All Points East Festival 2022

[xxialac]

They were doing free Nick Cave NHS tickets this morning - and that's obviously one of the more popular days...

[Zoo Music Girl]

4 minutes ago, scatteredscreens said:

Yeah same reason why I wouldn't bother anymore either. Makes it even more of a shame when it's like the only UK date for like Nick Cave and it's stuck at such a grim corporate fest.

Yeah this is a shame. I was lucky enough to see the Carnage tour last October and of course Primavera so don't feel too starved of Cave but a proper Bad Seeds gig would have been awesome. The Ghosteen O2 one was never rescheduled.

[scatteredscreens]

Just now, Zoo Music Girl said:

Yeah this is a shame. I was lucky enough to see the Carnage tour last October and of course Primavera so don't feel too starved of Cave but a proper Bad Seeds gig would have been awesome. The Ghosteen O2 one was never rescheduled.

Yeah I was at Primavera thankfully and it was class.

Didn't go to the Carnage dates as it clashed with EoTR unfortunately and I had tickets to the Ghosteen tour which I'm still gutted about being cancelled to this day.

[xxialac]

I’ve heard they are changing the name next year to Luno Amex Crypto Brainwashing Festival.

[Zoo Music Girl]

11 minutes ago, scatteredscreens said:

Yeah I was at Primavera thankfully and it was class.

Didn't go to the Carnage dates as it clashed with EoTR unfortunately and I had tickets to the Ghosteen tour which I'm still gutted about being cancelled to this day.

I had my issues with Primavera generally (which I've wanged on about enough!) but all the music I saw there was awesome. Cave included.

[gfa]

23 minutes ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

I've always found APE lacking in atmosphere in the past and really prone to casuals chatting through sets. That's basically why I didn't want to pay for my ticket! If I find that to be the case tomorrow I won't feel hard done by. Think it would take a lot for me to fork out full price again.

Leads to a spiral of decline this, people think theres talkers -> more free tickets = more talkers who are there because it was free

23 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Huh it was claiming sell out at one point on Friday afternoon. So if it's that substantially smaller than the crazy crowds I had to trawl through on Strokes day in 2019, that's quite a fall in numbers.

And yeah I did see a lot of competitions were going on, albeit only ever as a background thing as much as anything.

If this returns for 2023 and a line-up that I sort of want to get on turns up, maybe it's worth monitoring.

Field Day was ridiculous last weekend, felt way busier than the strokes. I think the site has got bigger since then with 3 major stages now (new tent) instead of just the 2 outdoor ones

[xxialac]

It seems like the dance ones are selling well and the ones aimed at old twats like me not so much so maybe they'll do fewer days next year and just focus on bigger dance acts and younger acts.

[Zoo Music Girl]

13 minutes ago, xxialac said:

It seems like the dance ones are selling well and the ones aimed at old twats like me not so much so maybe they'll do fewer days next year and just focus on bigger dance acts and younger acts.

Could absolutely see this happening.

[Zoo Music Girl]

Actually that kind of happened with the Clapham Common events right? Remember seeing Iggy and the stooges and some other more rocky bands at some event there way back when but now they only seem to do dance stuff.

Wireless also used to be more indie/older acts (saw Pulp and Grace Jones there) but then that went dancey. 

Will leave us with just BST for guitar based one dayers.

[mynameismatt]

The thing I don’t get is how much The National must be getting paid to come to the UK for one weekend in the middle of a US tour.

i thought it seemed 20,000ish there, probably a few more. good atmosphere, no talkers, no queues. couldn’t complain, although the corporate stuff has stepped up big time. 
 

Could see them continuing with the indie days but shutting one of the other stages, or maybe even just doing like FR do in Finsbury Park and basically just one stage. 

[Dancers Stand Very Still]

I think this'll be my last year of APE. Perhaps, I've been spoilt by crowds at GM, EotR and the smaller gigs I tend to go to but APE crowds definitely include a cross-section of levels of respect to fellow gig-goers/humans, shall we say! Glad that it was at least fairly 'quiet' there yesterday. Will see how Sunday goes but I'm not really looking forward to it any more.

The best part of the day was early on for me. I enjoyed Beth Atwell, although the sound-bleed from the boom-boom X thing was annoying and prompted a comment from the artist too. TBF, Nathan Fake there later was great but that should really be a tent. Music-wise, Fleet Foxes were the stand out for me. A really impressive set and very torn between them and black midi at EotR now. The National were good but probably the worst I've seen them (that doesn't mean bad, they just have previously set very high standards). What's happened to Matt Berninger's voice? Was he ill?

 

[sadimmock]

1 hour ago, xxialac said:

It seems like the dance ones are selling well and the ones aimed at old twats like me not so much so maybe they'll do fewer days next year and just focus on bigger dance acts and younger acts.

It depends on their commercial model. How dependant are they on ticket sales vs how much do Amex pay to get an audience full of people able and willing to Spaff £500+ a year on a Platinum card (see also BMW, Lumo etc)? What kind of act brings that audience? Would be fascinating to peek into the economics 

Edited August 27, 2022 by sadimmock
Shameful Typo’s

[xxialac]

9 minutes ago, sadimmock said:

It depends on their commercial model. How dependant are they in ticket sales vs how much do Amex pay do get and audience full of people able and willing to Spaff £500+ a year on a Platinum card (see also BMW, Lumo etc)? What kind of act brings that audience? Would be fascinating to peek into the economics 

Good point! They want the more affluent Hyde Park type customers but it seems not enough of them want to come.

[Porcelina]

The National was busy back to behind the sound desks at least, far from sold out but felt about 60-70% of the sold out Jamie xx day last year?

In my top three National gigs for sure, and Fleet Foxes sounded just as good as they did on Thursday. 

Long live APE, best weekend of the year in London 

Edited August 27, 2022 by Porcelina

[more matey]

7 minutes ago, sadimmock said:

It depends on their commercial model. How dependant are they in ticket sales vs how much do Amex pay do get and audience full of people able and willing to Spaff £500+ a year on a Platinum card (see also BMW, Lumo etc)? What kind of act brings that audience? Would be fascinating to peek into the economics 

Totally agreed - the economics of the event are I suspect very complicated. I agree with others regarding attendance - my best guess was 25,000. I actually think that is a solid attendance for a The National curated event given they were the main draw. Only Fleet Foxes would have drawn extra sales. Plus King Gizzard cancelling I suspect led to a higher % of no-shows. Worth remembering that the biggest non-festival gig The National have ever played in the UK was at the 02 in 2014. From memory that didn’t quite sell out either (roughly 20k attendance).

I feel I need to defend the festival a little from some on here. The crowd from my perspective were great - very polite and very few chatters. Like most on here, I go to a lot of gigs. There are always talkers in the middle to back rows, hence I ensure I am always at the front. As long as you ensure you are in the first few rows you will have an incredible time tomorrow. What was so great yesterday was that it was easy to get upfront for everything.

I’m going to Primavera next year for the first time. Judging by some comments on this forum, I’m expecting the promised land....

[gfa]

1 hour ago, xxialac said:

It seems like the dance ones are selling well and the ones aimed at old twats like me not so much so maybe they'll do fewer days next year and just focus on bigger dance acts and younger acts.

I think 2 weekends needs to be scrapped. 1 weekend going from friday-bank holiday monday, with field day and then 3 well curated days will sell it well. This year the acts were spread too thin, tame impala in particular had horrendous support as they had to split all the acts between so many days.

The Disclosure day is quite stacked, should be busy - aiming to arrive around half 3 i think.

edit- another thing, repeat bookings / common bookings. 3/6 headliners played very recently at the festival or like the national did BST. They need to mix it up more with 6 days or go back to one weekend.

Edited August 27, 2022 by gfa

[evilduck]

I’ve been going to whatever festivals have been at Victoria park for the last 10 years or so (field day, loveboxx, Apple cart, citadel, now all points east) and there’s always been a wishy washy crowd and varying attendance. Some days are sellouts when they get a particularly big draw, most have been easy to get tickets and not too packed. They always seem to persist and I hope they continue, it’s a kind of lineup I can’t get at other big London festivals. 

[xxialac]

18 minutes ago, more matey said:

Totally agreed - the economics of the event are I suspect very complicated. I agree with others regarding attendance - my best guess was 25,000. I actually think that is a solid attendance for a The National curated event given they were the main draw. Only Fleet Foxes would have drawn extra sales. Plus King Gizzard cancelling I suspect led to a higher % of no-shows. Worth remembering that the biggest non-festival gig The National have ever played in the UK was at the 02 in 2014. From memory that didn’t quite sell out either (roughly 20k attendance).

I feel I need to defend the festival a little from some on here. The crowd from my perspective were great - very polite and very few chatters. Like most on here, I go to a lot of gigs. There are always talkers in the middle to back rows, hence I ensure I am always at the front. As long as you ensure you are in the first few rows you will have an incredible time tomorrow. What was so great yesterday was that it was easy to get upfront for everything.

I’m going to Primavera next year for the first time. Judging by some comments on this forum, I’m expecting the promised land....

Yeah, I didn't mean to sound so negative on APE. And you make a good point about the atmosphere being (dramatically) better near the front.

They put on good lineups and that should be the most important thing. Also is generally pretty well organised.

[Zoo Music Girl]

25 minutes ago, more matey said:

Totally agreed - the economics of the event are I suspect very complicated. I agree with others regarding attendance - my best guess was 25,000. I actually think that is a solid attendance for a The National curated event given they were the main draw. Only Fleet Foxes would have drawn extra sales. Plus King Gizzard cancelling I suspect led to a higher % of no-shows. Worth remembering that the biggest non-festival gig The National have ever played in the UK was at the 02 in 2014. From memory that didn’t quite sell out either (roughly 20k attendance).

I feel I need to defend the festival a little from some on here. The crowd from my perspective were great - very polite and very few chatters. Like most on here, I go to a lot of gigs. There are always talkers in the middle to back rows, hence I ensure I am always at the front. As long as you ensure you are in the first few rows you will have an incredible time tomorrow. What was so great yesterday was that it was easy to get upfront for everything.

I’m going to Primavera next year for the first time. Judging by some comments on this forum, I’m expecting the promised land....

To be fair, I've not been this year yet so can only base my comments on previous years. It's fair enough to say be in the first few rows and avoid the chatters, but I've definitely been to gigs and events where the atmosphere is good all the way back. When I was young I'd always be down the front but I don't enjoy being crushed in and having no space these days so tend to head for the middle. Of course you get more chatters there, that's to be expected, but APE has always been particularly bad to my mind. I've been to a lot of festivals and outdoor gigs to compare it to.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Zoo Music Girl

[scatteredscreens]

3 hours ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

I had my issues with Primavera generally (which I've wanged on about enough!) but all the music I saw there was awesome. Cave included.

Oh for sure, I ain't going back to primavera, I more meant Cave was class 😅 him and the smile were the best thing I saw all weekend

[more matey]

1 hour ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

To be fair, I've not been this year yet so can only base my comments on previous years. It's fair enough to say be in the first few rows and avoid the chatters, but I've definitely been to gigs and events where the atmosphere is good all the way back. When I was young I'd always be down the front but I don't enjoy being crushed in and having no space these days so tend to head for the middle. Of course you get more chatters there, that's to be expected, but APE has always been particularly bad to my mind. I've been to a lot of festivals and outdoor gigs to compare it to.

Fair enough. I guess I can only comment on my own experience and I loved the people around me last night - mega intense super fans pouring themselves into the performance.

Like you I’ve also had plenty to compare it to and have experienced much, much worse. 

I hope it goes well tomorrow.

[Sean1234321]

Where is this luno thing where you can win stuff? 

[Zoo Music Girl]

25 minutes ago, more matey said:

Fair enough. I guess I can only comment on my own experience and I loved the people around me last night - mega intense super fans pouring themselves into the performance.

Like you I’ve also had plenty to compare it to and have experienced much, much worse. 

I hope it goes well tomorrow.

Yeah I'm sure down the front it was great! I do miss the atmosphere but I just can't hack being in the middle of tightly packed crowds any more so it's a pay off. Also possible that it's changed since I last went.

I'm not worried about tomorrow as I got my ticket for free! Low expectations and no outlay mean the only way is up 😀 

[becca_]

11 minutes ago, Sean1234321 said:

Where is this luno thing where you can win stuff? 

There’s one as you come in, like just go straight and if you hit shake shack you’ve gone too far. One to the left of each stage - the East stage one is just down from the Coke installation and the West one is to the left of the bar (I think it’s the bar lol). 

[gfa]

Very busy at disclosure

23 minutes ago, Sean1234321 said:

Where is this luno thing where you can win stuff? 

Halfway between main stage and tent, near coca cola thing