LAWKS! It’s the Next Announcement Thread 2022!

[stuie]

21 minutes ago, TASHMA BWABWE said:

Love this. Is it legit or a photoshop job?

 

[assorted]

46 minutes ago, thewayiam said:

Ticket sales in the resale for example weren't hard to get into, the ticket system was shit. The system is now a cash cow with so limited time they don't care about any disappointment from that. Glastonbury do have a choice about this but they don't bother.

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

[henry bear]

6 minutes ago, assorted said:

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

The festival needs to appeal to young people more so than the likes of me. I can't imagine many people under the age of 40 really wanting to see the likes of the Lightning Seeds, Manics etc.

I can guarantee that following the televising of this year's festival, demand will be huge for 2023

[Matt42]

@assorted while there were a huge amount of people on here successful, there were still some unsuccessful. I tried for some people this year to expand my group and didn’t get anywhere near a booking page.

I think you’re pulling data from a poor sample size.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Matt42

[tigger123]

7 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

@assorted while there were a huge amount of people on here successful, there were still some unsuccessful. I tried for some people this year to expand my group and didn’t get anywhere near a booking page.

I think you’re pulling data from a poor sample size.

We had 6 people trying in the main resale, not a sniff of the ticket page for anyone

[gfa]

20 minutes ago, assorted said:

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

Its too early to jump to the conclusion that demand is down - a lot of people will already have their summer plans locked in. Way more festivals than usual are already sold out this year, so I think its fair to wait until October before properly judging. The spreadsheet was far more organised than 2019s as well some people have mentioned too

[assorted]

@henry bear I am over 40 and was a bit disappointed by these lineup changes so guilty as charged. I agree that the positive change will likely happen after the BBC coverage and this booking pivot will hopefully do it’s job of exciting young audiences about the festival. I just also hope it always remains one of the few generation spanning festivals that has attracted me to it in the first place.

@Matt42 I could absolutely be using anecdotal, flawed data to create a narrative that works to confirm my biases, agreed. Also, I mean it sold out in 20 minutes, as always, so hardly a soft sale! I guess I was just hoping for more online excitement as I’ve built it up so much over the last 2.5 years of covid, and I did feel that first poster in 2020 did create some buzz even as covid was about to shut it down.

[henry bear]

6 minutes ago, assorted said:

@henry bear I am over 40 and was a bit disappointed by these lineup changes so guilty as charged. I agree that the positive change will likely happen after the BBC coverage and this booking pivot will hopefully do it’s job of exciting young audiences about the festival. I just also hope it always remains one of the few generation spanning festivals that has attracted me to it in the first place.

@Matt42 I could absolutely be using anecdotal, flawed data to create a narrative that works to confirm my biases, agreed. Also, I mean it sold out in 20 minutes, as always, so hardly a soft sale! I guess I was just hoping for more online excitement as I’ve built it up so much over the last 2.5 years of covid, and I did feel that first poster in 2020 did create some buzz even as covid was about to shut it down.

The move towards pop is global - the era of guitar led rock dominating the charts is over, at least for now. That said, I suspect some of the names that were down for 2020 that weren't on the recent poster may well be back for 2022. 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

39 minutes ago, assorted said:

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

There were clearly going to be more tickets in the resale pot this year compared to any other year, due to people having initially bought them in October 2019, not 6 months before like a normal resale. We’ve also had no Glastonbury on the TV for the past couple of summers, so whole groups of people that would’ve otherwise been inspired to go havent seen or heard of Glastonbury.

There is also the strong possibility they sold a lot more tickets than they should have due to the water bottle issue, hence why more people on here got lucky.

You can’t read anything into this resale in comparison to any other resale, and October will still be a horrendous bunfight without there being a line up in sight.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Deaf Nobby Burton

[FloorFiller]

2 minutes ago, henry bear said:

The move towards pop is global - the era of guitar led rock dominating the charts is over, at least for now. That said, I suspect some of the names that were down for 2020 that weren't on the recent poster may well be back for 2022. 

Yeah I think the full lineup will go some way towards appeasing the guitar/band lovers and have a lot of your usual indie bands across the board. They’ve seemingly gone out of their way to have less of it on this years first poster, probably because it’s not really what’s in ‘vogue’ right now, and the 50/50 gender split has some part in it also. Both the Other and John Peel will be full of that stuff as per. 

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

I think time warps peoples perception of things to a large extent, some acts on the poster from 10+ years ago might look naff now, because they are naff now, but they weren’t necessarily back then. 

[clarkete]

53 minutes ago, assorted said:

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

I think you've bet on the wrong horse there personally supporting that grumpy nostalgia.

There have always been line up posters with variable (or indeed very little) reaction. When I started in the mid 80s people certainly didn't decide whether to go or not based on the line up, they just w went to have some fun and half the time had no idea who was on stage. 

I'm well over 40 and I've seen all the people in your first group  play there, don't care whether they're added later or not - it's great that the festival is ensuring the bill moves with the times - you should try it too 😉

 

[El Matador]

6 hours ago, Bucketsquad said:

😂 I was looking at the old lineups yesterday and I had to google to confirm that Travis had actually headlined as I thought no way that happened, needles to say it did.

I really hope this was a very subtle Alan Partridge reference rather than a simple typo 

[tarw]

1 hour ago, assorted said:

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

Comparing the lineup to 2020 is flawed as it was a special one for the 50th with a greater emphasis on heritage acts and friends of the festival. Fatboy headlining other for example. 
 

I don’t think this is a pivot point just the festival staying contemporary. The acts I grew up with are now on the acoustic or legend slot. I choose not to see many of them because I find new music to be more energising than a band playing the hit they had 30 years ago for the thousandth time. 

[fraybentos1]

1 hour ago, assorted said:

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

It's a good thing for the festival that those 'replacements' happened. Also, absolutely no one is hankering to get a resale ticket on the back of The Editors playing either. If there was less demand like you claim then surely the obvious explanation is that covid delays mean there was likely more tix in the pot and also people will have made other plans and can go abroad etc now. Only the hardcore are waiting till 3 months before the festival to see if they're going.

Forums are full of old men generally, your average glasto go-er isn't in here and many of the names you mentioned will get big crowds. Olivia Rodrigo in particular. 

[Beerqueen]

Like others, I think this resale was completely different to others and you can't read anything into it.  Tickets returned to the pot were bought 2 1/2 years ago and many people's circumstances will have changed since then, both from normal life events (babies, marriages, divorces, illness, etc) and these will have been exacerbated by the pandemic and the current political situation - jobs lost, belts having to be tightened, and some people just haven't really come out of the lockdown mentality and started thinking about "normal life".

In addition, I know that for us who are on these forums and follow Glasto accounts on twitter it's difficult to realise, but I don't think there was as much talk about Glasto resales this year.  For the casual ticket buyer who might be tempted to have a go, they may not even have been aware of the resale.  Certainly my kids, who have more than a casual interest in music, but not interested in going to Glasto this year, weren't aware of it until I asked them to try for me.

 

[stuie]

1 hour ago, assorted said:

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

I think you’ve made a connection that just isn’t there. This resale was like no other. I’m sure it’ll be clear how popular the festival still is come October, regardless of Editors and MSP.

[dentalplan]

It isn't a reflection of what's popular, it's a reflection of the media and major festivals (not just G) adjusting to what's popular.

If you look at the charts in the mid-2000's when the festival was indie-heavy, you'll see that they were still dominated by pop music (albeit with a week from Ting Tings or Kaiser Chiefs here and there) even if the post punk revival was going on. It's just that was happening at major festivals and music publications and now it is not.

Pop music hardly got bigger or better, but it did gain more credibility over the years as the taste-making publications and brands had to go online and rely on clicks and likes rather than a sheer following. Similarly, rock music hardly got worse or less popular, it's just that the festival is booking for a more populist audience now than the in-market festival fans it used to.

Festivals used to be the refuge of the rock fan, and those fans still go to Glastonbury because it attracts a loyal fanbase who don't stop going easily. But, you do have festivals like V Fest, which died chasing the pop crowd. A noticeable shift in booking policy is likely to rankle some of the older Glastonbury audience and it's no surprise that the mid-sized festivals catering more to the disenfranchised are getting more popular year-by-year as the majors change their tack.

I can't imagine that the resale was actually easier this year and it's purely anecdotal; definitely way too early to say. However, it's something to keep an eye on as the years go by. If people gradually decide that Glastonbury isn't for them anymore and the crowd that the festival pivots its acquisition focus towards decide it's too expensive and cheugy to bother with, the fest could struggle to sell the entire allocation of tickets instantly one year.

[Florian Saucer Attack]

9 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

It isn't a reflection of what's popular, it's a reflection of the media and major festivals (not just G) adjusting to what's popular.

If you look at the charts in the mid-2000's when the festival was indie-heavy, you'll see that they were still dominated by pop music (albeit with a week from Ting Tings or Kaiser Chiefs here and there) even if the post punk revival was going on. It's just that was happening at major festivals and music publications and now it is not.

Pop music hardly got bigger or better, but it did gain more credibility over the years as the taste-making publications and brands had to go online and rely on clicks and likes rather than a sheer following. Similarly, rock music hardly got worse or less popular, it's just that the festival is booking for a more populist audience now than the in-market festival fans it used to.

Festivals used to be the refuge of the rock fan, and those fans still go to Glastonbury because it attracts a loyal fanbase who don't stop going easily. But, you do have festivals like V Fest, which died chasing the pop crowd. A noticeable shift in booking policy is likely to rankle some of the older Glastonbury audience and it's no surprise that the mid-sized festivals catering more to the disenfranchised are getting more popular year-by-year as the majors change their tack.

I can't imagine that the resale was actually easier this year and it's purely anecdotal; definitely way too early to say. However, it's something to keep an eye on as the years go by. If people gradually decide that Glastonbury isn't for them anymore and the crowd that the festival pivots its acquisition focus towards decide it's too expensive and cheugy to bother with, the fest could struggle to sell the entire allocation of tickets instantly one year.

I agree with everything you say here except that I think pop music is generally better at the moment; which I put down to more popstars writing their own stuff. 

[assorted]

8 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

However, it's something to keep an eye on as the years go by. If people gradually decide that Glastonbury isn't for them anymore and the crowd that the festival pivots its acquisition focus towards decide it's too expensive and cheugy to bother with, the fest could struggle to sell the entire allocation of tickets instantly one year.

This is a much better articulated stating of what I was getting at.

I admit I’m a little thin skinned for the internet and so am a little hurt by the downvotes and people calling me out of touch or whatever. I mean, I do listen to new music, and have listened to all the acts on the poster and I quite like Fontaines and Dry Cleaning and Sleaford Mods and Wet Leg (and presumably to be added Yard Act), I just don’t love over-produced, “top 40,” style pop. Anyways I’m gonna take a break from this thread to avoid reading any further insults and lurk elsewhere until it’s over. 

[thewayiam]

3 hours ago, Matt42 said:

@thewayiam I honestly have no idea what you mean.

That doesn't surprise me one bit.

2 hours ago, assorted said:

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this brought up here.

The resale seems clearly easier to get into based on the near universal success people on this forum had, many saying they hadn’t seen a ticket screen in years who were now successful.

While this is fantastic for those that succeeded (including me, I got 1 more for our group), it’s also a bit surprising that the festival’s fairly obvious pivot to female centered, youth oriented pop over more traditionally loved  bands since the 2020 poster resulted in weaker demand, not greater.

An example of what I mean by what I feel is this obvious pivot:

The Editors, Lightning Seeds, The Specials, Happy Mondays, Goldfrapp, Manic Street Preachers, Thom Yorke were removed...

and were replaced by

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan Thee Stallion, Lorde, Jessie Ware, Sigrid, Holly Humberstone

The way people here talk about music, you’d think the former were washed up has beens and the latter the most exciting bookings ever, but the fact that everyone saw ticket screens in the resale certainly undermines that idea a bit. While there are possibly more Olivia Rodrigo fans than maybe every act I listed above combined, those fans didn’t seem to be clamoring for Glastonbury tickets in this resale. 

This combines for me with what I saw as a general lack of enthusiasm for the 2022 lineup poster, except among a few forum posters here. Music press normally goes orgiastic at Glastonbury lineups, and this one was fairly muted - and that’s despite music press being the exact kind of people that are supposed to find overt pivots to pop music like this “exciting.” The only reaction I saw was people upset by the lineup getting yelled at by people who told them they were too old, sexist, “stay home,” etc. In other words, the normal sorta culture war social media reaction that happens whenever a corporate product like Star Wars or a superhero movie “goes woke.”

Which is an interesting problem if the festival plans to continue doubling down and releasing lineups that look a bit more like Coachella than they do Glastonbury. (But it still sold out in 20 minutes, so really hardly a problem - it’s just interesting to me).

(And before someone writes to me, “if you don’t like the lineup don’t come,” I have seen the full lineup posters of years past and understand that the festival is much, much larger than this initial poster, and I will have a full weekend of music I like and fun that I am quite looking forward to.)

I've never found a resale easy before. Got through to coaches when all sold out and no sniff in a previous resale. 

On Olivia Rodrigo, many people have just had a few fair size dates to gt tickets for her.

Robyn is another missing

52 minutes ago, tarw said:

Comparing the lineup to 2020 is flawed as it was a special one for the 50th with a greater emphasis on heritage acts and friends of the festival. Fatboy headlining other for example. 
 

I don’t think this is a pivot point just the festival staying contemporary. The acts I grew up with are now on the acoustic or legend slot. I choose not to see many of them because I find new music to be more energising than a band playing the hit they had 30 years ago for the thousandth time. 

Spoke to a guy the other day who I met at Glastonbury 2019 as well as he messaged me catching up etc. He's a different age to me and mentioned before I said anything that the 2020 lineup compared to this was stellar! The system was too. I didn't get a main ticket but people who did got longer than a 2 minute window to complete a 5 minute process.

[Suprefan]

3 hours ago, thewayiam said:

 

Coachella is a piece of arse now, nothing subjective about it. It is not hard to book a bigger deal than Coachella. That is basically the social media festival. 

 

You want to perceive the 1% of people who make it look like its only influencers trotting around doing everything and not seeing any music to be the norm, but its not. If that same thing happened at Glastonbury you would be furious. But fortunately its not 2 hours away from everything that makes the rest of the world go round when it comes to entertainment. It isnt their fault you see it as bikini clad women running around a desert paradise while glasto is seen as just folks that are stuck in the mud looking depressed.

 

Maybe the part where anyone is able to watch the festival around the world has something to do with it. Theyre at least open in that regard. You cant watch Glasto live if you dont live in one specific country. Gatekeeping of the highest order right there. How is that the attitude of an apparent global festival if they dont let anyone see whats actually going on in real time.  80 million people watched the first weekend of Coachella in 2019 on the youtube stream. 43 million watched Beyonce alone in 2018. What are Glastonbury's numbers when it comes to tv ratings or stream ones? Theyre a drop in the bucket compared to just that. 

[Muppetmark]

Of my group of 6 vets, split, across both sales I was the only one to get through (albeit twice)  

[Hugh Jass II]

4 hours ago, thewayiam said:

 

No one said about it being hippies. The commercial is what they are booking. If they booking all these mainstream acts that kinda have their own place at other festivals then that is the commercial side.

 

I think you’re confusing “commercial” with “popular”. Throughout its 50 year history the festival has always booked the most popular acts of any given time to headline and play on their biggest stages.

The word “commercial” means fuck all. The likes of Travis and Stereophonics weren’t being booked to headline in the early 00’s out of some dogmatic obsession with guitar music, it’s because that is what was selling by the shit load at the time. The only difference now is that the stuff you like isn’t popular anymore.

[kemosabe]

2 hours ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

I think time warps peoples perception of things to a large extent, some acts on the poster from 10+ years ago might look naff now, because they are naff now, but they weren’t necessarily back then. 

This is the key to any festival line up discussion. The opposite is also true though right? Acts at the time might have seemed really poppy and completely at odds with the festival, but now are regarded as legends.  The Smiths in 1980 for example. At the time there was outrage they were headlining and the festival was moving away from it's hippy roots. 

 “A lot of people didn’t believe The Smiths should be playing,” recalled Michael Eavis of the set, which he regards as one of the most influential in Glasto’s history. “People were going ‘What’s happened to Santana, then?’ I said, ‘This is not Santana, this is The Smiths.’ They didn’t like it.”

https://www.nme.com/festivals/glastonbury/20-sets-that-shook-glastonbury-the-stories-behind-worthy-farms-most-memorable-ever-performances-757137

Edited April 2, 2022 by kemosabe