Initial poster thoughts! (come on, everyone loves a poll..)

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

3 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Idk man. Perhaps it’s a perspective / retrospective thing.

Olivia Rodrigo, Doja Cat, Megan The Stallion, Sam Fender, Glass Animals, HAIM, Lorde, Phoebe Bridgers all acts on the bill this year that are either

- Headlining smaller festivals already

- Playing big slots at festivals across the world

- On an upwards trajectory to become near headliners if they continue as they are.

I think quite a fair few people will look back at 2022 and go, fuck. That’s nuts. 

If Olivia’s second album is massive that booking will look insane. Getting her first before she becomes a new headliner.

I see what you're saying about this year's Glastonbury and absolutely, the names you mentioned are definitely on an upward trajectory. But when I look at some of the older lineups, particularly ones I've mentioned, plus some of the Reading ones from the early to mid 2000s, it seems to be filled with worldie acts at their absolute peak. Like you say though, maybe I'm just looking at them through nostalgic rose-tinted glasses

[Matt42]

1 minute ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

I see what you're saying about this year's Glastonbury and absolutely, the names you mentioned are definitely on an upward trajectory. But when I look at some of the older lineups, particularly ones I've mentioned, plus some of the Reading ones from the early to mid 2000s, it seems to be filled with worldie acts at their absolute peak. Like you say though, maybe I'm just looking at them through nostalgic rose-tinted glasses

Yes I agree they did manage to pull in some acts that really could have headlined if they were more forceful with it. All festivals look stronger when they are in the past because acts usually get booked before they break out. R&L have been very good at booking tomorrow’s headliners today. It probably makes some of their lineups look quite weak, but they are very on the pulse with getting acts who are undercooked.

The Kid Laori for example, while not for me, is a huge booking they managed to secure and I think he was booked before his mega hit. Not for me but looking back they must have been listening to the right people when putting him on the bill.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

2 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Yes I agree they did manage to pull in some acts that really could have headlined if they were more forceful with it. All festivals look stronger when they are in the past because acts usually get booked before they break out. R&L have been very good at booking tomorrow’s headliners today. It probably makes some of their lineups look quite weak, but they are very on the pulse with getting acts who are undercooked.

The Kid Laori for example, while not for me, is a huge booking they managed to secure and I think he was booked before his mega hit. Not for me but looking back they must have been listening to the right people when putting him on the bill.

In a slight pivot, what a great job for someone (or some people) pulling all the various areas together. I'd love to see a fly-on-the-wall 8-part documentary series of the whole process of organising the festival. From day one in let's say, September (or whenever the first day of planning begins) through to the minutes before the gates open the following year. Would be incredibly interesting to see all of the various challenges throughout the process, licensing issues, dealing with agents, areas, the internal, external and local politics, the build, booking the artists, vendors, security, lineup/artist announcements, etc, etc. Ticket day alone could be one episode! Get Netflix on the line! 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

27 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Hard to say, I usually post the Leeds 2002 lineup as the gold standard of festival lineups.

Problem is that we are looking at them through the prism of history and spotting the acts who went on to be massive, which is something you can't really do now. Might be that we look at the G22 poster in a decade's time and wonder how they got so many acts that went on to be massive. 

I have three go-to's. Reading in 2000, T in the Park in 2008 and Mad Cool in 2018.

I have loads of festival posters on the wall of my downstairs WC (I've done it out like a rock bar toilet) and I often gaze upon them starry-eyed thinking, fuck, I wish I'd seen them on that tiny stage. It's inevitable, I guess.

[Hugh Jass II]

1 minute ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

I have three go-to's. Reading in 2000, T in the Park in 2008 and Mad Cool in 2018.

 

I was at Reading 2000. My first festival no less.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Just now, Hugh Jass II said:

I was at Reading 2000. My first festival no less.

Mine too 🙌

[Matt42]

8 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

In a slight pivot, what a great job for someone (or some people) pulling all the various areas together. I'd love to see a fly-on-the-wall 8-part documentary series of the whole process of organising the festival. From day one in let's say, September (or whenever the first day of planning begins) through to the minutes before the gates open the following year. Would be incredibly interesting to see all of the various challenges throughout the process, licensing issues, dealing with agents, areas, the internal, external and local politics, the build, booking the artists, vendors, security, lineup/artist announcements, etc, etc. Ticket day alone could be one episode! Get Netflix on the line! 

I would absolutely love this but I feel like it would give too much of how the sausage is made, and there are probably aspects of this that acts wouldn’t want to be public.

For example Doja and Megan’s management 

“So we are going to sign to play Glastonbury but wireless think they’ve got us on an exclusive, but keep it on the downlow that we are doing both. Just wait until they shift all their tickets first!!”.

Considering how many exclusives Glasto manage to book there has to be some serious contract wrangling behind the scenes they’d rather not make public.

[Hugh Jass II]

4 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

Mine too 🙌

What a time to be alive. The Millenium Bug as over, 9/11 hadn’t happened yet, The Simpsons was still good…

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

Just now, Matt42 said:

I would absolutely love this but I feel like it would give too much of how the sausage is made, and there are probably aspects of this that acts wouldn’t want to be public.

For example Doja and Megan’s management 

“So we are going to sign to play Glastonbury but wireless think they’ve got us on an exclusive, but keep it on the downlow that we are doing both. Just wait until they shift all their tickets first!!”.

Considering how many exclusives Glasto manage to book there has to be some serious contract wrangling behind the scenes they’d rather not make public.

Sure, they wouldn't be able to reveal all of certain commercial dealings, in fairness there wouldn't be time to do so anyway, but something along the lines of the "Glastonbury Man" documentary where Michael was trying to negotiate the release of Oasis on their exclusivity clause with Melvin Benn on the telephone. That kind of thing. No specific details. Let's be honest, there's enough other material to focus on. 

Again, you do have a fair point. Maybe keeping the mystique of the festival behind closed doors is important. It would be great to see, though.

[Matt42]

25 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

Sure, they wouldn't be able to reveal all of certain commercial dealings, in fairness there wouldn't be time to do so anyway, but something along the lines of the "Glastonbury Man" documentary where Michael was trying to negotiate the release of Oasis on their exclusivity clause with Melvin Benn on the telephone. That kind of thing. No specific details. Let's be honest, there's enough other material to focus on. 

Again, you do have a fair point. Maybe keeping the mystique of the festival behind closed doors is important. It would be great to see, though.

It’s probably not as exciting as it seems - I strongly think most of the touring acts approach the festival / booking agents and most of the negotiating is about what kind of bus they want to transport them from A-B.

Edited March 21, 2022 by Matt42

[blutarsky]

1 hour ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

In a slight pivot, what a great job for someone (or some people) pulling all the various areas together. I'd love to see a fly-on-the-wall 8-part documentary series of the whole process of organising the festival. From day one in let's say, September (or whenever the first day of planning begins) through to the minutes before the gates open the following year. Would be incredibly interesting to see all of the various challenges throughout the process, licensing issues, dealing with agents, areas, the internal, external and local politics, the build, booking the artists, vendors, security, lineup/artist announcements, etc, etc. Ticket day alone could be one episode! Get Netflix on the line! 

I would love to see this. 

54 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

I would absolutely love this but I feel like it would give too much of how the sausage is made, and there are probably aspects of this that acts wouldn’t want to be public.

For example Doja and Megan’s management 

“So we are going to sign to play Glastonbury but wireless think they’ve got us on an exclusive, but keep it on the downlow that we are doing both. Just wait until they shift all their tickets first!!”.

Considering how many exclusives Glasto manage to book there has to be some serious contract wrangling behind the scenes they’d rather not make public.

As others have said, the detail doesn't need to all be there - it can just be outlined. 

24 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

It’s probably not as exciting as it seems - I strongly think most of the touring acts approach the festival / booking agents and most of the negotiating is about what kind of bus they want to transport them from A-B.

I think you're right that the average viewer may not find it all that enthralling, but when you're as avid a fan as we all are... Being able to link everything together would make it really enjoyable. 

Narrator: "Emily is meeting Joe Rush to discuss an ambitious new project which will be in the SEC. He needs funding for X." 
Cue conversation about the difficulties, or some reveal of something that was added or removed at the last minute. 

The doc wouldn't be out until after we'd all been to the festival that year and seen Joe Rush's project, so seeing how it could have been less good / better / was put together would be fascinating. 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

24 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

I would love to see this. 

As others have said, the detail doesn't need to all be there - it can just be outlined. 

I think you're right that the average viewer may not find it all that enthralling, but when you're as avid a fan as we all are... Being able to link everything together would make it really enjoyable. 

Narrator: "Emily is meeting Joe Rush to discuss an ambitious new project which will be in the SEC. He needs funding for X." 
Cue conversation about the difficulties, or some reveal of something that was added or removed at the last minute. 

The doc wouldn't be out until after we'd all been to the festival that year and seen Joe Rush's project, so seeing how it could have been less good / better / was put together would be fascinating. 

Yep, think of the list of characters, creatives and contributors all the way through the process, Joe Rush, Hank Kruger, Stanley Donwood, etc...

[Hugh Jass II]

1 hour ago, Matt42 said:

It’s probably not as exciting as it seems - I strongly think most of the touring acts approach the festival / booking agents and most of the negotiating is about what kind of bus they want to transport them from A-B.

Yeah I'd imagine it's a fairly boring process.

My guess is all the major labels release lists to festival bookers of which of their artists are available and when, their expected fees and whether they'd be willing to take exclusivity and 90% of the big stages are booked from there.

The remaining 10% are the crazier, more left field bookings.

[Matt42]

15 minutes ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Yeah I'd imagine it's a fairly boring process.

My guess is all the major labels release lists to festival bookers of which of their artists are available and when, their expected fees and whether they'd be willing to take exclusivity and 90% of the big stages are booked from there.

The remaining 10% are the crazier, more left field bookings.

Yeah and the big labels will say we will give you these acts if you book these too. Which is where all of tomorrows big acts come from. 

[kingbadger]

6 hours ago, Matt42 said:

The more and more I explore on the poster the more convinced I am that this is one of the most stacked lineups I’ve seen in a long time. Reminds me a bit of an Oxegen lineup from back in the day. 

Is it though? Just going on the basis that people are generally stating there's 1 or 2 missing Pyramid subs and a missing Other headliner. Surely it can't be that huge if the consensus is that we're missing 3 acts to fill out the biggest slots. That suggests there's less name in the acts given.

Not arguing about the sheer depth of the line up (more names announced than usual withstanding) or the quality of the artists. But the discussions on here about who might fill those missing spots from the poster acts indicates the lineup is more bottom heavy.

[Wanderlei]

There's a good solid handful there that I'd be really excited about seeing. Of course, there are many more that I'm not interested in, but you can only be at one place at a time anyway, so you don't want too much on your to do list ☺️

[Toilet Duck]

On 3/21/2022 at 10:12 AM, Matt42 said:

It’s just more the fact that they got acts like Arctic Monkeys to sub at a point where they were easily established headliners. 

As @incident says, Oxegen was a bloody awful festival (though oddly, I did see some amazing things at it...last time I heard the Cure play M live for example...Badly Drawn Boy losing his band and gear at the airport so doing the main stage acoustically on his tod)...but there was an overall menacing atmosphere at it that just tempered the enjoyment somewhat as you were always looking over your shoulder. Werchter is a better choice if a big lineup is the main draw (and at Werchter, there's feck all else to do but watch the music, drink that weird cherry beer and eat chips with mayonnaise on them...but at least it's pretty chilled). This was the lineup when I went. Jay Z and KoL were the Glasto headliners same year. Wasn't hard to convince my mates to skip Glasto for one year ('07 broke us anyway, but when they saw the first 3 headliners, it was a pretty easy discussion!). 

 

[Matt42]

5 minutes ago, Toilet Duck said:

As @incident says, Oxegen was a bloody awful festival (though oddly, I did see some amazing things at it...last time I heard the Cure play M live for example...Badly Drawn Boy losing his band and gear at the airport so doing the main stage acoustically on his tod)...but there was an overall menacing atmosphere at it that just tempered the enjoyment somewhat as you were always looking over your shoulder. Werchter is a better choice if a big lineup is the main draw (and at Werchter, there's feck all else to do but watch the music, drink that weird cherry beer and eat chips with mayonnaise on them...but at least it's pretty chilled). This was the lineup when I went. Jay Z and KoL were the Glasto headliners same year. Wasn't hard to convince my mates to skip Glasto for one year ('07 broke us anyway, but when they saw the first 3 headliners, it was a pretty easy discussion!). 

 

Is RW pretty much gig in a field?

[Toilet Duck]

Just now, Matt42 said:

Is RW pretty much gig in a field?

There were two stages when I went, but I believe there are a few more now. It's not a bad set up, as with fewer stages, it's simpler and you get to see pretty much everything. The camping is really well organised, each campsite has a bar and cafe too, but inside there isn't much other than bars, food stalls and the stages (so not much different to Primavera really, except it's not in a carpark). 

[Quark]

On 3/21/2022 at 12:57 PM, Matt42 said:

It’s probably not as exciting as it seems - I strongly think most of the touring acts approach the festival / booking agents and most of the negotiating is about what kind of bus they want to transport them from A-B.

 

On 3/21/2022 at 2:11 PM, Hugh Jass II said:

Yeah I'd imagine it's a fairly boring process.

My guess is all the major labels release lists to festival bookers of which of their artists are available and when, their expected fees and whether they'd be willing to take exclusivity and 90% of the big stages are booked from there.

The remaining 10% are the crazier, more left field bookings.

It would be The Phantom Menace of festival films.

"Show us the cool stuff about how the festival happens!"

Cue 3 hours of trade talk negotiations.

[David_303]

On 3/21/2022 at 12:28 PM, Hugh Jass II said:

What a time to be alive. The Millenium Bug as over, 9/11 hadn’t happened yet, The Simpsons was still good…

That period from 1998 to about 2001 was just wild. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by David_303

[gigpusher]

20 hours ago, Wanderlei said:

There's a good solid handful there that I'd be really excited about seeing. Of course, there are many more that I'm not interested in, but you can only be at one place at a time anyway, so you don't want too much on your to do list ☺️

This!!! A great line up should include some stuff you wouldn't be seen dead at otherwise it would be horrendous trying to decide where to be. When I see something I really don't like that's just a decision made for me which I appreciate. 

[fred quimby]

On 3/21/2022 at 2:11 PM, Hugh Jass II said:

Yeah I'd imagine it's a fairly boring process.

My guess is all the major labels release lists to festival bookers of which of their artists are available and when, their expected fees and whether they'd be willing to take exclusivity and 90% of the big stages are booked from there.

The remaining 10% are the crazier, more left field bookings.

It would just be about booking bands. More to the festival than that.

Imagine half hour on compost toilets  (awaits anecdotes) 😉

But there is more, what will they do about the baby owls that are hatching in the orchard, or the birds that nested in the pyramid.  The build up, the different areas, Emily taking the piss out of efesters. Wait was that Banksy.

Clever editing and could be good.

 

[blutarsky]

2 minutes ago, fred quimby said:

It would just be about booking bands. More to the festival than that.

Imagine half hour on compost toilets  (awaits anecdotes) 😉

But there is more, what will they do about the baby owls that are hatching in the orchard, or the birds that nested in the pyramid.  The build up, the different areas, Emily taking the piss out of efesters. Wait was that Banksy.

Clever editing and could be good.

 

The coked up fish in the rivers, the NIMBYs moaning about Pangea, Guardian and Radio 1 interviews, awards ceremonies, license applications, the affordable housing schemes and similar around Pilton and so much more...

[fred quimby]

8 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

The coked up fish in the rivers, the NIMBYs moaning about Pangea, Guardian and Radio 1 interviews, awards ceremonies, license applications, the affordable housing schemes and similar around Pilton and so much more...

Yes exactly. Will the festival be closed for E'd up eels. The tension is there, stop people peeing on the land, what will they do. Loads of stuff