As you may know, every year we launch a survey and ask for your thoughts and feedback to help us develop We Out Here with you in mind…
More of you got involved in this year’s survey than ever before and we’ve been busy getting to work armed with the input of almost a thousand of you. A big thank you to everyone who contributed!
We loved reading your highlights: from Ezra Collective’s electric closing set to the emotional experience of legendary Brian Jackson, the memorable Channel One Sunday session, alongside which new artists you discovered, your favourite stages, and your inspiring ideas for future line ups…(more on this soon!).
But most importantly, you shared your ideas for festival improvements and we’ve listened. To kick off a New Year, we’re delighted to share our commitments to making WOH’24 the best experience yet…
There’s no way around it – our rural home makes mobile signal a challenge. Many of you saw this as a positive: a welcome opportunity to switch off from the outside world and fully immerse in the weekend. However, this also brought some understandable issues. Meeting up with friends & family – one of the key experiences of the festival – became tricky, alongside keeping in touch with loved ones at home.
Whilst we can’t materially improve the service in the area, we’re committed to offering a practical connectivity option without disrupting the immersive experience. For 2024, we will be launching a dedicated public “internet cafe” in the festival arena: a space for you to hop on Wi-Fi and reconnect or find friends. We’ll also incorporate message boards, more meeting places, and hotspots around the campsite to improve connectivity and enable you to enjoy the festival with friends & family.
Back in 2022, we invested heavily in upgrading festival toilets to lit, flushable units for a better experience in the arena, replacing plastic portaloos. Although initially successful, last summer, we encountered more problems with these units due to their higher sensitivity to blockages. Additionally, an unexpected closure of the local waste treatment site during the show slowed down our capacity to service these. Unfortunately, with limited contingency, some facilities didn’t meet our usual standards and for that, we apologise.
Alongside reviewing our numbers for 2024, we pledge to increase toilet servicing next year (and pray for no unexpected closures!). Responding to survey demand, we’re also introducing PEEQUAL, the UK”s first women’s urinal, to enhance on-site sanitation and ensure comfort for all attendees.
We encountered a unique challenge on Thursday noon of the festival when nearly 90% of our booked-in Train Station Shuttle customers arrived within a one-hour window. Despite having ample shuttle buses booked in from Salisbury Station to the festival site, this surge in arrivals – unlike previous years where arrivals tend to spread out across the day – led to longer wait times between 11 am and 2 pm than we aimed for.
For 2024, we’re boosting shuttles by 50% during peak arrival times. We’re also implementing a dedicated arrivals process at the station for both pre-booked and on-the-day purchases, and separate onsite departure points for Monday. To help up make the process as smooth as possible, please pre-book your shuttle tickets (available now!) which will help us plan accordingly and ensure a stress-free start to your festival.
Great sound has always been a priority at We Out Here. We partner with top audio suppliers to deliver optimal clarity and levels to do the music justice. Whilst we felt this was achieved across the site at times last year, we also, during some sets, adjusted levels more than desired for both customers and artists. We learned a lot once the show was live, and these tweaks combined with our significant pre-planning modelling, enabled us to fulfil our main focus of that year: protecting the local area from excessive noise and paying respect to our neighbours who have been incredibly supportive of our arrival to Dorset.
Going into 2024, we’re armed with valuable insights and prepared to enhance the overall sound experience and consistency across all stages – balancing great sound with respect for our local area.
We Out Here is proudly a festival for all ages. We’re thrilled to see our Family customer base grow year-on-year and we’ve been working on ways to continue developing the family-friendly options at the festival. For this summer, another step will be to better separate the Family Campsite in both the General and Boutique areas, to give you a dedicated area to camp and get to know fellow families. This will be located further away from the Late Night stages too, for a good night’s sleep.
5 developments for now, but please note: this is by no means an exhaustive list. We have plenty more new ideas, announcements, and additions in store to make this August our best edition yet…
Once again, a big thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts! Your input helps us do more of what you love and implement shared ideas for improvements.
