Herrington Country Park Sunderland reviews by real event-goers

Review of Monument Festival

Had a wonderful time at this year's festival, as usual it's a great venue full of great people and great music. The reason for the average score on the "music " review is because of the sound issues in the second tent ,other than that , another belter.

Review of Monument Festival

Headline act the kooks dropped out on the day, whole site smelt like manure, Lack of toilets for the amount of people there so huge ques constantly

Review of Monument Festival

Yet again, a headliner cancelling last minute,

Review of Monument Festival

They were late opening the gates, the group we went to see never turned up, the toilets were disgusting and were not cleaned. Probably will never go again.

Review of Monument Festival

Been to a few Kubix Festivals & they have been great, but the Monumental Festival was terrible. It was situated in a 'circus' tent so it was stuffy , humid, hot but worst of all it smelt like silage/manure. We went out to feed my friends dogs on the campsite & weren't allowed back in; the sign to tell us that was on the fence, on the outside, but nothing to warn people going out. Car parking & camping was clearly organised by staff who did not have a clue. If u get stuck in the mud which is extremely likely, you have to rely on kind people to help, not the staff.

Review of Monument Festival

Review of Monument Festival

All amazing. Except The Kooks who were bothered by the rain, so cancelled. Even though it was us fans who had to stand in the rain and not The Kooks.

Review of Monument Festival

I think the festival has a lot of potential. In the event a band cancels, it would be useful if a revised schedule could be shared with updated times. We all know the British weather can sometimes get involved so having a back of plan for wet ground would be an idea such as straw / wood chips / matting being put down etc to make the tents more accessible. Whilst we had wellies and managed fine, I noticed a lot of people in wheelchairs struggling to get around the tents. Overall I think with a little more planning, the festival could grow and evolve to a really good little festival

Review of Monument Festival

A really good day out in the north east.
Bar the kooks management team pulling out same day (bad move for the fans!!) it was a enjoyable live music gig.
Prices by the ramside catering were excessive to say the least! Kick in the teeth in a cost of living crisis and no other option but to pay them.
I think the catering needs a rethink but would go back!

Review of Monument Festival

Review of Monument Festival

Putting the main stage in a tent and failing to provide sufficient toilet facilities/urinals ruined the event fir me

Review of Monument Festival

Probably the worst festival I've been to. I understand the weather leading up to the event was bad but the mud inside the tents was atrocious. I thought the main stage was an outside stage, not a marquee- the stench of manure was overwhelming. The toilet situation NEEDS to be addressed. There were only 50 portaloos to cater for the whole festival. No where near enough & at times waiting time to use the toilets was half an hour! I only saw one disabled toilet that stated "wheelchair accessible" Absolutely no way this could be used - it was just dumped on slant in a pile of mud. Don't know how anyone with a disability would have been able to use it. THIS NEEDS TO BE ADDRESS FOR THE FUTURE- I missed a lot of the bands while queueing to use the loo! The main headline act (Kooks) pulled out on the THE DAY of the festival- reason unknown. Things need to be different next year, as I imagine yesterday would definitely put people off returning

Review of Monument Festival

Badly organised.

Review of Monument Festival

Review of Monument Festival

Review of Monument Festival

Where to begin?
The coaches we booked to take us from Newcastle to the festival were well organised, we arrived at 10:50, but the gates didn't open until 12:05 so we had to wait for ages.

We got on site and it was already a mud bath from previous events. The portaloos were already full and very smelly.

We ordered some beers and the taps were wired up incorrectly so we didn't get the beer that we ordered.

And then on top of all this, the headline act cancelled.

Would not reccomend.

Review of Monument Festival

- The toilet situation within the venue was dire. There were not enough toilets with some queuing times between 15 and 20 minutes. The use of urinals at the top of the main stage was a good idea, however, their positioning was terrible and resulted in people queuing for the cubicles next to people trying to use the urinals. Unfortunately the urinals were not sufficiently maintained and many overflowed with urine onto the floor where people were queuing
- The music from the fairground rides next to the second stage was far too loud and significantly interfered with the sound coming from the stage, for those people standing immediately outside (which were many given the state of the ground in the tent)
- I know the weather is beyond the organiser's control, but there seemed to be limited planning to mitigate the problems with mud and puddles. I have been to other festivals and events where they have been far better equipped to deal with this. Getting people to bring out large sheets of plastic or metal to place over the mud in the second stage seemed too little too late and the process seemed quite dangerous in the circumstances, with people having to get out of the way on slippery mud while the sheets were laid down.
- While the organisers are not in control of who camps. There seemed to be minimal security presence and some very antisocial behaviour. We had somebody on their hands and knees after too much alcohol and marijuana vomiting outside our tent and their group repeatedly shouted homophobic and sexually offensive remarks until about 2am. This is a festival and clearly people are going to have fun, but there should have been better oversight of these behaviours. When we arrived we were not given an option to camp in a family oriented site which was advertised on the website. This would be far more appropriate for many people, like me and my son who really shouldn't have to witness the stuff we saw.
- The toilet facilities on the camp were dreadful and already unusable when we arrived in the early afternoon.

Review of Monument Festival

Headline cancelled
Toilets were not cleaned , even before the festival had started! The whole site stank of faeces, not a nice experience at all and a complete waste of money

Review of Monument Festival

Great little festival for the North East which often misses out on the music scene. Only criticism is the weather is not often kind to Sunderland in the summer, lots of rain has spoiled the ground when events have been planned in the past, and from footfall of recent weeks festivals, but lessons don't seem to have been learned such as putting wood chippings round very muddy areas like the entrance to tents and toilet areas. This doesn't detract from the atmosphere or enjoying the line-up, it can just feel a bit unsafe under foot in places.

Review of Monument Festival