Woodstock

RAG have been running an outdoor music festival for many years as a fund-raiser in Week 9 of the Summer Term. The venue is normally (but not always) Vanbrugh Bowl, the grassed area leading down to the lake in from of the Music department.

1996

The oldest footage held by YSTV is from 1996, when a single camera was set up at the back to record a static wide shot of bands playing on a lorry trailer.

2001

Two tape's worth of material was shot, lead by Kevin BowmanUnverified or incomplete information.

2002

This was the year Peter Bowles was RAG president as well as involved in YSTV, so the firstUnverified or incomplete information large scale coverage was organised. An XF30 5200 lumen projector was hired and used to project onto a screen on the left of stage, although could only really be seen for the last couple of hours of the event. The stage was made up of two articulated lorries parked side by side on the bowl with YSTV based in a tent behind the stage. YSTV ran a multiple-camera rig in front of and on the stage using hired cameras and the then newly built umbilical cablesUnverified or incomplete information. The event also saw the debut of the "bubbles" ident, which was a holding graphic between sets - filmed by looking down a bubble tube!

2003

Woodstock 2003 had to be held on Vanbrugh Paradise (the concrete near Central Hall) because building work was under way on the new Music Research Centre. This lead to a rather strange small stage in half a marquee, and no projection output, with YSTV just feeding the network of campus TVs. This itself was not entirely successful as the 2.4 GHz system produced a very snowy picture, so Vanbrugh's TVs were plumbed in directly to the output. The main products of 2003 were a few tapes of coverage that could be played back from the new Video Server. The coverage was produced by Ed Jellard and problematic in that about three quarters of the active members were about to graduate and so not very available. Although the event lacked the usual atmosphere of Vanbrugh Bowl it did give rise to a spectacular light show at the end of the event, with Central Hall being used to host the lighting.

2004

In 2004, Woodstock was back on Vanbrugh Bowl, and was produced by Richard Ash and Drew Perry. The Woodstock co-ordinator had big ideas, and so a proper festival stage was hired in from Tega, together with two 5200 lumen projectors on either wing. YSTV got a return feed to the station working, and broadcast the full 12 hours live to the network (thus reaching Vanbrugh College TVs), as well as Big Telly in front of the off license queue. This is believed to be the first time Woodstock was broadcast live. Peter Bowles returned with the loan of several DV cameras, and after heroic work by Rob Humphrey getting the cabling fixed DeathStar was installed high up on the roof of the stage. Despite rain and poor attendance early on, and a failed projector bulb which reduced the brightness of one screen, it was generally considered a success. All the band sets were subsequently loaded onto the station's brand new Video Server and website.

2005

Woodstock was again on Vanbrugh Bowl, but failed to find a RAG Woodstock co-ordinator and so was put together by the then President, Mary Gaunt. Unfortunately this led to it being run at the last minute with inadequate preparation, and seemed a little of a damp squib compared to 2004. YSTV's producers were Richard Ash and Sarah Leese. Again the Tega festival stage was brought in, and Ents succeeded (via JSS) in getting a line array speaker system to run the event. This year a single larger screen was erected behind the bands on the back of the stage, again with a 5200 lumen projector. This was designed to be more visible due to being in darker surroundings, but was offset by the larger screen. Despite much effort the event did not go out to network due to a missing ground connection in LTC (picture was seen, but covered in squiggly lines). Unfortunately the SVHS deck decided to have an off day, so only the last two band sets could be recovered from the third tape for subsequent broadcast.

2006

Woodstock 2006 existed in the shadow of the failures in 2005, with the University (who had made a loss due to excessive security and ineffectual bar promotions) insisting it be held on Vanbrugh Paradise, where they could control access and force people to buy drinks at the bar. This back fired at about 8pm when over 2000 people wanted to see the Morning Thieves and Revelation Rock Gospel choir on stage, in a venue with a maximum capacity of 1500. This swelled he ranks of those listening from the area round Central Hall considerably, as well as causing a large queue of disgruntled people who wanted to see arguably the biggest band of the night. The order of scheduling was again the subject of much debate, with many feeling the best bands had been squandered too early, and the finish (Fenna Rhodes and the True Ingredients) was, in some peoples opinion, a bit of a let down. YSTV broadcast the entire event once again, both to our campus network and for the first time to the internet via the live stream. A plot was hatched to capture every set to DV live as it happened, and then Richard Ash drove a pair of PCs to edit and convert for the website as soon as each set ended. The result was the majority of sets being available online within a few hours of the band playing, and most of the remainder in the following week. The producers were Sarah Cheyne and Ian Martindale backed up extensively by Rob Humphrey. YSTV also used live wireless interviews from the balcony of Central Hall with Jay Foreman, and several others from the side of the stage tent. This was achieved using the 2.4GHz AV sender.