not-Glastonbury 2018

[McCor]

I like this idea more than a year with nothing. Then back to Worthy Farm for 2019.

 

Sounds years away!!! 

[Bisque]

Another ballache trying to get a ticket & working out how to get there. Interesting.

[arcade fireman]

It would be just another festival IMO. Without that location, that sheer scale and that variety of things to see and do it would rely entirely on the strength of its line up. Wonder what they'd do for ticketing...maybe a cut price deal for people that pay deposits? 

[Hotchilidog]

One thing that marks Glastonbury Festival out as different from other festivals is it's own unique sense of place. The location itself, with it's histroy and mystical leanings is as essential to it's appeal as any of the acts that tread it's boards. A moved Glastonbury wouldn't be Glastonsbury for me, it would just be another festival.

[fatyeti24]

1 hour ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

I'd rather a better Call Saul

a Scruffylovemonster to Glastonbury's fatyeti24

[SwedgeAntilles]

With regards the location of the new festival; With Rockness dying a death and T in the Park struggling these days surely it's time for McGlastonbury to save the Scottish festival scene?

[jparx]

1 hour ago, arcade fireman said:

It would be just another festival IMO. Without that location, that sheer scale and that variety of things to see and do it would rely entirely on the strength of its line up. Wonder what they'd do for ticketing...maybe a cut price deal for people that pay deposits? 

I don't see it being 'just another festival' if the Eavii are responsible for it. They aren't going to half arse it. I could see it being similar to Glastonbury, minus the Pyramid, Other and JPT. Something on a similar scale to Latitude with elements of BoomTown added.

[arcade fireman]

28 minutes ago, jparx said:

I don't see it being 'just another festival' if the Eavii are responsible for it. They aren't going to half arse it. I could see it being similar to Glastonbury, minus the Pyramid, Other and JPT. Something on a similar scale to Latitude with elements of BoomTown added.

Im sure they're not going to half arse it, but "just another festival" means it will be very dependent on the line up. There's plenty of very good festivals around which I'd still class as being just another festival compared to Glastonbury. 

[fatyeti24]

1 minute ago, arcade fireman said:

Im sure they're not going to half arse it, but "just another festival" means it will be very dependent on the line up. There's plenty of very good festivals around which I'd still class as being just another festival compared to Glastonbury. 

agree with you there.  my biggest reasons for going to Glastonbury never appear on any poster!

[jparx]

1 minute ago, arcade fireman said:

Im sure they're not going to half arse it, but "just another festival" means it will be very dependent on the line up. There's plenty of very good festivals around which I'd still class as being just another festival compared to Glastonbury. 

I just have confidence the people that created Glastonbury could created something else interesting. It won't be Glastonbury because there is so much that goes in to making it a special festival that could not be replicated elsewhere, but I don't think for one second it would be 'just another festival'. 

[airwaves]

3 hours ago, Spindles said:

Long Marston airfield is a good site, central location, holds 30-50,000 comfortably and good experience with holding festivals and events.  I miss Phoenix

Went to one Phoenix - Neil Young, David Bowie (who, heaven forbid, was crap at that fest) ....

Great music. Lovely weather - too hot in fact.

 

But the site was awful - just one endless big flat expanse, which they wouldn't be able to change. And an inner security gurded 'arena' which I guess could be different.

[russycarps]

1 hour ago, Hotchilidog said:

One thing that marks Glastonbury Festival out as different from other festivals is it's own unique sense of place. The location itself, with it's histroy and mystical leanings is as essential to it's appeal as any of the acts that tread it's boards. A moved Glastonbury wouldn't be Glastonsbury for me, it would just be another festival.

Yep. It would be quite tragic really. A load of people desperately trying to recreate glastonbury at a pale imitation of the place. So much of the appeal of glastonbury is its mystique. Why would anyone pick this new festival over any of the other hundreds of options?  Because the woman who thought bringing beyonce to the pyramid stage was a good idea is in charge? Dont make me laugh.   

Moving the festival would sound it's death knell. I'd give it 5 years. 

 

[jimmyt]

3 hours ago, Spindles said:

Long Marston airfield is a good site, central location, holds 30-50,000 comfortably and good experience with holding festivals and events.  I miss Phoenix

So do I. Some of the happiest (and hottest) days of my life were spent there.

[eFestivals]

4 minutes ago, russycarps said:

Yep. It would be quite tragic really. A load of people desperately trying to recreate glastonbury at a pale imitation of the place. So much of the appeal of glastonbury is its mystique. Why would anyone pick this new festival over any of the other hundreds of options?  Because the woman who thought bringing beyonce to the pyramid stage was a good idea is in charge? Dont make me laugh.   

Moving the festival would sound it's death knell. I'd give it 5 years. 

 

because a festival elsewhere is likely to be far smaller, it couldn't recreate Glasto anyway. If you shave 50% off - pick any half of it you like - you end up with something entirely different. I'd guess it's likely to have some sort of (genre)theme in one direction or another, to give it some sort of cohesion.

Plus Glasto is allowed to do lots of things just because it's always done them which are not considered best practice by many licencing councils, so they could end up having more regulations pushed upon them.

So while it might have many of the same people involved, what comes out at the other end is likely to be very different.

[stuartbert two hats]

My first thought when hearing about this last year was that it would probably kill the magic.  Then it occurred to me that there are other good festivals.  There's no reason why this couldn't be one of them.

[eFestivals]

Just now, stuartbert two hats said:

My first thought when hearing about this last year was that it would probably kill the magic.  Then it occurred to me that there are other good festivals.  There's no reason why this couldn't be one of them.

Yep, spot on.

They're a very experienced team but it's also a very saturated market. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with to give it some distinction.

I don't really doubt that it'll do well in a first year tho. It'll get lots of press attention because of who's doing it, and that'll create enough interest for people to want to check it out. The first year would be the easy bit tho, as sustaining it after that would probably be more difficult.

[budvar]

Very interesting topic.

Seems to me that there are a number of issues converging:

• GFL not wanting fallow years any more
• Other Pilton landowners asking for more money each year
• A desire to expand the Glastonbury "brand" / other venues keen to host a festival

In terms of not wanting fallow years any more, I remember Neil noted a few years ago that ME had been quite sneaky in shifting it from every 4th year off to every 5th and now every 6th. I suspect there's some truth in his statement about not wanting to miss years as he gets older, but I suspect there's also a financial consideration, as others have mentioned (e.g. the GFL staff with 12 months on their hands). It seems to me that they're not in a place to get rid of fallow years altogether so, having already postponed as much as they could, they're looking at alternative options.

This offers something of a solution for the second issue, which is ME's neighbours squeezing him for more cash. If he's able to do something in a fallow year that demonstrates the festival could feasibly move, then he's got a better chance of not being held to ransom.

The key issue, that I think would worry a lot of us, is what sits behind the third point; what if they decide to move away permanently? As Neil identified, it's all well and good saying that they can just host a festival elsewhere on a fallow year, until you consider what's in it for the alternative venue. A festival every 6 years? If it's proved that a festival can work at the site it's highly doubtful it would stay that way.

So what does it become?

Likely either a new permanent home for the festival (I agree with others that this would be highly undesirable) or a second annual festival (that feels like quite an undertaking and adds a whole load of risk for GFL). Although we're currently in a world where Glasto sells out with ease, we don't have to look back that far for a time when it didn't. You can be sure that there'd be plenty of people looking for the new event to be a flop, which could potentially damage the overall "brand"

I wonder if the plan might be to have a "Park" festival - that was essentially a festival within a festival created by Emily and could be scaled up relatively easy. I'd certainly be more comfortable with that as a proposition than any claim to transport the festival en masse.

Whatever happens, I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more about this.

[Mr. B]

Wrong thread... 

 

Edited April 13, 2016 by Mr. B

[michael eavis' beard]

I think a lot will have to do with how they brand it.

If it's branded as a mini-Glastonbury then I think people's expectations will be too high as they expect their own personal favourite bit of the festival to be recreated in a new location and for it to live up to their experiences on the farm.

If it's branded as just another festival with it's own identity that just happens to be run by the same people at GFL then there should, in theory, be fewer barriers to it being a success.

[themuel]

My gut feeling about it isn't good :-/

Edited April 13, 2016 by themuel

[cidy]

Be interesting too see if the same rules apply to bringing  your own food and drink , perhaps there will be be pre- erected tents as well , an experiment to see how that goes a giant worthy view maybe?

[stuartbert two hats]

2 minutes ago, cidy said:

Be interesting too see if the same rules apply to bringing  your own food and drink , perhaps there will be be pre- erected tents as well , an experiment to see how that goes a giant worthy view maybe?

Urgh, you're probably right.

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, cidy said:

Be interesting too see if the same rules apply to bringing  your own food and drink

many festival licences specifically exclude allowing alcohol to be brought into the arena, on the basis that it supposedly allows/encourages underage drinking. The fact that the same underager could drink the same can outside the gates doesn't seem to come into their thinking.

So while the Eavii might want to use the same rules as they use now, they might find that they have little control over these types of choices.

[stardustjunkie]

This makes me sad, I hope it doesn't move permanently and it's just a fallow year thing.

Glastonbury is special and iconic. To move it doesn't sit right with me.

 

I don't know if there is any truth in this so it's just a thought I had about something I've read - could it be that the surrounding land is becoming too expensive to hire and it's scare tactics? If the festival threatens to move completely then the land-owners will be out of pocket and might not be so greedy.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

 

It's a bit like the Dyson advertisement - 'if you want a Dyson it's got to be a Dyson', in that if you want Glastonbury then it's got to be Glastonbury.