#MPF2022: YOUR FEEDBACK
MPF is put together by three promoters from the DIY punk rock scene. We are beyond experienced working at events but MPF is a different animal as far as organisation goes. Sending out our post-fest survey to get your thoughts helps us to identify things we may not have noticed or can improve on. We also want you, the people who make this event possible, to feel invested in what we do and to feel like you are being listened to.
An amazing 98.4% of you thought MPF2022 was awesome or enjoyed it. As always, we put everyone who fills in the survey into a draw for 2 tickets for next years festival. This year’s lucky winner was: Ross Braidwood! Congratulations.
We want to make the event as awesome as possible for all involved. Sometimes we won’t get it quite right, but by working together and listening we can always add to what we have already built.
VENUES
Some of your requests are easier to consider than others. We appreciate that the venues not being right next to each other isn’t always ideal, but moving them is tricky. We are lucky to have venues that get what we are trying to do, but unfortunately it does involve some moving about. We do consider this as best as possible in our scheduling and will continue to do so.
A common concern this year was the door policy at one of our venues. We have taken this very seriously, as have the venue and we are confident that people won’t experience these issues in 2023. We can only apologise for the overzealous searching of bags and other issues that took place. These have been fed back to the management and fully taken on board. Our venues are always amazed by just how much beer you lot can drink. The fact that some venues ran out of certain things has also been raised with them. Some venues had new management who were experiencing their first ever MPF, alongside dealing with various Covid consequences like staff shortages. Now they know to stock up to a ridiculous level next year.
We did have a few people raising slight concerns about the sound in one particular venue. We are working closely with them to develop this and believe we have some good solutions in place.
BANDS
We are aware that sometimes people are frustrated by certain bands clashing. It’s great that people have such an eclectic taste that they consider some drastically different sounding bands to be a clash. This makes it impossible to cater for everyone with the running order, which is by far the hardest bit of MPF.
We do listen to your suggestions of what you want us to book. Some of the suggestions are bands we try for every year and will hopefully happen at some point. Some of them are just too out of reach to even open dialogue with. We are also always blown away that so many bands want to play. We do try to limit repeated bands from year to year and always give some new bands a chance. It is never personal if your band doesn’t get booked.
FOOD
Some people did make comments about lack of food options. With us being in a city centre, there are obstacles to just setting up food trucks, along with hundreds of competing restaurants all over the nearby area. We do try to publicise other venues in the MPF area where food (particularly vegan food) is available through the programme. We’ll continue to do this. The venues themselves and Teatime Collective don’t have the capacity to cater for all of you. However, we feel that there are so many options in the area that should help to ensure you all are well fed.
There are lots and lots of smaller points that were raised, sometimes by multiple attendees and sometimes by individuals. We won’t bore you with a ridiculously long post trying to cover it all, but we can assure you that these things have been looked at and will be used as part of our planning.
Finally, just to reiterate our thanks for all your MPF2022 feedback. It’s probably human nature to dwell on the things we aren’t doing right, but the constructive ideas you have offered are vital to an independent event like MPF. All the positive words really do help too. This event is a lot of work, especially when you are doing it alongside full-time jobs and other commitments, so to know that so many of you had such an amazing time really does mean the world to us.
Thanks so much for your ongoing support and see you in 2023.