2017

[Funkyfairy!]

6 hours ago, watsonjm said:

Ha hadn't noticed that.  Maybe a clue that the end is nigh? 

I've got a strange feeling its going to be the last one - something keeps drawing me back and I have no idea why, except its an easy festival that appeals to a wide range of buddies

[watsonjm]

15 minutes ago, Funkyfairy! said:

I've got a strange feeling its going to be the last one - something keeps drawing me back and I have no idea why, except its an easy festival that appeals to a wide range of buddies

Pretty much the same here! 

its an odd one.  Have only done a brief search but cant find any companies or anything that would warrant being a sponsor.   

[Funkyfairy!]

6 minutes ago, watsonjm said:

Pretty much the same here! 

its an odd one.  Have only done a brief search but cant find any companies or anything that would warrant being a sponsor.   

I've tweeted the festival to try to find out why the name choice, Just seems to be all change this year, and not in a good way. Site layout looks different, smaller camping area's, no wristbands for day entry, different site entry (probably means for much longer queues) - and just feels 'odd'

If it is the last, then so be it, been to every one, all 22, and every year and say 'not this year' and every year I find a 'reason to go' - 2 for 1 tickets helped this year lol

 

[festy-dancer]

I do wonder if they already had contracts in place with the venues and some of the artists last year when they announced this years festival - and it may have been more costly for them to have cancelled than to have continued with it. It just feels a bit half hearted. I know that numbers have been steadily decreasing since around 2012 - but as a festival goer that has meant more space and less queues = better experience. Guess we will know this time next week - especially if there are no early bird tickets released. 

[Rose-Colored Boy]

1 hour ago, festy-dancer said:

I do wonder if they already had contracts in place with the venues and some of the artists last year when they announced this years festival - and it may have been more costly for them to have cancelled than to have continued with it. It just feels a bit half hearted. I know that numbers have been steadily decreasing since around 2012 - but as a festival goer that has meant more space and less queues = better experience. Guess we will know this time next week - especially if there are no early bird tickets released. 

Yeah Jay Z would have had a big old 'event cancellation' compensation fee written into his contract I'd expect.

Would be a great shame if it was cancelled - unlike most other UK festivals there would be a huge gap in the market if it was to end - but I don't think anyone would be shocked. At the very least they need to stop spiralling downwards in this vicious cycle of 'we sold poorly so next year we need to book an even weaker lineup'. The way its lineups have deteriorated even over the five years I've been paying attention to them is shocking, this year is just such a mess all over the place:

• 2014 had subs (arguably even third down acts) bigger than Pink who's somehow headlining this year
• They've obviously tried to give Jay Z an appropriate undercard for day tickets, but then completely botched it by sticking silly Ellie Goulding on straight before him. Swapping the subs over would make the whole thing look much more logical, even if Craig David would still be too small.
• Booking Jess Glynne for the fourth year running is appalling even besides the fact she hasn't released any new music since before the 2015 festival
• Busted are on for such a short set they may as well not turn up. Considering they've presumably been booked for the crowd to have a laugh singing along to their gazillions of old hits, people are going to very disappointed when they walk off after playing three or four of them at most, because of course they'll insist on playing at least two new songs. Likewise Scouting For Girls, although they have a lot fewer hits to cram in I suppose.
• The lack of choice that's been caused by them turning The Arena into a dance music-only zone is appalling - at one point the 'lucky' festival goers who've paid £200+ to attend will have the 'choice' between James Arthur, The Naked & Famous, 'Lost Kings', Jen Brister and 'NAATIONS'. I mean wtf? The same slot in 2014 had Tom Odell, George Ezra, Kiesza and Dan Croll all happening at the same time - even if none of those are to your taste, the comparison doesn't bare thinking about
• Also in terms of turning The Arena into a dance-only zone being messy, why is Pete Tong's thing headlining the second stage when YOU LITERALLY HAVE A WHOLE STAGE DEDICATED TO SHITTY DANCE MUSIC. Makes no sense whatsoever. Likewise Sigma and Rudimental, although at least they're probably big enough to justify being on the second stage instead
• This whole 'Friday night Radio 1 Dance Stage' thing is a bit of a shambles. Pound for pound it's probably the strongest bit of the lineup relative to what you'd expect them to have, surely offer Friday day tickets to at least make a bit of money back on that. But also, tbh, if you're opening up the second stage for several hours on the Friday night, why aren't you running a whole proper third day of the festival
• Calum Scott can absolutely sod off into the deepest pits of hell with the Transformers franchise and Nigel Farage, please

Edited August 15, 2017 by Zac Quinn

[festy-dancer]

Maybe @Zac Quinn Jess Glyn is the new Shed 7! Thanks for the clash finder- always been grateful for that over the years. 

I remember a very dismal cold damp Sunday afternoon a couple of years ago when the choice was Annie Mac DJing on main stage and Mark Ronson DJing on the 2nd stage, and probably someone else DJing on the other stages too. As you say, for £200 you expect a bit more variety and choice. 

 

On on the upside - weather is steadily improving for Weston Park - and we have been given the set times for free....

[Rose-Colored Boy]

1 hour ago, festy-dancer said:

Maybe @Zac Quinn Jess Glyn is the new Shed 7! Thanks for the clash finder- always been grateful for that over the years. 

No problem at all, thought I might as well even though they have been so kind as to let people know who's on when without forcing you to fork out a tenner! 

1 hour ago, festy-dancer said:

I remember a very dismal cold damp Sunday afternoon a couple of years ago when the choice was Annie Mac DJing on main stage and Mark Ronson DJing on the 2nd stage, and probably someone else DJing on the other stages too. As you say, for £200 you expect a bit more variety and choice. 

Yeah that would have been 2015, the first year they really started taking the piss (and the first year I decided not to bother). That's especially bad considering just a year earlier the undercard had been so strong - I appreciate some of them aren't touring but any of Janelle Monae, Paolo Nutini, Elbow, the Manics, Blondie, Chic, Embrace, Tinie Tempah, the Kaisers, Childish Gambino, Sam Smith, Newton Faulkner or Train would make this year's undercard look 100 times deeper. Like him or not, they managed to book Ed Sheeran in a non-headlining spot three years ago, whereas now they aren't even ambitious enough to throw a blank cheque at him to headline. The whole thing has fallen apart.

1 hour ago, festy-dancer said:

 

 

On on the upside - weather is steadily improving for Weston Park - and we have been given the set times for free....

Have a great weekend  The cynic in me thinks the free set times are because of the bad press they got a few months ago when someone found that they were apparently listing clash finders as a banned item. Or maybe they sold barely any programmes last year so decided they'd be better off generating a bit of customer loyalty by giving out the times for free now. Or perhaps, if this really is the last one, they have given up caring about trying to make as big a profit as possible. We'll never know.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Zac Quinn

[watsonjm]

5 hours ago, Funkyfairy! said:

I've tweeted the festival to try to find out why the name choice, Just seems to be all change this year, and not in a good way. Site layout looks different, smaller camping area's, no wristbands for day entry, different site entry (probably means for much longer queues) - and just feels 'odd'

If it is the last, then so be it, been to every one, all 22, and every year and say 'not this year' and every year I find a 'reason to go' - 2 for 1 tickets helped this year lol

 

Let me know if you hear back. Over all the years I've never had a response from them on any social media! 

[watsonjm]

As much as its gone downhill in terms of line up and up hill in terms of price, i'm still really looking forward to this weekend.  

Few annoyances this year 

- i cant find what time the Weston car parks open (im assuming 8?)

- cant find anything on the silent disco. 

- what is this crap about A4 size bags?  Surely if its a security reason they should be checking all everyone's stuff rather than just what they want to take into the arena.  I cant fit a coat let alone anything else in an A4 size bag

Edited August 16, 2017 by watsonjm

[LucyJR]

I go and watch Man United every week, we have been told we can now take a bag no bigger than 20cm into the ground.  They have a template to check that the bag doesn't go above the dimensions; and I'm expecting V to do the same.  Off to Sports Direct I go tonight armed with an A4 sheet!

[watsonjm]

32 minutes ago, LucyJR said:

I go and watch Man United every week, we have been told we can now take a bag no bigger than 20cm into the ground.  They have a template to check that the bag doesn't go above the dimensions; and I'm expecting V to do the same.  Off to Sports Direct I go tonight armed with an A4 sheet!

If this is the case it will take hours to get into the arena.  It was bad enough last year with just the normal searches they were doing.

[festy-dancer]

I am never going to get my Zimmer frame in - not even space for my Werther's Toffees and my bus pass!!! 

 

Seriously though - I am so excited about going this weekend despite all of these annoyances. And if it is the last one - let's make it a good one!! And with the weather looking improved - shouldn't need to carry extra stuff. Just tie it round you - bring in an empty carrier bag folded up in a pocket and put all the extra clothes you tied round yourself into that once you are in the arena!! 

[Rose-Colored Boy]

14 hours ago, watsonjm said:

Let me know if you hear back. Over all the years I've never had a response from them on any social media! 

yeah the stage names are probably an executive decision way above the level of info any social media interns would be given, sadly

[watsonjm]

15 minutes ago, Zac Quinn said:

yeah the stage names are probably an executive decision way above the level of info any social media interns would be given, sadly

Yep.   I've found that they only respond to young people with pretty profile pictures.  I got banned from there facebook page a few years ago for kicking up a big stink over the ban on portable stoves. 

[NickisGinger]

I don't think it's the last one yet, they've least got to have one decent headliner before it fizzles out. I'm sure they'll get Ed or Eminem next year..

[Rose-Colored Boy]

1 minute ago, NickisGinger said:

I don't think it's the last one yet, they've least got to have one decent headliner before it fizzles out. I'm sure they'll get Ed or Eminem next year..

And then the aforementioned decent headliner will be in 2019, yeah?

[Rose-Colored Boy]

Booking female headliners has been the one saving grace of V's last couple of lineups so it'd be a shame if they went back to 100% pale male acts next year. At this stage my ideal realistic headliner pair for next year would be Taylor Swift and Florence and The Machine. We'll see.

[watsonjm]

3 hours ago, Zac Quinn said:

Booking female headliners has been the one saving grace of V's last couple of lineups so it'd be a shame if they went back to 100% pale male acts next year. At this stage my ideal realistic headliner pair for next year would be Taylor Swift and Florence and The Machine. We'll see.

i'd be tempted by that.  

Given that other than Bieber last year sales have continued to decline, i wouldn't be surprised if they go full circle and head back down the Indie/Rock route. Would have to go the whole hog to make it work though. 

This is assuming they do next year of course.

[Rose-Colored Boy]

23 minutes ago, watsonjm said:

i'd be tempted by that.  

Given that other than Bieber last year sales have continued to decline, i wouldn't be surprised if they go full circle and head back down the Indie/Rock route. Would have to go the whole hog to make it work though. 

This is assuming they do next year of course.

But the problem they'd have is who would they go for if they were to do that? Other than Flo, the big indie/rock bands you'd usually expect to find at V - Killers, Kasabian, KOL - have all headlined since the decline set in, so in theory booking any of them again would do nothing to avert the problem. Unless they somehow managed to pull off a '15th anniversary celebration of the 2003 lineup' i.e. have two of Coldplay, QOTSA, Foos and RHCP play, any attempt to 'go rock' would be surely doomed to fail. And even if they could manage that, it'd only take ticket sales away from R+L/Download, so Live Nation probably wouldn't sanction it anyway.

As you say, last year was a bit more successful with all-out pop headliners, so pushing the boat out and pairing Taylor Swift with another name who's actually headline size, i.e. not Pink, would be the most obvious thing to try. They'd sell out in five minutes if they booked Tay Tay and Beyonce* in the same year, that'd be very ambitious but could potentially save the festival's future if they pulled it off and at the same time built up brand loyalty among attendees with free set times, reasonable drink prices etc.

*I realise Beyonce headlined in the same year as KOL but her day was a lot busier, I think the whole weekend would've more or less sold out with a stronger second headliner.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Zac Quinn

[amyg1990]

I used to go to V, it was local and I used to like the bands that played.

 

I think V and its decline is a product of the state of the music industry at the moment and them selling out to pop bands in the past few yrs.

I can’t really see how a pop festival (which is what V is now) is ever going to do as well as a indie/rock festival, because you don’t have the diehard fan base that are willing to do a festival (in my opinion) How can you sell out a full festival with children’s bands like Bieber and swift ? ( or am I massively out of touch )

However with that said, I can’t see how V can become the indie festival it used to be either.
Mainly due to the simple lack of bands out there these days. There hasn’t been a wave  of ‘decent’, ‘popular’ bands since the Arctic Monkeys/Kasabian/Killers era.
All the ‘comeback’ gigs (phonics, roses, charlatans, mondays etc etc) have been and gone now, there are no strong new bands (in my opinion) and I think all the indie festivals next year are going to struggle to get interesting headliners.
I had the Kendal Calling email the other day asking me for my 3 wish list headliners, wanting to do it realistically I struggled to fill it in!

Who is out there to headline these days? Everyone who is anyone has done it 1000 times!

It’s a shame, as V was a awesome festival, all my family have enjoyed it over the years, but I can’t see how they’re going to keep going!

[watsonjm]

9 minutes ago, Zac Quinn said:

' i.e. have two of Coldplay, QOTSA, Foos and RHCP play, any attempt to 'go rock' would be surely doomed to fail.

They'd sell out in five minutes if they booked Tay Tay and Beyonce* in the same year, that'd be very ambitious but could potentially save the festival's future if they pulled it off. 

 

That's the sort of level i was thinking of, Coldplay and Foo's would be ace.  But they would need to back it up with the under-card as well. 

Not sure it would.  The day's Swift was playing yes but not sure Beyonce has the draw she did at the moment (not to say she wont again by next year)

Either way, you would think after 4 years of declining sales (par Beiber) something would need to be done.

Having said that if they still make a decent profit every year that may as well keep going till it gets really bad and can spend mega then.  

Going to be interested to see the message on the screens at the end of Sunday

[watsonjm]

5 minutes ago, amyg1990 said:

I used to go to V, it was local and I used to like the bands that played.

 

I think V and its decline is a product of the state of the music industry at the moment and them selling out to pop bands in the past few yrs.

I can’t really see how a pop festival (which is what V is now) is ever going to do as well as a indie/rock festival, because you don’t have the diehard fan base that are willing to do a festival (in my opinion) How can you sell out a full festival with children’s bands like Bieber and swift ? ( or am I massively out of touch )

However with that said, I can’t see how V can become the indie festival it used to be either.
Mainly due to the simple lack of bands out there these days. There hasn’t been a wave  of ‘decent’, ‘popular’ bands since the Arctic Monkeys/Kasabian/Killers era.
All the ‘comeback’ gigs (phonics, roses, charlatans, mondays etc etc) have been and gone now, there are no strong new bands (in my opinion) and I think all the indie festivals next year are going to struggle to get interesting headliners.
I had the Kendal Calling email the other day asking me for my 3 wish list headliners, wanting to do it realistically I struggled to fill it in!

Who is out there to headline these days? Everyone who is anyone has done it 1000 times!

It’s a shame, as V was a awesome festival, all my family have enjoyed it over the years, but I can’t see how they’re going to keep going!

They could go the indie-pop route i guess and get the likes of Catfish and 1975 up towards the top of the bill and really try for the teenage market.  Would still come up against the issue of how many of them would be willing to camp (eg not your hardcore traditional festival go'er) and would still need a decent under-card. 

I think that's the main issue this year.  Pink and Jay Z are both big enough (ok, pink is a stretch given her new album isnt out yet but a few years ago I wouldnt have batted an eyelid) its the fact there's sod all really worth leaving the tent for during the day

Edited August 16, 2017 by watsonjm

[amyg1990]

1 minute ago, watsonjm said:

t the likes of Catfish and 1975 up towards the top of the bill

but are they really strong enough bands to go at the top of the bill...and sell the festival out....I dont think so

I think V may be stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment

 

[LucyJR]

Doesn't the email about earlybird tickets normally come out the week before?

[Rose-Colored Boy]

18 minutes ago, watsonjm said:

That's the sort of level i was thinking of, Coldplay and Foo's would be ace.  But they would need to back it up with the under-card as well. 

Not sure it would.  The day's Swift was playing yes but not sure Beyonce has the draw she did at the moment (not to say she wont again by next year)

Either way, you would think after 4 years of declining sales (par Beiber) something would need to be done.

Having said that if they still make a decent profit every year that may as well keep going till it gets really bad and can spend mega then.  

Going to be interested to see the message on the screens at the end of Sunday

'Yonce sold out six UK stadium dates last summer including two nights at Wembley, even if that temporarily wiped out the demand for her it'd surely have recovered after two years. Especially if she puts out another new album by next summer - and she's never been one to take a lot of time between albums, even when welcoming new babbys into the world - she'd sell V out no questions asked.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Zac Quinn