Bestival 2018 incoming!

[the wonderwhy]

 

 

Interesting tweet. I find that hard to believe, but then again I dunno why you'd bullshit something like that so must be true. 

I also agree with the lineup probably being pitched at slightly too old an audience - particularly the undercard. Which is why I think Britney would be a gamble (then again Arcade Fire probably wouldn't be any better) 

[Matt42]

9 minutes ago, the wonderwhy said:

 

 

Interesting tweet. I find that hard to believe, but then again I dunno why you'd bullshit something like that so must be true. 

I also agree with the lineup probably being pitched at slightly too old an audience - particularly the undercard. Which is why I think Britney would be a gamble (then again Arcade Fire probably wouldn't be any better) 

Rob De Bank really should be as active as he is on social media

[eFestivals]

11 hours ago, Matt - Ed Banger Records said:

As someone has said, feels like a Bestival of old line up

that was my first thought too, along with it being better than last year's.

What I hate about bestival and camp bestival line-ups tho are the bits where it goes for the very-very-naff holiday camp vibe. There's clearly a market for it, but what ever happened to 'credible'?

[Matt - Ed Banger Records]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

that was my first thought too, along with it being better than last year's.

What I hate about bestival and camp bestival line-ups tho are the bits where it goes for the very-very-naff holiday camp vibe. There's clearly a market for it, but what ever happened to 'credible'?

It’s kinda always traded a bit on having some naff fun there, Mr Motivator et al, and they tend to do really well on the day, just not really a big ticket seller which begs the question why they make such a big deal out of it. In years gone by that was balanced with having some genuinely exciting new music fairly deep into the line up, and that’s really been missing for me for about 5 years. 

[Homer]

How far back are we going with this ‘Bestival of old’ thing? I first went in 2007 and I got to see the Chemical Brothers, Primal Scream and the Beastie Boys (twice). This doesn’t come close to me personally!

 

put me down as a fan of the naff stuff generally though. 

[eFestivals]

6 minutes ago, Homer said:

How far back are we going with this ‘Bestival of old’ thing? I first went in 2007 and I got to see the Chemical Brothers, Primal Scream and the Beastie Boys (twice). This doesn’t come close to me personally!

here you go, try these for size...
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/bestival/2004
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/bestival/2005/lineup.shtml
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/bestival/2006/lineup.shtml

(and remember that some acts are much more significant today than they were at those times)

[rseamer]

21 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

here you go, try these for size...
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/bestival/2004
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/bestival/2005/lineup.shtml
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/bestival/2006/lineup.shtml

(and remember that some acts are much more significant today than they were at those times)

I've been to all the Bestival's since the first (except 1).

There has always been the comedy / novelty / holiday camp aspect to it from the off. That's what partly appealed to me.

In fact the very first year what sold me was that they had Fatboy Slim and Morris Dancers!

Let's also remember Bestival hasn't always had big headliners: Gogo Bordello, The Bees, My Bloody Valentine (who although might be considered 'big' didn't actually pull a large crowd)

At the end of the day the line up is what it is and you take your choices on going or not. 

[Matt - Ed Banger Records]

I think the problem for Bestival is the massive growth from 2008-2013ish, built them into a pretty big festival and the expectations grew, it’s a tough one to then reset when you begin to go back to the roots of the festival. 

[eFestivals]

9 minutes ago, Matt - Ed Banger Records said:

I think the problem for Bestival is the massive growth from 2008-2013ish, built them into a pretty big festival and the expectations grew, it’s a tough one to then reset when you begin to go back to the roots of the festival. 

yep, agree with that.

Having downsized it can't be the same thing, but I reckon there's less of a "shit, we've lost loads of money and need to make it back" feel about this year's line-up compared to last year's.

[Homer]

I think the MBV crowd was affected somewhat by the cyclone going on overhead at the time! (I for one gave up halfway through - was much more pleasant when I saw them subsequently in Portugal!)

Edited February 7, 2018 by Homer

[rseamer]

19 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

yep, agree with that.

Having downsized it can't be the same thing, but I reckon there's less of a "shit, we've lost loads of money and need to make it back" feel about this year's line-up compared to last year's.

Maybe that's because of moving the date to immediately after Camp Bestival? It must reduce their infrastructure costs? (Excluding contingency for if it rains heavily at Camp Bestival )

Edited February 7, 2018 by rseamer

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, rseamer said:

Maybe that's because of moving the date to immediately after Camp Bestival? It must reduce their infrastructure costs? (Excluding contingency for if it rains heavily at Camp Bestival )

oh, i'm sure that's part of it. It will certainly help them get over any losses they might have suffered with their last one on IoW.

(I don't know for sure they suffered losses, but I reckon they probably did).

[smogo]

It's definitely got a different feel to what I'm used to seeing on a first announcement. Much less of a "major festival" feel, to be frank. Jorja Smith as Thursday's headliner is a surprise choice, to say the least, but I love the fact that they've gone for all female (/-fronted) acts at the top of the bill.

But there's plenty in that first wave to keep me entertained, and when Britney's announced as Friday headliner (it must be her, surely?!) it'll look a lot more balanced and exciting.

[eFestivals]

14 minutes ago, smogo said:

Much less of a "major festival" feel, to be frank.

at half the size, that's what it is.

I quite admire them for doing that, and (seemingly) pulling it off. I'd always thought that the ever-growing expansion of fests couldn't be maintained and that some would eventually have to downsize or die, but also felt that it would be difficult for a fest to downsize without it being viewed as a failure (and so failing even when downsized).

It looks like Bestival have managed what I'd thought was almost impossible. All power to them.

[Homer]

Says capacity is 35,000. Google search seems to suggest it was 20,000 in 2007. Is this correct?

Edited February 7, 2018 by Homer

[eFestivals]

9 minutes ago, Homer said:

Says capacity is 35,000. Google search seems to suggest it was 20,000 in 2007. Is this correct?

sounds about right.

However, the price of bands has gone up significantly in the last decade, and i'm pretty sure that infrastructure costs have out-paced inflation too - so not everything from back then is equal to now.

Edited February 7, 2018 by eFestivals

[Homer]

Hmmmm, despite those factors, the fact is that I personally felt I was getting a lot better value with Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys and Primal Scream at the top of the bill - at a festival of almost half the size - than what is being served up now.

[Matt - Ed Banger Records]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

oh, i'm sure that's part of it. It will certainly help them get over any losses they might have suffered with their last one on IoW.

(I don't know for sure they suffered losses, but I reckon they probably did).

My understanding from someone that spoke to RdB in the aftermath of the festival is that the last one on the IoW made significant losses.

4 minutes ago, Homer said:

Hmmmm, despite those factors, the fact is that I personally felt I was getting a lot better value with Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys and Primal Scream at the top of the bill - at a festival of almost half the size - than what is being served up now.

I don't disagree about value for money,  but if you look further down the line up in that year, there's not much going on, and it's a completely different landscape now for festivals, I imagine (could be well wide of the mark) that with less competition for the acts they were booking that the cost was less? I feel hard done by with most festivals now, price difference between Bestival 2007-2018 is roughly £50, in the same time Glastonbury has increased £100 - all relative really. 

[eFestivals]

15 minutes ago, Homer said:

Hmmmm, despite those factors, the fact is that I personally felt I was getting a lot better value with Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys and Primal Scream at the top of the bill - at a festival of almost half the size - than what is being served up now.

I was pointing out that the same value isn't available today as back then. The price of bands of the same profile has gone up to account for record sales going down.

Having said that, I reckon that Chems and Primals would be within Bestival's budgets now (I suspect they cost around the same now), but bestival would have to want to book them, and that would come across as tired or safe bookings to some - and Rob has never really been about that, has he?

[Zacko]

Looked again today and I feel a bit better about the lineup, and know it's gonna be a great time.

However I think what's really missing for me is some strong headliners for The Box, I love the acts doing it but I just think they'd all be better slightly down the lineup.

An act like Bonobo live, or maybe Caribou would have been brilliant. Jorja Smith doesn't even have an album out yet?

Then again I suppose less clashes means more time to explore and stumble upon lots of different stuff! 

Edited February 7, 2018 by Zacko

[Homer]

I’m not saying book the two same acts as 2007, just ones of the same size. Chems/Primals were/still are Other headliner/Pyramid sub sized acts. TBF they managed this last year with XX and PSBs.

 

This year you have a West Holts and a John Peel/Park sized headliner (I believe).

[Homer]

Who is Jorja Smith?!

 

(Rhetorical question-ish - I’m Googling it)

Edited February 7, 2018 by Homer

[the wonderwhy]

7 minutes ago, Homer said:

I’m not saying book the two same acts as 2007, just ones of the same size. Chems/Primals were/still are Other headliner/Pyramid sub sized acts.

Dunno about that - Chems are playing some pretty small fests this year. I think Bestival got them at a good time with the album being fresh. They might just about headline the Other stage now, but only really on the basis that they need to headline a stage. 

Primals definitely aren't that big, they got that slot because it was pre-Rolling Stone

[Custard320]

2 hours ago, eFestivals said:

oh, i'm sure that's part of it. It will certainly help them get over any losses they might have suffered with their last one on IoW.

(I don't know for sure they suffered losses, but I reckon they probably did).

What happened with the last IoW one?

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, the wonderwhy said:

Dunno about that - Chems are playing some pretty small fests this year. I think Bestival got them at a good time with the album being fresh. They might just about headline the Other stage now, but only really on the basis that they need to headline a stage. 

Primals definitely aren't that big, they got that slot because it was pre-Rolling Stone

Yup. bluedot this year, 5,000 peeps.