Site Search

The biggest issue for EMF is to find a good site.

Organisation of this has moved to trello, if you'd like to help ask in the IRC channel and we'll get you access. At the moment we're emailing sites, getting quotes and arranging site-visits.

Note this list is not being actively maintained; the canonical list is maintained on trello, please refer to that

Requirements

1. Site
   1. At least 50,000 sq m (this should fit at least 1500 people but this isn't indicative of our planned capacity)
   2. Available for around 11 days (including a weekend) between mid-July and mid-September 2014
   3. Pleasant enough you actually want to spend time there
   4. Previous event history at site
2. Access and Location
   1. Good access for setup vehicles (no low bridges, for example)
   2. Good transport links (proximity to public transport)
   3. Located centrally to the UK
   4. Near largish shops (e.g. large Tesco)
3. Facilities
   1. Ability to get a good internet connection (1 gigabit+) (but please let us know of any potential sites - NOC team can work this out)
   2. Some kind of water supply/sewage connection
   3. Well drained
   4. Space for parking

We don't care about:

• Most existing facilities (especially electricity). Providing them ourselves is frequently easier than trying to deal with existing services, so they're not a major consideration.

Candidate Sites

Some of this is copied from our previous search

Site Name	Contact	Details
Colerne Airfield, Wiltshire (nr Bath)		Owned by a company of a friend of London Hackspace
Profound Decisions location, Banbury		Quite a lot of existing facilities here which we may be able to use. These guys provided our tents in 2012 and seem pretty keen.
Yorkshire Event Centre, Harrogate		Site of the Great Yorkshire Show which has massive farm equipment so access is probably fine. Has event spaces, big outside areas, loads of parking. Sainsburys effectively on site. From memory, drainage is OK.
Turnpost Farm, Leicestershire		Location of Glastonbudget. About 4 miles from Loughborough. Not sure of parking and amenities, but Glastonbudget has about 12,000 people so likely to be plenty of space if we can use some of that as car park
Peterborough Arena and Showground		Seems very accessible by all sorts of vehicles and good public transport links. Arena has internet, so should be easy to roll out to the showgrounds. Close to Peterborough for shops and things.
Newark Showground		Similar to Peterborough I guess. Perhaps a tad large. 84 acres, fenced, good drainage, a range of indoor spaces (max 4000 capacity), 2 miles from train station (2h15 from kings x), lots of parking, in house catering available
Doncaster Racecourse		Facilities look strong, including digital region connection via a very friendly local ISP. Maybe too small, and races on all the time?
Pickering Showground		Looks like a nice spot, hosts a music festival.
Baldersby Park, Thirsk		Location for deershed festival. Finding out more details..
Three Counties Showground		Has a camping area which is 7 acres and available to hire separately. It has power, toilets and showers already on site, and plenty of other space to hire alongside it.
Tolmers Camp Site, EN6 4JS		Too much of a scout camp?
Royal Welsh Show Ground		In Builth Wells, decent sized site with camping and inside space, Difficult to get to by train (4 trains a day, via Swansea or Shewsbury)
Merton Farm		Site of Lounge on the Farm festival and Kent Beer Festival. Multiple fields, so can scale a bit (season dependant). Barn available for large lectures/performances. Other "stages" would need to be outdoors. HS1 rail link to Canterbury West from STP (approx 1 hour) standard from VIC to Canterbury East (approx 1 hour 45 minutes), shuttle bus would be required.
Norfolk Showground, NR5 0TT
Whitcurch, RG28 7LZ
Moreton-in-Marsh Fire College		Old airfield, now used for fire training. They have a conference centre with accommodation, canteen and two bars. Station nearby.
Long Marston Airfield
Newbury West, RG20 0HA		Definitely a farm, poor access, next to A34.
Upper Heyford		Old airfield, now used for offices.
Newbury Showground, RG18 9QC
Eastnor castle, HR8 1RL
Bent Waters Parks, IP12 2TW
Telford International Centre		New site of Multiplay.
Greenham? RG19 6HN		Good area to look for sites (but no camping on the common).
Matterley Bowl, SO21 1HW		They have plenty of space and good facilities, concerns were raised about the venue's limited number of licenses per year, however Peveril Bruce the owner is happy to talk about hosting us.
Hainault Forest Country Park, IG7 4QN		Offset festival is held here (although that setup isn't possible any more). Site plan, Streetview
Debden House		They have a very large campsite with power hookup for tents (relaxed rules), an in door conference centre, easy to drive to, but just outside of London with good public transport links.
Newbury racecourse		Multiplay have used them in the past, had camping, lots of interior space, and fast internets.
Donington
Midland Railway		Site of indietracks festival
Welbeck Estate		Site of No Direction Home
West Dean		Has held (small) festivals before
ADD MORE! :)

Rejected Sites

Site Name	Details	Reason
Overstone Scout Campsite, Northampton	Got water, showers and toilets. Not the flattest. May be too small.	Too small (30k sq m)
Milton Keynes Parks Trust, MK	Site of EMF2012	Access to site under low bridge
The Observatory Science Centre		Only one event per year
Bovingdon Airfield		Contact not interested in our event. Cable in surrounding area
Essex University		Don't want large public festivals
Mersea Youth Camp		Too small, and they're not keen.
Bletchley Park		Too small
Poole & Dorset Adventure Centre		limited to about 20 people indoors and 30 in tents
Jodrell Bank	Radio free zone	Would be difficult to organise under those conditions