Glastonbury don't have enough money to put on the "exact same show"

[Xeph1995]

For what it's worth I think the line up is decent so far but it begs the question, why spend all that money on one year and have to tone down the next? 

Glastonbury always sells out so that's not really an issue. 

[Johnnyseven]

1 hour ago, DeanoL said:

Not even that a lot of the time. I remember Beans on Toast explaining it the one year - at his level (around five years ago) there were two types of gigs at the festival: those that come with a ticket, and those that don't. You need the first one to get in, before you can book in any others. If you take a look at wherever the likes of Beans or Mik play each year, it's much certain that only the biggest of those venues offers a ticket.

I've played both the Bimble Inn and the [old] Avalon Cafe and neither came with a ticket. We were already there as punters, none of us are pro musicians. We weren't  anywhere near headlining or anything but I suspect the Bimble relies on people who are already at the festival to play. I suspect some headline acts on the Avalon Cafe stage would've got a ticket (like Lloyd Grossman) but most would've had to have been there already. 

Edited March 3, 2023 by Johnnyseven

[MEGABOWL]

5 hours ago, gfa said:

Surely they shouldn't have acted irresponsibly last year then?

 

3 minutes ago, Xeph1995 said:

For what it's worth I think the line up is decent so far but it begs the question, why spend all that money on one year and have to tone down the next? 

Glastonbury always sells out so that's not really an issue. 

I don’t think it’s that they particularly overdid it last year, it’s just inflation. The headline rate of inflation is bad enough but for something that consumes a phenomenal amount of fuel the rise in costs is even higher.

[gfa]

I agree it does seem they overspent last year

[CaledonianGonzo]

I guess they did invest in some big things like the Lonely Hearts Club....

 

(although at the same time doing away with things like The Wormhole)

[august1]

2 hours ago, faymondo said:

I read a post from a well known DJ a few years back who's name I cant remember and he basically said its not worth doing Glastonbury unless you want to tick a box on your played list. 

https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2016/06/why-no-glastonbury/

he's back playing it again though

[Crazyfool01]

37 minutes ago, gfa said:

I agree it does seem they overspent last year

surely they budget year on year ? 

[CaledonianGonzo]

I would have assumed last year they were being cautious after the black hole in the finances caused by El Pando.

[mikegday]

The Eavis like to just chat crap tbh lol. Michael is at it every year and looks like Emily is same way. Take it all with a pitch of salt, 2023 will be exactly the same as everyone we’ve been to!

[august1]

didnt they get loads of funding? Loads of cash in the bank as well.

Seems a bit mad to cry poverty. Tbh if that was the case i'd rather have 1 or 2 less big names at the top of the bill than all the small parts of the fest that make it great being cut out.

[parsonjack]

Looking forward to the "Tunnel of Goats" where The Temple was.....

[gfa]

1 hour ago, mikegday said:

The Eavis like to just chat crap tbh lol. Michael is at it every year and looks like Emily is same way. Take it all with a pitch of salt, 2023 will be exactly the same as everyone we’ve been to!

yeah true actually

[clarkete]

3 hours ago, august1 said:

didnt they get loads of funding? Loads of cash in the bank as well.

Seems a bit mad to cry poverty. Tbh if that was the case i'd rather have 1 or 2 less big names at the top of the bill than all the small parts of the fest that make it great being cut out.

No,they got 900k,which is far less n than the millions they had to spend from their reserves during canceled years. 

https://news.sky.com/story/glastonbury-festival-gets-900-000-grant-as-part-of-400m-culture-recovery-fund-12263376

Some of these matters were widely reported... 

https://www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/glastonbury-festival-reports-3m-loss-22676338

[august1]

22 minutes ago, clarkete said:

No,they got 900k,which is far less n than the millions they had to spend from their reserves during canceled years. 

https://news.sky.com/story/glastonbury-festival-gets-900-000-grant-as-part-of-400m-culture-recovery-fund-12263376

Some of these matters were widely reported... 

https://www.business-live.co.uk/retail-consumer/glastonbury-festival-reports-3m-loss-22676338

and a second payment £600,000 so 1.5 million. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/glastonbury-festival-awarded-further-600000-6260494 so they lost 1.6 million in total during covid, not linking to the mail who say 3.1 million.

Would have made a few quid from Worthy Pastures but lets say that and last years festival broke even

10.6 million in the bank in 2019 in reserve https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48750501

So they are down to their last 9 million pounds.

 

[stuartbert two hats]

5 hours ago, gfa said:

I agree it does seem they overspent last year

Nah, last year had subtle cuts compared to 2019. It's the cost of living crisis innit.

[Punksnotdead]

4 hours ago, mikegday said:

The Eavis like to just chat crap tbh lol. Michael is at it every year and looks like Emily is same way. Take it all with a pitch of salt, 2023 will be exactly the same as everyone we’ve been to!

Hardly worth going if it's exactly the same as every other year is it? 🤣

[stuartbert two hats]

35 minutes ago, august1 said:

and a second payment £600,000 so 1.5 million. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/glastonbury-festival-awarded-further-600000-6260494 so they lost 1.6 million in total during covid, not linking to the mail who say 3.1 million.

Would have made a few quid from Worthy Pastures but lets say that and last years festival broke even

10.6 million in the bank in 2019 in reserve https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48750501

So they are down to their last 9 million pounds.

 

But they're not going to top up the equivalent of £50 per ticket out of their reserves to put on the exact same show. If they did that, they would have about 2m left and be bankrupt next year.

There will be cuts. Hopefully not particularly noticable ones. To be fair, retooling the Glade area around two rather than five performance areas was a canny move in this direction. An up front investment, but much cheaper to keep going.

If we get any new venues this year, expect them to be in place of multiple old stages. 

It won't be exactly the same, but I trust them to still make it great, and hope the little things like bin painting go long after  losing yet another stage.

[clarkete]

45 minutes ago, august1 said:

and a second payment £600,000 so 1.5 million. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/glastonbury-festival-awarded-further-600000-6260494 so they lost 1.6 million in total during covid, not linking to the mail who say 3.1 million.

Would have made a few quid from Worthy Pastures but lets say that and last years festival broke even

10.6 million in the bank in 2019 in reserve https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48750501

So they are down to their last 9 million pounds.

 

"the historic festival retains sizable cash reserves of £8.3 million ($11.2 million) — “cash at bank or in hand” — as of March 31, down from £12.2 million ($16.6 million) the previous year, according to the Companies House financial report" 

That would seem that another year or two like that (which is/wasn't inconceivable) and their future, as well as the massive sums they've donated to good causes per year, would have been at risk. 

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fpro%2Fglastonbury-festival-2019-financial-loss-covid-19%2F

[stuartbert two hats]

9 hours ago, clarkete said:

"the historic festival retains sizable cash reserves of £8.3 million ($11.2 million) — “cash at bank or in hand” — as of March 31, down from £12.2 million ($16.6 million) the previous year, according to the Companies House financial report" 

That would seem that another year or two like that (which is/wasn't inconceivable) and their future, as well as the massive sums they've donated to good causes per year, would have been at risk. 

https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.billboard.com%2Fpro%2Fglastonbury-festival-2019-financial-loss-covid-19%2F

Based on Emily saying they would need £50 per ticket and roughly 140k tickets, that's about a 7m shortfall. Bloody Nora, I expect we'll notice.

Hopefully there will be more traders this year, reducing the queues as well as helping offset the extra costs.

[gfa]

11 hours ago, august1 said:

and a second payment £600,000 so 1.5 million. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/glastonbury-festival-awarded-further-600000-6260494 so they lost 1.6 million in total during covid, not linking to the mail who say 3.1 million.

Would have made a few quid from Worthy Pastures but lets say that and last years festival broke even

10.6 million in the bank in 2019 in reserve https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48750501

So they are down to their last 9 million pounds.

 

3 mil was for only one financial year, there were two so more like 6 mil

[Slimeyc]

If you look at the ticket price for major artists gigs they have skyrocketed over the last ten years. I can imagine how difficult it is to book good acts based on the constraints of their ticket increase and costs as well. Makes you wonder how much it will go up next year 

[Suprefan]

But nobody is getting their full fee anyway at Glasto. Theyre not paying Arctics anything near what R/L gave them last year for example. I think what will be really telling is if the next main poster ends up having maybe 100 names as opposed to last year which was 120+.

 

It already seemed that they cut back last year by having more stages with dj's instead of bands so if that stays the same this year then theyre still attempting to keep talent costs minimal. 
 

Emily also mentioned crowd control and it sounds like sort of getting rid of secret sets without straight out saying that? 

"We’re making sure that doesn’t happen this year by not having big surprises in small places."

[clarkete]

1 hour ago, Suprefan said:

But nobody is getting their full fee anyway at Glasto. Theyre not paying Arctics anything near what R/L gave them last year for example. I think what will be really telling is if the next main poster ends up having maybe 100 names as opposed to last year which was 120+.

 

It already seemed that they cut back last year by having more stages with dj's instead of bands so if that stays the same this year then theyre still attempting to keep talent costs minimal. 
 

Emily also mentioned crowd control and it sounds like sort of getting rid of secret sets without straight out saying that? 

"We’re making sure that doesn’t happen this year by not having big surprises in small places."

They have ever done secret sets on bigger stages, I was there when they had the Libertines on the Pyramid a few years back. 

Obviously plenty will say its not as special as Park, JP etc, but (although I'd read a rumour here) plenty had no idea and were very chuffed. 

[Guest]

On 3/3/2023 at 3:19 PM, DeanoL said:

Not even that a lot of the time. I remember Beans on Toast explaining it the one year - at his level (around five years ago) there were two types of gigs at the festival: those that come with a ticket, and those that don't. You need the first one to get in, before you can book in any others. If you take a look at wherever the likes of Beans or Mik play each year, it's much certain that only the biggest of those venues offers a ticket.

You mean there's some where you have to buy a Glasto ticket, then try to get booked on a stage?

[incident]

1 hour ago, Lucy F said:

You mean there's some where you have to buy a Glasto ticket, then try to get booked on a stage?

There are a small number of people who'll do that.

But moreso that if you see the same act playing 3 or 4 different smaller stages across the weekend - it might be that only one of those stages was able to offer them a wristband, or quite commonly where more than one wristband was needed then each stage chipped in to provide one or two of the total. So basically the gig on stage XYZ can't happen unless the one on ABC also does.

I know of a band who (many years ago) ended up having to take 3 different sets across the weekend to get the 5 wristbands they needed for 4 band members and their sound guy. It didn't help that they already had a gig on the Saturday in Oxford, so they had to leave and then come back for the final set. Two of the stages weren't even the smallest either - the (old) Left Field, and the short lived Late N Live Stage.