Time for a sister festival on same weekend?

[rattlerattlerattle]

With the insane demand this year and approx 1/3 of every group of 20-30 people only being successful for tickets, would a smaller sister festival (maybe around 60000 capacity in the North) on the same weekend be an idea? 

Maybe not quite a Reading and Leeds scenario but a Primavera and Nos Primavera situation (some but not all main acts, maybe the Sunday legend + one headliner) with potentially an option for people to trade tickets between events so that they end up at the same festival as the majority of their group. 

It definitely wouldn't be close to being as good as Glasto and the atmosphere of the Pyramid and Stone Circle but it would sure beat the hell out of wallowing at home missing out on a cracking line up. 

[fatyeti24]

Doesn't sound much different to any other festival, of which there's plenty already.

[DarrenVonBoathook]

A consolation festival .  I've wondered the same thing myself and personally I'd like to see it happen (but then again I don't have to organise or fund it. )

[eastynh]

Nah leave it as it is. 

Now I feel sick as a dog at not getting a ticket. Yet I know there are people absolutely buzzing at getting one today, which makes me feel a bit better. Don't dilute the buzz of getting a ticket with a 2nd place festival. The demand for getting a ticket adds to the kudos.

[Rose-Colored Boy]

1 hour ago, fatyeti24 said:

Doesn't sound much different to any other festival, of which there's plenty already.

Maybe this would be in some way true if ‘other festivals’ booked killer lineups like Glastonbury does. It can be no coincidence that demand for G has skyrocketed since the likes of R+L and V went downhill (and collapsed totally, in the case of the latter).

Personally I’d be thrilled if there was a second Glastonbury with the exact same diversity of musical acts, art installations, political speakers and lack of corporate interference. Obviously it wouldn’t be ‘the same’ and you wouldn’t be able to stand in the Pyramid Field thinking ‘wow, David Bowie and Stevie Wonder once performed on that stage’ or experience all the other location-specific things that make Worthy Farm what it is, but .. if it’s a choice between that or never getting a ticket you’d be able to cope, especially if the twin event was in a place with better transport links.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Rose-Colored Boy

[Dukeicon]

24 minutes ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

Maybe this would be in some way true if ‘other festivals’ booked killer lineups like Glastonbury does. It can be no coincidence that demand for G has skyrocketed since the likes of R+L and V went downhill (and collapsed totally, in the case of the latter).

If Glastonbury paid acts the same fees that they get at other festivals then you would either not get a 'killer lineup' at Glastonbury or tickets would be at least £500+.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

Unfortunately Glastonbury is a one off and cannot be replicated. All other festivals apart from Boomtown struggle to even sell their allocation. There are music festivals, which it appears people are getting slightly bored of, and there is Glastonbury, which more and more people want to either go to for the first time or go to again and again and again.

Don't get me wrong, after not getting tickets I’d absolutely love for there to be a other event I could go to on the same weekend that would be even close to as good, but it just isn’t possible.

[Crazyfool01]

as soon as you do that glastonbury devalues .. look at the struggles of some of the other festivals to survive .... its healthy now keep it that way 

[fatyeti24]

1 hour ago, Rose-Colored Boy said:

Maybe this would be in some way true if ‘other festivals’ booked killer lineups like Glastonbury does. It can be no coincidence that demand for G has skyrocketed since the likes of R+L and V went downhill (and collapsed totally, in the case of the latter).

Personally I’d be thrilled if there was a second Glastonbury with the exact same diversity of musical acts, art installations, political speakers and lack of corporate interference. Obviously it wouldn’t be ‘the same’ and you wouldn’t be able to stand in the Pyramid Field thinking ‘wow, David Bowie and Stevie Wonder once performed on that stage’ or experience all the other location-specific things that make Worthy Farm what it is, but .. if it’s a choice between that or never getting a ticket you’d be able to cope, especially if the twin event was in a place with better transport links.

Much of what appeals to me about Glastonbury isn't to be found in the line up, so an alternative would, in that respect, just be another festival.  For that same reason, R&L or V would never appeal to me even if I was into the acts that they have on.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

11 minutes ago, fatyeti24 said:

Much of what appeals to me about Glastonbury isn't to be found in the line up, so an alternative would, in that respect, just be another festival.  For that same reason, R&L or V would never appeal to me even if I was into the acts that they have on.

This. I don’t really care about the acts, who cares about Adele or Ed Sheeran I hate their music anyway. Personally I’d rather they didn’t book acts like this because it would make tickets easier to get. The acts are irrelevant, the place is magical and you can see one or two acts a day and still have a brilliant time, this cannot sadly be replicated.

[fowls]

I can't help but think Glasto has a lot of leniency because it's been established for so long.  Try setting up a new ground with music going on til 8am and there's going to be a lot of bureaucracy to battle through. I don't think it's impossible, but I don't think it would be a simple proposition.

 

Personally, I'm not totally against it. What makes Glasto special for me are the mix of big and small acts, all the areas to chill out, Shangri La with its sets for partying, and the lay out of the festival in a valley (for some reason it wouldn't be the same if it was just a flat field).  Im not so interested in the spirituality part of the festival (sorry!) and I'm  not entirely convinced by the arguments for atmosphere and 'people' since tickets are sold to a somewhat random 135k people each year. The small subcultures are in the people who provide the festival, and that can always grow to a second site. Like all the small arty things? Well there are plenty more around the country who could provide that kind of thing just as well. The acts are just as oversubscribed as the tickets!

 

With a second festival they could set up a second completely different ShangriLa.  Sure, it wouldn't be the original Pyramid stage, but it's something. If it had a similar but somewhat different identity I doubt there would be many haters once it established itself. The difficulty is in setting it up in a single year.  Glastonbury has had huge incremental improvements over even the last 5 years.  

 

As much as I'd love to say Glastonbury is completely impossible to reproduce, I think 80% of it could be carried to a different site and maintain much the same vibe if the right people were involved.

 

Wasn't there that rumour that the Arcadia festival could actually be the secret lead up to the Glasto Bazaar? It would make the most sense to grow another festival without the Glasto hype to grow organically before giving it the Glasto branding.

Edited October 7, 2018 by fowls

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

I think it would be possible but sadly the only way it would be possible if some sort of billionaire decided that just for fun they wanted to set it up a festival to rival Glastonbury.

Glastonbury has grown organically for nearly 50 years, and due to a myriad of different factors that you couldn’t possibly replicate from scratch it has got to where it is today.

To replicate it without a ton of money and a willingness to operate without profit, I think it would sadly be impossible. 

Edited October 7, 2018 by Deaf Nobby Burton

[JayBalls]

Glastonbury has never been about the line up, it's the vibe of the place as a whole, you can just walk about soaking in all of the different aspects of it such as art and performances without seeing an oodle of a 'headliner' that's what makes it great that's what makes it Glasto and that's what makes it so damn hard to get tickets, it cannot be watered down, long may it continue.

[42hamlet]

The only way I can see this working is having a coachella style thing of two weekends of the same festival

 

Of course, that would completely mess up the farm so it wouldn't be practically possible in any way

[JayBalls]

4 minutes ago, 42hamlet said:

The only way I can see this working is having a coachella style thing of two weekends of the same festival

 

Of course, that would completely mess up the farm so it wouldn't be practically possible in any way

Hmm again the watered down thing stands though I'm sure they wouldn't have a problem selling out twice.

[Hugh Jass]

Isn’t this what Variety Bazaar is going to be?

[JayBalls]

Just now, Hugh Jass said:

Isn’t this what Variety Bazaar is going to be?

Yeah still in the pipeline I think.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

9 minutes ago, 42hamlet said:

The only way I can see this working is having a coachella style thing of two weekends of the same festival

 

Of course, that would completely mess up the farm so it wouldn't be practically possible in any way

That would be an issue in years like 2016 the cleanup apparently took 6 weeks!

Maybe a week apart would be unrealistic, so you’d have to have it maybe a month apart, but that wouldn’t solve the issue as most people would try for both so you’d have to devise a system where you could only go to one.

Another big issue would be the acts, could they get or afford an act like the Rolling Stones to do both festivals, and if not how would they distribute the acts? 

[JayBalls]

1 minute ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

That would be an issue in years like 2016 the cleanup apparently took 6  weeks

This was the issue for longleatI believe 

[Radi0Head]

A sister festival would be pointless, as already is a huge number of other festivals. I’m not talking about reading and Leeds. Not getting tickets sucks but there’s way way more out there you’ve just gotta look and there’ll be something unexpected just hidden away.

[Hugh Jass]

12 minutes ago, JayBalls said:

Yeah still in the pipeline I think.

It’ll be interesting to see what impact, if any, VB will have on demand.

[bsolxiv]

G has over 40 years of goodwill in the bank, including years of land wrangling and permissions with councils that are embedded in the area. ME pays peanuts for acts BECAUSE it’s Glastonbury. He would be mad to dilute that at all. He also says he prefers the farming to the festival, why would he want to organise another from scratch?

[Radi0Head]

1 minute ago, bsolxiv said:

G has over 40 years of goodwill in the bank, including years of land wrangling and permissions with councils that are embedded in the area. ME pays peanuts for acts BECAUSE it’s Glastonbury. He would be mad to dilute that at all. He also says he prefers the farming to the festival, why would he want to organise another from scratch?

ME isn’t in charge these days it’s all EE

[JayBalls]

18 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

It’ll be interesting to see what impact, if any, VB will have on demand.

It would but if they have as much demand for the one as they say they do they could sell it a few times over.

[RichardWaller]

I dunno... I think the location of Glastonbury is important, it's just magical. 

I joined this place before the 2016 festival and remember at the time there being a fair bit of speculation about there being a different affiliated festival at Longleat in fallow years, or the festival moving site permanently. Yeah there are features that could be moved elsewhere but if you can't see the sun setting over the Tor, sit up at the Stone Circle, stroll down the Old Railway Track or walk up the hill at the top of The Park to catch a view of the whole festival, it's not Glastonbury. If the Eavis' were to try to organise another festival without pretending to be Glastonbury, good luck.