Boomtown Chapter 1: The Gathering

[Leyrulion]

7 minutes ago, stuie said:

I get your point but there's a lot of unhappy people on socials and a hell of a lot of people trying to shift tickets unsuccessfully.  

The ticketing system is so complicated with all the public transport/Wednesday entry/ Camp Orchid variations people are trying to swap about and upgrade to.  I wonder if it might look worse for selling tickets then it actually is. Eg. I've just skimmed this first page and there's only about 15 tickets advertised for sale since August that aren't Camp Orchid upgrades. 

It's what 40/50k customers? So even a small number make a big noise. Obviously there still are a fair few people selling tickets but don't know if it's more than 2-5%. 

 

 

[Old_Johno]

To be honest half the ticket for sale are from 1 day old Facebook profiles that are looking to scam people 

[Leyrulion]

9 minutes ago, Old_Johno said:

To be honest half the ticket for sale are from 1 day old Facebook profiles that are looking to scam people 

Certainly an argument against Glastonbury moving to digital tickets tbh. And I'm normally a huge supporter!

[stuie]

41 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

Certainly an argument against Glastonbury moving to digital tickets tbh. And I'm normally a huge supporter!

I think digital tickets that are non-transferable with photo the same as we currently have but digital form will be in next year, if not then the year after.  The sustainability of printed tickets is on the Glasto agenda, after reusing the 2020 ticket paper for 2022. 

[Matt42]

3 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

You really can't say that before the event has even happened. Social media moaning is always an echo chamber. No idea if it's reflective of the broader customer base. 

Anyone who has been watching the festival scene for a long time knows the signs of an event on the out. They better hope the actual staging/production hasn’t been cut with a meat cleaver either.. because if people come back feeling like they’ve paid a lot of money for something “budget” it will cause a lot of people to hold off on buying tickets.

All I’m saying is we’ve seen this before, and it only goes one way.

[jump]

37 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Anyone who has been watching the festival scene for a long time knows the signs of an event on the out. They better hope the actual staging/production hasn’t been cut with a meat cleaver either.. because if people come back feeling like they’ve paid a lot of money for something “budget” it will cause a lot of people to hold off on buying tickets.

All I’m saying is we’ve seen this before, and it only goes one way.

People have called DOOMED on other festivals before which managed to bounce back like when it happened to Glasto and R&L. If they can adjust and learn from their mistakes for the next year it's fine, it's when the festival has turned to shit for a few years in a row then we can declare it is dead. 

[JoeyT]

38 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Anyone who has been watching the festival scene for a long time knows the signs of an event on the out. They better hope the actual staging/production hasn’t been cut with a meat cleaver either.. because if people come back feeling like they’ve paid a lot of money for something “budget” it will cause a lot of people to hold off on buying tickets.

All I’m saying is we’ve seen this before, and it only goes one way.

I've not seen the lineup but have seen the uproar on social media.

I completely agree with the sentiment of this though and if you throw in the cost of living crisis we're about to go through not delivering a stellar festival this year means you're going to be struggling next year when punters are going to be thinking twice about if a festival ticket is worth the expense...

Edited August 9, 2022 by JoeyT

[Matt42]

5 minutes ago, jump said:

People have called DOOMED on other festivals before which managed to bounce back like when it happened to Glasto and R&L. If they can adjust and learn from their mistakes for the next year it's fine, it's when the festival has turned to shit for a few years in a row then we can declare it is dead. 

Idk, this seems worse to be honest. Boomtown have effectively downsized but kept the same ticket price. Highly doubt Boomtown is a gathering of 60k people who don’t care about the lineup. I think they have to be careful.

[jump]

3 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Idk, this seems worse to be honest. Boomtown have effectively downsized but kept the same ticket price. Highly doubt Boomtown is a gathering of 60k people who don’t care about the lineup. I think they have to be careful.

Don't get me wrong as not having notable headliners does suck but it is ultimately a party festival so the line up doesn't matter as much as say a London festival which is driven by it's big names. I've never gone to Boomtown for it's headliners as there's closer and cheaper fests with bigger headliners, I've always gone for the party and experience.

It's just one year, there would be a few put off but as long as they course correct and get a few name headliners like Wu Tang or whoever and actually announce them all would be forgiven.

[mjfromthelane]

1 hour ago, Matt42 said:

Anyone who has been watching the festival scene for a long time knows the signs of an event on the out. They better hope the actual staging/production hasn’t been cut with a meat cleaver either.. because if people come back feeling like they’ve paid a lot of money for something “budget” it will cause a lot of people to hold off on buying tickets.

All I’m saying is we’ve seen this before, and it only goes one way.

 Slightly condescending.....

It's pretty obvious it's a make or break festival for them but the reasons have been pretty well repeated - an independent festival dealing with 2 years of cancellations and shrinking equity to spend on the festival.

As Jump said the core Boomtown goers don't go solely for the line up. If the new downtown layout and stages work and positive noise comes out about this year's fest, its still different enough from the majority of other UK fests to have a place in the market.

[pilton digger]

1 hour ago, jump said:

Don't get me wrong as not having notable headliners does suck but it is ultimately a party festival so the line up doesn't matter as much as say a London festival which is driven by it's big names. I've never gone to Boomtown for it's headliners as there's closer and cheaper fests with bigger headliners, I've always gone for the party and experience.

It's just one year, there would be a few put off but as long as they course correct and get a few name headliners like Wu Tang or whoever and actually announce them all would be forgiven.

This is Boomtown number 10 for us, and we have never been overly interested in the lineup until just before.  We go for the "thing" not the "who". In a bizarre way, maybe this will thin out some of the line-up obsessed who value an event by the names on a poster.

[stuie]

1 hour ago, mjfromthelane said:

 Slightly condescending.....

It's pretty obvious it's a make or break festival for them but the reasons have been pretty well repeated - an independent festival dealing with 2 years of cancellations and shrinking equity to spend on the festival.

As Jump said the core Boomtown goers don't go solely for the line up. If the new downtown layout and stages work and positive noise comes out about this year's fest, its still different enough from the majority of other UK fests to have a place in the market.

The decline started way before the pandemic when they got rid of loads of crews and sound systems. It just had a 2 year break.  

[Matt42]

1 hour ago, pilton digger said:

This is Boomtown number 10 for us, and we have never been overly interested in the lineup until just before.  We go for the "thing" not the "who". In a bizarre way, maybe this will thin out some of the line-up obsessed who value an event by the names on a poster.

You do understand any thinning of the attendees would kill this festival? This absolutely needs to sell out every year to stay afloat (looking at their financials).

It’s all great to cut the non-believers, but eventually the festival can’t afford to run.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Matt42

[pilton digger]

4 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

You do understand any thinning of the attendees would kill this festival? 

Yes, if they aren't replaced. 

Have you been?

[Matt42]

2 minutes ago, pilton digger said:

Yes, if they aren't replaced. 

Have you been?

Yes. 2019. I had a great time.

I would have gone in 2020 because I liked the look of the lineup, I didn’t because budget was tight. 

I would go back again if the lineup was good. 

[pilton digger]

4 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

would go back again if the lineup was good. 

Kind of the point I was making.

[Leyrulion]

There's a related point someone made on Reddit that bigger headline sized acts could start pricing out festivals in the future as they prioritise their own stadium tours that earn the mega money. 

Not sure how much that's a new phenomenon, but if there's any accuracy in it then those experience based festivals might be better placed. 

[pilton digger]

Independents can't compete with R+L or similar in terms of cash offered so there is little point trying.  There has to be an offer that is not solely on line-up, experience based if you will but different. Boomtown has always been about what it stands for, values and shared experience. When we started going it seemed it was about 10000 kids and us. we could only be coppers or dealers as far as they were concerned because we weren't 16. It was basic, mad and i barely remember who played because it doesn't really matter.

I have never bought a ticket to a festival knowing the line up. I go because of what the whole is like, not because of a handful of bands that some consider more worthy than others. All bands and acts are deserving of attention, all headliners started at the bottom of tbe bill somewhere.

I will be in Matterley tomorrow, the sun will shine and it will be feckin fantastic, i have no doubt. 

Out

[Old_Johno]

Feel like Boomtown could drop back down to a lower capacity, 2,000 trees bought the festival back after selling it to run it the way they wanted and reduced capacity, shambala is my favourite m fest and that’s only 15-20k

[Sku]

2 hours ago, Matt42 said:

You do understand any thinning of the attendees would kill this festival? This absolutely needs to sell out every year to stay afloat (looking at their financials).

It’s all great to cut the non-believers, but eventually the festival can’t afford to run.

From what I understand, some of the site shuffling is to account for a near-future where they might sell a few less tickets. They for sure still want to grow, but some of the changes this year are to account for the fact that they may well not. At least for the next couple years.

Of course, if there is a dramatic decline in attendance that's different. But they are trying to weather the storm, even if that means running a slightly smaller festival for a few years. It seems they have already tried to get ahead of the game in that regard, with these changes.

They want to remake the festival how they want it to be, rather than growing unsustainably fast, losing all the resilience they have built in, and then crashing and burning. That's why they reset the chapter number, to indicate starting over. Of course, remains to be seen if it works, but the team certainly don't lack ambition.

[mr flow]

12 hours ago, stuie said:

The decline started way before the pandemic when they got rid of loads of crews and sound systems. It just had a 2 year break.  

Which crews and sound systems did they get rid of?

[stuie]

2 hours ago, mr flow said:

Which crews and sound systems did they get rid of?

I meant in 2018 when they removed Rave Yard and the Mayfair venues, apparently to reduce the overall sound output from the site.  I hear that Rave Yard lot are back this year but this was the crew email in 2018.

  To achieve all of this some really tough decisions have been made. Budgets across every non-operational department, including theatre, set design, site art and music programming have been reduced to achieve the smooth operation we’re going to run this year. However, we still need to make further savings and have made the decision to lose a number of much loved and longstanding venues and stages from the festival. In doing so we can ensure absolute confidence from an event delivery point of view, as well as sound management and licensing perspective. We are in a very serious position in that if we don’t get this right, there will be no future Boomtowns.

  We are in the process of letting all the crews we are losing know but wanted everyone who works on the festival as up to speed as possible and aware of what’s going on with us at the moment. It’s tough and shitty but in the long run, this should be taken as a real positive, if we deliver the event smooth and safely we’ll secure the festival for many years to come…

[mr flow]

2 hours ago, stuie said:

I meant in 2018 when they removed Rave Yard and the Mayfair venues, apparently to reduce the overall sound output from the site.  I hear that Rave Yard lot are back this year but this was the crew email in 2018.

  To achieve all of this some really tough decisions have been made. Budgets across every non-operational department, including theatre, set design, site art and music programming have been reduced to achieve the smooth operation we’re going to run this year. However, we still need to make further savings and have made the decision to lose a number of much loved and longstanding venues and stages from the festival. In doing so we can ensure absolute confidence from an event delivery point of view, as well as sound management and licensing perspective. We are in a very serious position in that if we don’t get this right, there will be no future Boomtowns.

  We are in the process of letting all the crews we are losing know but wanted everyone who works on the festival as up to speed as possible and aware of what’s going on with us at the moment. It’s tough and shitty but in the long run, this should be taken as a real positive, if we deliver the event smooth and safely we’ll secure the festival for many years to come…

Rave Yard had one year off and then became The Acid Leak. They removed a number of venues to allow the sound levels to be increased on the main stages, which went down well as in 2019 the main stage volumes were at a great level, which is something you actually complained about previously.

Seems Boomtown are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t…. 🤷‍♂️

[Skip997]

Not going, but the line up looks fine to me, plenty to party to.

 

[stuie]

21 minutes ago, mr flow said:

Rave Yard had one year off and then became The Acid Leak. They removed a number of venues to allow the sound levels to be increased on the main stages, which went down well as in 2019 the main stage volumes were at a great level, which is something you actually complained about previously.

Seems Boomtown are damned if they do, and damned if they don’t…. 🤷‍♂️

Have a good festival!  Let us know how it goes.