SZA

[Colorblindjames]

Just now, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

 

Undoubtedly, there should be a mix of genres, ages, styles of music on the Pyramid, but they've still got to be able to fill the field. 

 

There was nostalgia - Paul Heaton

There was rock - PJ Harvey

There was afrobeats - Burna Boy

There was R&B - SZA

 

Etc etc. Huge mix. But can they do it on a rain Monday night in Stoke? But can they fill the field? 

 

And if it doesn't matter about the crowd size, then might as well just put anybody on there.

 

Put Beans on Toast as sub. Jain as the headliner. 

Why do they have to fill the field? Where is this idea coming from. If the field is filled other acts elsewhere are getting less love. 

[northernringo]

FWIW, I went to the set (as a fan) and really enjoyed it. I had two others with me who weren't overly familiar with her who thought it was a 'good show'. Everyone around me seemed to be having a good time too.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

Just now, Colorblindjames said:

Why do they have to fill the field? Where is this idea coming from. If the field is filled other acts elsewhere are getting less love. 

 

It's certainly a new approach I've never heard before. Have the main headliner the Bootleg Beatles and have them play to 5k people in a field that can hold 100k, so that the rest of the site feels loved as well.

 

So, it was a purposefully small headliner, so that all the other fields would be jam-packed. Got it.

[Benjsh]

4 minutes ago, Colorblindjames said:

Nope the Pyramid is the premier and most high profile stage. It should have a mix of artists not just nostalgia acts guaranteed to pull a crowd. 

 

Nobody is saying it shouldn't. If those other artists get big enough crowds then fine by me keep booking them to play on there. 

 

The problem here is the act you seem to really like didn't get a big crowd and the crowds on the other stages at that same time were borderline unsafe in places.

You're wrong and you know you're wrong. Music snobbery doesn't come before the safety of punters I'm afraid. 

 

Surely you'd have a better time watching Janelle Monae on West Holts anyway when the people who are there are all her fans mostly. The Pyramid Stage will always attract the more casual of fans who might be waiting for their favourite act who is up next for example. I have found this myself over the years that sadly you get people talking when one of your favourite acts are on the Pyramid because they are simply there waiting for Beyonce or someone like that to start.

 

 

[CaledonianGonzo]

The field doesn't have to be filled all day - but I can't imagine the festival aren't keen for it to be deserted come headliner time.

[Gejonimo]

1 hour ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

Updated list:

 

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.

Fascists on the internet.

Too many people want Liam Gallagher and Foo Fighters.

Punters at Glastonbury are not diverse enough.

Not a legacy act.

 

What's the context behind Pablo Honey?

[DeanoL]

13 hours ago, Colorblindjames said:

1000s of the paying punters walked from Shania to Avril and chose to miss Janelle. Scheduling the content of the pyramid to meet the demands of this demographic risks the festival becoming a bigger IoW or Hyde Park. 

But how does it change if Janelle is on Other and Avril is on Pyramid? Like, how does swapping two artists stages around turn the festival into a bigger IoW? 

No-one is suggesting not booking acts like Janelle, or even SZA, just changes the stages they are on so the bigger field has the acts that attract the most people. I'm at a loss as to why some people think this will ruin the festival.

[Furq]

10 hours ago, Colorblindjames said:

Considering Glastonbury sells out before the lineup is announced means most people paying are accepting the line up risk. 

Yes, but there's no 'risk' to the public. Everyone currently expects bans like Coldplay to headline. Anyone who's been knows the headliners aren't the be all and end all. We all know there's going to be something on somewhere.

There's more of a risk to organisers is they move away from expectations - are enough of the 200k+ punters fans of Sza to draw a crowd... given Sza fans didn't know she was going to play? The answer was emphatically no.

[CaledonianGonzo]

The Janelle - Avril switcheroo probably is one where the switch would have benefited a majority of people.

 

Except me cos I'd have stayed in the pit to watch Avril and would have missed Janelle absolutely killing it.

[Bike_Like_A_Mum]

Here's my little two pence...I thought the crowd sizes at pyramid on Sunday were really tragic to be honest. No excuse for it, everyone knew Avril was going to draw a big crowd. Lots of people I know wanted to see her and decided not to chance it because they knew it was going to be busy so they ended up missing out. I'm sure there was many many more who missed out too and that's a shame.

 

Think people need to get off their high horse about nostalgia acts. I was chatting to Louise Redknapp while at the festival this year but it's not like everyone would be at 'Eternal' just for nostalgia is it! Avril Lavigne has a catalogue of absolute bangers, she sounded amazing and for the fussy people - she played an instrument live on stage. What more do you want.  Her music is just as valid as the other dinosaurs that were playing across the weekend but no-one calls them 'nostalgia' acts. She's got the tunes for a good bloody party and lots of people wanted to be at that party, so the party needed a bigger venue. Simple as that.

 

SZA is completely the wrong vibe for Sunday night, it was glaringly obvious and it's Emily and the teams problem the pyramid was empty. Felt quiet across the whole site, you could tell so many went home early. Not good for the stalls and food vendors etc who are paying a premium for their spots. So it IS a problem. I'm personally not having that 'it's difficult to predict' with the amount of data they have at their fingertips. I would have gone to see SZA if she was sub on Sunday afternoon for a nice little chill set before a final party. I'm looking forward to watching her set in bed on Sunday morning 🌄 

 

I was at Justice. Had a brilliant festival and hope you all finished up your Sunday night in the best possible way to keep your cup filled up until next year ✌🏼🧡✨️

[Alvoram]

14 minutes ago, Colorblindjames said:

Why do they have to fill the field? Where is this idea coming from. If the field is filled other acts elsewhere are getting less love. 

It’s not about them ‘filling that field’ for me.

 

It’s about them not overfilling other fields / tents to the point of them being dangerous, when they’ve got slots on that massive big space at the pyramid, that were more suitable, because the acts occupying those slots will only draw 20k tops. It’s a safety thing.

 

To a lesser extent it’s also about people not having to miss out, because an act they wanted to see was placed stupidly, and the stage got closed. But that’s not nearly as important, and I feel will always happen to some degree from time to time. So let’s focus on the obvious safety critical ones. Avril was obvious from day one of her being announced. Sugarbabes too to a lesser extent. 

[DeanoL]

33 minutes ago, Colorblindjames said:

Nope the Pyramid is the premier and most high profile stage. It should have a mix of artists not just nostalgia acts guaranteed to pull a crowd. 

Why?

Because the reason it's been done in the past, is people tended to camp out at the Pyramid and watch what was on there, and anything on was guaranteed to get a huge crowd, so you could introduce new and different acts to a demographic that wouldn't normally watched them.

This year has proven one thing: that assumption has broken down. People won't just watch the act on the Pyramid because it's the most high profile stage. If there's something else, they'll go there instead. People sticking around a single stage for half the day is much less common now, there's much more movement on site, that's been building the past ten years and it's really hit the pyramid for the first time this year. 

 

I get what you are saying. It's the same idea Michael and Emily had to. Use the biggest stage to push forwards acts that don't normally get that attention, but have a lot of critical acclaim. Book for credibility not popularity. It's a fine idea and it worked for a long time.

 

But it has stopped working. I get why you would put an awesome, credible but little known act on the Pyramid. Bring them in a huge crowd and help them reach people they'd not normally reach. But y'know, it has to actually work! That huge crowd have to actually turn up. Janelle did not benefit from being on the Pyramid. She didn't get a huge crowd of people who wouldn't normally have bothered. So what was the point of having her on it?

[Long Season]

38 minutes ago, Colorblindjames said:

Nope the Pyramid is the premier and most high profile stage. It should have a mix of artists not just nostalgia acts guaranteed to pull a crowd. 

would argue that they still have to pull a crowd - no matter the mix, mind. 

[LinvoyPrimus]

2 minutes ago, Bike_Like_A_Mum said:

SZA is completely the wrong vibe for Sunday night, it was glaringly obvious and it's Emily and the teams problem the pyramid was empty. Felt quiet across the whole site, you could tell so many went home early. Not good for the stalls and food vendors etc who are paying a premium for their spots. So it IS a problem. I'm personally not having that 'it's difficult to predict' with the amount of data they have at their fingertips. I would have gone to see SZA if she was sub on Sunday afternoon for a nice little chill set before a final party.

I think this can't be understated – SZA absolutely did feel like the wrong vibe for a Sunday night but I don't think she was helped by that same vibe being replicated across three of the four other main stages. There was evidently appetite for a more chilled / low-key finale to some people's festival, but that crowd were forced to choose between SZA, The National, James Blake, and London Grammar. It feels like a deliberate move from Emily & Co. but I have no idea why.

Had SZA been the option on that front, people might have taken more of a punt on her and she may well have pulled a bigger crowd.

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, DeanoL said:

 

 

I get what you are saying. It's the same idea Michael and Emily had to. Use the biggest stage to push forwards acts that don't normally get that attention, but have a lot of critical acclaim. Book for credibility not popularity. It's a fine idea and it worked for a long time.

 

But it has stopped working. I get why you would put an awesome, credible but little known act on the Pyramid. Bring them in a huge crowd and help them reach people they'd not normally reach. But y'know, it has to actually work! That huge crowd have to actually turn up.

 

Except, at other points over the weekend, it worked as normal.

 

Olivia Dean, Arya Starr and - especially- Little Simz all benefited.

 

 

 

[robith]

This is as someone who hasn't been since 2011, but the SZA situation shows a real pickle that Glastonbury finds itself in.

 

It has gotten to this place as a cultural behemoth by dancing on the edge of popular and bleeding edge culture.

 

But that means it's also become this massive event which means so many people want to come - and here's the kick, unlike other festivals you don't know who is coming. At Primavera Porto, SZA had an enormous crowd, second biggest of the weekend, cos they announced the line up and get a crowd that wants to see the acts. Whereas Glastonbury, rightly, asks you to trust in their curation.

 

In the aftermath I saw a tweet slagging SZA with lots of like saying "Here are the acts touring they could've had" and it was like Liam Gallagher, Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift (LOOOOOL), Kings of Leon. No shade on those artists, but if that's the expectations, that's a festival that has no future literally in terms of the production line of big, older artists, financially in terms of the ability of the festival to pay for them, or culturally because then what's special about Glastonbury? It's never been about the biggest acts but something special you don't get anywhere else.

 

SZA didn't land but it's the kind of left field thinking the festival needs to keep trying that angle because the alternative is a slow path to obsolesce, cos the "normies" won't be into festivals forever, and the festival's ultimate cultural cache is more important than a couple of underfilled fields now and then

[The Red Telephone]

1 minute ago, Ready2Spray said:

SZA was clearly given that spot because of her gender, ethnicity and 'body-positivity'. She's like a trifecta for woke box-ticking.

 

It's a travesty that JUSTICE were not headlining Sunday, so I'm glad it's now biting Emily et al. Maybe they will realise their ideology is poison but I doubt it.

And you're clearly a twat

[mazola]

Jesus Christ this was a depressing thread to read.

Thousands of acts over hundreds of stages, maybe half a dozen of which should have been swapped about a bit, that's it.

I never expected this place to mourn the loss of the all day pyramid campers

Edited Wednesday at 10:43 AM by mazola
picnic blanket parade to all day campers

[DeanoL]

37 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

Except, at other points over the weekend, it worked as normal.

 

Olivia Dean, Arya Starr and - especially- Little Simz all benefited.

 

So seems the issue is you can't do that, then also put a huge crowd pleasing act on the second stage at the same time then? Which seems reasonable. And then also not last thing Sunday as people might just leave instead.

[Detective McNulty]

6 minutes ago, Ready2Spray said:

SZA was clearly given that spot because of her gender, ethnicity and 'body-positivity'. She's like a trifecta for woke box-ticking.

 

It's a travesty that JUSTICE were not headlining Sunday, so I'm glad it's now biting Emily et al. Maybe they will realise their ideology is poison but I doubt it.

 

this is a bit f**king ott.

it was a wrong booking and the wrong vibe to close out the pyramind but bringing all 'woke' nonsense into the equation is bullshit and frankly you can f**k off. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Time for the mods to step up on the actual fash that this place is attracting now.

[Crazyfool01]

Just chill people hopefully some great memories  to take away … obviously some grumbles but please try and enjoy the positives out of the weekend rather than the fraction of time that things didn’t work for you personally . Hope everyone that went enjoyed and those that didn’t enjoyed one of the many other things onsite … and anyone that left enjoyed an early night 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

1 hour ago, Gejonimo said:

What's the context behind Pablo Honey?

 

It's an eFest joke from ages ago, think people were ranking the best Radiohead albums before they headlined in 2017.

[FrogLobster]

18 minutes ago, Ready2Spray said:

SZA was clearly given that spot because of her gender, ethnicity and 'body-positivity'. She's like a trifecta for woke box-ticking.

 

It's a travesty that JUSTICE were not headlining Sunday, so I'm glad it's now biting Emily et al. Maybe they will realise their ideology is poison but I doubt it.

I'm out of reactions so doing a reply instead; you can get to fvck with this 'wahhhhhhh woke ruined glasto' nonsense.

 

Also, a new account created 2 days ago just to complain about SZA and POC; definitely a racist basement dweller.

[sadimmock]

1 hour ago, Gejonimo said:

What's the context behind Pablo Honey?

A very long running efests in-joke