incident

I'm pretty sure that they'll end up announcing the 2022 prices before the free cancellation period has finished (currently scheduled to end on Dec 31st, though not impossible it extends again.), as to do otherwise would be a bit shifty and out of character. Once that's past, the admin fee is now up to £25.

Thing is, this U-Turn won't come close to undoing the damage done by Brexit and he'll use that to twist things and say "see, Brexit wasn't the problem". And people will believe him. It won't help in the short term, and while in the medium term this change should get a few people in roles where they're needed, long term it'll cause new problems - previously many of the people taking these roles would have been looking to make a life in this country, so they'd rent a place here, bring their family, spend money in local shops, and more often than not end up being of benefit to Britain. In this situation, with the rules as they now are, it's going to create much more of a mercenary environment with much of the wages leaving the country instantly and near entirely as the people know they're not allowed to have a long term future (at least not easily) - so it'll actually create at least part of what the pro-Brexit crowd were falsely whining about to start with.

Not off the top of my head, but in the past Emily has said words to the effect of they don't receive the cash until the festival takes place, and that's consistent with standard practice for all of the major / reputable ticket agencies.

Yes, that looks to be the case. A few other festivals are making comparable moves for presumably the same reason - EOTR recently moved their balance payment deadline forward from June until the end of March for example.

Doing that wouldn't make any difference to the festival finances. There's no difference, to the Festival, between first week in march and any other window that falls between 1st October and 31st March as the money is held in an escrow account by Seetickets and the cash won't be released to GFL until the festival takes place.

I love the Manics, but co-headliner of a 50,000 capacity event in 2022? That seems like a huge stretch. Actually would've thought Wolf Alice would shift more tickets at the moment.

Appears to be at the point of transaction - think that's why so many festivals are pushing to get sales in before the end of this month including the unexpected Glastonbury Campervan/Accomodation resale.

Those numbers are probably a shade high as ~270 before VAT seems unlikely, I think it'll be around that including VAT (which would put the VAT at 30 and 45 quid respectively. But the principle is absolutely spot on.

Near certain to be moved I'd suggest. If, as seems the obvious reason, the balance payment date has been moved to take advantage of the VAT rate changes then best to do so for the resale as well - If they sell tickets at say £270 on 31st March they get to keep £240, whereas if they sell the same ticket in 1st April they only get to keep £225. Multiply that £15 difference by 10,000 tickets in the resale and it's £150k extra in the festivals bank account.

Good spot. This has to be a VAT thing and makers perfect sense in that context. In short, VAT on event tickets is currently reduced to 5%. This goes up to 12.5% on October 1st, and then back up to the full 20% on April 1st.

As it stands, there's no reason for people to get a refund yet unless their financial situation has changed enough that they need the 50 quid back or they're 100% sure they can't make it. The "free" refund window keeps getting quietly extended and now runs until Dec 31st so it makes total sense to hold off until the end of the year before making a decision. My guess is that the Dec 31st date is going to be the one that holds firm, and it'll only be then that even the festival themselves can take a reasonable guess of how many tickets are likely to be available come April.

I think the "at 2020 prices" is significant here. I'm taking it to imply that when they're next on sale (April?), then they'll not necessarily be at those prices.

He was scheduled to be a joint headliner alongside Lionel Richie in the original 2020/2021 announcements before things got changed. So that seems like a pretty likely option. Though they did have George Ezra headline outright in 2019 and if they're prepared to do that then Capaldi outright is possible as well.

They were pretty good - definitely a lot better than the last time I saw them opening the Other Stage.

IOW Festival. I was there and to be honest got the impression that they only started the into just because they knew they were out of time and couldn't continue - ie it was a deliberate way to leave the crowd on a bit of a tease.

Think you've remembered it the wrong way around. Not sure where your friends went to during Metallica, but I suspect it wasn't the Other Stage because in one of the most famous bizarre bookings, Jake Bugg was headlining that night. According to the official times on the lineup, Pixies should have finished about 15 minutes or so after Metallica started, but on the day there wasn't any overlap (can't remember if Pixies finished early or Metallica were late or a bit of each) - I was able to see both acts in full, albeit having made the journey in good time by sneaking through the Interstage shortcut the moment Pixies finished and arriving at the Pyramid just as the Metallica intro video started.

You could say that, because there absolutely was. I turned up about 20 minutes in and by any standard it was significantly more than just standard crowd churn - The number of people leaving vs the number arriving was something like or possibly more than 10 to 1.

It was 2004, up against Oasis, in the full Avalon Stage as the Cafe didn't exist yet. The field was organised quite differently then, think the stage was facing the other direction.

Though to go to Hyde Park, you'd also need to skip Glastonbury, or at least turn up very late.

They usually play quite a few festivals every year that aren't Beautiful Days, so not sure that would be an obstacle. So the rumor goes. However they have played Glastonbury at least twice since I first heard it (possibly 3 times - did they play JazzWorld or did I imagine that?).

Given that The Strokes have been announced to headline a festival in Australia on July 23rd, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet you have done so. Unless they're going to try something crazy with the flights or move the Tramlines dates that is.

I really doubt it's a desperately needing the cash thing - the standard practice of most reputable ticket agencies (and ticketline should be in that category given that they've been around forever) is that they'll hold cash from ticket sales in escrow and then release it to the event once it actually takes place. Given that payment plans are a pain in the arse for festivals to administer even before any VAT changes (currently 5%, going up to 12.5% on Oct 1st and then back to 20% on Apr 1st), and it looks like they can shift the tickets without it, it may well be that GM figure that it's better to keep things simple. But yeah, they probably should have been up front about any changes like that.

Obviously I don't know their thought process, but it really shouldn't. They need the darkness (or more accurately, the lighting possibilities that darkness allows) more than most acts. If you take away the "show" aspects of their performance, they'd be two blokes stood largely static on stage for an hour - one behind a microphone stand and the other behind some keyboards. I've not seen their current show, so this may be different now, but the couple times I have seen them they leaned heavily on lighting and the show wouldn't work nearly as well without full control. This may sound slightly dismissive but it's absolutely not intended that way - their Other Stage show in 2010 was one of the best things I've ever seen on that stage.

Haven't noticed anyone really saying that, but it'd be a crazy point to try and make anyway. He's spoken glowingly about how much he loved doing Bestival a few years back.

Don't think that's controversial at all. I think it's Elton and it won't even be close. Macca has done it before and I think a lot of people continue to underestimate how much of a selling point the "final tour" thing is (even if it's lasting forever and may not actually be the end). I mean, just between the 2021 and 2022 shows (so ignoring the stuff held pre-pandemic) Elton must already have sold well over half a million tickets in England and I can't see Macca getting close to those numbers at this point.