Sonisphere cancelled

[ivan]

it's the second fest that's featured in this year's calendar to be cancelled - let's hope it's not the kiss of death to the other ten.

[jump]

Hardly a big surprise though.

[ivan]

Tbf chopping off 'queen' and putting in AC/DC would sell it out this year

[jump]

You would need to replace a lot of the line up , it just was not strong enough

I saw a bit of Faith No More's set at Leeds Last year and it was very quiet in the tent , so it was very brave for someone to book em as a festival headliner

Also Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds cater for all genres so they have far more acts to chose from , old , vintage , new , up and coming . , the hard rock and metal festivals have just

been struggling with the same gene pool

Edited March 29, 2012 by jump

[thejimbola]

I thought FNM went down brilliantly at Download and the lack of crowd at Reading and Leeds just shows that most of the people there just listen to what Zane Lowe tells them to and nothing else.

[mrtourette]

No, it shows that they were up against one of the hottest acts at that time (Kings Of Leon, who were still just about a credible act at the time) and that they were added to the bill after tickets were sold out, so nobody who bought a ticket did so with the intention of seeing Faith No More.

[Lithium05]

I thought FNM went down brilliantly at Download and the lack of crowd at Reading and Leeds just shows that most of the people there just listen to what Zane Lowe tells them to and nothing else.

[lharris92]

gutted

there goes some of my summer work down the pan.

[thejimbola]

Whilst I agree Zane Lowe is a bit of a dick, I don't think he would tell people to go see KoL over Faith No More, they did that on their own.

[eFestivals]

My point was basically that had FNM been added at the last minute to a sold out <snip> Reading of yesteryear then they would have got a big crowd.

well of course they would - a number of years ago they wouldn't have been an act of old, and so would have been far more relevant to the youngsters that Reading largely attracts.

IMO, by far the main reason why they got a small crowd a year or two back is nowt to do with who was on the main stage at the same time, and massively more to do with the fact that with the majority of today's kids they're a band they don't know.

That has less of an impact at Download because they're more within the music that Download does, while they're nowhere near as much within the music that Reading does.

Soni was always going to be an extremely hard sell this year with the line-up it had, because Kiss fans and Queen fans are not (as a generalisation) the types who will go to festivals, and while FNM fit festivals a little better, they're still a niche band without a massive potential audience, and a niche band that a good number of potential Soni goers have already seen at festivals within the last year or three.

So all in all it was three headliners without much of a potential audience. I could see that from the off, and always felt it was hugely likely to bomb - and so it turned out.

People like to go on about 'festival loyalty', but in general it's a myth. Festivals sell on their headliners - and a poor set of headliners means poor sales.

[hitmanhague]

Soni was always going to be an extremely hard sell this year with the line-up it had, because Kiss fans and Queen fans are not (as a generalisation) the types who will go to festivals, and while FNM fit festivals a little better, they're still a niche band without a massive potential audience, and a niche band that a good number of potential Soni goers have already seen at festivals within the last year or three.

So all in all it was three headliners without much of a potential audience. I could see that from the off, and always felt it was hugely likely to bomb - and so it turned out.

[ivan]

well of course they would - a number of years ago they wouldn't have been an act of old, and so would have been far more relevant to the youngsters that Reading largely attracts.

IMO, by far the main reason why they got a small crowd a year or two back is nowt to do with who was on the main stage at the same time, and massively more to do with the fact that with the majority of today's kids they're a band they don't know.

That has less of an impact at Download because they're more within the music that Download does, while they're nowhere near as much within the music that Reading does.

Soni was always going to be an extremely hard sell this year with the line-up it had, because Kiss fans and Queen fans are not (as a generalisation) the types who will go to festivals, and while FNM fit festivals a little better, they're still a niche band without a massive potential audience, and a niche band that a good number of potential Soni goers have already seen at festivals within the last year or three.

So all in all it was three headliners without much of a potential audience. I could see that from the off, and always felt it was hugely likely to bomb - and so it turned out.

People like to go on about 'festival loyalty', but in general it's a myth. Festivals sell on their headliners - and a poor set of headliners means poor sales.

[thejimbola]

well of course they would - a number of years ago they wouldn't have been an act of old, and so would have been far more relevant to the youngsters that Reading largely attracts.

IMO, by far the main reason why they got a small crowd a year or two back is nowt to do with who was on the main stage at the same time, and massively more to do with the fact that with the majority of today's kids they're a band they don't know.

That has less of an impact at Download because they're more within the music that Download does, while they're nowhere near as much within the music that Reading does.

Soni was always going to be an extremely hard sell this year with the line-up it had, because Kiss fans and Queen fans are not (as a generalisation) the types who will go to festivals, and while FNM fit festivals a little better, they're still a niche band without a massive potential audience, and a niche band that a good number of potential Soni goers have already seen at festivals within the last year or three.

So all in all it was three headliners without much of a potential audience. I could see that from the off, and always felt it was hugely likely to bomb - and so it turned out.

People like to go on about 'festival loyalty', but in general it's a myth. Festivals sell on their headliners - and a poor set of headliners means poor sales.

[5co77ie]

it's the second fest that's featured in this year's calendar to be cancelled - let's hope it's not the kiss of death to the other ten.

[jump]

I blame Brian May's collaboration with Dappy

[ivan]

It's actually 3 -

[LondonTom]

It's actually 3 -

[eFestivals]

Don't put glasto or bestival back in next year!!

Glasto defo won't be in it - we only ever feature festivals and a festival's photos from the previous summer, and if a festival is happening. So Glasto by default gets a couple of years off every five years or so.

[Paul ™]

Scottie including EIID?

[Justiceforcedave]

Well I suppose festivals have just become too expensive. Not only that but there are lots of acts being recycled and not many new bands really breaking through to the big leagues.

I wonder how much worse it'll get before it gets better?

[eFestivals]

Scottie including EIID?

that one of the three - eiid, big chill, and soni.

[jump]

Well I suppose festivals have just become too expensive. Not only that but there are lots of acts being recycled and not many new bands really breaking through to the big leagues.

I wonder how much worse it'll get before it gets better?

[Justiceforcedave]

I suppose it's about striking a balance. All of the Soni headliners were nostalga acts of sorts. I suppose they figured Queen was going to be their "Big Coup" but it just didn't work out that way.

[eFestivals]

I suppose it's about striking a balance. All of the Soni headliners were nostalga acts of sorts. I suppose they figured Queen was going to be their "Big Coup" but it just didn't work out that way.

I just couldn't see Queen working.

The first problem was that it's not actually Queen. Queen with Paul Rodgers made a bit of sense to Brits, but Queen with some American that no one had heard of was something entirely different.

Then there's the fact of who Queen fans actually are; there's two different sets of them, both with different issues towards festivals.

There's the older Queen fans, who love their early stuff, and might be a bit 'alternative' - but are (for a lot of them) probably past the age where they'd be very keen to spend all day in a field, and even less likely to want to do a weekend of it.

Then there's the fans of the later stuff, who are pop music fans, who are never the most likely attendees, and again their age makes that less so.

If other stuff on the line-up was aimed at either of the Queen fan sets, maybe - just maybe - it might have worked. But none of it was, it was aimed much more at youngsters, who couldn't see the appeal in not-Queen.

And so it failed. Whether Galbraith always thought it was hugely risky or he was blinded by his own liking for Queen I don't know, but either way I'm somewhat surprised that someone of his experience made such a major cock-up.

[jump]

Who did Queen have as support on that arena tour & Hyde Park show a few years ago when they were playing with Paul Rogers?