Glastonbury 2024

[Littlesue]

Haven’t watched a single minute of it. Have I missed anything ?…….

Nothing worth getting excited over.

 

[coollino]

The main problem as I see it, is that there just aren`t enough " new " traditional headline bands coming through, hence why they have to do a retread with dull and available bands like Cold Play.

If you think about it, who was the last " massive " traditional band that came through ? (

It was probably Oasis and their first breakout was Supersonic in 1993.

Yeah that's pretty true, but there has been arctic monkeys and to a lesser extent the killers and kings of Leon...arcade fire at one point many but they probably have lost it. Weezer might be able to headline it, I dunno

But there are bands like Portishead and Massive Attack which would work well, even though they would prob headline the 2nd stage. I don't really believe you have to be huge to do it, just interesting enough

There are plenty of bands out these days who are great tho, as you will know, but I think ambitions of bands these days is also very different to that in the 90's. I'm sure Oasis dreamed of selling out the biggest places possible but I don't think a lot of bands these days look at that as the ultimate goal.

Whereas popstars are used to huge places and probably slot in a lot easier

 

[Barnfred 55]

The main problem as I see it, is that there just aren`t enough " new " traditional headline bands coming through, hence why they have to do a retread with dull and available bands like Cold Play.

If you think about it, who was the last " massive " traditional band that came through ? (

It was probably Oasis and their first breakout was Supersonic in 1993.

Traditional headline bands don't go mainstream these days, that's the problem that Glastonbury has. Great bands are still there in numbers, just not enough of them big enough to fill 3 main headline slots every year. Plus Glasto has to cater to the festival attendees and every year the percentage that aren't interested in traditional bands increases, which is why we're seeing more headliners from other genres that are the current flavour of the month. Its a natural evolution.

Provided the organisers keep a balanced cross section of genres the festival goers will be happy. The biggest problem for me this year was clashes of similar genres where people had to chose. The worst of these was Friday night but it seemed to happen throughout.

Most of the people complaining though are the ones sitting at home watching on telly. Next year the festival will sell out again within hours and that's a sign the organisers are doing it pretty much right.

 

[gonetomorrow]

Haven’t watched a single minute of it. Have I missed anything ?…….

I think it looks absolutely ghastly. It was good in the old hippie days with Fairport Convention and Hawkwind and that, although the toilet facilities were nothing to write home about.

 

[Charro]

Yeah that's pretty true, but there has been arctic monkeys and to a lesser extent the killers and kings of Leon...arcade fire at one point many but they probably have lost it. Weezer might be able to headline it, I dunno

But there are bands like Portishead and Massive Attack which would work well, even though they would prob headline the 2nd stage. I don't really believe you have to be huge to do it, just interesting enough

There are plenty of bands out these days who are great tho, as you will know, but I think ambitions of bands these days is also very different to that in the 90's. I'm sure Oasis dreamed of selling out the biggest places possible but I don't think a lot of bands these days look at that as the ultimate goal.

Whereas popstars are used to huge places and probably slot in a lot easier

Always found it strange that The Strokes haven't headlined. All the massive indie bands seemed to headline during the 00's other than these.

Maybe their time has passed, but they'd draw a massive crowd wherever they played.

I think you could give them the Sunday headline slot and it would be great.

 

[coollino]

Always found it strange that The Strokes haven't headlined. All the massive indie bands seemed to headline during the 00's other than these.

Maybe their time has passed, but they'd draw a massive crowd wherever they played.

I think you could give them the Sunday headline slot and it would be great.

Yeah that's a good point, they could definitely have done it. It could easily come down to money

Although I think they headlining something a year or two ago and they were booed off, but there was certainly a time when that wouldn't have happened

 

[Maxwell]

The majority of popular musicians are either woman and/or of colour these days though, from all around the world. Latin American pop is massive, and south African music is also getting huge so they've hardly there to make up the numbers. You could argue than some semi-successful Brit pop band reforming for a festival like this is more for the diversity quota

Anyway, another issue here could also be the cost of everything these days. Glastonbury do not pay artists a lot of money, if at all, and it's probably not viable for someone like Taylor Swift to play at a festival like this anymore. With music streaming no one needs 'exposure' as pay anymore, they want money

If you look at Reading/Leeds/Download, all the line ups are saturated with different types of music whereas they were not before. The costs just don't add up for any party these days

The bigger issue here is maybe the 3 day camping festival just isn't viable anymore financially for various reasons in the UK. There is a reason why countless numbers of festivals in the UK are being cancelled and the European model of music from say 4pm to 6am, with no camping for 2 days (you sort your own accommodation) is thriving

Personally, I think one day festivals are the way forward

I do paid media for a lot of UK festivals (two of the ones you've listed here for example) and you're absolutely correct with the last paragraph here. It's also such a massive gamble when weather comes into play and if you're a sub-20k cap 3-day camping festival people aren't willing to take that risk. This is what happened with Bluedot, a fantastic festival that had some of the worst weather-luck ever seen outside of perhaps Download, and just couldn't survive.

That said, you can't underestimate the impact Glastonbury has on other UK festivals. The sales that have come in over the last 4 days has genuinely saved some of the festivals I work on.

1 day festivals are the way forward but then the infrastructure cost for building for 1 day also isn't worth it, so you've got to sell the Friday & Sunday to another promoter to put on a different event on those days - think Wide Awake & Mighty Hoopla a few weeks ago for example.

Its been such a weird year for festivals, most are either 20% behind last year's sales or sold out with 50% more the year prior.

 

[coollino]

I do paid media for a lot of UK festivals (two of the ones you've listed here for example) and you're absolutely correct with the last paragraph here. It's also such a massive gamble when weather comes into play and if you're a sub-20k cap 3-day camping festival people aren't willing to take that risk. This is what happened with Bluedot, a fantastic festival that had some of the worst weather-luck ever seen outside of perhaps Download, and just couldn't survive.

That said, you can't underestimate the impact Glastonbury has on other UK festivals. The sales that have come in over the last 4 days has genuinely saved some of the festivals I work on.

1 day festivals are the way forward but then the infrastructure cost for building for 1 day also isn't worth it, so you've got to sell the Friday & Sunday to another promoter to put on a different event on those days - think Wide Awake & Mighty Hoopla a few weeks ago for example.

Its been such a weird year for festivals, most are either 20% behind last year's sales or sold out with 50% more the year prior.

How does that impact work then, people have a good time at Glastonbury and then just book to go on another basically?

There is an article about how badly it's going here https://ra.co/news/80706

 

[Maxwell]

How does that impact work then, people have a good time at Glastonbury and then just book to go on another basically?

There is an article about how badly it's going here https://ra.co/news/80706

People not at Glastonbury get FOMO and go on to book something similar. Helps if someone who's televised at Glastonbury puts on a great set as well. We're working with a few festivals who've booked The Streets and we've been tapping into that all this week.

I actually worked on the cancelled Glasgow festival in that article. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of doom and gloom in the current landscape, but he's failed to mention they've just launched a similar event on August Bank Holiday and have already absolutely smashed through their sales target for that one.

Also think there been so much saturation over the last few years that what's happening now is you're starting to see the ones cancelling have just been run by absolute cowboys and blaming the cost of living on poor sales.

I was at Outbreak yesterday. Around 25k people since Friday, up from 20k last year, and I guarantee it'll sell out instantly when 2025 goes on sale.

 

[NeilMorepies]

That newer Avril Lavigne is definitely better than the original one.

 

[Bristol Blue]

Always found it strange that The Strokes haven't headlined. All the massive indie bands seemed to headline during the 00's other than these.

Maybe their time has passed, but they'd draw a massive crowd wherever they played.

I think you could give them the Sunday headline slot and it would be great.

Yeah, I think they would be a decent shout.
I’ve always thought Depeche Mode could do a headline slot. Maybe it’s not there thing

 

[Blue 1]

Traditional headline bands don't go mainstream these days, that's the problem that Glastonbury has. Great bands are still there in numbers, just not enough of them big enough to fill 3 main headline slots every year. Plus Glasto has to cater to the festival attendees and every year the percentage that aren't interested in traditional bands increases, which is why we're seeing more headliners from other genres that are the current flavour of the month. Its a natural evolution.

Provided the organisers keep a balanced cross section of genres the festival goers will be happy. The biggest problem for me this year was clashes of similar genres where people had to chose. The worst of these was Friday night but it seemed to happen throughout.

Most of the people complaining though are the ones sitting at home watching on telly. Next year the festival will sell out again within hours and that's a sign the organisers are doing it pretty much right.

The decisions to make people choose by clashing similar genres are deliberate, areas get overcrowded if they don't do it.

 

[NeilMorepies]

Just found out my mate got caught trying to climb over the fence at Glastonbury this year. They forced him to go back in and watch Coldplay. :-(

 

[coollino]

 

[davids]

I think it looks absolutely ghastly. It was good in the old hippie days with Fairport Convention and Hawkwind and that, although the toilet facilities were nothing to write home about.

Preferred the first couple of Elephant Fayres