T in the Park 2013

[stuntman]

Ive just been reading the reaction on the facebook site. Even the young team arent into it! At least he went for different headliners but methinks this is T on a very steep downward spiral. I know festivals arent as popular these days due to the economic conditions but if people get a good deal & value for money they

will still go. T definetly does not offer this anymore.

[guitarbhoy1888]

im guessing that reading have them as english exclusive as they apparently turned down subbing at IOW

unless T has them on uk exclusive ...

[mrtourette]

Didn't exactly say they turned down an offer, the organiser just said "if you think they'll play second then feel free to call them yourself".

Thinking it's a waste of time asking them to sub might have come from being knocked back, or it might just come from knowing that they've already accepted headlining slots at other festivals.

Edited December 4, 2012 by mrtourette

[zahidf]

Mumford ( based on how quickly the tour sold out) are definite festival headliners.

Rhianna ( again, based on how quickly her stadium tour sold out) is a definite headliner.

Based on that, they are sensible headline choices.

[thetime]

Mumford ( based on how quickly the tour sold out) are definite festival headliners.

Rhianna ( again, based on how quickly her stadium tour sold out) is a definite headliner.

Based on that, they are sensible headline choices.

[craig94]

Suppose though I do like that the T twitter are retweeting people who like the lineup

[KeithDelBasso]

Mumford ( based on how quickly the tour sold out) are definite festival headliners.

Rhianna ( again, based on how quickly her stadium tour sold out) is a definite headliner.

Based on that, they are sensible headline choices.

[thetime]

No they aren't. What do you think the percentage of people who bought tickets for Rihanna go to festivals?

[zahidf]

No they aren't. What do you think the percentage of people who bought tickets for Rihanna go to festivals?

[KeithDelBasso]

Do you know?

[zahidf]

I would take an educated guess, judging by the people I have on facebook who would go and see her, that it's about 5/10%. I have never known any males who would go and see her. All are girls in their teens/early twenties who wouldn't camp in a muddy field for three days.

[eFestivals]

No they aren't. What do you think the percentage of people who bought tickets for Rihanna go to festivals?

T has a choice - keep doing the same thing and watch it's audience definitely dwindle, or keep up-to-date and have a chance of sustaining itself.

If it does the first it's on to a definite loser in the long term. If it does the 2nd it's not.

What i can't grasp is why so few of the T-goers on here get that.

[thetime]

People moan when its the same old headliners, they get new headliners and still moan.

[craig94]

T has a choice - keep doing the same thing and watch it's audience definitely dwindle, or keep

up-to-date and have a chance of sustaining itself.

If it does the first it's on to a definite loser in the long term. If it does the 2nd it's not.

What i can't grasp is why so few of the T-goers on here get that.

[eFestivals]

Don't get me wrong i know that people's tastes have changed over the years but at the same time so e of the acts being booked are not deserving of a headline spot despite how well their albums have sold but we will wait and see if T's gamble has paid off when tickets go on sale

not deserving? How?

Ten-ish years ago (for example) Stereophonics headlined, because they were selling lots of records. Now they're not, so they don't headline.

Ten years ago Rihanna was selling no records. Now she's shifting container loads. So now she headlines.

It's very simple: T books acts as headliners that are currently popular and so will help sell the tickets.

[eFestivals]

No doubt lots of people will again say this year if it doesn't sell out: "it's not sold out, therefore that proves that they've got the line-up wrong".

Two things:

1. you have no idea how it might have sold with a line-up more to your liking. It might well have sold worse. However it might have sold, it's certainly not sustainable for the long-term.

2. people said the same thing about the 2012 line-up, and yet T seem to have repeated the 'current pop' thing. Are they really so stupid as to repeat a theme which you want to believe was a disaster in 2012? Or just perhaps it wasn't that disaster.

[zahidf]

not deserving? How?

Ten-ish years ago (for example) Stereophonics headlined, because they were selling lots of records. Now they're not, so they don't headline.

Ten years ago Rihanna was selling no records. Now she's shifting container loads. So now she headlines.

It's very simple: T books acts as headliners that are currently popular and so will help sell the tickets.

[Shootenanny!]

I have no idea about Of Monsters And Men but the other six acts are all acts I would expect to sell out their tours and shift tickets.

So whilst in terms of taste its like being booted in the balls by a rugby player, commercially it actually makes sense.

[marky3]

the problem is that the majority of people that go to T are not those sitting on festival forums.

sadly, on paper, the 2 announced headliners appear to be great bookings. you have rihanna, arguably the biggest recording artist on the planet, and mumford and sons who had loads of record sales in uk & america with their two albums.

this will always be the argument by the T organisers and it's hard to really argue with it despite it not being the normal festival goers preferences.

I THINK ITS FUCKIN SHITE BUT MAN

[eFestivals]

Record sales/consistently selling out gigs/Festival dates are the most important things when determining who headlines a festival. Nothing else really matters.

yep. The T organisers do not want to sell tickets to the likes of devilman, they want to sell the most amount of tickets they can to whoever wishes to buy them. Sadly for the likes of devilman, the line-up he'd like wouldn't haver them sell as many tickets (if not specifically true for this year, it does become true into the future).

It's stuff like this which has me completely reject the idea of 'community' which exists around festivals. It's bollocks, there's as much of a sense of community coming from the organisers as there is amongst Tesco shoppers. It's a business, designed to maximise profits from whoever they can extract ticket money from.

[Chiefski]

Of Monsters and Men are in quite large demand (and quite good all round from what I've seen/watched) Pretty sure they had to get a venue change up to the academy for their next Glasgow gig

[mrtourette]

It's a good question about what makes an act 'deserving'.

It's also a good point that it's alright chasing the most popular acts, but if 10 years ago those acts were of a genre supported by fans who were likely to go to and enjoy a festival atmosphere (even before they knew that band were playing) whereas now the popular acts have less fans likely to attend (certainly more than once) and enjoy a festival then it's a risky game.

I'd imagine that in this case they know that Mumford and Rihanna are a different direction than 5-10 years ago but they'll be confident that given that both have a history of playing festivals that they will have enough support already amongst festival-goers and ebnough festival-friendly folk amongst their fans to generate sales. That's the difference betwen them and One Direction.

However as Neil says festival organisers aren't idiots, everyone likes to think that they can second guess them but they will have all kinds of sales information and customer feedback to point to the best direction to go in. It's unlikely they said to themselves "indie rock is serving us well, but let's try some mainstream pop stuff just for the hell of it".

Edited December 4, 2012 by mrtourette

[Shootenanny!]

Of Monsters and Men are in quite large demand (and quite good all round from what I've seen/watched) Pretty sure they had to get a venue change up to the academy for their next Glasgow gig

[mrtourette]

I have no idea about Of Monsters And Men but the other six acts are all acts I would expect to sell out their tours and shift tickets.

Edited December 4, 2012 by mrtourette

[devilman]

There were less people last year. there will be an awful lot less repeat visitors this year. If flushing out the old guard and flooding the festival with teens is what they see the future as then fair play to them. I'm sure they see it as a worthwhile gamble. But it is a gamble. Without the 20 year loyal fanbase T will have to stand on its own against other UK festivals with an young audience who have less disposable cash than other people at a time when everyone has less cash. They spend a whole lot less at food stalls and don't drink beer at the bars. I remember queuing for ages at 10 deeps bars when there were far more of them. Last year I didn't queue at all despite theer being less bars. I can't see it making commercial sense in the short term unless they change the "model" too. One thing is for sure, there's 10k or so of my and my friends money going elsewhere this July that even though they kicked us in the baws last year, we would prefer to have spend at T again this.