Benj

Will prob sell to the nostalgia hounds, if they’re only playing for an hour, I’d much rather have the hits myself…

WWWY is a bit of an outlier. Sets are short and there is no real stage production etc, so they can in effect just turn up with minimal rehearsal/ production costs they need to amortise over a longer tour. Interesting choice given they played just a couple of years back. It will be interesting to see if there is the same clamour for tickets...

Was a weird year that, can’t even Remember who Rebel Sound were, was it some sort of dance Super group? With knife part “closing” over Liam Bizkit, they obv aimed to have big dance acts each night, while Boy Better Know headlined the dance tent one night…

I think a lot of this thinking that…”oh it would be way too rammed to be safe” is based on post 2019 hours experience, when there were no alternatives for people to see. Put Aitch up against Bastille in 2022 and how are those two (big MSW) crowds split? A lot of kids are only there because it’s an act they’ve heard of, not because they LOVE it. There’s nothing else on, where are they meant to be? Give them another option and many will take it instead, we’ve just not seen it In action for 4 years now

Not really, it’s simply to offer an alternative to the what’s on the mainstage The last ever act to play on it (2019) were Bastille, hardly some niche underground act. Was AJ Tracey niche in 2020? Wolf Alice weren’t in 2018 Haim deffo weren’t 2017 1975 in 2016 Just standard mainstream radio fodder. 2015 you may have had a slight point, when they basically turned it into a Dance tent at the end of the night. Deadmaus was hardly niche but prob a nicheish headliner booking for a non dance festival It was simply a festival second stage. There was nothing particular or smart about it, any act of the appropriate size was billed there. It simply offered an alternative

Im not sure if you're are aware of quite how big the big tent was. It was a MASSIVE hangar, only with open sides. Official capacity was 20,000 in 2011 (https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-14475171) it increased in size again post that when they raised the full festival capacity further in the 2010s... It was a bone fide big festival second stage, pretty much 2 Wembley arenas big. That said I think (bar Aitch) they are too big for that slow and would be better off subbing the main stage if they have them. Traditionally Big Tent headliner was about the equivalent of 3rd on Main Stage....I think Aitch would be perfect up against Blink, as was the planned AJ Tracey vs RATM bokking in 2020. He would deffo get a good, big crowd and a proper headline atmosphere in there.

That was very much my experience in 22. At one point there was literally an MC playing to 10-15 people. I never saw it “busy” as I did a couple times in 21. Again it could be a complete coincidence but the radio station listenership has declined a lot post pandemic / TikTok boom

One random guesser who noticed they were headlining festivals in Europe so naturally could do so in the UK too Like Lavigne…not gonna happen

Manneskin aren't headlining Reading Festival

Yup, them now being on the main stage is why its importance is less. It's initial mission, when debuted in 2013, was to ensure there was a path for those acts to make it. 10 years on, it's completed its mission and is probably now a victim of its own success in that poor attendance is due to larger acts now attracting its audience to the main stages. The modern equivalent of smaller, newer, nicher acts in it's genre could still very much feature, just amongst other fayre that would further increase the festivals diversity in 2024, as the 1Xtra did 2013-2019

Didn’t go in 2023 but it was pretty much half full at best, sometimes pitifully attended the times I ventured past it in 21/22

Give us a clue Paul! My guess is MSE - same as MSW - same as Radio 1 tent - Genre Agnostic lineup in old dance tent footprint. Will have dance focussed post 6pm. Will hoepfully have much better screens Little tent 1 - FR same name. Same programming Little tent 2 - New name. Heavier rock and smaller Rap artists. Will offer direct niche alternative to MS programming at headline times

I accused you of saying it wasn’t going to happen? Where? The only thing I accused you was of falling for the old trope that Reading is and was solely aimed at 16 year olds

C😍R

Who said it was going to happen? 99.9% of the crap people talk about on here isnt going to happen…bar Blink headlining Hang on you’ve kind of said it may happen…C😍R!

It absolutely pissed it down that day to be fair, so I suspect more people than usual effed off early/ didnt bother. Actually quite enjoyed them that night. My expectations were rock bottom though...

Chad Knows Nothing would be a brilliant 2002ish pop punk band ...Made a massive comeback the last couple of years... 3rd on the mainstage?

I’m not in the U.K. and a boomer. I’ve also just listened to her and she’s not my bag whatsoever, so wouldn’t have made the algorithms. Avril Lavigne was a gag from an earlier, I would prob put her on the same level as Courteeners though

Decent job but this is the circle now Poster guess > criticisms > wait till someone else can be arsed to do a poster > criti… To try and add some value though, I have never ever heard a song by Jorja Smith and also believe that Avril Lavigne is as likely a 2nd stage headliner as Courteeners

I think GFA as an anti-big tenter is simply trying to distract away from how much better that predicted lineup looked better in Big Tent format

Exactly GFA is not wrong about the perception of Reading He’s very wrong about that being the only demographic the organisers need to cater to at there festival, if they want it to be a financial success

To a certain extent, profit is the goal there though… Selling out at 250 quid is probably more profitable than selling 75% at £300 (…certainly is assuming they can’t make savings on the lower attendance) Reading are hugely lucky in that they have a built in first visitor demographic. It’s probably different for music and festivals but getting that first bite is what businesses usually spend most trying to achieve. If you offer a good product repeat business is easy from there. Reading have lost that repeat business and will now have to work very hard to get it back, given that they clearly can’t just rely on 16 year olds who never come back to sell it out Also what does it say to other 16 year olds, when their 17 old brother doesn’t want to go back a year later…

…Is what you said. The context being that the organisers shouldn’t worry about what non-16 year olds think about their festival as they’re not the market My point is that, while public perception may be that it’s a festival for 16 year olds. That perception is wrong and to try and perpetuate it here, where people should know better, just makes you look daft - Esp in the face of a load of evidence that the festival failed last year because this other audience have binned it off!)

Yup. The point is (was maybe (didn’t go in 2023 obv)) the perception is and always has been largely wrong. A festival that lots of kids go to doesn’t mean that it’s a festival solely for kids… As Chad says it’s Zeitgeist, Zeitgeist isn’t limited to teens. The changes post pandemic have clearly (judging by the loyalty scheme, drop is sales and anecdotally off here) put off a lot of people going back. Whether that’s a 17 year old going for a second time, or a 40 year old going for the 20th, they went in record low numbers last year. That is what they need to address, either by lineup, overall festival experience, or price (a lever they have already pulled)

He didn’t go until 2019 but you prove my point exactly. 2017 appealed to more than just 16 year old kids… When you’re 16 and everyone is paying let’s go to Reading, it’s probably easy to assume that it’s a festival aimed at 16 year olds…and it is. It’s also aimed at 27, 37,47 and judging by the pics some 57 year olds too!