Buzz sells tickets and judging by a very unscientific headcount guesstimate, the buzz around Spirit of Bourgas did a decent, though hardly spectacular, job at that. Yet, for all the talk of the "hottest beach festival in Europe", it flattered to deceive as an all-round event that could draw fans of every kind of music by the thousands.

Some support acts, De Phazz on the second night a case in point, enjoyed the raucous acclamation of dedicated bands of followers, but their numbers paled when compared to the draw of the headliners.

Judging the time left until the main acts got on stage was easy – that was when the crowds started descending on the main entrance (a smaller and barely-used one for campers, was set up further down the beach, closer to the Port of Bourgas next door than the main stage), winding down the path towards the beach and the main stage.

That was also the time when trying to get any beverage from the criminally understaffed beer stalls became mission impossible. A casual observer outside the gate would be able to tell the end of the headliner act by an equal outpour of the masses out of the festival area.

If, as the case seemed to be, you were in only for the headliners – Faith No More, Fun Lovin’ Criminals and Clawfinger  – you got a decent concert-going experience by Bulgarian standards. (I’ve had much better in Sofia, Plovdiv and Kavarna).

As a festival, however, it tanked badly.

To start with, the unrelenting breeze messed up the sound something awful; for the big chunk of people that were upwind from the stage the voice of Faith No More’s Mike Patton was barely heard throughout the first half hour of the band’s set.

A simple solution would have been to change the position of the stage, but stage placement was one area where the organisers screwed up badly. The good line-ups on the Na Tumno stage stood no chance, sandwiched as they were between the extra-loud main stage and desperate-call-for-attention-loud Go Dutch (which only saw any traffic because it was next to one of the two main entrances to the beach itself).

The Blues&Jazz stage was too far away for a casual stroll between stages, tucked away by one of the paths in the beach-side park. The Zionlionz stage appeared to be an afterthought, away from everything else.

Only the location of the Jack Daniel’s Rock Stage and the Black Sea Salsa Fest could be qualified as a success, but even they suffered from one major drawback, which they shared with the rest of the stages – they were too low, so that unless you were very close (or very tall), seeing what was going on was a mite difficult.

But much as music is the main reason for going to a festival, it is the small details that inevitably add to or detract from the overall experience. Being hunted down by schools of Marlboro-peddling stalkers and Loop girlies handing out freebie energy drinks and condoms gets annoying very fast.

Having no access to the festival area during the day was equally disappointing. Perhaps it was different for the fortunate holders of camping site tickets, but since those were sold only if you bought a three-day pass, the occupancy rate in the site was dismal. Next time, consider selling one-day camping site tickets, please.

Bad as the beer and assorted spirits stalls were at the height of human congestion, it was nothing compared to the throngs ringing the single small area selling foodstuffs. Was it really that hard to buy a truckload of packed sandwiches?

There were other small bits causing pangs of annoyance – the total lack of signs pointing towards the festival area location in central Bourgas, the limited choice of merchandise and the complete darkness that blanketed the festival area (sand may be soft, but stumbling on fellow festival-goers’ toes, fingers and/or faces is never desirable) – and the occasional organisational success, such as the large amount of portaloos and their smart placement, for one.

If you were willing to overlook all these nagging details, then the Spirit of Bourgas was as good a way to spend three days in the boiling heat of August as any other. For me, they all combined to generate mild to acute field of permanent annoyance overcome now and again by some good music and the bands’ efforts to give the crowd a good show. Still, I’ve been to better gigs.

As a final aside, somebody please take the editor of the video feed to the screens that flanked the main stage behind the barn and shoot him. The crime of overlaying the feed with eyesore special effects deserves no lesser punishment than a drawn-out and painful death.