Offical Free Beer and Burger Each Day at R/;

[eFestivals]

Lineups obviously not as amazing as he's making it out to be... Hope it is great though...

The slower sales last year were due to more than just the line-up. Sales have been slowing for all the big fests for quite a few years.

He's doing what he feels he needs to do to make it financially successful via chucking in what appears to be a free extra. He's a businessman, you can't really blame him for taking care of business.

[Dukeeyyy]

I wouldn't take this new initiative as a sign that the lineup is poor, he is trying to attract more people to the festival and one of the main complaints at all festivals is the cost of food, so he is giving people an incentive to buy a ticket, doesn't mean the lineup is crap

[thetime]

I wouldn't take this new initiative as a sign that the lineup is poor, he is trying to attract more people to the festival and one of the main complaints at all festivals is the cost of food, so he is giving people an incentive to buy a ticket, doesn't mean the lineup is crap

Edited March 9, 2012 by thetime

[dirtymookie]

Announced just before ticket release to make people feel slightly better about the price increase.

[eFestivals]

At the end of the day it's free to people if they pay for a ticket that most would have paid for anyway.

what you really mean is that it's seemingly free, rather than actually free.

As the saying goes - and it's always true - "there's no such thing as a free lunch". What's being given with one hand will be recouped in other ways.

[august1]

lets say the weekend ticketer saves £24 I cant see that being recouped, however it wont cost the festival £24..

also doing this will create problems if its not continued in future years in terms of percieved value

[Mr Mr]

http://readingfestival.com/news/article/fancy_a_free_beer_and_burger_at_the_festival

bit more info, veggie burger and soft drinks available, just for friday - sunday. from a number of food stalls

[Vieuphoria]

Melv is a veggie. Respect gained.

[mrtourette]

Damn hippies.

[Vieuphoria]

groovy.

[Prufrock]

Hope the veggie burgers are vegan friendly!

[VCK]

I always prefer the veggie options at festivals, mainly because they're not made from rat meat.

[Babyquack]

Melv is a veggie. Respect gained.

[kaosmark2]

No wonder the lineups he books are so bland - he has no taste left.

[Danlar]

The food prices go up every year don't they?

Neil, you're quite right, Melvin has definitely got his thinking cap on and taken a class in Marketing 101, I don't doubt this will help ticket sales.

Look at it whatever way you like. IMO this is a good thing for everyone - those who never buy from festival vans will redeem their free burger and be further inclined to spend money, which is the angle Melvin wants.

If you can resist the extortionate prices for a little extra you'll come out with not only three free burgers and three free beers, but the satisfaction that you haven't fallen for the tried and tested marketing method. If you can't, well, you've still got free shit.

[dentalplan]

Like Burgers and Beer? Head over to our facebook page for news of a special Reading and Leeds festival promotion

[GuitarManDan15]

If it sounds to good to be true it probably is! Im guessing it'll be like every day from 6am till 7am you can get a burger from one stall that has one person working there or it might not happen at all.

My beef with this (pun intended) is that he said he's doing this because he cant lower ticket prices, if he is thinking about giving 130,000 people or however many weekend ticket holders there are, 3 buggers each, he could afford to shave a 5 off the ticket price, or more realistically just dont raise it for a year!

Surely the price increase has to stop one year, i love reading but there is a limit to which im willing to pay and we're getting close to it!

[kaosmark2]

If it sounds to good to be true it probably is! Im guessing it'll be like every day from 6am till 7am you can get a burger from one stall that has one person working there or it might not happen at all.

My beef with this (pun intended) is that he said he's doing this because he cant lower ticket prices, if he is thinking about giving 130,000 people or however many weekend ticket holders there are, 3 buggers each, he could afford to shave a 5 off the ticket price, or more realistically just dont raise it for a year!

Surely the price increase has to stop one year, i love reading but there is a limit to which im willing to pay and we're getting close to it!

[rivalschools.price]

Cheers Melv.

Free Beer-goooood

Free Burger-gooood

(i realise i sound a bit like Homer Simpson there)

Perhaps they will do the same as the tickets and charge a booking and transaction fee for your free burger and beer,ha ha.

Burger - free(+£3.50 transaction fee)

Beer - free (+£4 transaction fee)

[rivalschools.price]

Off topic but that reminds me of a very stupid article I once read in the Daily Mail, the "journalist" spends the afternoon in a muder victims home town and spends the entire article writing about herself one part to this day I have never understood is "I ask for a veggie burger and it comes without the burger – and without the bun!" what the fuck is a burger that has no bun or burger? I've emailed asking he what she was on about but I never got a reply back.

http://www.dailymail...ce-website.html

[jk1]

The cheap burgers (just the standard crappy ones, not the quarter pounders or any other speciality) cost around 20-25p wholesale each and the buns around 6p. Don't even use packacking for them at the festivals either.

[glasto-worker]

Agreed about the cost being much less than the price that punters would pay - I'd let that Melvin's already got sponsors to pay for it and I wonder if you have to pay tax on beer if you're giving it away and the tax (like on petrol) is the biggest part of the cost.Still wondering how they're going to do this. Vouchers or the dreaded wrist bands?

[dirtymookie]

what you really mean is that it's seemingly free, rather than actually free.

As the saying goes - and it's always true - "there's no such thing as a free lunch". What's being given with one hand will be recouped in other ways.

[lucastang]

I guess he's doing this because he wants more punters to come to RnL, he's trying to make profit of course. Now let's take Neil's word that sales have been slowing down for a number of years, and he's hoping to boost them this year and make it sell out withon a given time. Assuming that this is marketing, why has he announced just days before the tickets go in sale? I mean, how much more of a incentive is it to go? A saving of 40 quid say will persuade punters to go with the line up? Surely line up priority is first. The only explanation I can give is that it gives that extra bit of push to make people want to buy tickets, than being on the fence.

[eFestivals]

Assuming that this is marketing, why has he announced just days before the tickets go in sale?

because along with the beer/burger offer the reporting of it also contains the info that the line-up is announced on Monday.

The timing of it is absolutely perfect to create the maximum interest on announcement/tickets-on-sale day, which creates the greatest chance of an instant or near-instant sell-out.

And if R or L or both get that instant sell-out that's half the marketing job already done for next year's festival, because the fear of a sell-out will cause people to buy without too much thought. The longer time a person has to consider their options the greater chance there is of them choosing to take another option.

There's an ad for 'visit Britain' or something running on TV at the moment, with the most dreadful marketing line, something like "book before September and get a 20% discount". Because that's a time so far away it gives no urgency to 'buy now', and so runs the risk of people not looking at all and so not buying at all.

Whereas if it was "book within the next two weeks" a person feels they'd better look now before they forget, and when they're looking there's a decent chance that they'll buy.

Marketing is clever stuff, but at it's heart it's simply about trying to mislead people into making choices they wouldn't necessarily otherwise make. One of the major things to take with you right thru-out your life is the idea that that 'marketing is lies' - it'll save you a fortune.

eg: You can buy potatoes without a wasteful spend on marketing that are no less good than the 'Red Roosters' which cost much more because of the spend on marketing. The difference between the two is simply a marketing lie that one is somehow better.