched during Knocked Loose, it stayed pretty overcast and warm all weekend. Better than last year's heatwave!
- Improved shade and seating. Every year I've struggled to find somewhere to sit whilst eating but this year I had no problems. Looks like the organisers seriously took on board people's complaints about lack of shade too.
- Food and beer variety. I usually cook breakfast at camp and buy two meals in the arena each day. The variety of veggie/vegan stalls meant I had something different for every meal. Unfortunately my friend who is gluten intolerant found there wasn't much to eat so hopefully the organisers can consider this more for next year. Great selection of ales as usual!
- Bands. Some excellent sets over the weekend. Standouts were Triptykon doing early Celtic Frost, seeing Candlemass for the first time, Gatecreeper smashing it, and Megadeth sounding better than ever.
- Campsite vibes. Good to see some familiar faces camped near us alongside some friendly newbies in Ragnarok.
The addition of an extra water point was handy too! Addition of the inflatable games in Midgaard as a distraction to bin jousting also meant I slept better than usual.
- 2024 Announcement. Was only expecting a couple of bands but we got 14! Great mix of classic BOA bands, new talent and wildcards. Hellripper, Green Lung, and Clutch being particular standouts!
The Bad:
- Lack of communication with schedule changes. Sacred Reich and Gatecreeper swapped sets but no announcement was made leaving a lot of people confused. I'm not sure why they don't use the screens to display any schedule changes in between bands.
- Lack of signage on quiet camp. Whilst we had no issues, others encountered alot of noise in Ragnarok due to their being no signs to say it was the designated quiet camp. Noticed an increase in drugged up people wandering through Ragnarok this year though so there must have been some overspill from the party camps.
- Increased drug presence. In relation to the last point, there seemed to be alot more people off their heads this year. One guy even pulled a rock out of his pocket in front of me during Candlemass.
The Ugly:
- The guy sticking his bare arse out of his tent near the exit on Monday morning. Just why?
- Kids in Ragnarok rummaging through rubbish bags for discarded food/drink on Monday morning. They even started going through our neighbours tent while they were packing away and parents didn't say a word.
- The cold I've come home with.