LIVE CHAT WITH ROCKNESS' FESTIVAL DIRECTOR JIM KING

[chris rockness]

Hey Jim,

great to get this opportunity and well done for giving it, us regular festi goers have little form of knowledge if our ideas are ever heard, on that note my question is based around the Rockness website, or lack of a decent regularly updated one, whilst i appreciate this take up a lot of of probably unavailiable resources wouldn't it be an idea to get some fans on board who would populate the site in exchange for tickets much like T in the Park used to do in the old days?

hello, thanks for the question.

i think this a great place to start as we agree. the website isnt good enough and its needs more attention.

this is one of the reasons i thought i'd do this actually and we want to do this once a month maybe so you get more info about the show and can also have input.

as for you guys doing the website, i think thats a great idea and something we should look into.

Hi Jim,

I was wondering if you think AEG has been a good thing for the festival this year & what positives and what negatives do you think they have brought to it??

definately a positive. they bring more financial stability and we can learn from them in many areas. it will take another year or so for some of this to come through but we can already see the benefits in marketing for instance.

they are also learning from us as we produce a lot of festivals and this is a business they want to get more involved in.

they are keen for us to still run the show as ultimately thats what and who they invested into and its important we keep the indie feel to what we are about and what we want the show to be.

Hi Jim

Will there be any other bands playing the main stage on the friday night?Or just the 2 confirmed now?

hi

its just the 2 acts this year. we work very closely with the village and they wanted us to take small steps in building out the friday and we respect that. we have a great relationship with the village and sp its important we dont go crazy and build the show out too quickly.

also we wanted to keep the friday and a great intro day with the vibe being created in teh campsites and then in nesstival and it not be a 'drop your tent and run to the front' sort of day.

i dont think we'll ever have a full day on the friday on the main stage. i think the vibe is better this way but we'll see what you guys say after the show.

another thing is that we want to give a band the option to play for 2 hours on the friday so that they can really do something special. i dont want the whole show to be just festival sets like you see at T. we want at least one part of it to be about a band grabbing the opporunity to do something a bit different.

Hey Jim, any ideas of what headliners you got a possibility of for next year. Also did you contact any big acts this year but they declined to play or where unable? Who were these acts?

Thanks

Stephen

too early say for next year and we'd want to see who has new material out.

in terms of who turned us down this year? just about everyone on T!! (except katy perry that is. we didnt think about that one.)

Hi Jim again,

I was wondering why there was no explanation Why "The king blues" were removed from the line -up, as you gave one last year when David Guetta could not make an appearance?

one of our comms failures. sorry about that.

they had a wedding they needed to go to apparently.

Hi Jim!

Looking forward to Rockness this year...

Like to ask how you feel the economic situation has affecetd the festival industry this year??

Has it given you any headaches organising this years event??

it was tough at the end of the last year and going into january to get positive messages out there but overall we've weathered it pretty well. i think we were fortunate to have a great show last year with great weather and 88% of the customer survey said they would defiantely come back so we started on the front foot.

the big problem has been for new shows trying to launch in these conditions and shows that either werent great last year or werent well attended. these are the ones that have clearly suffered the worst as people rightly dont want to part with their money unless they are sure they are getting value for money and there is a compelling case for them to visit your show.

i think adding the friday headliners, keeping flexibility in the ticket options helped us a lot.

other factors centre on suppliers being put under pressure, payment terms being reviewed etc these types of things are prevalent throughout the economy and do add pressure but i think the uk event industry is holding up reasonably well and the shows that have fallen were probably overly ambitious and/or teetering on the edge perhaps anyway.

Jim

Much respect for doing this. I dont think many festival directors would offer this opportunity to the punters. I just want to know, when Daft Punk played in 2007 (what an AMAZING show!!), did you have much contact with the actual duo, and if so did they reveal themselves, or does the air of mystery extend into the backstage as well? they surely dont wear the helmets for the entire time theyre onsite do they???

no problem and thanks for coming on line.

i've met the guys and yes they do wear civvies. they are very quiet and unassuming to be honest. very professional. i think we nodded at each other it wasnt a full on embrace or anything although i had to probably restrain myself when they came off after their encore. a truly great set.

Hi Jim

I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to enjoy so many great acts in the Highlands.

My only question really is about capacity. Are there any plans to increase? I personally hope that Rockness will remain at the current capacity and not get overcrowded like other festivals that are out there.

Iain

hi iain

i think we should be thanking the highlands for letting us do it to be honest. its a pleasure to work there and its really gaining momemtum with the acts as a great place to come and play.

we operate around the 30k mark which is about right for where we are in the country. we can go bigger but i cant ever see it getting bigger than 40k. its a bit too far north to get more than this and ultimately thats not the show we want to do. biggest isnt always best and people dont want another T in my view.

Jim,

Campsite thefts last year were paramount (at nearly every festival) what have you done to combat this this year?

Hi

I couldnt agree more. this is one of the main reasons why AIF (association of independent festivals) was started by rob da bank. i produce robby's shows for him and he asked me to join AIF as a founder board member with the task of trying to deliver a solution to this problem.

we are just announcing a new initiative across a number of the indie festivals to address this.

it basically starts and finishes with poor communication between festivals, security and police throughout the country.

intelligence needs to be shared and crime prevented by known criminals being spotted at the gates before they come in or spotted in the campsites when they are there and ejected.

the only way you can do this is by sharing info between promoters, security and police and thankfully this is about to happen.

crucially though, we still need festival goers to play it smarter with their valuables.

hopefully we will see a difference this year.

Hey Jim,

What are the rules for campers over the weekend? Is it possible for people to go home for a shower, and return later on in the day? Or is this not allowed?

hi

this is a difficult one and one we have been a bit unpopular with before.

we are allowing people to go back and forth to their cars during certain times but we cant allow it to be completely free flow all the times on this event. part of the arrangement with the police is that we manage people inside the show and if large numbers of people wanted to leave we have a potentially massive problem in this festival location.

next issue is the village. we again have to protect this as much as possible as they dont want people being able to go back and forth through the village etc to and from the festival which could happen if we have free flow in and out and we need to respect that.

its hard because people like you only want to pop back home but trying to work a system for over 20000 campers that suits everyone is a tough one.

we do have POSH WASH on site though this year so hopefully you can grab a cup of tea at their place and a nice shower on site.

i know this in a unpopular one so we are continually reviewing how we can improve it.

Jim, much respect for doing this.

So we can expect extended sets from the superb Aliens and Flaming Lips then?

hi

i think the aliens are going to play just over an hour and the lips are still working out their set but they have a full 2 hours if they want it.

Hi Jim.

I was just wondering if Rockness has a long term plan. How many years do you plan on keeping it going and how many years do you think it will be before Rockness is established and sells out?

hi

we are long term operators and so the plan is to run this show for as long as we can. i've been doing this a long time and dont plan to change career, joe and rob are similarly committed to music and events and now we have AEG who are again long term investors and operators.

i think the show is getting established pretty well now. lots of acts see it as a good alternative to T and i think we offer something different and something bands want to experience but money is money and we cant compete with a big T/oxygen/V type of deal so we need to offer something esle for them to commit to us.

its hard to say on when it will sell out but we're happy at around 30k but this is a business as well as good will doesnt pay headline bands so if we can get it to 35k and then onto 40k in the next 2 years we'll be very happy with that.

Do you see ticket prices rising again next year?

SOME TICKETS PROBABLY WILL BUT WE'LL STILL KEEP IT AS COMPETETIVE AS WE CAN. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE AN AFFORDABLE OPTIONS ESPECIALLY IF YOU BUY EARLY. IDEALLY I'D LIKE TO KEEP THE 3 DAY PRICE AS CLOSE TO WHERE WE ARE AS POSSIBLE AND THEN LOOK TO REDUCE THE SERVICE AND BOOKING FEE COSTS THAT YOU GET HIT WITH.

Since prices were raised this year should we expect a bigger and better line-up next year? Also since Rockness has been the 1 weekend in June for the last few years but now its been changed to the 2nd weekend in June, will it always be one of these weekends?

I THINK WE ARE HAPPY BEING ON THE 2ND WEEKEND IN JUNE AND DONT SEE US CHANGING FROM THIS.

WE ALWAYS AIM TO KEEP IMPROVING THE LINE UP AND I REALLY WANT TO SEE SOMEONE MASSIVE ON THE FRIDAY NIGHT DOING A SPECIAL SET.

Also roughly how many ticket sales has there been is it close to selling out?

WE ARE GOING TO DO THE SAME NUMBER OF TICKETS AS LAST YEAR. THE SHOW IS SET UP THE SAME WAY WITH SOME LAYOUT CHANGES BUT YOU'LL SEE THE CAMPSITES ARE THE SAME ETC.

I'D LIKE IT TO SELL OUT BUT WHO KNOWS.

When will the full line-up be put onto the website with ALL the acts included so we can see what stage they are on?

WITHIN THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

One last question, to STOP all these stupid rumours. Can you confirm acts like the Prodigy etc have NOT pulled out.

HA HA. I CAN CONFIRM 110% THAT THE PRODIGY WILL DEFINATELY BE THERE. 120%!!

do you see the fest getting more diverse as the years go on, or will it always have a similar balance of dance to indie?

hi

we think we have a good balance at the moment but i'd definately like to add another stage next year budget permitting.

a think a slight electronic bias is what we are about and we'll remain in that area.

Hi Jim. I understand the festival is very popular but does not sell out. Can the festival still continue to run if this is the case and also do you feel there will be a point where the tickets will sell out fast like T used to?

hi

we're in this for the long haul and the budget works for us at the moment but like i said earlier this is a business so we'd like to improve it in some areas but these things take time.

T took a long time to get to where it is now and it wa relatively unchallenged. the market is much more competetive these days.

i think rock ness is really well placed to become the must buy ticket within the next 2 years but we'll see.

its been a great start from the first gig with norman though.

I was wondering ifyou were aware of the JUSTICE fo Rockness campaign, and if you nearly got them or not & did it inspire you for the ED Bangers night?

hi deano

to be honest i was thinking about startin my own justice campaign at one point!!

they'd be great to have on the show.

you keep emailing them as well and maybe next year who knows.

as for ed banger, we'd been speaking to them for a while but yes we were aware how popular they were with you guys and its definaltey made us get the deal done.

No questions from me, just a few comments

• Sort the website out, get the people who do Bestival/Camp Bestival websites onboard if not already

fair point and we know we need to up our game. duncan from bestival is the master and i'll speak to robby about a free transfer for next year!

• Keep the toilets the standard of 2008 and not 2007

top of our list. i cant beleive we didnt win an award last year. the contractors did a really great job sorting it out from 2007.

Come and answer questions on here after the event, perhaps even have a fan forum such as Reading/Leeds and Download do

going to do it once a month if that seem the right thing. going to speak to efests about them hooking it up. also want to keep this live over the weekend of the show and i'll get on when i can once a day so issus can be dealt with in real time at the gig.

we'll also do a big debreif session the week after the gig and i'll do a couple of hours on here.,

thanks for your message

[alvin]

legend...... gutted i missed the Q+A's though......!!

[tree_head]

legend...... gutted i missed the Q+A's though......!!

[smutchie]

Wow, pretty impressed with that

Let's see if he sticks to it!

[alvin]

Wow, pretty impressed with that

Let's see if he sticks to it!

[tree_head]

he will do....!.. not seen any other promoters do this type of thing so fair play...!!