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Sales are slow this year! WTF?

Guest guyzer

By Guest guyzer
in Reading & Leeds Festivals

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Lithium05 Newbie

Lithium05

Posted
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hopefully its because the bubble has burst and the shitty brats with no interest in music have f**ked off back to thier natural habitat of V and T4 on the beach ( or wherever there playing shitty dubstep) and Reading can once again become an Alternative festival with fresh bookings for the counter culture.

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{R-E-P-R-E-$-E-N-T} Newbie

{R-E-P-R-E-$-E-N-T}

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i'll wait to see what the lock up looks like, a few bands i wouldn't mind seeing but i've seen before, also seasick steve on the mainstage? i only have his first album so not sure what his newer stuff sounds like, but how is he going to work on the mainstage, i saw him a good few years ago in a tent and he was blinding with all his improvised instruments, how is the sound gonna be on the mainstage?

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tolywoly Newbie

tolywoly

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the other factor is what i call 'band fatigue' Quite a lot of the bands on the bill come around far too often. even an act like muse have in the last 3 years played glasto, t in the park, their own shows twice and before that it was leeds last time out. they are not the only ones, far too many of the bands play the festival scene too much

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Chihiro Cheeks Newbie

Chihiro Cheeks

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Indeed. I could easily be tempted back next year by a combo of any of:

REM

Metallica

Beastie Boys

RATM

Tool

Pearl Jam

Foo Fighters (would keep the kiddywinks and the veterans happy, + its the 20 year anniversary of Nirvana's last appearance next year isn't it?)

Pixies

Iron Maiden

... as the 2/3 headliners. Otherwise I'll stick to Download and Soni.

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rexclark Newbie

rexclark

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Festival sometimes have bad years, what about a few years ago when Glasto only sold out a few days before? The next year tickets were gone in a matter of minutes. I do think this year at the moment will be seen as a weak year but we'll see after the fest what people think. I'd still much rather be at Leeds than TITP or V anyday of the week.

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Dan R Apprentice

Dan R

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i'll wait to see what the lock up looks like, a few bands i wouldn't mind seeing but i've seen before, also seasick steve on the mainstage? i only have his first album so not sure what his newer stuff sounds like, but how is he going to work on the mainstage, i saw him a good few years ago in a tent and he was blinding with all his improvised instruments, how is the sound gonna be on the mainstage?

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Vacant0 Newbie

Vacant0

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Festival sometimes have bad years, what about a few years ago when Glasto only sold out a few days before? The next year tickets were gone in a matter of minutes. I do think this year at the moment will be seen as a weak year but we'll see after the fest what people think. I'd still much rather be at Leeds than TITP or V anyday of the week.

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Benj Veteran

Benj

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I think one possible reason why sales may be slow is that far fewer would have been snapped up my touts this year.

There were loads of tales last year about touts getting stung, people picking up tickets for knock down prices etc etc.

If the arse has fallen out of the bedroom tout market, so it seems it may well have fallen out of the instant sell out market. Im sure thousands and thousands of tickets were bought in the last few years on sale day, by folk who had absolutely no intention of ever going to the festival. I think the increase in capacity and a more savvy buying public has led to far less demand from ebay and therefore far less demand in thousands snapping up 8 tickets (or whatever is the maximum is and flogging them on).

If only 2,000 people were doing this, that is still 16,000 tickets, a fair old number of tickets, if this has been halved, thats an extra 8,000 tickets sloshing about, up to 10% capacity of one of the sites.

Other reasons- Shift in youth music trends. The kids are all back in to Tinie Tempah, Rhianna, Gaga etc these days arent they, the circle was always going to happen and its now occured. The youth market in white boys and guitars has moved on, the Trendy Wendys are no longer into the Libertine now its OK to like The Wanted, JLS and the like again.

Cost- As other have said there is always goign to be a cost tipping point, looks like 200 nicker before you even get there is it!

Realistic demand- Perhaps the capacity increases have reached the actual demand level, which with the two reasons above may now in fact be too high.

When push comes to shove I suspect it sells out, I hope not, for I long for the days of the late 90s, early 00s with much smaller crowds, where my mate could decide he was coming 3 days beforehand and turn up and pick up a ticket on the door.

The only worry for us, as punters, of it not selling out, is that their is a shift in booking policy to get more popular youth bands on the bill and we're looking at a V style line up in 5 years time!!! :O

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jump Mentor

jump

Posted
Posted

I think one possible reason why sales may be slow is that far fewer would have been snapped up my touts this year.

There were loads of tales last year about touts getting stung, people picking up tickets for knock down prices etc etc.

If the arse has fallen out of the bedroom tout market, so it seems it may well have fallen out of the instant sell out market. Im sure thousands and thousands of tickets were bought in the last few years on sale day, by folk who had absolutely no intention of ever going to the festival. I think the increase in capacity and a more savvy buying public has led to far less demand from ebay and therefore far less demand in thousands snapping up 8 tickets (or whatever is the maximum is and flogging them on).

If only 2,000 people were doing this, that is still 16,000 tickets, a fair old number of tickets, if this has been halved, thats an extra 8,000 tickets sloshing about, up to 10% capacity of one of the sites.

Other reasons- Shift in youth music trends. The kids are all back in to Tinie Tempah, Rhianna, Gaga etc these days arent they, the circle was always going to happen and its now occured. The youth market in white boys and guitars has moved on, the Trendy Wendys are no longer into the Libertine now its OK to like The Wanted, JLS and the like again.

Cost- As other have said there is always goign to be a cost tipping point, looks like 200 nicker before you even get there is it!

Realistic demand- Perhaps the capacity increases have reached the actual demand level, which with the two reasons above may now in fact be too high.

When push comes to shove I suspect it sells out, I hope not, for I long for the days of the late 90s, early 00s with much smaller crowds, where my mate could decide he was coming 3 days beforehand and turn up and pick up a ticket on the door.

The only worry for us, as punters, of it not selling out, is that their is a shift in booking policy to get more popular youth bands on the bill and we're looking at a V style line up in 5 years time!!! :O

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Dirty Boots Newbie

Dirty Boots

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Still not sold out ...

Why would you buy one off ebay when they are still on sale at official outlets?

"The only worry for us, as punters, of it not selling out, is that their is a shift in booking policy to get more popular youth bands on the bill and we're looking at a V style line up in 5 years time!!! :O "

My concern also ...

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Jaybles Newbie

Jaybles

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Still not sold out ...

Why would you buy one off ebay when they are still on sale at official outlets?

"The only worry for us, as punters, of it not selling out, is that their is a shift in booking policy to get more popular youth bands on the bill and we're looking at a V style line up in 5 years time!!! :O "

My concern also ...

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jump Mentor

jump

Posted
Posted

Would they not be more likely to look at previous years which sold out faster and try and get a similar lineup?

In the years before it sold out on the day they never panicked and booked girls aloud and kylie minogue for the next year. Reading fest has a musical heritage and will always follow that

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Jaybles Newbie

Jaybles

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I agree with what you're saying, they are far more likely to start booking more alternative acts than pop acts but Reading has dropped it's heritage before, 1st it was a Jazz fest and there was a point in the 80's it was hard rock/metal festival and then it tried to become more pop and failed spectacularly and then taken over by Mean Fiddler to become what it is today.

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jump Mentor

jump

Posted
Posted

When did it try to go pop and fail spectacularly?

In the 10 years i have been going the lineup has never shocked me as not suitable for a reading festival. In the 10 years before i started going it followed a similar pattern.

Apart from its roots as a Jazz fest it has always been a rock and alternative festival.

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kibble Newbie

kibble

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I'd hazard a guess that, apart from Muse, most other bands up high are playing other festivals such as MCR, Pulp, Strokes, Beady eye and others. There's nothing completely unique about the line-up's this year apart from FR's Muse booking- who most people will have probably seen before. In my eyes, no single line-up is 'amazing'. Although, I think Reading's made the best out of a tricky situation for headliners this year.

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