Time for a sister festival on same weekend?

[Quark]

Personally, no.  If such a thing were to exist and I didn't get a ticket to Glastonbury, I can pretty much guarantee I'd look elsewhere.

The festival market's saturated as it is.  Glastonbury v2 would probably sell out for the first year or so, wipe out a few more of the smaller festivals as a result, then the novelty would wear off or the Eavii would decide it's not worth the candle, and stop running it.

A watered down Glastonbury at the expense of things like Bearded Theory, Green Man, Beautiful Days etc? Nah thanks.

[Yokel Again]

No.Too many reasons to list, most already done so.

It was only ten years ago it only just sold out. 

[shuttlep]

I know it has not happened for a while, but what about if one year tickets don't sell as they are now, and take a month to sell out, or maybe don't sell out ?

[Quark]

1 minute ago, shuttlep said:

I know it has not happened for a while, but what about if one year tickets don't sell as they are now, and take a month to sell out, or maybe don't sell out ?

Twitter would be nicer place?

EDIT: relatively speaking...

Edited October 16, 2018 by Quark

[elbongo]

On 10/7/2018 at 2:16 PM, fowls said:

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.

Yep. Sums it up... That top bit. Nobody (Councils, policing etc.) in the right mind would agree to the sort of thing which makes Glasto what it is. 

[uscore]

I don't think it'll happen but I don't think it's a terrible idea.   It could start as a smaller festival, but with as many of the acts from the main festival as possible - particularly from the pyramid stage.

I think for a huge amount of people it wouldn't be the same.  But for people who are mainly interested in the music,  or as a kind of consolation prize, it might have some merit.

You'd try to keep some Glastonbury spirit;  no arena,  good kids area, plenty of space, no tories, that kind of thing.   Then let it evolve over years if it was successful.

I think when Leeds started off it was viewed as the poor relation but it has grown in its own right now.

Hold it up north too.  Glastonbury is a long way to travel for some people.  Might be enough for some people to think "that'll do" if it's on their doorstep.

[Padgey]

Just wouldn't be the same, Glastonbury is what it is because of how it's grown as a festival and personally I couldn't give a shit who is on or who headlines because the place offers so much more.  An "sister" festival would need something special to attract people, this would mean a decent lineup, which would be very difficult as all the acts available would want to be playing the main festival for their exposure. 

[SecretFish]

the only way I can see it working is if it was purely for new and upcoming bands. Much smaller and music focused.

 

 

not for me though. plenty of alternatives out there.

[glastolover19]

I'll let you use my place for free if you can get Pink Floyd to play

[Crazyfool01]

Emily ruled it out at the Q and A session along with variety bazaar ,,,, Glastonbury keeps them busy enough 

[glastolover19]

1 minute ago, crazyfool1 said:

Emily ruled it out at the Q and A session along with variety bazaar ,,,, Glastonbury keeps them busy enough 

Exactly what I thought tbh,don't think folks realize how much work goes into 1 fest let alone 2. Always thought the vb idea was just that,an idea and once it got out it kinda snowballed,don't think there was a serious consideration to do it.

[Havors]

There is a market for another Glastonbury esque festival later in the summer I think. A lot of the bigger(popular) festivals have died or are dying...  V Fest is gone, Festival No6 is gone, Secret Garden party is gone, Bestival is gone/going.... etc etc 

A sister festival at same time... just not sure it would work or that they would want to even do it. 

[eFestivals]

5 minutes ago, Havors said:

There is a market for another Glastonbury esque festival later in the summer I think. A lot of the bigger(popular) festivals have died or are dying...  V Fest is gone, Festival No6 is gone, Secret Garden party is gone, Bestival is gone/going.... etc etc 

A sister festival at same time... just not sure it would work or that they would want to even do it. 

because the market is shrinking.

[Havors]

2 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

because the market is shrinking.

Yeah that is an issue... but exacerbated by shoddy management and terrible decision making... I look at V festival turning into smash hits for kids and wasting the budget on acts like Beiber to the detriment of the festival as a whole... ruined it and people stopped going. 

 

 

[ghostdancer1]

12 minutes ago, glastolover19 said:

Exactly what I thought tbh,don't think folks realize how much work goes into 1 fest let alone 2. Always thought the vb idea was just that,an idea and once it got out it kinda snowballed,don't think there was a serious consideration to do it.

well they went as far as having a name for it, and scoping out sites, even the Arcadia lot going to visit a potential site, so it obviously got some amount of thought.

I'm not convinced that the VB won't happen in 2021 tbh.

[Pinhead]

2 hours ago, Quark said:

Personally, no.  If such a thing were to exist and I didn't get a ticket to Glastonbury, I can pretty much guarantee I'd look elsewhere.

The festival market's saturated as it is.  Glastonbury v2 would probably sell out for the first year or so, wipe out a few more of the smaller festivals as a result, then the novelty would wear off or the Eavii would decide it's not worth the candle, and stop running it.

A watered down Glastonbury at the expense of things like Bearded Theory, Green Man, Beautiful Days etc? Nah thanks.

This. And the examples of alternative festivals posted here are good ones - though significantly smaller are able to compete because they do what they do well and have a character and identity all of their own. As pointed out later as well - who'd begin a new festival now without some very convincing USP.

[Quark]

1 hour ago, ghostdancer1 said:

well they went as far as having a name for it, and scoping out sites, even the Arcadia lot going to visit a potential site, so it obviously got some amount of thought.

I'm not convinced that the VB won't happen in 2021 tbh.

But wasn't VB being scoped as an option for fallow years rather than alongside Glastonbury? Or did I mis-read that?

[Havors]

15 minutes ago, Quark said:

But wasn't VB being scoped as an option for fallow years rather than alongside Glastonbury? Or did I mis-read that?

Yeah thats what I read... and does seem plausible to be honest. 

[Fishman]

18 minutes ago, Quark said:

But wasn't VB being scoped as an option for fallow years rather than alongside Glastonbury? Or did I mis-read that?

Yes ... I believe the main thinking behind it was that the festival now employ a large number of full-time staff and it would give them and the various teams (Arcadia, Unfairground, Block 9 etc.) something to do in the year off.

It had the added attraction of being a shot across the bows to the numerous surrounding land owners who The Eavii felt were asking for more and more money for their piece. (Well that's how I saw it?!)

[ghostdancer1]

32 minutes ago, Quark said:

But wasn't VB being scoped as an option for fallow years rather than alongside Glastonbury? Or did I mis-read that?

yes, it was, Emily apparently ruled out both a sister festival, and the Variety Bazaar (ie. a different festival on the fallow year in 2021), according to crazyfool above.

I wouldn't agree that it was just an idea and there wasn't serious consideration, they clearly put a lot of thought into it, as in the Michael + Emily interview with the Guardian they talk about various plans for it, and went around looking at sites too.

[FatAmmy]

A few of the bigger US festivals are doing the same lineup two weekends in a row - that's absolutely not feasible for the 5-day beast that is glasto tho

[SteveTLizard]

So to summarise ....

• People without a ticket for 2019 ... "Yes please, that sounds like a great idea, I need Glastonbury in my life in anyway possible"
• People with a ticket ... "Nah, Glastonbury's special man, a one off, there's no place like it, leave it be ... if you haven't got a ticket chill out and do something else"  *

Personally I'd like to see a Joe Bananas themed festival where people dance around a stall selling blankets playing banging house music for 3 days non-stop.  Who needs the naughty corner.

 

* folk will reserve the right to change teams on the first Sunday of October.

 

Edited October 16, 2018 by SteveTLizard

[Matt42]

I think the only hope now is that the festival will become uncool 

[glastolover19]

3 hours ago, ghostdancer1 said:

well they went as far as having a name for it, and scoping out sites, even the Arcadia lot going to visit a potential site, so it obviously got some amount of thought.

I'm not convinced that the VB won't happen in 2021 tbh.

The name came from a shop

As far as I know arcadia is a separate concern,I saw they show in London earlier this year and that was nothing to do with gf

[stuie]

I don't think that Glastonbury will ever be replicated. 

It's some kind of miracle that it's not only still going but bigger than ever with such a positive reputation.  The Showdown at Glastonbury 1992 documentary really highlights how close it came to ending back then and there were more difficult times between then and the superfence.  

No council or police force would ever agree to a new event on the same scale, for the same duration or with the same licence conditions, like music until 6/7am.  It exists as some freak survivor of days gone by and I hope it continues to hang on in there for many years to come.