Acts Touring around Glastonbury 2023

[jump]

1 hour ago, dentalplan said:

To be honest, I think lots of acts are going to go that way. It's quite a smart move.

The mid-tier, as we know it now, is getting pretty huge - selling out quicker each year and expanding in capacity. The acts at the top of the pyramid (excuse the pun) may only play stadiums/London parks and Glastonbury but if there are a bunch of paydays for these bands willing to step out of Glastonbury headline consideration then they're going to start taking them.

It won't mean they're now obliged to take non-headline slots at festivals either because there are that many to headline. It perhaps won't even be long until the 'mid-tier' festivals are sharing headline acts with Glastonbury, thus obliterating the division between.

I am fucking bored of the expectations that only the super duper stadium acts can and should headline festivals where there's more interesting options available when you look past that small selection. It's be a shame if those mid-fest slot get taken away for staduim acts.

Edited September 22, 2021 by jump

[Matt42]

9 hours ago, jump said:

I am fucking bored of the expectations that only the super duper stadium acts can and should headline festivals where there's more interesting options available when you look past that small selection. It's be a shame if those mid-fest slot get taken away for staduim acts.

Yeah but festivals are businesses and Glastonbury needs headliners who can fill a 100,000 capacity pyramid crowd. Unfortunately this is the nature of the beast. It would be great to put a smaller band up there headlining a night but if it’s slim crowds, doesn’t attract much attention from the BBC, or has more people going elsewhere then Glastonbury isn’t living up to its name.

People go to Glastonbury for the ‘big big’. Just in the same way that Americans fork out big bucks for Coachella. It’s playing in a different ballpark to other festivals, and that’s just the way it is.

[jump]

33 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Yeah but festivals are businesses and Glastonbury needs headliners who can fill a 100,000 capacity pyramid crowd. Unfortunately this is the nature of the beast. It would be great to put a smaller band up there headlining a night but if it’s slim crowds, doesn’t attract much attention from the BBC, or has more people going elsewhere then Glastonbury isn’t living up to its name.

People go to Glastonbury for the ‘big big’. Just in the same way that Americans fork out big bucks for Coachella. It’s playing in a different ballpark to other festivals, and that’s just the way it is.

I was commenting on how the mid-sized fests are having to have stadium acts, not Glasto after Dental's suggestion that Glasto headliners and smaller fests headliners will blend into one samey category.

But personally I don't even think arena sized acts or bigger should only be considered for mid/large sized fests. I saw Run DMC a few years ago at Hammersmith (and it didn't even sell out) and if someone told me they were headlining Glasto, British Summer Time or whatever my reaction wouldn't be "but they aren't a stadium act" it's would be "that's fucking awesome, I want to go!".

Edited September 23, 2021 by jump

[dentalplan]

12 minutes ago, jump said:

I was commenting on how the mid-sized fests are having to have stadium acts, not Glasto after Dental's suggestion that Glasto headliners and smaller fests headliners will blend into one samey category.

Not sure it's that bad, say if in three years Y Not get Muse headlining instead of Courteeners for a fifth time.

[jump]

8 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Not sure it's that bad, say if in three years Y Not get Muse headlining instead of Courteeners for a fifth time.

Well I'm currently watching people in the Slam Dunk thread complain they should have the niche 25k capacity fest get a stadium act to headline.

[Matt42]

34 minutes ago, jump said:

I was commenting on how the mid-sized fests are having to have stadium acts, not Glasto after Dental's suggestion that Glasto headliners and smaller fests headliners will blend into one samey category.

But personally I don't even think arena sized acts or bigger should only be considered for mid/large sized fests. I saw Run DMC a few years ago at Hammersmith (and it didn't even sell out) and if someone told me they were headlining Glasto, British Summer Time or whatever my reaction wouldn't be "but they aren't a stadium act" it's would be "that's fucking awesome, I want to go!".

Different strokes for different folks but I expect big artists at Glastonbury. When I go to smaller / mid sized festivals my expectation isn’t as high. Foals headlining a 30 odd thousand / 40k capacity event? Sign me up. Foals headlining the pyramid? Mmm glasto can go bigger.

 

25 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Not sure it's that bad, say if in three years Y Not get Muse headlining instead of Courteeners for a fifth time.

I think that a mid tier festival getting the odd big act every now and then is just good for their business really and promoting the festival. However let’s be honest.. they aren’t securing top end stadium acts are they? They are securing acts trying to slide down graciously. The management of any genuine stadium band wouldn’t be considering 30k-ish festivals.

The only example I can think of is the Killers at Latitude, but they did get a bit of a reboost from Glastonbury so maybe that’s an anomaly.

[jump]

8 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Different strokes for different folks but I expect big artists at Glastonbury. When I go to smaller / mid sized festivals my expectation isn’t as high. Foals headlining a 30 odd thousand / 40k capacity event? Sign me up. Foals headlining the pyramid? Mmm glasto can go bigger.

 

This is just me and I'm not arguing it should be the case but if a smaller than normal act did headline Glasto I'd actually be more interested in seeing them there than at a middling festival as I'm assuming they would have that hunger to blast out a great show rather than seeing them do the same setlist and stage antics at just another gig. When those smaller bands I like work their way up to a (low) main stage appearance at a major fest I normally try to get tixs for it as I want to see how they pull it off.

[Suprefan]

Its going to happen and its surprising that it hasnt sooner when whats considered a lower level acts getting a headline slot. Because you’re going to run out of the McCartney’s and Fleetwood Mac’s in the next few years. Then its a large jump in decade to get to the next batch of legacy acts because it’s Oasis or bust by then. Radiohead and Blur surely get one last go round but thatll be it for them as theyre approaching 60. I think its much more feasible to have a Foals headline if you have the 2 other names carry the load. Would anyone say much if it was Foals, Taylor and Macca? Not really. Its a much better formula to have it be that way so you can usher in younger and maybe not quite as large headliners. I mean in 2019 Stormzy was a question mark as to if he was going to pull it off especially with  Kylie, The Killers and The Cure at the top who you felt more of a guarantee to deliver the goods.

[dentalplan]

19 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

I think that a mid tier festival getting the odd big act every now and then is just good for their business really and promoting the festival. However let’s be honest.. they aren’t securing top end stadium acts are they? They are securing acts trying to slide down graciously. The management of any genuine stadium band wouldn’t be considering 30k-ish festivals.

My point is that this is an old way of thinking. It’s not going to be about ‘sliding down’, it’ll be about taking paid gigs. The only major festival that doesn’t share with these derided ‘mid-tier’ festivals is Glastonbury and I don’t think that will remain.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

A Saturday night with Karl and Rick in the John Peel Tent would be a blast

[Matt42]

15 minutes ago, Suprefan said:

Its going to happen and its surprising that it hasnt sooner when whats considered a lower level acts getting a headline slot. 

We were saying this since 2015 and after that we’ve had nothing but gigantic acts that Glastonbury have been pulling in. If you think Glastonbury is running out of headliners you’re probably not looking in the right direction. There’s plenty coming through and the festival isn’t starved for options at all.

[Matt42]

13 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

My point is that this is an old way of thinking. It’s not going to be about ‘sliding down’, it’ll be about taking paid gigs. The only major festival that doesn’t share with these derided ‘mid-tier’ festivals is Glastonbury and I don’t think that will remain.

It is sliding down if you used to do stadiums and you’re now playing Neighbourhood weekend. Call a spade a spade.

[cheesey_toastie]

Is this a Friday possibility? 

If he can still hit those notes at his age I'm going to watch

[priest17]

1 hour ago, jump said:

Well I'm currently watching people in the Slam Dunk thread complain they should have the niche 25k capacity fest get a stadium act to headline.

Alexisonfire are better than any stadium act

[priest17]

Difference between Kasabian and Courteeners/Blossoms is that they've been to the heights of headlining Leeds and Glastonbury before, if they play their return right they'll get there again. The other 2 have hit a wall.

[dentalplan]

33 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

It is sliding down if you used to do stadiums and you’re now playing Neighbourhood weekend. Call a spade a spade.

You seem to be struggling with the basic comprehension of what a prediction is so I’m just gonna leave you to it.

[Matt42]

5 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

You seem to be struggling with the basic comprehension of what a prediction is so I’m just gonna leave you to it.

No I’m just challenging it. We get afraid that Glastonbury will run out of big headliners, but it’s never the case. Billie Eilish (who we believe is headlining 2022) was not someone we were talking about in 2017 or 2018. New acts come up and the headline pool just gets topped up.

It will only in the rare circumstances be when Glastonbury is picking from the mid-tier headline pool. It won’t be a regular occurrence. There’s already a rather large backlog of headliners that wouldn’t headline a mid-tier festival, and that’s not accounting for new artists which are going to rise to the top by the time Glasto gets to the bottom of that list.

[dentalplan]

13 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

No I’m just challenging it. We get afraid that Glastonbury will run out of big headliners, but it’s never the case. Billie Eilish (who we believe is headlining 2022) was not someone we were talking about in 2017 or 2018. New acts come up and the headline pool just gets topped up.

It will only in the rare circumstances be when Glastonbury is picking from the mid-tier headline pool. It won’t be a regular occurrence. There’s already a rather large backlog of headliners that wouldn’t headline a mid-tier festival, and that’s not accounting for new artists which are going to rise to the top by the time Glasto gets to the bottom of that list.

In the US , 40k cap fests get acts like Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters, and festivals the size of Neighbourhood get acts like Metallica. Because they’re out of fashion? No. Because it’s a gig. If (and it’s not a very big if, at the rate those fests are growing and majors are dying) that starts to happen in the UK, I don’t think it will exempt them from headlining Glastonbury as well. It’s not like Glastonbury have a huge pool of acts to choose from that they can just have acts that will only play there and that’s it.

Edited September 23, 2021 by dentalplan

[Matt42]

8 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

In the US , festivals the size of Y Not get acts like Chili Peppers and the Foo Fighters, and festivals the size of Neighbourhood get acts like Metallica. Because they’re out of fashion? No. Because it’s a gig. If (and it’s not a very big if, at the rate those fests are growing and majors are dying) that starts to happen in the UK, I don’t think it will exempt them from headlining Glastonbury as well. It’s not like Glastonbury have a huge pool of acts to choose from that they can just have acts that will only play there and that’s it.

Not really sure of this point but if it’s an international artist coming over their management will want to book them onto the biggest deal possible, and a UK based act will know if they are in contention for Glastonbury and know that headlining mid-tier festivals isn’t really the best route up there. All I’m doing is looking at what typically happens and draws from there.  Glastonbury’s pool is very wide for what they want, they can easily pull together a trio from looking at Stadium/Multi-date arena acts and large outdoor show acts and acts on an upward trajectory to reach those heights. I don’t think they need to be going after acts which flexible headline status in the UK. The only example I can think of where they’ve done that recently is the Killers. Muse are still doing stadiums and I don’t think they’ve headlined a small UK festival… yet?

Edited September 23, 2021 by Matt42

[FloorFiller]

I think 2019 was a bit of a change up in Glastonbury’s decade long headliner booking pattern in that they had two bands play who 1. Had already done it, 2. Had no new album to promote/weren’t returning from any kind of hiatus, 3. Weren’t really megastar level acts and 4. Had no real reason to come back other than they were touring around that time so fuck it, why not? and I think that might be something the festival returns to in the future instead of constantly having the biggest and the best that no other festival could dream of having etc, mostly due to there not being any rock acts of note making the step up and so they’ll have to dip in to the old favourites now and again along with the pop/rap stars who seem to be making all the waves at the moment. So basically, expect Muse.

I know that’s not really what you guys are bickering about, but idc. 

[Matt42]

Glastonbury have enough to choose from in their a) pursuit of legends b) circuit bands they have on call (AM, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Radiohead, Muse), c) new artists on an upward trajectory + the 6 headliners they had lined up for 2020 and 2021 before the pandemic. They’ve probably got too many options for the time being, and once they clear that list by about 2023/2024 there will be brand new headline acts we’ve not even considered yet.

It won’t be long either until acts like Ed Sheeran, Adele, Beyoncé etc tap them on the shoulder and ask them to do it again either I think.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Matt42

[dentalplan]

Exciting times ahead

[fraybentos1]

Think with the ‘smaller’ bands and getting them to headline, Timing is important. There is probs a time Foals could have done it and it been a step up but not looked out of place. Likewise with 1975 they probs should have got them a couple years ago. Better to get these bands when they’re on an upwards trajectory, more albums doesn’t mean necessarily a better headliner 

[Matt42]

3 minutes ago, fraybentos1 said:

Think with the ‘smaller’ bands and getting them to headline, Timing is important. There is probs a time Foals could have done it and it been a step up but not looked out of place. Likewise with 1975 they probs should have got them a couple years ago. Better to get these bands when they’re on an upwards trajectory, more albums doesn’t mean necessarily a better headliner 

Yes I do think what happened with Foals is that there was a “well let’s wait until their next album” approach, and when their follow up to What Went Down didn’t exactly go down they got put to a side.

The 1975 won’t make it either as R&L got them in their sweet spot and they’ve not maintained that level since.

[Slugy]

What big festivals are left really? Glasto, Reading, BST?