Music Festivals given go ahead from late May...

[efcfanwirral]

4 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

It was a relief wasn't it! You weren't far from me as I lay in the shade by the theatre tent after Sheryl Crow for about 3 hours....constantly getting annoyed that I was missing a lot of bimbling around on a day off but also I couldn't bare the heat.  I was starting a shift at 7pm and eventually made my way towards the Stonebridge bar and stopped at the Other stage for The Charlatans and like you say was relieved that it had finally cooled down!

Saturday I had to hide until I made my way to the Pyramid field during Hozier/Janet Jackson and then tried to drink a pint outside the Mandela bar whilst waiting for a mate I was watching Liam Gallagher with.....was just about ok by that point!

I don't mind the heat, but that was a joke!

We sat in the Mandela bar for Carrie Underwood and whoever was on after her on the Saturday - we couldn't bring ourselves to go outside. Gf wasn't drinking, I had a couple of ciders as found them refreshing and the bar was, indeed, right there and I can't help myself, but it certainly wasn't the usual festival day!

[zahidf]

[Hugh Jass]

1 minute ago, zahidf said:

I know it’s been a year... but no.

[kingcrawler]

 

[Hugh Jass]

Brown was ranting on Twitter the other day that he wouldn’t play venues that insist on vaccinations.

One wag replied “that’s up to Butlins to decide mate.”

Made me chuckle.

[Joshuwarr]

1 hour ago, incident said:

Think it was more about poor ticket sales and money problems than anything else.

They only sold 35,000 tickets in 2016 (out of 60,000), and as a result that festival had some dramatic and noticeable last minute cutbacks which pissed off a lot of the regulars. They basically never recovered from that - the following year was moved to Lulworth to try and save cash and attract people back who didn't want to pay Ferry costs, and then the year after that in another cost saving measure they moved to the weekend after Camp B so that they could use all the same infrastructure twice. Somewhere within all that they took out millions of pounds in loans and ended up collapsing in a huge pile of debt.

Its a great shame. I actually really enjoyed Bestival in 2018 - the set up was really lovely. It was the first time I'd been since around 2013 and it definitely felt like an entirely different festival.

[priest17]

1 hour ago, Leyrulion said:

Saturday we walked from the healing fields to John Peel Tent to get to gerry Cinnamon. 

It took forever, honestly the grassy area outside the tent was strewn with people who'd given up the last trek and fallen down with ice creams. The van must have taken five figures whilst we were there. 

It was very rammo and very hot. I've spent years building a snobby music taste and being a cultural elitist, all undone by my best drink of the weekend being a pint of carlsberg at Gerry Cinnamon.

[zahidf]

14 minutes ago, kingcrawler said:

 

Looolllll. Good luck with playing anywhere for the next decade

[FloorFiller]

16 minutes ago, kingcrawler said:

 

What a knobhead.

[efcfanwirral]

 

25 minutes ago, zahidf said:

My local festival - may give James another go, they've been poor every time I've seen them in daylight but great when they've had the darkness and headline slot (Kendal 2012 especially was magical)

Looks like the vaccine passports are happening then....hopefully just a short lived thing (wishful thinking...)

[zahidf]

6 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

 

My local festival - may give James another go, they've been poor every time I've seen them in daylight but great when they've had the darkness and headline slot (Kendal 2012 especially was magical)

Looks like the vaccine passports are happening then....hopefully just a short lived thing (wishful thinking...)

I reckon Brown was told it MIGHT happen and he said no to even a possibility of it

[Hugh Jass]

5 minutes ago, zahidf said:

I reckon Brown was told it MIGHT happen and he said no to even a possibility of it

Either that or the organisers actually listened to his last album during lockdown.

[Suprefan]

10 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

 

My local festival - may give James another go, they've been poor every time I've seen them in daylight but great when they've had the darkness and headline slot (Kendal 2012 especially was magical)

Looks like the vaccine passports are happening then....hopefully just a short lived thing (wishful thinking...)

I dont see anything wrong with them doing it. Its for barely half a festival season this year. We dont even have the specifics on guidance and its better to be safe than sorry. You also give people motivation to get a jab. You think everyone who bought a ticket to Reading isnt going to try and get it? You know anyone that was going to Glasto  would move heaven and earth to do so. In the end, more room for the ones that want to comply and less assholes that think they can skate by the rules. It has to start from the top down to set a standard. If the big fests make that kind of announcement then everyone follows and lets see who complains. 

[stuie]

3 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

What happened? Go too mainstream? 

 

2 hours ago, incident said:

Think it was more about poor ticket sales and money problems than anything else.

They only sold 35,000 tickets in 2016 (out of 60,000), and as a result that festival had some dramatic and noticeable last minute cutbacks which pissed off a lot of the regulars. They basically never recovered from that - the following year was moved to Lulworth to try and save cash and attract people back who didn't want to pay Ferry costs, and then the year after that in another cost saving measure they moved to the weekend after Camp B so that they could use all the same infrastructure twice. Somewhere within all that they took out millions of pounds in loans and ended up collapsing in a huge pile of debt.

Ultimately, the party crowd moved on. Other choices were available such as Boomtown which at the time was more like Bestival used to be before it grew and grew every year. Bigger crowds meant bigger mainstream acts and coupled with the ferry companies taking the piss it became a victim of its own success. 

2016 as you say was obviously cutback... Bollywood lost its plush styling and looked like a covid testing marquee. The all new Spaceport that replaced the legendary Port stage fell so short of the artists impression they released. 

It’s a shame but nothing is forever.  I think we’re about to see this with Boomtown. Maybe not this year, but soon. 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

 

Ultimately, the party crowd moved on. Other choices were available such as Boomtown which at the time was more like Bestival used to be before it grew and grew every year. Bigger crowds meant bigger mainstream acts and coupled with the ferry companies taking the piss it became a victim of its own success. 

2016 as you say was obviously cutback... Bollywood lost its plush styling and looked like a covid testing marquee. The all new Spaceport that replaced the legendary Port stage fell so short of the artists impression they released. 

It’s a shame but nothing is forever.  I think we’re about to see this with Boomtown. Maybe not this year, but soon. 

I remember when I first went (2011) I think, in the years prior that it came on my radar it always seemed ‘cool’ (nothing could sound more uncool than describing it as cool, but hopefully you know what I mean) like a genuine alternative to Glastonbury, with a bit more laid back, hippy-ish clientele sort of thing. Then I think a couple of things happened, as you say other festivals popped up that did the same thing or better, but were far cheaper because of the lack of need for a ferry.

I also think because festivals in general got so much more popular from around 2010 (the type of people who wouldn’t necessarily go to a festival in the noughties, started going in droves the following decade) none more so than dance festivals, and because Bestival always had such a good dance lineup it attracted these newer type festival goers that went to all these new dance festivals, but as a result it lost its edge and just became one of many.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Deaf Nobby Burton

[Zacko]

I remember reading Prince was close to headlining Bestival in 2016. I do always wonder if they'd still be going had he done it, would have surely sold out 2016 in minutes? 

In the end they had Sean Paul and Wiz Khalifa coheadline the Sunday, which felt hilariously naff in comparison. 

[Paul ™]

Pretty much the crowd moved on as it does from events such as Glade, Big Chill, Bestival, Boomtown will be next.. it's already happening.

[Hugh Jass]

3 hours ago, FloorFiller said:

What a knobhead.

I made the mistake of reading some of the replies to that tweet.

Amazes me that anyone who uses the phrase “sheeple” could ever be on the right side of any argument anywhere ever.

[nikkic]

12 hours ago, zahidf said:

I reckon Brown was told it MIGHT happen and he said no to even a possibility of it

He’s got the fear

[Greenelk]

Nice to see our little radio station as one of the official media partners.  Bastille headlining this and Latitude that weekend, I wonder how many others from this poster will make an appearance in Southwold

[found home in 2009]

33 minutes ago, Greenelk said:

Nice to see our little radio station as one of the official media partners.  Bastille headlining this and Latitude that weekend, I wonder how many others from this poster will make an appearance in Southwold

I'm always rubbish at judging how big bands/acts are. I really liked BC Camplight's album and Porridge Radio's albums last year and thought they would be a bit further up the line up. Rgere are a few people I've never heard of ahead of them in the line up.

[xxialac]

39 minutes ago, Greenelk said:

Nice to see our little radio station as one of the official media partners.  Bastille headlining this and Latitude that weekend, I wonder how many others from this poster will make an appearance in Southwold

Did it have such a high percentage of UK bands on the poster last time?

[Greenelk]

15 minutes ago, xxialac said:

Did it have such a high percentage of UK bands on the poster last time?

Not sure, but I doubt it.  I'm hearing that Latitude is almost totally UK bands as well though, so I think it's likely many festivals will mirror that

[Old_Johno]

13 hours ago, Paul ™ said:

Pretty much the crowd moved on as it does from events such as Glade, Big Chill, Bestival, Boomtown will be next.. it's already happening.

Boomtowns cut the numbers in half and isn’t releasing the lineup until the week before to try and revisit what it wants to be as a festival. 2019 was full of wrong uns’.

Didn’t 2000 trees do something similar? Took back control and made it a small festival again. 

[gooner1990]

20 minutes ago, Old_Johno said:

Boomtowns cut the numbers in half and isn’t releasing the lineup until the week before to try and revisit what it wants to be as a festival. 2019 was full of wrong uns’.

Didn’t 2000 trees do something similar? Took back control and made it a small festival again. 

The roadmen/chav types were out in full force that year!