Melvin Benn Interview

[Vieuphoria]

There's no way of doing it without people moaning tho, at other fests if the tixs are on sale before the line up is known people complain they are just after your money, if the line up is released before the tixs people complain the tixs are gonna be grabbed by people only intrested if the acts playing.

[Hawky]

Disappointed about the metal tbh. Ah well. He seems like a nice guy, i wont shout at him. This time.

[jump]

what on earth is wrong with that?

[mrtourette]

I guess what he's saying is that they'd rather have the arena filled with general music fans with an interest in a lot of acts rather than those specifically only there to see the headliner, which might happen if they released the headliners before anything else.

Edited February 13, 2012 by mrtourette

[Gingo]

It makes it harder for fan of the fest (rather than fans of the acts) to get tixs.

[jump]

Surely the reason that the festival tries to book constantly appealing lineups every year is to attract people to the bands that are playing instead of buying just because they usually go to Reading/Leeds

[Gingo]

Or it could be they book line ups that will appeal to their demographic, most years the line up sells out within hours so it's not normally a factor it will have to rely on the big bands to pull in punters.

Edited February 13, 2012 by Gingo

[Vieuphoria]

It makes it harder for fan of the fest (rather than fans of the acts) to get tixs.

[jump]

but would no doubt improve the festival

[Vieuphoria]

Why? I don't see the logic in that.

[jump]

How stale are the crowds at Reading these days? It's because people just go because they've finished a-levels and don't know many of the bands.

If people who actually like the bands show up to the festival... Crowds will be better, and tickets will probably sell faster, and we'll end up breeding an appreciative set of festival fans, rather than the shallow and lame crowds we have nowadays.

[Vieuphoria]

no it's a direct response to you saying attracting fans of the bands is a bad thing

[jump]

no it's a direct response to you saying attracting fans of the bands is a bad thing

Edited February 13, 2012 by jump

[The Mean Bean]

Anybody remember a mob of bellend Blink fans in '10 that took backpacks and camped at the front barrier of the main stage all day? Clearly weren't interested in most of that day's bands and created a dead zone at the front of the crowd, sort of killed the vibe.

[JBarbour]

I think its better to get a good balance between fans of the fest, die hard fans of a band and general music fans. If the balance not right the fest does become stale. In 2010 I found leeds to be incredible stale

[jump]

So with what he said about a dance act headlining on the last night on NME continuing anyone else think it's safe to assume the dance stage will stay on Fri therefore Lock Up Sat & Sun so if they have a heavy day (possibly Foos or Green Day's day) they won't be closing the fest to avoid a clash?

[gazza_20]

So with what he said about a dance act headlining on the last night on NME continuing anyone else think it's safe to assume the dance stage will stay on Fri therefore Lock Up Sat & Sun so if they have a heavy day (possibly Foos or Green Day's day) they won't be closing the fest to avoid a clash?

[jump]

Has he actually said a dance act to headline on the last night on NME stage?

[gazza_20]

Nope but he suggested as much.

[RichieParf]

You assuming that people going just to see Kasabian, Foos or whoever would bring in a better overall atmosphere and not just to that 1 act and spend the rest of the weekend at the back of the crowd still and lifeless but the young demographic would still be the same as it's still booked for that market in mind.

[jump]

So your argument would be that bands who won't attract fans should be booked as headliners? And you also believe that fans of the headliner won't like a single other act on the bill?

[RichieParf]

Hmm...you have deleted the part that says I doubt it would change anything but your idea of booking bands no one has heard of before could work though.

[jump]

I deleted the part where you said fans of the fest couldn't get tickets because of fans of the band buying them all. My point is that I that I think you underestimate the huge crossover between the two.

[Bisque]

I think Kasabian, of the headliners touted, would draw the most non-fans of the festival.