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Driving means no drinking and sober gigs suck.

I like the line up however I do kinda feel it's been a bit misleading as they talked about how they aren't gonna release the line up so they can get around festival exclusives and whilst there's a few bigger names playing it definitely feels like there's no headliners at the festival. I would suggest maybe they do have notable headliners still like Gorillaz, Prodigy, Wu Tang Clan or whoever and they are just not being announced/kept off the clashfinder to get around other fests but that doesn't seem likely. Still it's a great fest and I'm sure it would still be fun regardless of who is playing, and whilst people do say that about a few festivals Boomtown is one of the few that sentiment does actually apply to.

2010 was more luck with them coming over to do the Xmas no1 thing than something carefully planned, Rage were meant to play in 2008 when they first reunited along with some other big names (I think Foos were one?) but they pulled out to do R&L which is why they ended up with KISS, The Offspring and Lost Prophets that year, allegedly. There are often stories about how Download booked these big headline acts but then pulled out which is why the headliners often seem lacking but if a major fest backed by Live Nation keeps having bands break out of contracts on them then something is massively wrong if it's true.

I don’t buy the likes of Pearl Jam, Rage on their first reunion, Foo Fighters etc were ever actually booked. I reckon Copping enquired but never got them to sign on the dotted line. They seem to be quite bad at that sort of paperwork stuff as he gotten pissed bands like Faith No More and Lost Prophets when they were headlining were billed as exclusives but then showed up at other UK fests. I was looking at old IOW line ups (which takes place around the same time as Download) and saw they have managed to get The Sex Pistols, Foo Fighters, The Who, Bon Jovi, Pearl Jam and Red Hot Chilli Peppers to headline who are all names you would have thought would play Download instead since it’s a larger capacity fest.

A poster would have been nice. Da La Soul and Bob Vylan are the biggest highlights of the line up for me from what I’ve seen.

If doesn't work quite like that, if you lose one day the costs of the other days goes up too making both weekends at risk rather than having a couple of days losing money. Plus one of their biggest expenses the acts would still have to be paid when it's binned this close. I wonder if they will consider doing a shuttle service which goes from APE to the major train stations like Victoria/Waterloo (you'd only need to do one of those since people can change at Clapham Junction to get to the other), Paddington and St Pancras. It wont help everyone but those are some of the biggest places people will be coming from and are easier than Victoria Park to get to if you're a city dweller or if Big Green Coaches will add APE in the last minute to do services from the surrounding London areas like Kingston, Chelmsford etc for the national rail strike day.

I dunno, it’s not like IOW have the strongest set of headliners every year so just because he’s not The Killers or Ed Sheeran I wouldn’t rule him out. I could see Jamie T being a co-headliner with someone like Disclosure or Bicep playing after him like when The Black Keys and Prodigy played.

As it is after 90 days before the event it likely means APE will still have to pay the artists some or the full amount of their fees which is standard thing in contracts, that’s a big hit to take.

This is becoming a nightmare now. I wanted to see King Gizzard more than The National. The bus strikes happening on Gorillaz day affects North and East London depots which is a fucking pain since I live in North London and trying to get to East London. The 253 and the other buses going to Hackney is a big blow for me getting there without tube. The list of buses affected on the Gorillaz day is below. North London Edmonton Garage 158 Chingford Mount to Stratford 259 Edmonton Green to King’s Cross N279 Trafalgar Square to Waltham Cross Enfield Garage 121 Turnpike Lane to Enfield Island Village 279 Waltham Cross to Manor House 313 Potters Bar to Chingford Station 318 North Middlesex Hospital to Stamford Hill Garage 349 Ponders End to Stamford Hill Garage 377 Oakwood Station to Ponders End W6 Southgate Station to Edmonton Green Palmers Green Garage 102 Brent Cross to Edmonton Green 141 Palmers Green to London Bridge Station 329 Enfield Town to Turnpike Lane 340 Edgware Station to Harrow Bus Station 675 Walthamstow St James’s St to Woodbridge High School N102 Golders Green to Edmonton Green Tottenham Garage 19 Finsbury Park to Battersea 41 Tottenham Hale to Archway 123 Ilford to Wood Green 149 Edmonton Green to London Bridge 230 Wood Green to Upper Walthamstow 243 Wood Green to Waterloo 318 Stamford Hill to North Middlesex Hospital 341 Northumberland Park to Westminster (County Hall) N19 Finsbury Park to Clapham Junction N41 Tottenham Hale to Trafalgar Square Wood Green Garage 29 Wood Green to Trafalgar Square 144 Edmonton Green to Muswell Hill 221 Edgware Station to Turnpike Lane W3 Finsbury Park to Northumberland Park W4 Ferry Lane Estate to Oakthorpe Park N29 Trafalgar Square to Enfield Town East London Ash Grove Garage 78 Shoreditch to Nunhead 106 Finsbury Park to Whitechapel 254 Holloway to Aldgate Barking Garage 128 Claybury to Romford 150 Chigwell Row to Becontree Heath 175 Dagenham to North Romford 325 East Beckton to Prince Regent 368 Barking to Chadwell Heath Clapton Garage 38 Clapton Pond to Victoria 73 Stoke Newington to Oxford Circus 242 Homerton Hospital to Aldgate 253 Hackney Central to Euston N38 Victoria Station to Walthamstow Central N73 Walthamstow Central to Oxford Circus N242 Homerton Hospital to St Paul’s N253 Tottenham Court Road Station to Aldgate

I'm in two minds about the double stages at Download. They may as well have double stages since they don't let bands play during the headliners anyway and Download only seem to make some effort on the top half of the line up so more big spots means more effort however dual festivals like Hellfests have shit loads more stages so there's always something to see which Download doesn't have and with Download booking a lot of shit already plus some bands were only getting 25mins means I can imagine it could lead to long stretches with nothing worth seeing. Basically Download books a lot of shit so I don't think dual main stages would fix that problem.

People reselling their tixs seems to be quite common this year, lots of festivals not just Boomtown have rolled over tickets so people are changing thier minds two years later as well as some people are still worried about covid and the heat.

It seems like an easy target to keep blaming the "edgy" bands myself, I know Glasto doesn't embrace heavy music but it has started coming across as small minded attitude to music on here and ignoring the actual problems. Like for as many times as folk keep repeatedly saying you don't mean heavy you actually mean white male privilege bands you had Rage Against The Machine who's most prominent members aren't white and feature socially conscious lyrics they were burning flags on stage and also Killing In The Name lyrics was being chanted as the riots happened or the non-heavy Fat Boy Slim who whilst he played someone was being raped in a stolen van in the crowd. There's a big difference between someone like Korn who just want to play some heavy shit and someone like Motley Crue who do celebrate c**tish attitude towards women but have nowhere near the intensity of a Korn performance which is what I miss from mainstream rock music.

I’m not sure about exclusionary, most of the gigs I go to are DIY punks bands who are preaching about inclusion. A good few of them aren’t even white men either. NYC Downlow is cool but it isn’t even an artist.

There was an argy bargy a few months ago when Neil started banning people unfairly so a bunch of users set up a discord. It's all right but it's very Glasto-centric over there.

No one is saying I wish the band would tell me to start a fire now. It's more of the decline of heavy music and bands that have a rock and roll swagger in the mainstream. Like Download just had KISS headline as that's how desperate they are for acts, whilst they are still some heavy acts coming through they aren't breaking into the mainstream the same way as Rage Against The Machine, Limp Bizkit, Korn etc did and alot of the bigger heavy acts in recent years which are breaking through into the mainstream like Ghost or You Me At Six are fairly tame in comparison.

The Netflix one is fine but I've seen better ones about it. The best retrospective I've found was on a podcast but I can't remember it's name. As shit as Woodstock must have been for people and as idiotic as it to say well heavy music made them do it after watching the series I do miss bands having a sense of danger to them from those days even if it is Limp Bizkit. Watching Sam Fender even with a saxaphone solo is dull!

I'm surprised people aren't predicting Bicep, they are blowing up at the moment and seem to be smashing every festival they are playing this year. They seem like a good fit as the smaller main stage headliner.

But again, lets apply that to Rage who haven't sold out their Edinburgh show, the same logic should apply they aren't big enough then but they are as it's not that simple. Streams are another simpleton's attempt of festival analysis, just look at the constant Yungblud argument on here. lol

To be honest I don't give a shit about Impala or Fender as neither would make me buy a tix on their own although I'd prefer Impala headlining rather than Fender. Impala are pretty decent live whilst Fender was so dull when I saw him last month, I'm told the setlist was the problem that night but he just looked average to me even with a saxophone. I'm just bored of these it's not sold out therefore they are failure analysis arguments, it's like baby analytics which ignores all other variables and simplifying it to a binary of sold out or not sold so even if it's single tix away from being sold out it's treated like it's a trainwreck of an event. It's like people are trying to be insiders based of their knowledge of tickermaster saying it's sold out or not facts is the same thing as a percentage sold through or something.

I wouldn't read too much into how APE sells, we just know it hasn't sold out and it's a weird festival. We can use the same logic on Rage for not selling out their Edinburgh show and say they aren't a big name draw even though they are headlining.

I’ve been there recently for a gig. The drinks choices are shit as you have to leave the pitch if you want something other than beer and as most of the steps are roped off it’s a longer trip too, I can’t comment on what the crowds are like leaving as I have family in the area so went there to avoid the wait but I heard it was a pain for others, the sound was fine but not fantastic and you can go out for a smoke which is nice. Its not bad and better than Wembley and MK stadium but London Stadium is the best for gigs I’ve been to and Emirates Stadium is the worst.

The premium would have exploded once he got cancer, especially as a freelancer and you still have out of pockets expenses even if you do have a good plan. It’s mental how it works there, I’ve come across it for work and it just makes wonder what the fuck American exceptionalism actually is.

I dunno. Tom's broke from spending all of his money looking for aliens, Mark has had to pay for his doctors in the US health system (ouch!) and Travis is married to a Karadashin who are known putting their name on any old shit so I wouldn't be shocked if they got back together just so they can get Funko Pop money and ditched Skiba as his figure wouldn't sell with stuff like tours and albums can be figured out after the toys.

Christ the festival is doing the rock stage on the cheap if Wargasm are headlining.

I'm really good at those competitions, I always seem to win at them!