49Lawson

That's mostly a big thumbs up from me to that announcement

Wonder if he's the headliner for Tuesday looking at the slots he's playing elsewhere? I've never been too fussed on InMusic but it's one my wife has always wanted to try; Sleaford Mods aside this is shaping up into quite a nice line up for me next year so it could be considered as a cheaper alternative definitely.

Only other one I can offer that hasn’t been mentioned is Open’er in Poland. Festival is kind of in the middle of no where so they run buses from Gdynia town centre, which is also a really lovely place to explore through the day

Can't say for definite but for the 2018 festival it went on sale before Christmas 2017 with the only bands we had announced being QOTSA/Gorillaz (Thursday co-head), Pearl Jam (Saturday headliner) and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (Sunday co-head) before eventually revealing London Grammar (Friday co-head), Jack White (Saturday co-head/sub) and a few other names at the end of January

Not convinced, my wife has an 18 year old cousin and her and a lot of her friends made the trip to go and see her at Hyde Park last year. Think she’s really popular

That's a great undercard that, given I'm in Leeds on the Sunday for a stag I think I might head down a day early for this

I think it’ll be Weezer or Interpol, both touring with Smashing Pumpkins. Worst case scenario (even though I’m not expecting them) would be Pulp

Always going to be unlikely with the rumoured Graspop big announcement today. I have a feeling we get a bigger batch of 15-20 names on Friday, followed by Pearl Jam next week

Yeah I don’t think it took them long to shift the tickets! Think they all went on the day of release, but considering it’s just a small town Stockton has an excellent live music scene, with a good few bars and venues in the city hosting gigs (like Ku and the Georgian theatre alongside the Globe where QOTSA played) and they even have their own little city festival, Stockton Calling.

The Globe is a brilliant theatre, especially for the chance of seeing really big bands in a smaller setting. Think the capacity is about 3000, was there for QOTSA last night (pictured) which was incredible, and Morrissey last year which was also very good. I had meant to post in here today to say having seen them last night and at Piece Hall in the Summer, QOTSA are in the form of their life at the minute and will smash that Friday at Download

Always keep an eye on Primavera, but I think we're doing it regardless in 2025 as we're at a wedding in Barcelona around when it is usually on. Think they've been smart with the booking, in the sense that there's no huge wow names they could get so they've got a few really good upper-card names all together in The National, LDR, Vampire Weekend, Justice, Pulp etc

I always used to keep an eye on Pinkpop because it was on my festival bucket list. Until very recently, save for maybe a name or two who revealed the date at Pinkpop as part of a bigger tour they nearly always used to reveal the full line up in Feb/March via a press conference. The way the market is I don't think they have that luxury but I wouldn't be worried, it usually almost always has a great line up, but probably only since around pandemic times have they revealed it earlier than Christmas.

Line up wise it’s quite small, but in terms of “vibe” I’ve never been to anything as close to Glasto (and there’s certain areas it does slightly better to be honest). When we went in to the festival on day 1 in 2019, we got a little passport on entry, and every time you went around and done a new activity you could stamp it and it was quite fun. Even though we were there for a week we never got everything done, really good transport links to go and explore Budapest through the day and we had a line up to that was well worth the money in the end (Foo Fighters, The National, Johnny Marr, Twenty One Pilots, Franz Ferdinand etc) Would definitely recommend it

I think Mad Cool might surprise you as they’re backed by Live Nation I think, and they have deceptively deep pockets looking at past line ups. Wouldn’t surprise me if you’re right and the 4th day has a top line of maybe The National/The Smashing Pumpkins/Bring Me The Horizon (or something like that?and just has those nearly top level bands all on one day

Hey there! It depends on what is most important to you about a festival is what I would argue could decide this argument. Having been to both, I would say Pinkpop is a better all-round festival for the reasons you have mentioned, with one of the biggest benefits being that it has a fantastic night life scene in the camp sites (still remember going to see The Dirty Daddies in Campsite B party zone in 2019, one of the greatest night life experiences I've ever had at any festival). I also find that Pinkpop is more manageable, with a great layout and other places to explore outside of the music, with fun installments, a much better food scene and some funky vintage stalls and things like that. With that being said, Werchter still remains my favourite because no other festival in the world usually puts out line ups like they do! Even in the last couple of years, whilst the line ups have potentially been 'weaker' for Werchter standards, they were still up there with the best Europe had to offer. It is definitely the most organised and well ran festival I have ever been to as well, I remember in 2016, the only year I went which was affected by very bad rain, they had so many solutions to the problems the festival still ran like absolute clockwork and you hardly even noticed the conditions because they had so many woodchips down the ground was practically dry. The only 'downside' I would say for Werchter is that in the festival area itself, there is literally very little else to do beyond the music. So if you find yourself with a time when there isn't an act on that you're bothered about, all you can really do is sit around and wait for the next act you're bothered about to start. If you camp in The Hive, the Hive party zone is generally great on a night too but I would say Pinkpop's is better. Overall, I think it just depends on what you want out of the festival, but if you're considering Werchter I would thoroughly recommend it if the line up ends up being to your taste! It doesn't usually sell out until much later so I would say you have some time to consider your options and seeing what both Werchter and Pinkpop bring to the party in terms of bands first and go from there. Hope this helps 🙂

If Smashing Pumpkins are here or Bilbao BBK, has to be 12th July now has they're headlining elsewhere in Spain on 13th July now. Think it probably rules them out more than anything

One potential counterpoint I would say on this, I was having a look at Flow Festival’s line up and as someone who was shopping around other festivals last year to try and make a trip out of seeing Blur before ultimately settling on Newcastle City Hall when they announced that, Flow would not have pulled me in as the rest of the line up didn’t really click with booking Blur if that makes sense? Think it just supports a point myself and a few others have made over the years, festivals like Glastonbury and Primavera get away with massively diverse line ups for one reason or another, but the fact that a lot of festivals have tried to appeal to so many people they’ve ended up effectively reducing their ticket sales because people could look at it and go “oh wow, I could go here and see Blur + all these artists” and instead go “hmmm, I like Blur but I don’t care about afrobeats or trip hop so I’m out” *obviously I have nothing against those genres, just two things that jumped into me head which helped me try and say what I was trying to say

Looking at the last two years of Werchter posters since the pandemic, regardless of the size of the bands they've put the top two on the main stage side by side regardless of their size. This leads me to think that they will be doing the same next year, so regardless of who is up there with Maneskin they'll be side by side I think. All this talk of Blur, Pearl Jam, LCD and Depeche Mode has got my hopes far too high now haha.

I have absolutely no inside knowledge whatsoever but for various reasons (already on tour that weekend, not on tour at all next year, or all dates announced already) I would say these ones are at around 0% or as close as possible to that

I still think with the reports earlier on that Pearl Jam might be playing Friday could be right. Would really help Maneskin be elevated a bit if they're on the same line as PJ, no one is going to be too bothered about Maneskin taking a high slot if they have a certified headliner alongside them either, and in 2022 and 2023 the poster had the top two acts of each day on the same line (with Pearl Jam and The War On Drugs occupying the Thursday on 2022).

Yeah, I think there’s got to be another big name on that day surely? Then again they are headlining RaR, Nova Rock already. I’ve got faith they won’t be headlining that day alone though…

Not unexpected but not blown away by them. If the intel for Pearl Jam also playing that night is correct that could be an excellent double bill

I always keep on eye on Mad Cool as IFEMA was a fantastic venue and they usually stack the line ups quite well; but they also usually love to just reveal everything like over excited children. This makes me think there’s just a tiny bit of doubt in my mind that they’re still trying to sort out a venue or source somewhere viable for the festival. Think some of the touted headliners (namely Smashing Pumpkins) could be at Bilbao BBK, but with names like Foos, PJ, Dua Lipa, The National, (tbf) Smashing Pumpkins, Greta Van Fleet, LCD Soundsystem, Bring Me The Horizon, Maneskin, Avril Lavigne, Sum 41 all potentials if they’re sticking with 4 names on the top line each day it could end up being another great line up. *IF, they’ve sorted the venue out

LCD Soundsystem just announced for a festival in France the same weekend. Please!

Just seen Greta Van Fleet have been announced as headlining a festival in Norway the week before. Looking at that festival, they could definitely be a top line band at Graspop, but given that they played Werchter in 2019 and had to cancel in 2022 I wouldn’t be surprised to see them here again. I know they aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but they work for me