The Weekly DiScussion: have too many festivals spoilt the summer?

i will tell you after connect..

as my friend's band was playing. i enjoyed it but most of the bands i'd seen before and the comedy tent was a nightmare to get into half the time. i don't know if i'd be bothered to go again.

...but the French do it the best. Route du Rock was brilliant, small, organised, with a genuinely STELLAR lineup (LCD, the National, CSS, Fujiya & Miyagi, Justice etc etc) with regularly cleaned, FLUSHING toilets which had manageable queues. and the booze was dirt cheap. Having been to 8 festivals this summer, it was definitely the best in terms of balance between small and good music. Reading was good, but SO expensive and overcrowded. Best small fest: Ilkley Moor Festival; I had only heard of 2 of the acts, but still had a brilliant time despite the rain and mud. I'm definitely going again next year, and to route du Rock. Reading - will probably go, but only out of tradition, if that doesn't sound TOO stupid...

There can only be a finite number of people willing to part with cash to go to music festivals. Most fans of 'alternative' music have their favourites - I've been to Reading every year for the last few years, having tried Glasto and not liking it. I went to my first ATP this year, and loved it. I also love Truck.

But new festivals can try as hard as they like but unless, as you say, they offer something 'different' (like Latitude, I suppose) then it will be difficult to crack into a crowded market. There was pretty much something to do every weekend this summer, from April onwards, in the 'Festival' bracket. And no-one is going to go to them all, so most (whether rightly or wrongly) when faced with so many options will stick with a site they know already and, if they're flush, try something 'new' in addition.

I remember Phoenix stopping in the mid-late 90's after a short run, because they complained about too much festival competition and the difficulties of getting exciting line-ups that offered enough differences to other existing events. And back then, there were relatively few festivals, camparitively speaking. Even with the current musical climate and thirst for chart-bothering indie music, there is, and will always be, only so far it can go.

I admire people trying to start something new. But unless it really is new, they will all fall by the wayside. It's hard to complain about being given too many options really - it seems churlish to do so. But the organisers of these events must realise that there isn't a lot more they can do.

Probably not relevant, just boasting...

Best festival yet.

Of the major UK fests, V and Oxegen have both grown too big for 2 day events. Too many good artists, spread over too many stages.
Reading/Leeds are great, well organised festivals, but the line-ups are becoming too predictable.
T in the Park seems to be going the same way.
Glasto will always have something about it, even if it has the occasional bland line-up.

But I went to Roskilde this year, and it was by far the best festival I've been to. A high quality line-up, it had most of the UK's major fest's headliners, and some other in for good measure.
I know some people that went to Bennicassim and loved that.
I've heard good things about Sziget, Lowlands, Pukklepop, etc. as well as Hove through here.
One thing these have in common is that they're generally longer events. Even if the music is only 2/3 days, the whole thing is more like a week. It becomes a holiday as well, making a much better experience.

To be honest, I think UK festivals need to slim down, but also expand a little.
What I mean by that is they need to stop trying to appeal to everyone, and have a bit more focus on their line-ups, and then stretch it out longer.
A well thought out, focussed festival will always be better than a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none fest.

was utterly fuckin dreadful...

it was like a smash hits festival this year

connect festival this weekends has an amazing line up it will be crackin

To Glasto- and hated it. Normally go to Reading but I almost got trampled a couple of years ago and is not an experience I want to repeat. Also had/have tickets to Truck let you know how that goes then!And... I sold my tickets for Field Day which seems a good idea now.

As a 'girl' I bloody hate the mud at festivals and the lack of toilets; if i was a boy I could wee quite happily anywhere (or in our en-suite as we did at Reading a few years back as the loos were so foul). I'm not one of those girlie girls who can't stand breaking a nail or getting a bit muddy. But glasto was like a swamp this year, and we got caught in a downpour as seetickets fucked up our coaches. It's not just small festivals that suffer from bad planning. Festivals are so bloody trendy these days it's become far less about the music and more about getting wasted... I can do that at my local grizzly indie bar, and pass out on the nice ceramic toilet floor, ta very much! That's my rant over. festivals have made me angry this year, as I'm yet to have a good festival... come on Truck make it up to me! xxx

I went to Glasto, I'm a vegetarian and read the Guardian. But I bloody hate the Kooks! Are you saying I shouldn't be allowed to go to Glasto?!

From the beginnings of Glasto when vans of hippies piled into a field to take LDS and have 'an experience', festivals have always been about having a bit too much whatever and enjoying yourself. Can anyone on here honestly say they had s sober day at a festival this summer? And wouldn't the atmosphere be a little more dull if everyone was stood around in a field, soberly and silently watching a band rather than jumping up and down? Festivals aren't gigs, that's the whole point...

Your own taste in music is hardly cutting edge!
Have you been reading the alternative section on the Guardian website for inspiration?
You complain about middle class, guardian reading, organic/eco obsessed Kooks fans but at glastonbury... very open minded.
Ps. I bet you buy the guardian on a saturday for the TV guide and define your personality via your music taste.

I've heard such good things about Truck, for example, but I'd never be able to convince my mates to go.

but it is much better when there are loads of people doing so at the festivals, this certainly adds to the atmosphere at reading. At Glastonbury I think there were only 3 acts where the crowd seemed to move at all, !!!, Klaxons and Arcade Fire. At the other ones people looked at me like some kind of loon for starting to move around a bit.

and cheaper !!

What pisses me off about festivals here, is time schedules/programs you have to fork out £5 to find out the times bands, and dont list em anywhere on the festival.
European ones give these out for free, and have the times of bands shown on the big screens rather than show adverts, it's fookin outrageous !

I see more and more British people going to European festivals each year, and i can see why

was brilliant.

Having been to Reading or Leeds for the last 4 years, I'm seeking alternatives for next year. Despite seeing some great performances, the atmosphere at Leeds this year has really put me off. My friends had money/phones/clothes stolen from their tents while they were in them, we had chairs stolen both in the arena and the campsite and a gas canister was thrown and exploded a few metres from my tent. I love festivals but don't want to die going to one. I also witnessed a few different groups of skins lookalikes chucking cups and full cans of beer at people and high fiving each other when they hit their target, not giving a shit about the music or who they injured. It seems that the audience is increasingly being made up off these types at the big corporate events. I also went to the Big Chill this summer and the contrast in atmosphere couldn't have been more different. I think that the emergence of more alternative festivals should continue so that music lovers can go get wasted while listening to bands, without these idiots.

though a smaller one, and thankfully one that seems quite well established and highlly regarded.

i went to reading from 1992 to 2001. i wont go anymore. its just too corporate and hardcore. and i dont want to go to the same festival as edith fucking bowman. i love some of the smaller ones, at least the innovative ones or the ones discovering new decent acts (like truck, secret garden, end of the road, etc.) as far as im concerned. v is for people that arent really into indie music, but want to be seen to go to a festival.

i do think there are far far far too many of them. i hope its a case that the stragglers drop off, but im worried that live nation will try to quash everyone. live nation already want european exclusivity clauses in band bookings to fight against bencassim, roskilde and the like

and I have to say that it was the most organised, most civil, best layout stage wise, and most interesting acts for me to get my teeth into if I didn't know about them.
The programmes were free (with a contribution to Amnisty International).
The toilets were cleaned two to three times a day (but they were a SIGHT on Sunday morning).
All for £125. A fair price.
The food............christ. Fucking awesome.
I am 100% getting tickets when they go on sale for next year.

with being a vegetarian

There were far too many of these on the last nite, and at least 2 fire engines and countless Campsite Assistants going round extinguishing Killing Fields style explosions, and it was very Skins...Some twat threw a can of beer at me cos I told them I'm gay, i probably won't get a ticket; Why am I going again? Oh yeah, seeing Kings of Leon, Maximo Park and Interpol on the same stage on the same night.

...just about to say that. on paper it looks immense

I went to Eurockeennes in June, a mid-sized French festival after going to V last summer (admittedly a bad move; i bought tickets before any bands were announced such was my ignorance of Virgin's sterile choices) and my experience abroad was by far the best experience i've had.

Firstly it was cheap. £60 for three days' music plus camping, but primarily this was considering a really intelligent and diverse line up, with loads of dub outfits, a dedicated reggae & hip-hop stage and great African acts. It wasn't an excuse for the organisers to choose cheap acts either; Bassekou Kayoute, who had never played outside of Mali before, but put on an astounding show with 2 encores and i don't think anyone in the tent had heard of them. This was alongside Aracde Fire, Klaxons, Digitalism, QOTSA, Marilyn Manson, Deerhoof, Gogol Bordello and TV on the Radio among others.

Also the food was tasty and really good value; 2 euros for a nutella crepe means you can actaully eat at your festival. I'll no longer feel like paying £2.50 for a bottle of water is an unavoidable sacrifice for good music.

I'm now viably considering whether to go back or go to Glastonbury next year. (I think i may suffer for that comment...)

...as more people do this more and more of the European festivals will "go British!"
Citing only Rock Am Ring as an example, this year was the first year they sold out. In advance.
I remember when I first started going to festivals (only 8 years ago) and the first Glastonbury I went to you were able to send off a cheque after tickets had been on sale for weks and still get them.
I hope I'm not remembering wrong but it seemed that the first year that Glastonbury sold out in super fast time (the year after everyone jumped the fence) that Reading/Leeds/T etc experienced a knock on effect and people almost began panic buying festival tickets the day they went on sale.
I'm rambling here but I guess my point is that with Rock Am Ring selling out in advance this year, this will probably cause a similar knock on effect which will also cause the promoters to increase the price significantly each year a la British festivals as they know that they will continue to sell out.
I'm odviously referring to the 'big' names like Glastonbury & reading etc here and not Lodestar!

A couple of times, and its an ace festival. Well organised, cheap, great food and beer, nice atmosphere. I can't think of many places where you'd see Billy Idol, Winnebago Deal, A-Ha and 65 Days of Static in one weekend. A top laugh. Plus they have things like the Silent Disco and we all went for a nice swim in the lido down the road to wash/revive ourselves on the Sunday.

care less whether your music taste is cutting edge or not I just really like the way you make mass sweeping generalisations about people.
The people you should be apologising to are the middle class, guardian reading, organic/eco obsessed Kooks fans.

Despite living 10 miles away from it I've never felt a compulsion to go. I'd rather be guaranteed loads of good bands and spend a bit more.

.