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Major promoter says music festivals are on the way out


alfierose

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Mainly to do with the lack of new bands that can be headliners. Cites Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys as examples of the last modern bands that can draw in crowds.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/may/31/music-festival-is-dead-says-promoter-harvey-goldsmith

What does everyone think?

I got the impression 3 or 4 years ago that festivals were still a big thing with my daughter and her peers, they all seemed to do the circuits of Leeds, Reading, V Fest etc...are there really a lack of acts that can headline now? Even if the field is widened to all music genres.

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Im not a festival person, but I guess Festivals won't end, there will be bands and there are bands who will headline. Slipknot, Linkin Park, Arctic Monkeys, Metallica do draw in big crowds at the European Festivals like Leeds, Reading, Rock am Ring etc etc, so if you seek my opinion, I guess Festivals are far from ending

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Or maybe the next generation of headliners won't be primarily rock bands?

That said, I know he was talking about the UK scene, but there seems to be a "festival bubble" that may be on the verge of bursting in the US. Seems like every summer there's another 10 new festivals popping up. The ones that have been well established will remain (Bonnaroo, Coachella, Lolla, etc.), but I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the smaller/newer ones (especially those without a niche audience, such as those clearly catered to jam bands) fold in the next little while.

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I read through the article comments after posting and the biggest growing festival genre is EDM according to some people so maybe it is just that music is going in a different direction. I guess what he is really bemoaning is the lack of rock supergroups which were largely created by old style record deals and promotion.

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that is load of crap.

sure today music sucks.

the last great bands date back to mid 90's.

but, as long as there is interest if young ppl going to a featival buying a ridiculously expensive ticket and about 70.000 ppl dong so, the festivals will go on.

there will always be 70.000 ppl who will go out and see 3 day music festival once a year.

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Really? Most of the big festivals come through Dallas every year and they pretty much sell out.

Dallas people love their rock and heavy metal and the 80's bands so well here too.

I guess the promoters feel they aren't getting enough money. it always comes down to money.

I think it's cool when 3 or more big bands do shows together and you get to pay one price to see them. I'm not a fan of all day festivals especially in the Dallas heat, but seeing 3 or 4 bands on one bill is pretty cool.

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The only thing he's right about is that there's too many festivals, but they're not going away like he thinks they will. There's always an "anniversary" to be celebrated with older artists and potential reunions. He's just talking about 20 & 30-somethings, but jazz & folk festivals have been going on since the 50s and 60s.

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I call bullshit, because mainly festivals are gigantic at this time. EVERYONE is doing a festival and in the last 10 years I think its hard to find someone that hasn't been to one (I haven't, but cause I'm not a festival guy and mainly none are around me and I'm not traveling for one). I'm not a big festival proponent, but for many its the only way to see some bands. A relatively unknown band like Steelheart can't play headlining shows in America, but they can play a festival which at least gives them a reason to come out here. The closest I ever came to going to a festival was going to see the reunited Triumph at Rocklahoma. They drew a crowd there because they couldn't play a headline show in an arena elsewhere in the US.

Festivals have proved very important for that reason, and mainly just the fact that they seem to be extremely popular especially among young people. I've heard nothing but positive things about Bonaroo and Coachella and all the other small ones that have grown exponentially over time. If anything, I think festivals will become more common than big rock U2/Stones type tours, because there just aren't people that are drawing crowds, as the OP says. But I think those bands thrive at a festival, and while I agree the headliner is usually someone like KISS or GNR that have been around for decades, the tone of festivals could shift and they'll find different headliners. I think music festivals couldn't be in fashion at the moment which is why I call bullshit on this promoter.

Having said that, I've been saying for awhile now I'll be very interested to see where the concert industry is like in 10 years when the Stones and McCartney and Springsteen are all dead or can't tour anymore. I genuinely wonder who will have the staying power to keep it afloat, and who I'll be seeing (if anyone) in 10 years when the bands I love from the 70s stop touring. I think we're headed for a wasteland, with festivals actually being the rare bright spot.

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He has a point. Rock is so bound up with nostalgia now. It is literally a dead genre solely propped up by the original generation which propelled it originally. It is as if the talent pool ceased at some point in the 1990s, and the genre was therefore forced to rely on the same old winkled millionaires to sustain it. Macca (as 1/4 of the Beatles) and Stones were the biggest band in the 1960s? Macca and the Stones are still the biggest acts in 2015!! Kiss, Aerosmith, Sabbath, DC and Springsteen ('70s) and Metallica, U2 ('80s) all follow thereafter as the biggest acts on the earth. This cannot be healthy? I mean people see the Stones as if they are seeing a museum piece. There is more than an element of, seeing them before they die so you can say to the grandkids, ''I saw The Stones live''. Rock is now a corporate museum piece which is wheeled out to gather cash from laymen, then wheeled back in. There is little of the vitality and attitude which created the genre in the 1950s.

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I think the money they charge for festivals will go down a bit if they don't have acts with drawing power. That's the reason why they sell tickets months ahead of time, because if it gets to the point of it going on sale and there's general disinterest? They'll cancel it or revamp it. You might see the sponsors footing the bill to where the audience goes for free in hopes of spending a lot of money at the event. If VIP tix sell out in the first few days, sales are usually strong.

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Really? Fuck, why didn't anybody tell me? It's going to be lonely at the following:

Intents (sold out)

Pinkpop (sold out)

Graspop (never sold out, but heavy attendance)

Rock Werchter (sold out)

Dominator (always sold out, not yet though)

Tomorrowland (sold out)

Decibel (sold out)

Pukkelpop (all day tickets sold out, weekend tickets most likely to sell out)

Lollapalooza Berlin (no idea if this will sell out)

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Good, fuckin' stinky hippies! A good gig should be like a fuckin' incubator. The only people allowed to play outside are Jimi Hendrix and the old time blues boys of the deep south, anybody in England that wants to play outside like a fuckin' tree hugging swampie should be driven from the land into special camps on a remote Polynesian Island with gas chambers installed.

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One thing is going to happen. Aging means that all of these old farts are going to basically grow so shit that you wouldn't want to see them, retire or die. You will see in a very short time period all of these festival headliners disappear. The only one left will be Coldplay haha!

It is a bit like the Windies when the pool of quicks ran dry. After Ambrose and Walsh retired, there was nobody left and the team went tits up.

Edited by DieselDaisy
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The two biggest bands from the 90s died. Maybe Slash and Dave Grohl will be like the Ozzy and Stones but they don't seem to be as legendary.

In the final reckoning someone like Noel Gallagher is a bigger deal than the Slashes and Dave Grohls of his world.

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The two biggest bands from the 90s died. Maybe Slash and Dave Grohl will be like the Ozzy and Stones but they don't seem to be as legendary.

In the final reckoning someone like Noel Gallagher is a bigger deal than the Slashes and Dave Grohls of his world.

And, much to your chagrin, Thom Yorke is bigger than all of them together.

[insert Len's passionately argued but entirely incorrect rant about how much better and more important Noel is than Thom] :lol:

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The two biggest bands from the 90s died. Maybe Slash and Dave Grohl will be like the Ozzy and Stones but they don't seem to be as legendary.

In the final reckoning someone like Noel Gallagher is a bigger deal than the Slashes and Dave Grohls of his world.
And, much to your chagrin, Thom Yorke is bigger than all of them together.

[insert Len's passionately argued but entirely incorrect rant about how much better and more important Noel is than Thom] :lol:

I dont know about better and i dont know about more important but he is more universal and those are the people that get remembered, the people that write the big broad non specific pop tunes that everyone remembers, and thats Noel. Music that came to represent a place and time in history or is at the head of some kind of movement, we construct bullshit myths around them and forgive the clearly naff elements about who/what they are.

It wouldnt be to my chagrin though, my prejudice towards Radiohead is based on an extremely superficial surface level assessment on them, I probably wouldnt know a Radiohead tune if i was listening to it. They just looked dull to me and nothing about them prompted me to give them a chance.

Edited by Len B'stard
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