The Festival's Not What It Used to Be

[Big Vern]

Why did he feel the need to put it in capitals?

"I CAN EASILY AFFORD £200 SO IT MUST BE CHEAP!!!!!"

Loads of people cant afford it. I'd rather they were there than Loadsamoney up there.

£200 is a fortune if you've just lost your job. Heaven forbid you have a family too. Putting it in capitals that is is an insignificant sum is crass. No doubt about that.

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

The fact is, the Glastonbury produce the best festival to the extent the law will allow them. And no one in this country is even close to touching them

[arcade fireman]

wow you really missed the point there didnt you!

[ltfckimbo]

Yeah. I'm sure the relatives of the families who died at Hillsbrough, Heysel or Roskilde would agree with you. As would the black football players in this country who wish they were still getting booed like they were in the eighties, or the many more ethnic minorities who can happily attend football matches and go into most pubs these days without getting abuse.

[dingbat2]

I think a lot of the 'pop festival' criticims are criticisms of the current state of music these days rather than a critism of Glastonbury itself. Glasto still tries to have a very diverse line up each year, but there aren't a lot of decent non-pop music around these days. But what there is, Glasto does try to get, as opposed to just following the current crop of mainstream / manufactured / Radio 1 play list type bands. Just look at how pants the V line-up this year, full of Radio 1 playlist tripe and Reality TV inspired bands. Horrible stuff

Music is is bit of a lull at the moment, thats not Glasto's fault, and I am sure it will come back again some day

.. and in the meantime, the Eaviss continue to develop new, interesting and exciting parts to their festival - the Park a few years ago, and the recent explosion in the size and scale of the Shangri La / Unfairground / Block 9 / Arcadia areas. I think they are pioneers in these sorts of things, others (will) follow where they lead, so well done the Eaviss, your festival is still the bench mark which all other festivals try (and fail) to follow

Edited June 20, 2011 by dingbat2

[arcade fireman]

What's that got to do with what I wrote? I was just pointing out why I think these aspects of society are much more bland than they used to be.

[eFestivals]

You can't make a judgement on value on that alone though, can you? You also consider how much more musical variety the festival offers now, how many more stages there are etc. And in that regard it arguably balances out the above inflation rises. Especially when taking into account current festival prices too.

Obviously there's the whole "it's lost its atmosphere" argument, but this is far too subjective a factor to be included in a "value" argument.

Someone can make a judgement on that alone, yes - it's subjective, and if that's the angle they wish to take that's their right. I was simply outlining how the relative cost of now to then is much greater, so how such a view fits solidly with the facts.

And while I get what you're saying about extra stages, they've come at the expense of other things (such as greater numbers), and the fact remains that anyone can only be at one stage at any time - so there's not actually anything extra a festival attendee can consume, outside of their being a greater number of acts to choose from.

[bumpy_capers]

When I first went in '87 I had a bag of whizz and about £15. I weighed about 8 stone.

This year, I've got enough single malt to float my tent on and £350 cash.

I weigh about 17 stone.

That's inflation

As far as Glastonbury compares to the 80s it's not even the same festival.

I'll reserve judgement as to whether I can see the value which has been added off the back of a £200 ticket.

Edited June 20, 2011 by bumpy_capers

[gooner1990]

Anything that becomes popular and marketable by big companies will always get sanitised.

I've been following football a lot longer than I've been going to festivals and the change is almost the same.

The grounds got cleaned up and stopped a lot of the hooliganism (good), but unfortunately it's now a sanitised version, no standing, over priced tickets, food etc. I now go to Arsenal games and people sit there in silence waiting to be entertained rather than standing up and cheering their team on.

I don't know what Glastonbury was like pre super fence as I only went for the first time in 2004, but from what I've seen and spoken to others who had was that it was clear that the festival could no longer carry on in the way it was heading due to tent thefts, people jumping the fences etc.

One thing I've noticed is in the years I've been going is a lot more people seem to want to just be "entertained" in the south-east corner of the site. Most of my mates at the weekend were just going on about how much MDMA they were going to take and stand in Arcadia all weekend. Couple of us were trying to say there was a lot more going on elsewhere too, but they didn't seem interested in that.

The demographic is changing in the punters too, when I first went our crowd was people who generally were into rock/indie music, now we've got a lot more mates who come for the dnb/dance side of things.

Times move on and the festival can only represent what the people who come to the festival want to see and do.

also to russycarps you say the festival doesn't have interesting characters anymore - are you one of them or are you one of the boring middle class people that expect to be entertained by such characters?

[elias]

And while as a parent I fully understand why you do about your daughters, was it true that you had the approval of your folks to attend, or might they have been horrified? Perhaps give your daughters the same breaks you wanted for yourself, and I'd guess they'd be the better for it (as you no-doubt were too)?

[ltfckimbo]

Not nearly like you missing the point and calling someone who'd just lost their job "loadsamoney" and claiming they were boasting about their wealth

It's entirely relevant. He was claiming the "cleaning up" of certain events/experiences like festivals, football matches and city centre pub was down to some sort of "middle class envy" - an utterly ridiculous suggestion. It's down to numerous incidents that happened in that time period in the case of football and festivals, or in the case of nights out a feeling that people should really be able to enjoy themselves without having to worry too much about getting glassed. To insert "middle class envy" into the argument is frankly pathetic.

[pie_and_a_pint]

I think a lot of the 'pop festival' criticims are criticisms of the current state of music these days rather than a critism of Glastonbury itself. Glasto still tries to have a very diverse line up each year, but there aren't a lot of decent non-pop music around these days. But what there is, Glasto does try to get, as opposed to just following the current crop of mainstream / manufactured / Radio 1 play list type bands. Just look at how pants the V line-up this year, full of Radio 1 playlist tripe and Reality TV inspired bands. Horrible stuff

Music is is bit of a lull at the moment, thats not Glasto's fault, and I am sure it will come back again some day

[Filthclough]

I'm so disgusted about the fact that the festival has naturally evolved in line with the rest of society that I'm goimg to boycott it in 2012

But I'm sure all will be forgiven by 2013

[danvb]

Does anyone think they could realistically cut anything to make it cheaper for people ?

Should there be less stages and less bands to pay for to possibly make the price of admission cheaper?

Would it be better if it wasnt televised?,would this attract less rich closed minded posers with the wrong attitude?

Do we need worse weather to have it less in demand but still in demand enough to keep it going?.

Should the main stage bookers search harder for less pop bands and search for bands who they can allow glasto as a platform to make themselves succesful,but still honest and talented with thier music?

Should there be a number of volunteering places given specifically for people who really cant afford the ticket price and deposits? or for specific age and social class?. Or more people involved in volunteering work on getting the festival ready?.

What should glasto do to get some of its edge back but have it safe enough for people not to get crushed to death and not live in fear of attack and being robbed/it still be liscened by the council?

[Miss_Boo]

It's my first time at Glasto this year. I don't care what it used to be or what type of Glasto "legends" used to go there. The great things about the past is that you have those memories to remember, now it's something new. And I for one am bl00dy looking forward to it

Oh and I will say one thing.... just because you have dreads, wear tie-dye and your job description is "struggling artist" doesn't automatically make you Glasto matrial. The same as someone in a cowboy hat and Hunter wellies doesn't necessarily fall into the "boring Middle class brigade". It's all about your attitude! Like someone said earlier in the post, all you need to fit in at Glasto is a smile on your face who cares what you're wearing!!

[eFestivals]

Because there's very good reasons why a lot of things have changed. You're looking at the past with rose tinted glasses, remembering the things you liked but completely disregarding the much less palatable parts.

hmmmm..... while i can see the rationale for lots of the regulation/H&S stuff, in the vast majority of places where it's applied it's got little need or relevance for it to be applied. The necessity for it to be applied only exists when an incident has happened.

So while I'm not so stupid to think that some kind of disaster couldn't have happened at the more wild Glastonbury's of the past, it's also the case that nothing ever did happen so the imposition of any rules and regs feels unnecessary.

Like all of the festival movement of that time they were self policing - and while that seems impossible to today's cosseted and over-managed population not only wasn't it impossible it actually worked too!! Of course, part of that was people being smart enough to wipe their own arses back then, as opposed to today where there's always someone to ask to do it for you (and to blame when they don't wipe it as good as you'd have done yourself, if you could actually bothered to do it for yourself).

Society has dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Not everything about it is admirable.

Edited June 20, 2011 by eFestivals

[camperman]

value is a subjective judgement.

To someone who experienced it at the much-cheaper prices of the past, it can seem very expensive nowadays - because it is. "Festival inflation" has been running at 10+%, while inflation in general over the last 20 years has been nearly always less than 5%.

So in relative terms it's much more expensive than it used to be, and therefore it's less good value than it used to be too.

[Leela33]

Why are bands who play the pyramid stage seem as such a bad thing? A band who plays in one of the more alternative/new stages this year may be a headline act in 5 years time.

I don't understand why some people seem to find a good or popular tune is something to be scorned.

I like all different kinds of music and hope to have the time to eperience all aspects

[eFestivals]

point taken but like the nhs the cost of goods and services people want and expect demand even have gone up higher than inflation

yep - it's called capitalist exploitation. And so the points that ltfckimbo makes are very relevant.

[jimmy93]

Will I go in 2013? Probably not.

Edited June 20, 2011 by Stifler

[eFestivals]

Why are bands who play the pyramid stage seem as such a bad thing? A band who plays in one of the more alternative/new stages this year may be a headline act in 5 years time.

I don't understand why some people seem to find a good or popular tune is something to be scorned.

I like all different kinds of music and hope to have the time to eperience all aspects

if you want to experience all aspects, then why not considering giving a swerve to at least one band you're planning to see that you've already experienced to get the experience instead of one band who you know nothing about?

A part of why Glastonbury has become a sterilised version of its previous self is that there's too many people going to see what they already know, instead of using the opportunity to explore what else there is ..... and themselves.

[robalotalob]

There's a lot of contradictions here. You say "you don't have to appeal to a larger demographic" thus implying there is a larger demographic who attends, but then say it's dominated by young, lower middle-class white people. What's it to be? Personally I think while there's undeniably a lot of the group you described, that's because those people make a large proportion of the population of this country. There's still an awful lot of diversity there both in age and in background.

You say how it's a good thing there's more variety musically (I agree), but then you talk about the admission cost going up. How do you expect that to be paid for? And while I don't know the ins and outs of the Glastonbury finances and I'm sure Mr Eavis takes home a tidy salary from it (as he deserves to for the amount of work he puts in and for creating the best festival out there), it's certainly not a for profit festival in the same way Reading/Leeds, V etc are.

How much money do you think is raised for good causes like Oxfam and Greenpeace now, compared to before?

[Ed209]

if you want to experience all aspects, then why not considering giving a swerve to at least one band you're planning to see that you've already experienced to get the experience instead of one band who you know nothing about?

A part of why Glastonbury has become a sterilised version of its previous self is that there's too many people going to see what they already know, instead of using the opportunity to explore what else there is ..... and themselves.

[robalotalob]

I disagree. It was always a pop festival, yes, but with LOADS of random and spontaneous weirdness from the punters. You really could have an amazing festival without going near a music stage.

Now, it is just a pop festival. A absolutely amazing one, but the extra bits have gone. And that's solely down to the change in clientelle. I reckon

Edited June 20, 2011 by robalotalob

[ukslim]

hmmmm..... while i can see the rationale for lots of the regulation/H&S stuff, in the vast majority of places where it's applied it's got little need or relevance for it to be applied. The necessity for it to be applied only exists when an incident has happened.