Magner’s Summer Nights

I was here for the Ben Folds & Y Music gig as part of the 2015 run, and I think there is enough to separate the Bandstand experience and this event that I can review them separately — I’m hoping that gigs get put on outside of this festival, so hopefully my review of the Stand can be of greater use!
As big music gigs sponsored by massive companies go, this was actually pretty good. The most important thing here for me is that the Magner’s branding isn’t overly shoved down your throat. Yeah, in the street-​level area where you get in there is a fair bit of it, but it isn’t too crass and you don’t feel like you’re in an advert with a gig tacked on to make you prepared to accept the branding. Importantly, there is no major branding on or next to the stage, so if you’re happy just staring at the band you would never know it was a fancy sponsored affair. I have a feeling that the Bandstand has a lot to do with this — you probably can’t stick a big inflatable Magner’s bottle on the roof and get away with it!
We ate beforehand, so I did’t get to try the food on sale. What they had looked pretty good, with a big Whole Foods truck and a few other bits and bobs for you to choose from. Drinks are purchased via tokens, and importantly there were a good few folk milling about the lobby area selling them, so there wasn’t really a logjam while everyone queued up for tickets. I think you could get sold drinks for cash from the trucks, so that could work if you don’t fancy drinking. There seemed to be a decent amount of toilets, a block at either end of the top area, and they were in pretty good condition — definitely better than a T in the Park portaloo!
A couple of things niggle: it feels a bit locked down for a start. Understandably so, as they probably don’t want folk just watching for free from the street, but they could do a little bit more to make the barricade feel a little less oppressive. Secondly, it’s not cheap. This is probably just concert ticket inflation colliding with me getting old, but Ben Folds was £32.50 each plus booking, bringing the total to £36.55. That’s a hell of a lot of money for me, especially when there is a pretty big risk that you could be spending the night getting pissed on by the lovely Scottish summer weather. For the right band the price is probably worth it, but the price doesn’t really encourage you to go to a gig just for the hell of it — drop it by a fiver at least and it might be a bit more attractive.
So, if a band you like is playing here next year, definitely give this a go. As for what the Bandstand is like as a venue, have a look at the Unilocal page for that — hopefully my review will be there soon!

I’ve been lucky enough to have tickets for a couple of gigs at the 2^nd Magner’s Summer Nights festival. The Kelvingrove Bandstand is an awesome venue which I’ll review seperately.
First up was King Creosote — truly an awesome gig. The music was super — not your standard gig; they were playing the soundtrack to a documentary on Scottish history. Echo & The Bunnymen is this week’s gig — can’t wait!
Unfortunately I’m not impressed with the way in which Magners organised this event. There was one way in and out — if you had a bag it was fully searched. Now tickets state no glass bottles/​alcohol — however people weren’t even allowed to bring in plastic bottles of water.
Once you get in, expect to be told where you can /​cannot walk (yep seriously!). The bar is tokened — the equivalent of £2 for a soft drink; £4 for an alcoholic drink — and you can only get 4 alcoholic drinks at a time. They had run out of Gladeye IPA by halfway through the gig so we basically had to pay the same for a bottle of beer that was half the size.
It’s completelly non-​smoking within the open air venue (not that you’d know as there are no signs anywhere to tell you). The queue for the gents loo was huge and there were obviously much less facilities for dudes than the ladies.
All in all, I think the Summer Nights is a great idea, but I dislike being part such a captive cash-​in for Magners.

I was really looking forward to going to a gig at the bandstand, I walk past it nearly everyday and love the look of this refurbished arena. I’d heard stories from friends who went last year about long queues for the bar and toilets so I wasn’t sure how good it was going to be. But the set up for Glasvegas for brilliant.
There are a number of different entrances to the bandstand along Kelvinway, preventing big queues. Staff were friendly and carried out a quick but thorough bag /​person search before letting us in. There were toilets at both sides of the venue with only 3 or 4 people in the queue when I walked past. The bar queue was also well organised, staff sold you tickets (£2 for a ticket and it’s 1 ticket for a soft drink or 2 tickets for an alcoholic drink) in the queue so that when you got to the bar you just ordered your drink and handed the tickets over.
I loved the atmosphere in the bandstand, everyone seemed chilled out and happy despite a little bit of rain! Magners provided blue ponchos for free around the venue, I nice touch! Their were fairy lights and it was nice sitting watching the bands with the park as a backdrop.
Looking forward to next year’s line up already!