My theory on why V isn’t as good as it was

[Southern Shandy]

If you look back over the last 10 years, the quality of bands – throughout the whole weekend, not just the headliners – was always higher, with most punters wanting to get into the arena for the start, rather than ambling in at 1am, having sit by their tents drinking warm lager for a few hours.

These days – and it’s been the case for a few years now – there are times during the early afternoon when there is nothing you are that arsed about seeing, yeah, if you are in the arena drinking Richard Branson’s beer out of the paper cup, you will go any see a band, but in V’s gone by, you’d have had a choice of who you’d have wanted to see, not the better of 4 poor options that we’ve been presented with over the last few years.

But, my theory

I back this up with absolutely no science whatsoever, neither have I done any research into my theory, it came to me whilst I was looking at the line-up and wondering why on earth I’ve spent so much money on some less-than-average acts.

Back in the day – think BritPop era – bands would be desperate to be on any festival bill, it was validation, it was the chance to perform the chance to increase your stock and the chance to play in front of ‘new’ fans. I’ve seen Dodgy play in the most obscure places… (hmm, not a great example), but the point remains, bands used to play everywhere and anywhere in order to establish a fan-base, a fan-base of loyal followers who’d buy their records. And that, my friends, is the rub.

With the internet offering the average person the chance to buy individual tracks rather over full albums (which, as we know are still available) and with the internet also offering the chance of illegal downloads, where no money changes hand, the cost of having a band perform has been driven up.

There was a BBC report earlier this year stating that more money was spent on live music in the last year than had been spent on CD’s – the first time this has happened. This goes some way to giving my theory a bit of weight. Bands and artists aren’t making any money from music sales, therefore, to ‘earn’ a wage, they have to play live. To earn the wage they want, they have to charge more than they would have done for a comparatively popular/unpopular band of ten-years back.

Therefore, if it’s your job to book a weekends worth of ‘acts’ for your two-days of music, and you have a finite amount of money at your disposal to pack the weekend with entertainment – but you also know that in order to sale sufficient tickets, you need to advertise your headline acts in advance and they are charging more (significantly more) than comparative acts of ten-year-ago (given the ticket cost rises with inflation and the cost of booking acts to perform live has risen at greater than the rate of inflation) then you have a much smaller pot of money to play with over the rest of the weekend.

And that, is my opinion as to why we are so disappointed with the overall line-up – they’ve (rightly) booked ‘quality’ headline acts to sell the tickets and the net-result is that based on that cost, sufficient funds remain for the likes of The Saurdays and that bird from that dancing show.

Apologies for any typos, I’m eating my lunch as I type, feel free to flame the glaring errors in my theory 

SS.

[shedboy66]

i'm not one that thinks the line up is bad

but i understand what you are saying but lets be honest v would likely sell out with just oasis playing therefore it doesn't really matter who you book below oasis

I think what people have to realise with festivals such as V you either have to have one or two huge acts playing and more tosh throughout the day or not so strong headliners and better bands throughout the day

in my opinion there are just too many moaners its not like the UK has a shortage of festivals if people don't like it go elsewhere

over the years i've been to t in the park, v , leeds and reading, wireless, and connect when i don't enjoy a festival as much as i hoped too i just try another fest.

[thetime]

in my opinion there are just too many moaners its not like the UK has a shortage of festivals if people don't like it go elsewhere

[bekimo]

last year people were having a go at download for having a weak lineup and then this year people thought it was an excellent lineup.

[The Cat Burglar]

people are always complaining about festivals.

[wave]

What we really need is a heli pad.

[staffsknot]

If you look at the current line-up you can find a lot of the big names were there in 2007, only Oasis sub for Foo Fighters. 2007 was a pretty good year, unfortunately I think its the fact they have been seen so much and that people's expectations have been built up.

[Squall Moogle]

What the festival really needs is a swan parade.

Or maybe a chestnut race...