2024 Headliners

[northernangel]

49 minutes ago, incident said:

Not convinced that the audience is the youngest it ever was.

It's possible the average may now be younger than it was say 10-15 years ago. But I'm pretty confident the average age today definitely wouldn't be any younger than it was in the late 90s or early 00s when the festival was directly competing with R+L for the youth audience. From the mid-00s onwards Glastonbury started to broaden their appeal a lot and the average got (quite significantly) older, whereas R+L went all in on the GCSE crowd.

Just for example the festivals that your school leavers go to, your Reading's from 16, 17. I went to Glastonbury when I was 20 for the first time and a lot of people I would have hung out with, went school with for example would have said no lineups rubbish or the odd one what is Glastonbury. I wasn't too festival savvy...I went Reading in 2006 for the first year and I didn't know what it was barely before that. My sister had gone Leeds in 2005 which kinda alerted me to it. I wasn't into that music at that point though, it was my clubland days really.

Now though, the festival is booking more acta that your 17 year olds etc like and pop acts, not your indie acts so when their favourite artists announced Glastonbury for example it becomes go where they are. There has definitely been a diversity change where the likes of Doja, MTS, Lewis Capaldi, Dua Lipa etc wouldn't have even been looked at being booked, but with that comes the crowd.

[sisco]

20 minutes ago, northernangel said:

Just for example the festivals that your school leavers go to, your Reading's from 16, 17. I went to Glastonbury when I was 20 for the first time and a lot of people I would have hung out with, went school with for example would have said no lineups rubbish or the odd one what is Glastonbury. I wasn't too festival savvy...I went Reading in 2006 for the first year and I didn't know what it was barely before that. My sister had gone Leeds in 2005 which kinda alerted me to it. I wasn't into that music at that point though, it was my clubland days really.

Now though, the festival is booking more acta that your 17 year olds etc like and pop acts, not your indie acts so when their favourite artists announced Glastonbury for example it becomes go where they are. There has definitely been a diversity change where the likes of Doja, MTS, Lewis Capaldi, Dua Lipa etc wouldn't have even been looked at being booked, but with that comes the crowd.

I’m confused though, the younger audience were watching the likes of Blur and Oasis.  So yeah the genre of music that the youngsters like has changed but the youngsters have always been going 

[Simsy]

3 hours ago, mazola said:

I think you are just getting old to be honest, it's 16 years since your first of course the crowd is going to be getting younger, and so it should, it would be doomed if it wasn't

I'm sure everyone was "normal age" when I started going to glasto at 20. Now I'm dangerously close to 40 & the glasto crowd is full of kids. Sports people, pop stars coppers and teachers are also kids these days, it must be them that have changed, not me 😂

21 minutes ago, northernangel said:

Now though, the festival is booking more acta that your 17 year olds etc like and pop acts, not your indie acts so when their favourite artists announced Glastonbury for example it becomes go where they are. There has definitely been a diversity change where the likes of Doja, MTS, Lewis Capaldi, Dua Lipa etc wouldn't have even been looked at being booked, but with that comes the crowd.

20 years ago, indie was popular among young people. Glasto was booking bands that were on top of the pops. It's always attracted 17 year olds.

[incident]

32 minutes ago, Simsy said:

20 years ago, indie was popular among young people. Glasto was booking bands that were on top of the pops. It's always attracted 17 year olds.

Using 1998 as probably the most extreme example - Primal Scream, Blur, and Pulp were exactly what the cool kids of the day were listening to. I doubt the festival has had a trio of headliners since then that even come close to skewing towards a younger (for the time) demographic.

Edited January 21 by incident

[charlierc]

10 hours ago, stuie said:

Both of which would be great on Other Stage. Better than Lana if they turned up on time! 

Least we're not as beaten into thinking lawsuits fix everything like those fans sueing Madonna for turning up late to a New York show the other night. Even if 2 hours late is taking the piss.

[charlierc]

3 hours ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

The point is that 7 or 8 years back before social media existed the festival was a paradise - now its full of people snapping photos and messaging one another.

A comparison given that when I went to go see Muse at Milton Keynes Bowl in June (on the same weekend as Glastonbury, no less), there was f**k all mobile phone signal. Which given the ticket was on a mobile app made life more chaotic than it needed to be.

Or was a sign that not doing a pre-emptive screen-grab was a terrible idea.

[charlierc]

46 minutes ago, sisco said:

I’m confused though, the younger audience were watching the likes of Blur and Oasis.  So yeah the genre of music that the youngsters like has changed but the youngsters have always been going 

Well yeah. If we're using Reading/Leeds as an example, I know people who went a few times when I was 16-18 where a lot of people of that age also went and where what was booked was directed at them accordingly. It's therefore to be expected that if it's still the festival of choice for 16-18 year old's, but what that demographic listens to changes, that festival will adapt accordingly, and given a lot of pop culture appeals to them to begin with, other things will develop accordingly.

At the risk of being like any thread in the Reading area of this forum which devolves into lamenting picking festivals by TikTok. Something that I, as someone who has not got TikTok and who doesn't understand how it works, can so totally weigh in on.

[Alex DeLarge]

We should just stop booking acts people want to see and pretend it's 2000 forever in my opinion, the days before smart phones. Back then they didn't book any pop or rap, except for Macy Gray, Pet Shop Boys, Cypress Hill. Back then you'd get upstanding citizens like The Bloodhound Gang and Tommy Lee, who didn't have obnoxious fanbases. The indie rock? Exciting and fresh, cutting-edge artists like Coldplay, Counting Crows, Reef, Ocean Colour Scene, Embrace, and Feeder. Real music.

[clarkete]

I started going in the mid 80s and there were always a proportion of the bands who were quite young, and also some who are older as there has been since. 

My parents were local and had a wander about during the day, but they were probably a decade younger than I am now and they were very much not staying for late night entertainment and to camp - they were going home to a cosy bed. 

There was not really a sector of the audience that were old duffers like I am now.   Or any of those bemoaned in here with blankets and chairs, that came many years later after the fence made it a safe place to be. 

 

[CaledonianGonzo]

In my day people went to Glastonbury to do a gram and stay awake.

Now they they only go to do it for the Gram and be a woke!

[NorthernSoul52]

[Monty Pythagoras]

Can someone point me to the headliner discussion please?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Back in the good old days people used to watch the The Muppets and sing the Rainbow Connection.

These days people are only interested in acting like a Muppet on an Internet Connection 😔 

Edited January 22 by CaledonianGonzo

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, Monty Pythagoras said:

Can someone point me to the headliner discussion please?

Radio 1 are teeing up their Glastonbury contest this morning by playing Dua Lipa.

[CaledonianGonzo]

But no other hints or clues.

[angelin]

I noticed that. What was the question? Im on hold to the DWP going back to work after a year of blinking treatment. 
 

it will deffo be Coldplay. The other two I just have no idea at all.

[mouserat]

46 minutes ago, angelin said:

I noticed that. What was the question? Im on hold to the DWP going back to work after a year of blinking treatment. 
 

it will deffo be Coldplay. The other two I just have no idea at all.

Can you blink without any issues now then?

[gfa]

12 hours ago, northernangel said:

Just for example the festivals that your school leavers go to, your Reading's from 16, 17. I went to Glastonbury when I was 20 for the first time and a lot of people I would have hung out with, went school with for example would have said no lineups rubbish or the odd one what is Glastonbury. I wasn't too festival savvy...I went Reading in 2006 for the first year and I didn't know what it was barely before that. My sister had gone Leeds in 2005 which kinda alerted me to it. I wasn't into that music at that point though, it was my clubland days really.

Now though, the festival is booking more acta that your 17 year olds etc like and pop acts, not your indie acts so when their favourite artists announced Glastonbury for example it becomes go where they are. There has definitely been a diversity change where the likes of Doja, MTS, Lewis Capaldi, Dua Lipa etc wouldn't have even been looked at being booked, but with that comes the crowd.

Not many people I know go (22), its only our group which has expanded as I drag people along (and people with family who've been going years)

Glastonbury requires a large amount of organisation. For that reason your unlikely to be getting large groups of gcse/a level students - you need to get a solid group together, have potentially £450 in one account for deposits (+coach), then be able to pay another £300 for the ticket balance.

Just to get 6 tickets with a coach from London costs like £800 upfront which has to be organised into one person's account.

Then theres actually getting the tickets against big groups, regulars who know how it works etc

 

The difficulty in organising getting tickets at this point in time means the festival won't be swarmed with the GCSE crowd until tickets stop selling out or the ticket system significantly changes to favour them.

Edited January 22 by gfa

[angelin]

13 minutes ago, mouserat said:

Can you blink without any issues now then?

😂😂😂😂 well, Ive still got the bloody thing but hopefully they can control it Ill know next month fingers crossed

[northernangel]

25 minutes ago, gfa said:

Not many people I know go (22), its only our group which has expanded as I drag people along (and people with family who've been going years)

Glastonbury requires a large amount of organisation. For that reason your unlikely to be getting large groups of gcse/a level students - you need to get a solid group together, have potentially £450 in one account for deposits (+coach), then be able to pay another £300 for the ticket balance.

Just to get 6 tickets with a coach from London costs like £800 upfront which has to be organised into one person's account.

Then theres actually getting the tickets against big groups, regulars who know how it works etc

 

The difficulty in organising getting tickets at this point in time means the festival won't be swarmed with the GCSE crowd until tickets stop selling out or the ticket system significantly changes to favour them.

Wages have increased though over time to compensate. Also presents and gifts.

The festival was much cheaper but so we're wages too. I do think the festival price has easily increased more than the wages to go with it though. Say when I started going at 20, I was working just supermarket work, £7 something an hour and something around to 14.5k. But that is now closer to 22k a year for the same job making it 8k inflation.

I don't think gcse and into uni students will have that much trouble. Every year from when I was 22 which was actually when I first went unless it was a gap I will still doing that job a fair while and I didn't struggle to find the money. That would make me 19 just nearly 20 attending Leeds the first time.

At that time, most my age from 17 were not interested in Glastonbury due to the lineups, that was the reaction when you mentioned it. But over the whole thing, there is more of a social thing I feel over the pop acts that are popular now and the likes of Oasis etc.

[clarkete]

2 hours ago, Monty Pythagoras said:

Can someone point me to the headliner discussion please?

Things often get a bit feral with no news.   Let's hope for something this week... 

[Crazyfool01]

1 hour ago, mouserat said:

Can you blink without any issues now then?

Blink 182 confirmed ? 

[Gejonimo]

Eagles residency in Manchester early June as farewell tour - could these be the mystery headliner?

[CaledonianGonzo]

Nah. They'd want too much money.

[incident]

1 minute ago, Gejonimo said:

Eagles residency in Manchester early June as farewell tour - could these be the mystery headliner?

General belief (going back at least 20 years) is that Michael would be desperate to get them, but that they're miles out of the price range and have no interest whatsoever in accepting less.

Personally I'd also take the view that reports of their live shows sound like there's zero on stage chemistry so they wouldn't be a great choice anyway.