Primavera Sound 2021

[bluenova]

1 minute ago, Quadrophobia said:

With nearly all mainland EU festivals cancelling, i think a lot of UK festivals like Reading will have a hard time getting the big  international acts they want. A single gig will just not be enough for many acts.

Lots of bands would walk over glass for a single gig this year.

[FloorFiller]

1 minute ago, Quadrophobia said:

With nearly all mainland EU festivals cancelling, i think a lot of UK festivals like Reading will have a hard time getting the big  international acts they want. A single gig will just not be enough for many acts.

Yeah I was thinking this. It’s all well and good the U.K. being open for festivals, but they’re not just gonna come over for one or two shows and then fuck off back home to do no shows again. Not financially viable for a large percentage of acts.

[FloorFiller]

Just now, bluenova said:

Lots of bands would walk over glass for a single gig this year.

It’d cost a lot of them more money to get here than the festival would be paying them. 

[Quadrophobia]

1 minute ago, bluenova said:

Lots of bands would walk over glass for a single gig this year.

If they could afford that they would, but they can't. Sure, they can bring over Post Malone for a gig and that will pay off for both parties, but nothing much smaller than that would fly over the Atlantic for a single gig, because it wouldn't be financially viable-

[xxialac]

3 minutes ago, Quadrophobia said:

If they could afford that they would, but they can't. Sure, they can bring over Post Malone for a gig and that will pay off for both parties, but nothing much smaller than that would fly over the Atlantic for a single gig, because it wouldn't be financially viable-

That's true though Europe has a tonne of fantastic acts and you could make a great Primavera edition just with European bands and Parklife going ahead is a big plus. End of The Road is going ahead too (and sold out as of today and lots to take from there if they go for September).

Nonetheless do think the Best Kept Secret news is a major downer.

Edited February 24, 2021 by xxialac

[bluenova]

1 minute ago, Quadrophobia said:

If they could afford that they would, but they can't. Sure, they can bring over Post Malone for a gig and that will pay off for both parties, but nothing much smaller than that would fly over the Atlantic for a single gig, because it wouldn't be financially viable-

 

Lots of little bands come over to do a handful of tiny festivals. Higher up the bill, you get bands playing one offs. I wouldn't expect someone with a huge show, that had expected twenty festivals to turn up for one, but a lot will be capable of travelling for a few.

There may end up with lots of changes to line ups, more local acts etc, but I wouldn't think that the big UK festivals would be committing without first having conversations about what happens if European fests don't go ahead.

[daveje]

I think this year is about as lost as last year.

Early summer festivals and tours are starting to get killed, and if that happens, the whole early summer season is dead, since bands need the whole tours to justify the investment. Late summer might still happen, but that needs bands to start to commit in the next few months, and there are still too many uncertainties around corona. Governments can't deal with the pain of more lockdowns, so they're more likely to err on the side of cancelling things rather than allowing spreader events.

Brexit has also made the whole idea of UK-Europe tours much more expensive. Unless there are real changes to the regulations, it's going to be painful for smaller bands to deal with the visa requirements, plus the cost of needing multiple backstage crews since it's no longer viable for UK-based crew to do the whole Europe run.

I think next year we'll start to see a new normal, but it won't be the same as it was.

Edited February 24, 2021 by daveje

[xxialac]

Yes, if Primavera goes ahead it will have to miss out on lots of bands inevitably and Brexit is a headache (as it will be next year).

But think we might have spoken too soon on Best Kept Secret:

"With the choice Best Kept Secret is avoiding the big trend in festival land, where one after the other moves to August or September. This was not realistic for Best Kept Secret, says Maurits Westerik. 'It simply was not feasible. The site is not available during that period"

 

[Quadrophobia]

1 minute ago, xxialac said:

Yes, if Primavera goes ahead it will have to miss out on lots of bands inevitably and Brexit is a headache (as it will be next year).

But think we might have spoken too soon on Best Kept Secret:

"With the choice Best Kept Secret is avoiding the big trend in festival land, where one after the other moves to August or September. This was not realistic for Best Kept Secret, says Maurits Westerik. 'It simply was not feasible. The site is not available during that period"

 

Although this point is most probably aimed at other NL festivals mostly.

[Hannibal Schmitt]

I think Best Kept Secret or any festival happening at the beginning of June has always been unrealistic as our vaccination programme is slower than the UK and they want to open up at the end of June. So festivals from July onwards could be more realistic but we will see. I read today that green vaccination passport of the EU for travelling and festivals are already a done deal behind closed doors. So, Primavera a possible option with that and maybe testing for late summer from the same period onwards like Frequency Festival here.

[xxialac]

St Vincent has a new album coming out. She needs to be at the next Primavera, whenever that may be.

[xxialac]

[Ohjesus]

5 hours ago, xxialac said:

some non EU bands in there. Good. 

[xxialac]

There was a rumour we'll get an announcement of some kind next week.

Feels about right timing-wise.

 

[xxialac]

Hope not dead...

 

Ken19: "Rock Werchter are working on something with festivals like Roskilde, Primavera..." 

[Quadrophobia]

Idles Tour cancelled including June/July dates and moved to 2022. New Barcelona show indicates they won't be at PS22.

 

Also, Graspop just announced its cancellation for 2021. Not really relevant for PS, but the season is quickly thinning.

 

Edited February 26, 2021 by Quadrophobia

[primavona]

No reason for anyone to believe this as first time poster, but various industry friends have said that US tour managers are not expecting to be in Europe in 2021. The costs are too high for the odd dates here and there that look feasible. Reading and Leeds have been sold out but at a reduced capacity (75% is my understanding) that make the festival viable and give scope to open more tickets up later. Promoters and tour managers seem to be thinking that the UK can indeed have a summer of festivals, but it will be predominantly UK acts playing as nobody knows how open the country will be and the concept of 10 days quarantine for bands is unfeasible in many ways

Looking at Primavera line-up, I sadly can't see it happening this year, unless it moves to later in the year and has a massive change in line-up. I've been to 7 Prima's and would love it to go ahead this year, but suspect 2022 is the one

[Ohjesus]

16 minutes ago, primavona said:

No reason for anyone to believe this as first time poster, but various industry friends have said that US tour managers are not expecting to be in Europe in 2021. The costs are too high for the odd dates here and there that look feasible. Reading and Leeds have been sold out but at a reduced capacity (75% is my understanding) that make the festival viable and give scope to open more tickets up later. Promoters and tour managers seem to be thinking that the UK can indeed have a summer of festivals, but it will be predominantly UK acts playing as nobody knows how open the country will be and the concept of 10 days quarantine for bands is unfeasible in many ways

Looking at Primavera line-up, I sadly can't see it happening this year, unless it moves to later in the year and has a massive change in line-up. I've been to 7 Prima's and would love it to go ahead this year, but suspect 2022 is the one

This all makes sense to me. I’d been wondering about bands’ willingness to come to Europe for a while, especially US ones. 

I know a euro heavy PS is possible, as some have discussed here, but I just don’t think they’d go down that route. 

[bluenova]

7 minutes ago, Ohjesus said:

This all makes sense to me. I’d been wondering about bands’ willingness to come to Europe for a while, especially US ones. 

I know a euro heavy PS is possible, as some have discussed here, but I just don’t think they’d go down that route. 

Yes - nothing in it that's too unbelievable. On the plus side, remember we have bands who had a 2020 schedule, and those who had 2021 in their plans, so their may be a lot more UK bands to fill any holes.

For the UK, the next big date is Wednesday as they're hoping the chancellor will announce insurance backing for festivals.

[Ohjesus]

4 minutes ago, bluenova said:

Yes - nothing in it that's too unbelievable. On the plus side, remember we have bands who had a 2020 schedule, and those who had 2021 in their plans, so their may be a lot more UK bands to fill any holes.

For the UK, the next big date is Wednesday as they're hoping the chancellor will announce insurance backing for festivals.

Interesting. 
 

jumping the gun then, great escape cancelled this morning 

[Quadrophobia]

11 minutes ago, Ohjesus said:

This all makes sense to me. I’d been wondering about bands’ willingness to come to Europe for a while, especially US ones. 

I know a euro heavy PS is possible, as some have discussed here, but I just don’t think they’d go down that route. 

Assuming all European Bands would be able to tour. UK bands coming to Europe ist certainly not out of the picture, but festival touring would be much more of a hassle than normally. Also theyd prefer UK gigs for obvious reasons.

Consider this. A fictious band, lets call them White Muncipality, Old Street is planning a EU September tour. They could either play clubshows, say 2-4 per country, a total of maybe 20, or festivals, maximum 12 - 15 if there'd be festivals all September and theyd sprawl from Wednesday to Sunday. 
With clubshows you'd need to pass a border every 5-7 days, with fetivals possibly daily. This will be complicated with a lot of travel regulations still in place, depeding on each countries Covid situation and EU-UK Schengen development. Not hard to make out what bands would chose, right?

No guarantee that German, French, Italian and Scandinavian Bands would be able to come to Spain easily too.
 

[bluenova]

1 minute ago, Ohjesus said:

Interesting. 
 

jumping the gun then, great escape cancelled this morning 

Great Escape is mostly indoors isn't it, so less of a surprise. Dot to dot is similar, and usually in May too, but they've just announced a move to September.

Even with massive numbers, I'd be happier with an outdoor festival than a small club this summer.

[xxialac]

34 minutes ago, primavona said:

No reason for anyone to believe this as first time poster, but various industry friends have said that US tour managers are not expecting to be in Europe in 2021. The costs are too high for the odd dates here and there that look feasible. Reading and Leeds have been sold out but at a reduced capacity (75% is my understanding) that make the festival viable and give scope to open more tickets up later. Promoters and tour managers seem to be thinking that the UK can indeed have a summer of festivals, but it will be predominantly UK acts playing as nobody knows how open the country will be and the concept of 10 days quarantine for bands is unfeasible in many ways

Looking at Primavera line-up, I sadly can't see it happening this year, unless it moves to later in the year and has a massive change in line-up. I've been to 7 Prima's and would love it to go ahead this year, but suspect 2022 is the one

Everything in your post sounds very credible and thanks for sharing insights.

I do think there are still enough great European bands who'd love to play and would still make it a credible edition, even without the transatlantic ones.

The UK appears happy with only UK acts after all. And also some Primavera is surely better than no Primavera at all?

I wonder if they're on the fence, if the additional challenges caused by Brexit, limiting UK bands willingness to travel are just bad enough to tip them over the edge. Would be very sad.

[bluenova]

Just now, xxialac said:

Everything in your post sounds very credible and thanks for sharing insights.

I do think there are still enough great European bands who'd love to play and would still make it a credible edition, even without the transatlantic ones.

The UK appears happy with only UK acts after all. And also some Primavera is surely better than no Primavera at all?

I wonder if they're on the fence, if the additional challenges caused by Brexit, limiting UK bands willingness to travel are just bad enough to tip them over the edge. Would be very sad.

I'd imagine that the UK govt didn't want to give in on anything around the time of the Brexit "deal", and as there are no tours happening it made little difference. It would not surprise me if a deal for easier travel happens at some point when it becomes necessary. 

[Ohjesus]

40 minutes ago, bluenova said:

Great Escape is mostly indoors isn't it, so less of a surprise. Dot to dot is similar, and usually in May too, but they've just announced a move to September.

Even with massive numbers, I'd be happier with an outdoor festival than a small club this summer.

Yeh I just meant odd they didn’t wait till weds