billybigballs

This sounds like an episode of Mad Men. "Don't let the consumer tell you what's relevant to them; YOU tell them what's relevant to them!" However. I do kind of agree that what happened last night was pretty phenomenal and worth promoting, especially as it's a female act which the top level is currently lacking. Probably more worth pushing towards potential UK visitors who want to see her but don't fancy running the gauntlet at Reading or Leeds.

I'm getting old, I've only heard of fourfive of those!

Final day of the festival. Subbing Fred do we assume?

I feel like a kid on Christmas eve who's forgotten to write a list. No idea what I'm going to get, but knowing some of it should be good! A week since your last clues @Sziget2024_Leaks, have you got anything else you'd like to share?

Sometime in the next 15 days if you look at what @Sziget2024_Leakssaid last week, which was something along the lines of us not having to wait later than 12 March.

He also hinted at Raye, who is an excellent booking - so it's swings and roundabouts. Its unlikely he was going to hint at a headliner when the announcement was at least 10 days away.

17 August in London. A possibility?

Plus, his day in 2022 wasn't amazingly busy iirc.

How much are we betting the announcement will be made next Thursday so they can make puns on socials about people 'leap'ing with joy at the announcement.

Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!! 😢 Please be Fatboy Slim. Tom Odell is dreary as hell.

Got to be better then 'meh' doesn't it?

Sub for Stormzy?

Must be

Ten weeks ago today since the first announcement. You must have booked a few more by now @Sziget2024_Leaks......care to hint at a few? 😉

Saw them at a festival in 2017 and they were exceptional. Would be very pleased to see them again. Potential sub?

I think you are (slightly) wrong. While what you say makes a lot of sense, and probably in some cases is correct, I know Emily Eavis (Glastonbury) recently revealed that they only recently booked one of their headliners for June (rumoured to be Stevie Wonder). I also read a statement a few months ago from a festival organiser stating that line-ups are rarely ever Plan A, Plan B or even Plan C as artists' schedules change all the time. In late 2021, Leaks said Tame Impala wasn't coming in 2022, and yet they did - obviously a very late booking. If, for whatever reason, Lana and Maneskin are unable to play this year I genuinely have no idea who we are going to get as remaining headliners. Macklemore anyone?

Agree with all of this. Organisers can see all the negative comments and the ONLY way to quash those is by releasing an improved line-up. They've released Azariah (less than 1m monthly streams on Spotify) to attract Hungarian punters, and Goldband (less than 2m monthly streams on Spotify) to attract the Dutch. Which is all well and good but these acts mean almost nothing to residents of the other 190 countries in the world! If acts aren't in place, then you can't announce them, but I can't understand why they don't just release who they've got so far now, with another announcement in a few weeks.

I wouldn't recognise a poor Balaton Sound line-up, it's covers a genre of music I know very little about. That said, I recognise a few names in the upper part of the poster. I just hope the Sziget hierarchy are paying attention to social media comments and appreciate announcement 2 needs to be much stronger. I suspect the only real measure they will use is ticket sales tbh. A social media comment costs them very little, but if ticket sales are down by 5,000 compared to previous years that's one million euros out of the budget - which is significant!

It needs to be magic too!! I suspect that Leaks will turn up a few days before, so think we're still at least a week away tbh.

Unless they pay someone 'wow' money to play a one-off festival date then I think it's doubtful we'll get a big name headliner - they doesn't seem to be anyone around in August of signifant size. It's likely we'll get Lana or Maneskin or QOTSA, not The Killers etc. The REAL opportunity is to bulk up the undercard with acts like Raye, The Smile, Massive Attack, Biffy Clyro, Jorja Smith, The Prodigy, Two Door Cinema Club, Sampha, The Kills, Wet Leg, Editors, The Last Dinner Party etc etc. ALL of these are around in August and 'all' of them are known by music fans of all ages.

I think the thing is, while they may have sold a lot of pre-announcement tickets, the key factor is how many they've sold in the two months since the first announcement dropped. If, as we expect, sales dried up, then they need to make a decision on how announcement two looks. Do they add bigger and better names, and spend more doing so, to up sales figures. Or, do they deliver another average announcement knowing sales are unlikely to massively improve as the first announcement was so 'meh'. Now, my feeling is that the second announcement will be a marked improvement over the first. This is for a number of reasons: - to keep sponsors happy - to keep food and drink vendors happy - to keep agents and talent management people happy - to maintain the integrity of the festival I may be wrong, but if announcement two is underwhelming, then all of the goodwill the festival has built in its 30 year history will start to erode.

Prodigy and De La Soul announced for Lokerse on 8 August. Would love both at Sziget.

Arcade Fire has announced the first two dates in a 'Funeral' 20th anniversary tour. 2 July in Milan and 7 July in Dublin, with further dates to be announced. Possibility for the indie/rock headliner?

Vaccines announced too. Would be incredibly happy if any announcement included them too.

I think their social media staff are contractually obliged to put 'coming soon' to any enquiry about release date of 2nd line-up. Saying the announcement is 'weeks away' doesn't quite provoke the same levels of anticipation!