SZA

[fraybentos1]

3 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

That wasn't a 'rule' of any sort.  They said they had one booked (Dua) and one they were hopeful of booking (Madonna)

 

2 minutes ago, MEGABOWL said:

She said “And who knows next year we might get two… And certainly I can say that the legend is female.”

 

She never committed them or set any rule or anything like that

Semantics. I don't mean an actual rule, I wasn't being literal. SZA was obviously chosen in part cause she is female and she wanted 2 female headliners after 0 last year. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Just now, fraybentos1 said:

 

Semantics. I don't mean an actual rule, I wasn't being literal. SZA was obviously chosen in part cause she is female and she wanted 2 female headliners after 0 last year. 

 

But we know they tried to get Stevie after Madonna fell through

[fraybentos1]

Just now, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

But we know they tried to get Stevie after Madonna fell through

We know there was rumours about Stevie Wonder which were perhaps a year early. I agree though, not everything matches up and the quote from Emily was not as definitive as I remembered. I think it's fair to say that Emily really wanted 2 female headliners in 2024 and that in part played in to why SZA got it.

[M42]

2 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

But we know they tried to get Stevie after Madonna fell through

The person I chatted to (from what I understand) is not a forum reader.

[clarkete]

37 minutes ago, The Nal said:

 

Now I love Simz, but a huge amount of people there were getting into position for Coldplay. Hardly anyone left after Simz.

Maybe where you were, but there were plenty of us who went and enjoyed her then chipped off, plus her set got a cracking reception, which isnt always the way with a sub. 

[ghostdancer1]

11 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

But we know they tried to get Stevie after Madonna fell through

No, we don't.

There's zero evidence of that happening.

 

Yet another efests bit of gossip now being treated as fact.

Edited Tuesday at 10:31 AM by ghostdancer1

[homesick]

 

23 hours ago, ghostdancer1 said:

If you've work on Monday or you don't like the lineup, you would have left on Sunday anyway.

Not sure what part people are struggling to understand here.

 

"They may not have even left specifically for the football," - yes, that's the whole point. Tens of thousands weren't leaving the site at 3pm to go watch England vs. Slovakia.

The fact that there weren't tens of thousands of England fans going off-site in 2022, 2018, 2016 etc proves my point. Unless the Glastonbury audience has suddenly become overrun with rabid football fans in 2024.....

 

In 2022 the World Cup was in Qatar in winter
In 2018 there was no Glastonbury festival (fallow year)
In 2016 the festival ran from 22-26th June, England played on 11th, 16th, 20th, 27th June. So there was no clash
In 2014 the festival ran from 25-29th June, England played on 14th, 19th, 24th June. So there was no clash
In 2012 there was no Glastonbury festival (fallow year)
In 2010 Glastonbury showed Slovenia v England on the Wednesday, and England v Germany on the Sunday

So this was the first time since 2010 England have played a game of football while the festival has been on, and in that year they showed both their matches.
 

[DeanoL]

It was clear last year when you have a huge draw like Elton on the Sunday that fewer people leave during the day on Sunday. It's evidenced by how difficult it was to get out of the car park post-Elton last year, when that's not normally a problem.

 

Indeed, I think the festival actually want to avoid anything like that happening again, just as it creates a potential hazard if people think "we will leave after the Sunday headliner and I'll be home by 2am" which they feel fine about, but are then having to stay awake until 5am after queuing three hours to get out.

 

Obviously they went a bit too far with this one, but wouldn't surprise me if that's at least partly in their thinking. The festival benefits from people leaving throughout the day on Sunday.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

1 minute ago, DeanoL said:

It was clear last year when you have a huge draw like Elton on the Sunday that fewer people leave during the day on Sunday. It's evidenced by how difficult it was to get out of the car park post-Elton last year, when that's not normally a problem.

 

Indeed, I think the festival actually want to avoid anything like that happening again, just as it creates a potential hazard if people think "we will leave after the Sunday headliner and I'll be home by 2am" which they feel fine about, but are then having to stay awake until 5am after queuing three hours to get out.

 

Obviously they went a bit too far with this one, but wouldn't surprise me if that's at least partly in their thinking. The festival benefits from people leaving throughout the day on Sunday.

 

Historically, I always thought Sunday was meant to be busier because of all the locals coming in? I don't know if it's actually true or not, but it's been referenced on eFests since I can remember. 

[Mardy]

They've got to be thinking that even 10-15% of cars leaving on a Sunday takes a fair bit of pressure off the Monday morning

[The Nal]

10 minutes ago, Mardy said:

They've got to be thinking that even 10-15% of cars leaving on a Sunday takes a fair bit of pressure off the Monday morning

 

"The Traffic Congestion Easing slot".

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

We're entered Hilary Clinton territory now blaming everything under the sun for the crowd.

 

Football.

Work commitments.

Traffic control.

Poor advertisement.

No special guests.

Entourage taking phones off people.

Entourage taking people off of shoulders.

Quality acts like the National up against her.

Backed into a corner because of the 2x female headliners tease.

Too many people didn't know her.

Too many dads and old men at the festival.

Not enough kids.

Too many stuck in a Spotify bubble.

Sexism.

No one's got any taste.

Not enough fence jumpers to boost site no's.

Racism.

Too much dust on site.

High pollen count.

Pablo Honey.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 11:20 AM by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[BookAngel]

 I've said this on a different thread somewhere, but just to repeat it here: I liked SZA's recent singles and, personally, as I was feeling pretty knackered by Sunday evening, I would have welcomed a more laid-back Sunday headliner - some great chilled-out tunes at the Pyramid with room to relax. However, my Glasto companion really wanted to spend a last night at the South-East corner, so we headed there instead - got in early and had a great time  at Roni Size and the Mez Yard 🙂 

 

I feel really bad for SZA, it was a combination of unfortunate circumstances and not her fault in the slightest, and certain fascist areas of the internet are absolutely loving that this has happened. And yes, I do think if she and Dua had swapped days it would've gone better.

[LinvoyPrimus]

Just to add my two cents here...

 

Very much rate SZA as an artist and I think she absolutely deserves a spot at the table. I also understand that festivals, particularly Glastonbury, cannot simply "just book *INSERT NAME OF RIDICULOUSLY HUGE GLOBAL MEGASTAR LEGEND HERE*" to headline. 

 

Festivals should be taking more punts and creating new headliners rather than simply relying on old favourites. Glastonbury has done a good job of this in recent years. 

 

I don't think her comically underhas anything to do with race, gender, football, or any other external factors – it's as simple as this...

• She's not a big name in the UK.
• Her label / management (and you could extend this to the festival itself, and the BBC) did not do ANYWHERE NEAR ENOUGH promotion to get people at least vaguely curious about her. No leg work went in to get people interested. 
• She was booked in the absolute worst slot possible. Sunday night is not the time for snoozy, introspective, low-key RnB. People want a sing-a-long or a dance or a mosh pit to end their weekend on a high note. We're (mostly) all going 'out-out' as soon as the headliner has finished, and when you look at recent headliners (and therefore what people who bought tickets this year have in mind when buying their tickets) that's what people want and expect to get.
• Not enough diversity among the other Sunday headliners (bar Justice). It was snoozy. Justice were always going to draw a huge crowd.

I had concerns about all of the above (as did most of us here), but I was desperately hoping to be proven wrong, and that this would turn out to be a savvy move by Emily. A potential masterstroke, in retrospect.

 

It's probably the single worst bit of booking in the recent history of the festival – this falls squarely on Emily Eavis and is a total mis-read of the current Glastonbury demographic and their expectations.

[gigpusher]

6 hours ago, The Nal said:

 

Now I love Simz, but a huge amount of people there were getting into position for Coldplay. Hardly anyone left after Simz.

A ton of people near me (including me) did leave after Simz. She was my winner of the weekend (which surprised me as I didn’t expect a Coldplay crowd to give her a great reception) After she finished I heard one person who clearly was just there for Coldplay say Wow she was a bit good and my little heart swelled with pride. 

[gigpusher]

The only Pyramid headliner I saw any of was SZA and I didn’t really think that the crowd was that small. It obviously was the smallest of the weekend but I didn’t think it was embarrassingly small or anything. I was absolutely knackered and only stayed for about 3 songs but I actually think those who were there seemed to be really enjoying it and I actually think it’s great for Glastonbury as a festival for people to have an opportunity to explore some of the other parts of the festival occasionally. I like that they take risks. Some pay off and some don’t so much but it’s good that they don’t always go with the safe choice. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

I bet from certain angles Guns'n'Roses crowd could have looked equally small.

[incident]

11 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

I bet from certain angles Guns'n'Roses crowd could have looked equally small.

 

Not even close tbh.

 

I caught the end (last 3 songs or so) of the SZA set, walking back through the Pyramid field along the path along the top.

 

It would have been possible to individually count the number of people in Row Mead at that point. There was less than a hundred people in that area. In the "main" Pyramid field the "crowd" went slightly past the sound desks, but not too far and the rest of the field was just people dotted around, most of them sat or lying down. Even the crowd around the sound desks didn't even look dense. I was able to stop and sit down on one of the benches along the path because nobody was using it which is almost unimaginable.

 

The GnR crowd definitely did thin out, but was probably multiples of that. Having seen both first hand and from similar angles, my guess would be that GnR ended up at about 40k, SZA at around 10k.

[FuzzyDunlop]

26 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

I bet from certain angles Guns'n'Roses crowd could have looked equally small.

 

I got into the pit for GnR for the last 3/4 of an hour after watching leftfield & some food.  No danger & it didnt seem headliner size. Streams of people leaving as I went in.

 

Kendrick too wasnt that busy. I was probably slap bang in the middle of the field & we were in the back 8th or so if people. Good though.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Just watched it, and even on telly it wasn't great - at least not comparatively when viewed alongside Dua and Coldplay.  She needed to meet the crowd halfway, but seemed to treat it as just another tour stop.  The stage set was cluttered and over-designed and the first half hour vocals sounded terrible.  Second half was way better, and the setlist was chocka with fantastic tunes, but on the whole glad I swerved it.

 

Oh well.

[MEGABOWL]

7 hours ago, fraybentos1 said:

We know there was rumours about Stevie Wonder which were perhaps a year early. I agree though, not everything matches up and the quote from Emily was not as definitive as I remembered. I think it's fair to say that Emily really wanted 2 female headliners in 2024 and that in part played in to why SZA got it.

Yeah fair enough, I don’t think she had a lot of options and maybe in the final reckoning she figured if she’s taking a punt either way it may as well be a woman. I did see a thing where she seemed a bit nonplussed at the whining over the massive stadium level acts she booked last year, and I totally understand why.

Edited Tuesday at 05:43 PM by MEGABOWL

[MEGABOWL]

37 minutes ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

 

I got into the pit for GnR for the last 3/4 of an hour after watching leftfield & some food.  No danger & it didnt seem headliner size. Streams of people leaving as I went in.

 

Kendrick too wasnt that busy. I was probably slap bang in the middle of the field & we were in the back 8th or so if people. Good though.

It was small compared to a lot of headliners but definitely bigger than what SZA got from the footage I’ve seen of the latter

[Colorblindjames]

1 hour ago, LinvoyPrimus said:

Just to add my two cents here...

 

Very much rate SZA as an artist and I think she absolutely deserves a spot at the table. I also understand that festivals, particularly Glastonbury, cannot simply "just book *INSERT NAME OF RIDICULOUSLY HUGE GLOBAL MEGASTAR LEGEND HERE*" to headline. 

 

Festivals should be taking more punts and creating new headliners rather than simply relying on old favourites. Glastonbury has done a good job of this in recent years. 

 

I don't think her comically underhas anything to do with race, gender, football, or any other external factors – it's as simple as this...

• She's not a big name in the UK.
• Her label / management (and you could extend this to the festival itself, and the BBC) did not do ANYWHERE NEAR ENOUGH promotion to get people at least vaguely curious about her. No leg work went in to get people interested. 
• She was booked in the absolute worst slot possible. Sunday night is not the time for snoozy, introspective, low-key RnB. People want a sing-a-long or a dance or a mosh pit to end their weekend on a high note. We're (mostly) all going 'out-out' as soon as the headliner has finished, and when you look at recent headliners (and therefore what people who bought tickets this year have in mind when buying their tickets) that's what people want and expect to get.
• Not enough diversity among the other Sunday headliners (bar Justice). It was snoozy. Justice were always going to draw a huge crowd.

I had concerns about all of the above (as did most of us here), but I was desperately hoping to be proven wrong, and that this would turn out to be a savvy move by Emily. A potential masterstroke, in retrospect.

 

It's probably the single worst bit of booking in the recent history of the festival – this falls squarely on Emily Eavis and is a total mis-read of the current Glastonbury demographic and their expectations.

I disagree that she’s not a big name in the UK. She’s doing Hyde park I believe. She’s not a big name among the Glastonbury crowd which lets be honest isn’t very diverse and is mostly white middle class folks. Booking Artists like SZA might change that demographic which would be good. That’s why the backlash is so annoying and unfair. Mostly it’s by old men who only want to listen to the Gallaghers and Foo Fighters. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Just now, Colorblindjames said:

Booking Artists like SZA might change that demographic which would be good. That’s why the backlash is so annoying and unfair. Mostly it’s by old men who only want to listen to the Gallaghers and Foo Fighters. 

 

Don't disagree with this, but for that to happen the tv broadcast needed to look like a total tour de force. 

 

[LinvoyPrimus]

27 minutes ago, Colorblindjames said:

I disagree that she’s not a big name in the UK. She’s doing Hyde park I believe. She’s not a big name among the Glastonbury crowd which lets be honest isn’t very diverse and is mostly white middle class folks. Booking Artists like SZA might change that demographic which would be good. That’s why the backlash is so annoying and unfair. Mostly it’s by old men who only want to listen to the Gallaghers and Foo Fighters. 

The current Glastonbury demographic isn't the most diverse, yes, but it really isn't dominated by 'old men who want to listen to the Gallaghers and Foo Fighters' though.

I think Glastonbury is moving away from that though – it's predominantly full of millennials who want to have a sing-a-long, a dance, or get on it. Particularly on Sunday night. Look at the acts that generated the most buzz this year and over the last few years. Look at the insane popularity of acts like Charli XCX, Bicep, and Eric Prydz in the late-night areas this year.

The issue isn't with booking SZA outright, it's with booking / scheduling her to headline the Sunday night. I just do not think this is what the current festival demographic care about.