17 replies to this topic

[kev1664]

Should the festival organisers place big bands at both the start and end of each day?

I personally think this would be a way to attract more top bands to the festivals.

I also think that it would be better for us as fans of music as it would give us a chance to see more top acts. I'm sure some big bands would love to kick off the festival just as much as finish it.

It would also be a good money making scheme for the festival itself as it would get a greater majority of people into the arena earlier, thus meaning people would spend longer in the arena as well as spending more money.

Win-Win situation for all involved methinks!

[robsadler]

kev1664, on Jul 10 2009, 10:03 AM, said:

Should the festival organisers place big bands at both the start and end of each day?

I personally think this would be a way to attract more top bands to the festivals.

I also think that it would be better for us as fans of music as it would give us a chance to see more top acts. I'm sure some big bands would love to kick off the festival just as much as finish it.

It would also be a good money making scheme for the festival itself as it would get a greater majority of people into the arena earlier, thus meaning people would spend longer in the arena as well as spending more money.

Win-Win situation for all involved methinks!

it's not how it is traditionally done but it would be good for them as a money making thing, get people in the arenas nice and early spending money and all that.
personally, i would rather ease myself in, take it easy and watch a few smaller bands on smaller stages.
would be cool if they got older acts to open the festival......ray davies etc!

[Benj]

kev1664, on Jul 10 2009, 10:03 AM, said:

Should the festival organisers place big bands at both the start and end of each day?

I personally think this would be a way to attract more top bands to the festivals.

I also think that it would be better for us as fans of music as it would give us a chance to see more top acts. I'm sure some big bands would love to kick off the festival just as much as finish it.

It would also be a good money making scheme for the festival itself as it would get a greater majority of people into the arena earlier, thus meaning people would spend longer in the arena as well as spending more money.

Win-Win situation for all involved methinks!

If you want to pay miles more for your ticket and also see a band that would probably be better with lights in the midday sun.

[jammy2211]

No because then you'd get tons of queues trying to see a band while still hungover!  

It'd sort of ruin it if I couldn't just stroll into the arena when I want.

[TalkShow Bob]

jammy2211, on Jul 10 2009, 11:47 AM, said:

No because then you'd get tons of queues trying to see a band while still hungover!  

It'd sort of ruin it if I couldn't just stroll into the arena when I want.

That is exactly the point, well not the hangover. But people gradually fill the arena across the day. Imagen the crush on and congestion offsite if the second biggest band of the day played when the arena opend. At the moment people have 10 or so hours to drift into the arena, that same amount of people would have to be got in in 1 hour - it would be a nightmare.

[kev1664]

Talkshow Bob Well obviously they would open the gates earlier to accomodate the more people.

Benji - It seem that we are already paying over the odd's anyway for the festival, the reason the prices are so high is to extend FR's profit margin. If you llok at last years line up compared to this I bet the bands that played last year would have been more expensive to get than this years. We have had a £20 hike from last year and thats in a recession. I'm led to believe that over the past few years we have seen a simmilar sort of rise, with no real great change to the festival. Also lights don't make the band, I know a band like the prodigy or metalica wouldn't be the same without the lights, but tenacious D or FNM who dont tend to have big sets could go down well.

Also the more people in the arena the more the smaller bands will be given more exposure, meaning fan bases rise.

Jammy 2211 - Theres certainly one way to not get a hangover aswell, and that advice is to stay drunk, worry about the hangover on bank holiday monday. Theres plenty of time to recouperate.

[Sparticus]

at a festival like leeds not a chance.

Talkshow bob hit the nail on the head, there's massive queues as it is, and that's only got worse since i've been going, so i can't imagine punters being happy if the one act they missed due to queueing in the crowds was muse rather than someone like the bronx who are opening this year.

Actually go ahead, would be great for the 10 muse fans that actually managed to get in and watch the band whilst the rest of us are stuck outside

[Benj]

kev1664, on Jul 10 2009, 12:50 PM, said:

Benji - It seem that we are already paying over the odd's anyway for the festival, the reason the prices are so high is to extend FR's profit margin. If you llok at last years line up compared to this I bet the bands that played last year would have been more expensive to get than this years. We have had a £20 hike from last year and thats in a recession. I'm led to believe that over the past few years we have seen a simmilar sort of rise, with no real great change to the festival. Also lights don't make the band, I know a band like the prodigy or metalica wouldn't be the same without the lights, but tenacious D or FNM who dont tend to have big sets could go down well.

Unfortunately FR is not a charity and therefore I can not see them giving up there hard earned profit.

The collapse in the dollar from around $2 to $1.40 in the year will mean that all US bands will in effect cost a 3rd more to book this year than last. If we assume that 1/2 the bands that play are American, we're lucky the price didnt go up by £30

[jammy2211]

kev1664, on Jul 10 2009, 12:50 PM, said:

Talkshow Bob Well obviously they would open the gates earlier to accomodate the more people.

Benji - It seem that we are already paying over the odd's anyway for the festival, the reason the prices are so high is to extend FR's profit margin. If you llok at last years line up compared to this I bet the bands that played last year would have been more expensive to get than this years. We have had a £20 hike from last year and thats in a recession. I'm led to believe that over the past few years we have seen a simmilar sort of rise, with no real great change to the festival. Also lights don't make the band, I know a band like the prodigy or metalica wouldn't be the same without the lights, but tenacious D or FNM who dont tend to have big sets could go down well.

Also the more people in the arena the more the smaller bands will be given more exposure, meaning fan bases rise.

Jammy 2211 - Theres certainly one way to not get a hangover aswell, and that advice is to stay drunk, worry about the hangover on bank holiday monday. Theres plenty of time to recouperate.

Why exactly do you think this years top bands came any cheaper?   I'd assume this years line up cost alot more to assemble then 2008, what with the weak pound to dollar and stuff.

[TalkShow Bob]

kev1664, on Jul 10 2009, 12:50 PM, said:

Talkshow Bob Well obviously they would open the gates earlier to accomodate the more people.

Benji - It seem that we are already paying over the odd's anyway for the festival, the reason the prices are so high is to extend FR's profit margin. If you llok at last years line up compared to this I bet the bands that played last year would have been more expensive to get than this years. We have had a £20 hike from last year and thats in a recession. I'm led to believe that over the past few years we have seen a simmilar sort of rise, with no real great change to the festival. Also lights don't make the band, I know a band like the prodigy or metalica wouldn't be the same without the lights, but tenacious D or FNM who dont tend to have big sets could go down well.

Also the more people in the arena the more the smaller bands will be given more exposure, meaning fan bases rise.

Jammy 2211 - Theres certainly one way to not get a hangover aswell, and that advice is to stay drunk, worry about the hangover on bank holiday monday. Theres plenty of time to recouperate.

I dont know how much earlier you could open it. The arena needs the down time at night for maintenance, cleaning and general organisation. Any time you could squeeze wouldnt be nearly enough. I dont know what advantage there really is to having the second act on early instead of just before the headliner anyway.

Edited by TalkShow Bob, 10 July 2009 - 02:14 PM.

[benissright]

Id much rather be in town having a shit, that in the arena watching some "big" band in the searing heat.

[Leeds_Brett]

kev1664, on Jul 10 2009, 10:03 AM, said:

Should the festival organisers place big bands at both the start and end of each day?

I personally think this would be a way to attract more top bands to the festivals.

I also think that it would be better for us as fans of music as it would give us a chance to see more top acts. I'm sure some big bands would love to kick off the festival just as much as finish it.

It would also be a good money making scheme for the festival itself as it would get a greater majority of people into the arena earlier, thus meaning people would spend longer in the arena as well as spending more money.

Win-Win situation for all involved methinks!

Take it youve never had to que to get into the arena at 11am for a "small" band then.


Jesus if we had a "big" band opening youd have to be at the gates at about 9am

[kev1664]

jammy2211, on Jul 10 2009, 02:31 PM, said:

Why exactly do you think this years top bands came any cheaper?   I'd assume this years line up cost alot more to assemble then 2008, what with the weak pound to dollar and stuff.

Well if we look at american bands from last-this year

2008 Headliners - Killers(USA), RATM(USA), Metallica (USA)
2009 Headliners - Arctics(UK), Radiohead (UK), KOL(USA)

2008 Second Headliners - QOTSA (USA), Tenacious D (USA), Bloc Party(UK)
2009 Second Headliners - Prodigy(UK), Bloc Party(UK), Kaiser Chiefs (UK)

Third 2008 - Slipknot (USA), Raconteurs (USA), The Fratellis (UK)
Third 2009 - Maximo Park (UK), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (USA), Placebo (UK)

2008 USA 7 from top 9
2009 USA 2 from top 9

And your talking bout dollars to pound, lol. Don't be silly theyve booked more british bands to accomodate for that.

benissright - U can't be serious about the shit thing, grow some nuts, what a waste of time!

Leeds_Brett -Yep I have had to queue before, go to the arena as it opens each day.

TalkShow Bob - Good point about the cleaning up n stuff, but does it really take 9-10 hours? It wouldn't be the second band, it would be a band of a similar status to the second headliner. We would still get the same big draws for the second healiners, just one of the smaller status band slots would give way.

[beLIEveR]

Benj, on Jul 10 2009, 02:21 PM, said:

The collapse in the dollar from around $2 to $1.40 in the year will mean that all US bands will in effect cost a 3rd more to book this year than last. If we assume that 1/2 the bands that play are American, we're lucky the price didnt go up by £30

This is true, but completely ignores the fact that last year, when the dollar had become far cheaper, most of the big bands were American.

This year, they've gone for more British bands near the top of the bill, as they're cheaper.

I don't resent festivals making a profit, or even the fact that this profit is going to rise over time. What I resent is that the growth is exponential, rather than linear.

[TalkShow Bob]

kev1664, on Jul 10 2009, 10:20 PM, said:

TalkShow Bob - Good point about the cleaning up n stuff, but does it really take 9-10 hours? It wouldn't be the second band, it would be a band of a similar status to the second headliner. We would still get the same big draws for the second healiners, just one of the smaller status band slots would give way.

There is a lot of stuff to consider in the timing. Cleanup and maintenance were just the first two that came into my head. There is a vehicle movement curfew in the arena which is in effect at least an hour before it opens.* But the traders need to restock their stalls, and they wont be happy having to do this at some hour past six am. Also though, yes cleanup of the arena takes ages. Whenever im in there out of hours its always fairly busy, which implys that there arnt a few hours they can save here or there.


*If I remember correctly.

[zero000]

All this stuff about the price increase being justified because of a weak pound is bollocks! Did they give us a discount when it was £1 = $2? Of course not!

Its just a lie really, everyone knows FR make a massive proifit from Reading and Leeds every year.

[Sparticus]

zero000, on Jul 11 2009, 05:08 PM, said:

All this stuff about the price increase being justified because of a weak pound is bollocks! Did they give us a discount when it was £1 = $2? Of course not!

Its just a lie really, everyone knows FR make a massive proifit from Reading and Leeds every year.

yep, they've had the same number of stages and acts since i started going, yet the price goes up. The bit about the recession made me laugh, i would've respected them more if they said "tough shit, price goes up. Thems the brakes", since as you pointed out the pound shit on the dollar from a great height for 3 - 4 years, at which point they went for the british option and had razorlight headline instead lol.

This probably will be my last year as i want to try new festivals, but f**k it, loads of mates going, prodigy/ radiohead/ faith no more playing (and more! and not counting the hours i'll spend in the comedy tent out of it ). Go on, i'll pay 250 next year

[fantomas]

Latitude do this on the Sunday, usually a solo artist (this year it's Thom Yorke, last year it was Joanna Newsom) and they're both run by FR; I think it's a good idea do have a fairly well known band/artist playing solo to open one of the days.