2020 Line-up Thread

[mario man]

Sad news. It was inevitable, but doesn’t make it any easier when it’s confirmed. I’ll definitely be rolling over for next year, and wish the festival well during what is going to be a tough few months. This is a real gem of a festival & I can’t wait to be there again next year! 

[Yoss]

They'll be losing a good whack of money on it. Here's what Doune the Rabbit Hole (who also confirmed postponement today) say about finances in their statement:

Quote

In case you’ve ever wondered, the majority of UK festivals (unless they have big corporate sponsors) are small independent businesses without massive cash reserves. As we said above, festival organisers usually don’t get paid unless the event goes ahead and makes money.  Most of the profits come from the bars and food traders (i.e. not from ticket sales).  It costs a lot more than you might think to run Doune the Rabbit Hole, and a big chunk of our costs are paid well in advance of the festival, and thus have to come from ticket income.

What happens at the majority of festivals is that someone buys a ticket to the festival and that money is used straight away to pay a whole host of costs, such as our team payroll, rent for offices and huge amounts of storage, online and press advertising, supplier and artist deposits etc. The majority of these are “sunk costs” which we can’t get back and what’s worse, our insurance won’t pay out on an event postponement due to Covid-19.

 

[SweepingTheNation]

I wonder if there's going to be any virtual festival events nearer/at this year's dates?

[zahidf]

Bright eye on the sunday again

 

 

 

[BlackFoxx]

Thinking of going to this next year for the first time. Does anyone have any experience of what its like attending on your own, and just anyone sharing an overview or impression of the festival would be great to help make up my mind.

[xxialac]

On 3/15/2020 at 9:17 PM, Copperface said:

Come back to me beginning of September and we'll see..........This will last for 12-18 months.

I have my EOTR ticket but fully expect 2021 to be when I'm next watching someone on the Garden with a cider in hand.

It's not negativism, pessimism or doom-mongering, it's realism.

Well done for such an accurate comment back in March. You took a bit of a bashing and pretty unfairly, as you didn't benefit personally from sharing your informed view.

Also it's 12 weeks since Spaffer said we would turn the tide and, as per, that's turned out to be a load of gubbins.

 

[Copperface]

1 hour ago, xxialac said:

Well done for such an accurate comment back in March. You took a bit of a bashing and pretty unfairly, as you didn't benefit personally from sharing your informed view.

Also it's 12 weeks since Spaffer said we would turn the tide and, as per, that's turned out to be a load of gubbins.

 

Hehe, no problem.....also got slammed in early March for suggesting that there was no way Glastonbury would be going ahead either.

Anything that the spaffmeister vomits out is normally either a. a lie or b. made upon the spot.

[Lester_Freamon]

7 hours ago, BlackFoxx said:

Thinking of going to this next year for the first time. Does anyone have any experience of what its like attending on your own, and just anyone sharing an overview or impression of the festival would be great to help make up my mind.

I went to EOTR on my own last year; the first time I've ever gone to a festival on my own.

I'd been to EOTR before so I knew what to expect which took some of the  nervousness out of it, but apart from when I first walked in on the Thursday afternoon I didn't really feel self-conscious at all, particularly when the music started. 

The atmosphere is very relaxed and friendly at EOTR and to be honest I really enjoyed the freedom of being able to nip from stage to stage whenever I wanted.  In fact I'd say EOTR is probably one of the better festivals to do on your own for the first time if my experience is anything to go by, particularly if the lineup is to your liking. 

[Fareham Grecian]

16 hours ago, BlackFoxx said:

Thinking of going to this next year for the first time. Does anyone have any experience of what its like attending on your own, and just anyone sharing an overview or impression of the festival would be great to help make up my mind.

Yep, I went once completely on my own, having been before with my partner and with friends, and had a fantastic time. People are so friendly that almost anyone is up for a chat if you want it, or you can enjoy the freedom of not pleasing anyone but yourself. There are lots of people there solo. And it is THE BEST festival. Just do it 😀

[SweepingTheNation]

On 6/10/2020 at 8:13 PM, xxialac said:

Well done for such an accurate comment back in March. You took a bit of a bashing and pretty unfairly, as you didn't benefit personally from sharing your informed view.

Also it's 12 weeks since Spaffer said we would turn the tide and, as per, that's turned out to be a load of gubbins.

 

In fairness nobody seemed to think it was going to last into the summer back in March, hence festivals were being rescheduled for September and events announced for autumn. Even Glastonbury's statement at the end of that month basically said "everything will probably be alright by that weekend but we can't start building the site".

 

[xxialac]

2 minutes ago, SweepingTheNation said:

In fairness nobody seemed to think it was going to last into the summer back in March, hence festivals were being rescheduled for September and events announced for autumn. Even Glastonbury's statement at the end of that month basically said "everything will probably be alright by that weekend but we can't start building the site".

 

That's not quite true. Many scientists were forecasting that it would last into the Summer back in March based on their superior knowledge of pandemics,. @Copperface was simply more in touch with this than others, who IMO could have been a bit more respectful towards his view. And festivals were never going to be issue pessimistic forecasts, which would only serve to hurt their sales and rescheduling was a low risk option which could then be re-rescheduled if necessary.

[Chapple12345]

21 hours ago, xxialac said:

That's not quite true. Many scientists were forecasting that it would last into the Summer back in March based on their superior knowledge of pandemics,.

I'd argue it was the media's interpretation that'd we'd peak in May time and everything would be honky dory by then and granted we know a lot more now in hindsight than we did back then when we were debating it all 

[xxialac]

24 minutes ago, Chapple12345 said:

I'd argue it was the media's interpretation that'd we'd peak in May time and everything would be honky dory by then and granted we know a lot more now in hindsight than we did back then when we were debating it all 

Obviously we know a lot more in hindsight - isn't that the nature of any prediction? But the warning signs were there for those who looked past the superficiality of the media.

Yes, and the media and a lot of people were too optimistic. 

Many scientists were more cautious and kudos to anyone who tried to voice this view.

[zahidf]

From Simon taffe in the new statesman

“When the crisis first came about, we hoped it’d be OK by July or so,” he says over the phone, “but then it kept on rolling. We were constantly gambling a little bit more money, thinking: do we pull the plug and cancel it? Because the government went about it in quite a cloak and dagger way at the beginning, we had to spend a huge amount of money before we really knew we had to cancel.”

End of the Road 2020 tickets remain valid for 2021, when Taffe hopes the festival will go ahead. He tells me that 90 per cent of his audience have held onto their tickets, bolstered by confirmation that a number of artists on this summer’s line-up, including Pixies, King Krule, Bright Eyes and Little Simz, will appear next year.

Taffe is grateful that the festival is now in its fifteenth year. “We’ve lost a lot of money, but we had quite a bit of money to lose,” he says, “whereas if we were three or four years in, I don’t think we’d survive to next year. We were still paying debts then, still getting the business to break even.” He has faith that even if festivals weren’t given the green light for 2021, End of the Road would just about still survive. “But I know there would be a lot of casualties. I think there’ll be a lot of casualties even this year.”

 

[Tomos_]

Great to see the vast majority of punters have held onto their tickets!

[xxialac]

3 hours ago, Tomos_ said:

Great to see the vast majority of punters have held onto their tickets!

A lesson in be good to your customers and your customers will be good to you : )

[Tmeister]

Yep kept my ticket for next year hoping for the festival season to return fingers crossed!

[xxialac]

This is a good initiative now promoted by EOTR. So far the UK govt response to supporting the Arts has been pathetic. 

https://concertpromotersassociation.co.uk/let-the-music-play/?fbclid=IwAR1K2meq9MaTT6nowB-UV0eeRE6qzGGS4YE1eD3F23ZlcsMnLbLVQMXlC0g

[Sean1234321]

Interesting that Red Rooster festival in Suffolk is still going ahead (or so they say) on the same weekend that EOTR would have been. 

Admittedly it's a much smaller capacity which helps their cause, but it'll be interesting to see what measures they are proposing to have in place. 

That is if they're actually serious about doing it which I think could be doubtful for many reasons (lack of available artists, chance of a local lockdown in that area etc). 

Edited July 16, 2020 by Sean1234321

[incident]

I can't see why they wouldn't be serious?

I don't think there's much if any risk of a local lockdown affecting them to be honest, given that they're nowhere near any significant population centres and the few villages that are nearby are small enough that a local spike in cases wouldn't be big enough to get noticed nationally or cause a lockdown.

Getting artists to play won't be a problem either. Obviously they won't be able to fly anyone in, but within the UK there's loads of available artists out there sat waiting for a chance to play somewhere. They may not be big names, but it should be fairly easy to fill out 3 stages.

The main risk to it happening is if the authorities deem their measures insufficient. Hopefully they've had that conversation though before announcing anything.

[Sean1234321]

Because surely if festivals could take place, they wouldn't be the only ones doing it?

I get that they were riding their luck, waiting and waiting while all other festivals were cancelling until the government relaxed things enough so that they could feasibly put something on...but there's a reason the live music is scene is currently the way it is and I can't believe for one second the Red Rooster festival organisers know something that nobody else does. 

Good luck to them anyway, I may even go for the Saturday if nearer the time it looks feasible  

[incident]

It's not as simple as everyone being able to do it though.

A huge part of the equation here seems to be that they seem to have a huge amount more space available to them than they would normally need, which allows them to space out campsites, stages, etc far more than most festivals could.

[Sean1234321]

Yes I was reading about the festival earlier, it sounds like they have a lot of things going for them. 

I'm not saying they can't do it, I hope they can, just wouldn't surprise me if it proves a bridge too far to actually pull off. 

[eFestivals]

one of the measures they're doing is outdoor stages only, which makes sense.

It'll be interesting to see how it goes, from all angles including sales. efest will have a reviewer there I'm pleased to say (and at Beardy Folk too, very probably).

[xxialac]

I think they will run the event but people won't enjoy it much with the impact of the social distancing and nor will it be profitable.