So it’s over for another year, NO, I was not lucky enough to go but I will admit that even though I cannot attend I do look at the full lineups and create a fake plan just in case by some odd magic I woke up and was there. It was a tough one this year?
What’s got me most perplexed is the headliners: Dua Lipa, Coldplay, SZA, Shania Twain, Idles, with Disclosure and The National on the next tier down with some great acts dotted around such as Kasabian, LCD Soundsystem, Avril Lavigne and Nothing but Thieves. Where is everyone else? And by that I mean BIG names who want to be the show? The listing is full but where are the big names? Yes Coldplay is a big name and the show they put on was fantastic but it was on the Saturday and they have now played five times? Is that a £355 weekend? Yes it is but?
Only a week or so ago was The Isle of Wight Festival with headliners: The Prodigy, Pet Shop Boys and Green Day with Crowded House, Simple Minds, The Streets and Nothing but Thieves.
Victorious is in August in Portsmouth with Biffy Clyro, Pixies, Snow Patrol, Fat Boy Slim, Wet Leg, Becky Hill, Jaime T, The Courteeners and many more. I use these two as examples as they are both close to me, i attend them and they are of a size. All of these have a glut of small acts giving plenty to visitors, so which of these three would you choose to attend if you could choose only 1?
Are the big bands festivalled out? Then again the same time as Glastonbury you have Taylor Swift, Green Day, Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters all touring in the UK, these are festival closers, rule out the Foo Fighters, they did headline in 2017 and did the churnups more recently.
It’s a tough one? Booking, logistics, getting it right? Glastonbury has always been a festival for all ages but there is a modern divide in music which has not existed for a while. Those big mainstay bands are aging but still selling out stadiums. There is a new layer of music coming through as it should which doesn’t cross over to the older generations but cannot be ignored. Gen X and Gen Z and Alpha do not share the same tastes anymore. The younger generations have their own music and that’s how it should be. But that makes festival booking for all tricky?
The question for next year is if you look at that music, does it hold a headline slot? When a lot of social talk is who is that artist? Never heard of them? I’ve heard the name? but can’t name a song?
Now I’m not the demographic and that’s fine with me. I tried to watch the headliner on the Sunday at Glasto but lasted five minutes then turned over. Sorry! At that point I was badmouthing the BBC for not covering stages such as the Leftfield as I would have preferred to watch The Farm and Billy Bragg but had to rely on social media for clips of that.
The beauty of festivals as we all know is if you don’t like the act on this stage you go to that one, choice is everything unless there’s a clash! This year at Victorious Biffy Clyro on the same time as Wet Leg!!! That’s annoying. Can’t please everyone!
I’d love to be in on the booking meetings, I bet they are pretty stressful but still great fun.
Friday night with the Idles looked fun though 😉
