So the 3rd Headliner is still not booked...

[mattrik3]

nope, absolutely nothing like that in any shape or form. 100% wrong, in fact 200% wrong.

[eFestivals]

Respect is always lost whenever anyone says more than 100%!

More respect would be lost if I was sucking up to promoters in the way that was suggested that caused me to respond in that way.

[Poleski]

Judging by Mr eFestivals posts he's obviously the headliner. 4 deck DJ set with the efestivals logo dancing as visuals.

Edited March 7, 2012 by Poleski

[eFestivals]

Judging by Mr eFestivals posts he's obviously the headliner. 4 deck DJ set with the efestivals logo dancing as visuals.

Wish I was .... but I know that Bestivalites don't get great reggae, which is very very sad.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

hmmmm.... there seems too much conflict with his previous statememnts about headliners in that. For a start, how can he say the last headliner will be announced in May if he knows nothing about them?

Everything is pointing to a contractual clause stopping that announcement until then for me. And if that's the case I'm pretty sure I know who it is, and why.

[eFestivals]

By 'contractual clause' do you mean someone declared as an exclusive elsewhere? If so, that may narrow it down a bit

nope, I mean someone who is playing somewhere else (not necessarily a festival).

It's pretty standard for a promoter to have non-compete agreements within any contract they sign with a band.

Otherwise, they might pay a band (say) £10,000 to put a show on in (say) Leeds on Wednesday, and then find that the same band has signed a contract with another promoter for the same town for a show on the next day, meaning that the first promoter can't sell enough tickets to cover his £10k outlay for that first show.

The scope of any non-compete clause can vary, dependent on a number of different variables - to affect the timing of other shows, the cost of other shows, the geographic location of other shows, when other shows can be announced, just about anything.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Ah, I see. So it doesn't narrow it down at all then!

[rexclark]

Blur.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

PS: efestivals doesn't have any arrangements about anything with any festivals (aside from sponsorship agreements we might have, unrelated to anything else about those festivals).

That's been a very deliberate choice since efestivals started. We deliberately don't get involved with any form of festivals organisations precisely because of that.

efestivals values its independence more than it values its own existence. If our fully independent stance leads to efestivals becoming financially unsustainable then so be it.

And there's a real risk of that happening. Another festivals website is selling its soul to anyone that will pay it the money that it wants to financially sustain itself, and readers of that website are being mis-led as a result. What they're doing also has an impact back on efestivals, but we won't join their dishonest game and will take any consequences that come back on us as a result.

[LondonTom]

At a guess i'd go for Pulp, perhaps announcing an arena tour in the next few months. If not then it'll be someone totally out the blue.

[eFestivals]

Neil, have you ever had any disgruntled promoters on the phone unhappy that you'd 'leaked' headliners etc?

Nope, not as far as I can remember.

I did once have a promoter on the phone asking me how I'd marked a band as the TBC headliner for his festival when (he said) they'd not even been approached. I didn't change anything about what I'd listed as a result of that call.

Funnily enough, they were later confirmed as the headliner for that fest.

That promoter insisted again later that we'd had them as TBC before they were approached. If I presume he was being honest (and I've no reason to think he wasn't), then I can only think that he was out of the loop with what his booker was doing - cos the info I'd had came from the mouths of the band, and there's no reason to think they'd have made it up.

Edited March 7, 2012 by eFestivals

[hazzamid11]

nope, I mean someone who is playing somewhere else (not necessarily a festival).

It's pretty standard for a promoter to have non-compete agreements within any contract they sign with a band.

Otherwise, they might pay a band (say) £10,000 to put a show on in (say) Leeds on Wednesday, and then find that the same band has signed a contract with another promoter for the same town for a show on the next day, meaning that the first promoter can't sell enough tickets to cover his £10k outlay for that first show.

The scope of any non-compete clause can vary, dependent on a number of different variables - to affect the timing of other shows, the cost of other shows, the geographic location of other shows, when other shows can be announced, just about anything.

[eFestivals]

Oh .... I've just realised that what I've put there isn't quite accurate.

Occasionally we've been contracted after we've run a story off the back of what's been published elsewhere after somewhere else has published an embargo'd press release early - in fact that exact thing happened on Monday with Latitude. In those circumstances we're happy to take down what we've published as long as the same happens with where we've sourced our story from.

There was one other slightly different thing that happened once where we also took down what we'd published, which was when V Fest momentarily published the line-up on their website a fewhours before the announcement time. We just happened to hit their website at that moment so we saw it, and after much grovelling from them we took it down.

But no festival seems to have any issue with our rumours, as long as it's always clear that it's speculative info and not official info - I guess because they feel that any talk about their fest is an overall positive thing.

[Joe-]

@efests Didn't something happen with that Andy chap who books for Download festival?

[Dave The Hedgehog]

But no festival seems to have any issue with our rumours, as long as it's always clear that it's speculative info and not official info - I guess because they feel that any talk about their fest is an overall positive thing.

[eFestivals]

@efests Didn't something happen with that Andy chap who books for Download festival?

yep, but that was something different again.

Somewhere (I forget where) published a story that (I think it was) Van Halen had cancelled a tour they were lining up which included Download. We published a story on that story, making no comment on whether there was any truth to what that story said.

Andy's problem was that we supposedly published a story about a band cancelling that hadn't ever been booked, I guess because the idea of a major band cancelling reflected badly on his fest.

But he was off the mark with his gripe, because the article wasn't quite saying what he'd chosen to read it as saying.

[eFestivals]

If that's the case then - providing it be purely speculative - would it be fair for us to gain insight into who you think the headliner being announced in May is, and why?

You will, when/if I'm ready to say it.

My posts on here carry more with them - the efests reputation - than what might be contained within any post.

[rexclark]

Was there not an issue last year with the Reading and Leeds line up poster getting leaked earlier on the release day?

[Joe-]

I think that Josh Frishgisafsho from You me at six leaked that, he probably got all the blame. Hah

[eFestivals]

Was there not an issue last year with the Reading and Leeds line up poster getting leaked earlier on the release day?

Yep - that's pretty much covered by what i've said about embargo'd info above.

While I did remove links to that, I was simultaneously fighting a battle with them about it, because it was a pointless exercise. Once something like that is out on the net for a festival like Reading it's just about impossible to shut down.

Reading/Leeds has never once complained about anything we've had rumoured in our normal way, or stories we've run about what we've got rumoured.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

You will, when/if I'm ready to say it.

My posts on here carry more with them - the efests reputation - than what might be contained within any post.

[kaosmark2]

I think at the end of the day we're all in the same boat speculating who the headliners might be and part of the reason we come to this website and use these forums is to gain insight and discuss logic behind peope's reasoning for why X band is headlining or why Y and Z bands are not. We look to you and people in your capacity to supply us with the latest speculation, news, facts, rumours and so on - because that's what I'm led to believe eFestivals is all about - ultimately so we can all discuss something (mostly) postive that we're all almost universally enthusiastic about.

Right now as I type this, 15 people are looking at this thread and that's the most I've seen using the Bestival forum on here since it was first started up. So it's clearly something that's of interest to a certain portion of eFestivals' members when you say that you, in your capacity, have a pretty good idea who it is headlining and why. So bearing in mind the weight of making that sort of statement, don't you think now might be a good time to say who you think is headlining it so we can speculate more and talk about something we're all enthusiastic about more than we already are?

[Dave The Hedgehog]

TBH, I'm happier with Neil only putting up rumours he's confident enough in to be sure of. If Neil ever says something about a band, whether it's by publishing it on the site as a rumour or posting it somewhere on the forums, I take it with virtually as much value as an official release, and haven't been let down yet. While I'm sure his speculation is better than most others could manage, I'm happy with knowing that if he says something, I can trust it.

[eFestivals]

I think at the end of the day we're all in the same boat speculating who the headliners might be and part of the reason we come to this website and use these forums is to gain insight and discuss logic behind peope's reasoning for why X band is headlining or why Y and Z bands are not. We look to you and people in your capacity to supply us with the latest speculation, news, facts, rumours and so on - because that's what I'm led to believe eFestivals is all about - ultimately so we can all discuss something (mostly) postive that we're all almost universally enthusiastic about.

Right now as I type this, 15 people are looking at this thread and that's the most I've seen using the Bestival forum on here since it was first started up. So it's clearly something that's of interest to a certain portion of eFestivals' members when you say that you, in your capacity, have a pretty good idea who it is headlining and why. So bearing in mind the weight of making that sort of statement, don't you think now might be a good time to say who you think is headlining it so we can speculate more and talk about something we're all enthusiastic about more than we already are?

There's lots of stuff about all sorts of festivals that I know for certain, I'm pretty sure about, or can make realistic predictions about that I don't ever say or hold back before saying - because I've got good reasons for doing that.

My method of operation is much much more than you're presuming. I'll say when i'm ready to (if I'm ever ready to) and not before.

You won't succeed in brow-beating me into it, so there's no point in you trying.

[LondonTom]

But please ?