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Just out of interest, I took a look at this years lineup. I know it’s a trope to say every year that the lineup gets worse and worse, but goodness me. Is this the worst lineup ever?
Reading Festival **NON QPR on 11:14 - Aug 23 by Landshark
I don't think things are that bad for festivals. Reading sells out pretty much every year. Download Festival completely sold out for the first time in history.
Ticket agencies and promoters are selling more tickets than they had pre-pandemic. Covid made people realise how much they want to experience live events and demand is through the roof. Look at the Taylor Swift tour for example, breaking records, breaking ticketing systems.
They are. Reading usually sells out months in advance. Weekend tickets have sold out a week out, day tickets still available. At least 50 events have been cancelled due to poor sales. All Points East had to get Ladbrokes to start giving away tickets for them, and for the Jungle and Dermot Kennedy days I hear they're not even opening half the site. I actually went to see Lady Gaga at Spurs last year for £1 after ticketmaster tried to dump the unsold tickets.
I go to End of the Road each year which sold out in February for the 2022 edition, July for 2023, and if you want to come you can get a resale ticket for 35% below face value
Saw an interview with a guy from a ticket seller who said sales are down 4%, but revenue is up 14%. However the costs for festivals have ballooned - energy, labour and artist costs have all skyrocketed. Further, there's been a huge demand for refunds, and at smaller events seeing up to 25% of attendees simply not turn up which kills the bar taking. Glastonbury put their prices up 26% and Emily Eavis still said they were wearing some of the increased costs on the ticket price; lots of chat their donation is going to be down this year.
Mega events for solo acts aren't comparable because - there's only a limited number of acts at that stratosphere, you're not building a lot of one off infrastructure from scratch, or footing the energy bill, you have a greater cut of the ticket sales, a greater mental share of merch, greater banding for pricing disparity. Everything's great if you're the biggest act in the world, but for festivals and mid tier artists, it's really really tough right now
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Reading Festival **NON QPR on 14:23 - Aug 23 with 1271 views
Reading Festival **NON QPR on 12:37 - Aug 23 by ngbqpr
The festival landscape now is crowded to say the least. To survive, you need to find a USP.
Reading / Leeds, as noted above, has (seemingly by their own choice) become the annual post-GCSE results blow out for 16 year olds - including many who only dip a toe into music. All my kids went at that age, all their mates did, all wouldn't even consider it by the time they were seasoned veterans of 18.
That line up is a corker for 16 year olds.
On the upside...there are now festivals out there for every age & taste under the sun.
Great post.
i guess... "the times, they are a changing" -Robbie Williams
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Reading Festival **NON QPR on 14:44 - Aug 23 with 1237 views
I first went in 1997 and it felt still a bit old school with only really the beer commercialized, no internet or smart phones and getting absolutely smashed and battered (but fun) in the mosh pit of Pennywise and Sick of it all on the Friday night drunk as a lord. Pulp were ok on the Saturday then you had Marylin Manson and Metallica on the Sunday (a bit quiet though).
I went back in 2009 and it was full on commercial with lots of kids in coloured wellies and expensive looking tents though I was only there for one day.
I went to Bloodstock that year too, the comparison was tangible.
I find Download too big and commercial now aswell and I was at the first one with Maiden. At least the line up is still good most years.
Beer and Beef has made us what we are - The Prince Regent
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Reading Festival **NON QPR on 14:52 - Aug 23 with 1227 views
Reading Festival **NON QPR on 08:49 - Aug 23 by FDC
I went in 1996 and 1997 and loved it. Thing is, I was quite young and only really into the rockier stuff at the time. The Friday evening of Offspring - Prodigy - RATM on the main stage was a kind of dream line up for me. But when I look back at who else was playing that I didn't see, it kills me!
It's hard for me to judge objectively because I don't follow current mainstream pop music - although I am all over current rock, prog, metal and ambient - but man alive, the difference in quality between the line-up this year and in 1996!
With the 1996 line-up, even when you get to the acts whose names are in a tiny and almost illegible font, there are some decent outfits listed.
I'm not the demographic, though, and would look like someone's grandad if I rocked up at this year's festival. It is what it is.
PS: Did someone mention Budgie?
"Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1."
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Reading Festival **NON QPR on 08:02 - Aug 24 with 1002 views
just to double down on my comment about the post exam kids being the demographic....
GF's lad and his mates all going, admittedly they do the odd gig with parents but this is on their agenda and is the only festival/gig that they are considering for the summer.
went for a bike ride with a mate and his daughter is also 16. The conversation is exactly the same; 10 girls going to Reading to mark exam results/coming of age.
that will be repeated x 1000s and make up a lot of the crowd. The diary and marketing has dictated what this festival has become.
I last went for the day 6 years ago and avoided main stage and pick off smaller stages and the crowd was probably older away from the big acts. Disclosure headlined that day, ideal for the kids.
and to be fair to the kids; I didn't go to festivals at 16 and would be there in a flash if I was 16 now.
......... although my GF buying her boy a festival 'kit' which includes a 16 pack of rubbers made me laugh. So far I don't think he's had so much as a sniff so a 3 pack would have sufficed and all would end up as water bombs some time next week!
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Reading Festival **NON QPR on 10:21 - Aug 24 with 916 views
Reading Festival **NON QPR on 08:02 - Aug 24 by westberksr
just to double down on my comment about the post exam kids being the demographic....
GF's lad and his mates all going, admittedly they do the odd gig with parents but this is on their agenda and is the only festival/gig that they are considering for the summer.
went for a bike ride with a mate and his daughter is also 16. The conversation is exactly the same; 10 girls going to Reading to mark exam results/coming of age.
that will be repeated x 1000s and make up a lot of the crowd. The diary and marketing has dictated what this festival has become.
I last went for the day 6 years ago and avoided main stage and pick off smaller stages and the crowd was probably older away from the big acts. Disclosure headlined that day, ideal for the kids.
and to be fair to the kids; I didn't go to festivals at 16 and would be there in a flash if I was 16 now.
......... although my GF buying her boy a festival 'kit' which includes a 16 pack of rubbers made me laugh. So far I don't think he's had so much as a sniff so a 3 pack would have sufficed and all would end up as water bombs some time next week!
It's funny how it changed - I went 02-06. In 2002 I was 18 and everyone around us was older and sneered at us like "ugh, sixth formers"
Last time I went for the weekend in 2006 I was 22 and felt absolutely ancient
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Reading Festival **NON QPR on 10:28 - Aug 24 with 876 views
Reading Festival **NON QPR on 10:21 - Aug 24 by robith
It's funny how it changed - I went 02-06. In 2002 I was 18 and everyone around us was older and sneered at us like "ugh, sixth formers"
Last time I went for the weekend in 2006 I was 22 and felt absolutely ancient
Think it's always been a fairly young festival generally. Last one I went to was in 2000 at the age of 30 and in all seriousness felt really out of place. Full of kids.
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