Theatre and Circus

[Nobody Interesting]

[CharlotteB]

Gutted there's no Cirque du Vulgar this year 😅 (not yet, anyway)

[Bike_Like_A_Mum]

Lots of the same...was really hoping for a bit more change on here this year. Comedians especially are pretty much exactly the same again... can't see any big top headliners yet either. It's one of my favourite areas I do hope there's some more individual  announcements to follow with something a bit more special

[gigpusher]

I think this year has to be the year I make the effort to see John Cooper Clarke 

[Ayrshire Chris]

Old time sailors who are already on the Avalon poster doing a walkabout down Williams green would be fun. 

[BrimfulOfAsha]

Oh my God, its the church! are bloody brilliant live. Definitely worth a watch if you've not seen them before. 

[CharlotteB]

1 hour ago, gigpusher said:

I think this year has to be the year I make the effort to see John Cooper Clarke 

 

Didn't even see him on the poster on my first look. Yeah, he will definitely be a potential on my list.

[MEGABOWL]

I mean, they call it a line up poster but it’s a very tiny bit of the line up for that field

[Memory Man]

1 hour ago, Bike_Like_A_Mum said:

Lots of the same...was really hoping for a bit more change on here this year. Comedians especially are pretty much exactly the same again... can't see any big top headliners yet either. It's one of my favourite areas I do hope there's some more individual  announcements to follow with something a bit more special

Not realistic

 

nish, mawaan etc will be doing it for an extremely modest fee and a +1 into the festival

 

there is no way they have a budget big enough to pay any comic remotely close to their going rate

[deepkittycaz]

29 minutes ago, Memory Man said:

Not realistic

 

nish, mawaan etc will be doing it for an extremely modest fee and a +1 into the festival

 

there is no way they have a budget big enough to pay any comic remotely close to their going rate

Last year Mawaan managed to stretch to a band, dancers, and a couple of leaf blowers

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 hour ago, Memory Man said:

Not realistic

 

nish, mawaan etc will be doing it for an extremely modest fee and a +1 into the festival

 

there is no way they have a budget big enough to pay any comic remotely close to their going rate

Yes - but a different group of comedians would probably also do it for comps.

[Memory Man]

14 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Yes - but a different group of comedians would probably also do it for comps.

The fact they are returning suggests otherwise

 

will have to see what the full cabaret line up looks like in a few more weeks

[incident]

7 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Yes - but a different group of comedians would probably also do it for comps.

 

To be blunt about it - not many.

 

The Cabaret tent has plenty spots to fill (and if you factor in Mavericks, Astrolabe, etc then there's even more room for comedy beyond that). If someone with name value makes themselves available for the right price (ie playing for a ticket) then they're not going to be turned down.

 

I really doubt that if say Stewart Lee rang up Haggis or whoever books Cabaret at the moment and offered himself for this year, that he'd be told "Sorry, but we've already got Nish again". Even if the conversation happened today, they'd make space. The area is given shitloads of wristbands as evidenced by all the non-name value acts that didn't make the poster but will also be on the final lineup.

[Watergirl]

I had not come across 'An evening without Kate Bush' before. Sounds like fun.

 

https://www.withoutkatebush.com/

[Bike_Like_A_Mum]

It's a shame...I really worry about this area of the festival and really hope they invest in it soon. In my opinion it's a core part of why glasto is so special Deserves a little bit of shaking up

[incident]

12 minutes ago, Bike_Like_A_Mum said:

It's a shame...I really worry about this area of the festival and really hope they invest in it soon. In my opinion it's a core part of why glasto is so special Deserves a little bit of shaking up

 

The investment is there, already. Arguably* disproportionately more than the area would justify if you looked at it from a purely business standpoint.

 

They just choose to spend the money differently than some other areas - specifically T&C have prioritised quantity over paying high fees for acts - despite taking up the exact same fields**, if you compare the number of stages they run in the area, the number of acts booked, or the number of walkabouts compared to 20 years ago it's increased by multiples.

 

* A fairly strong argument at that.

** Same public fields anyway. They're taking a lot more crew camping now with all of the other crews that used to be in those areas pushed out..

Edited May 6 by incident

[CaledonianGonzo]

38 minutes ago, incident said:

 

To be blunt about it - not many.

 

The Cabaret tent has plenty spots to fill (and if you factor in Mavericks, Astrolabe, etc then there's even more room for comedy beyond that). If someone with name value makes themselves available for the right price (ie playing for a ticket) then they're not going to be turned down.

 

I really doubt that if say Stewart Lee rang up Haggis or whoever books Cabaret at the moment and offered himself for this year, that he'd be told "Sorry, but we've already got Nish again". Even if the conversation happened today, they'd make space. The area is given shitloads of wristbands as evidenced by all the non-name value acts that didn't make the poster but will also be on the final lineup.

I'm talking more about younger circuit names than the more seasoned Bill Bailey / Ross Noble sorts. 

 

People like Leo Reich, Lorna Rose Treen, Sam Campbell, Julia Masli, Ania Magliano and so on.

[incident]

1 minute ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

I'm talking more about younger circuit names than the more seasoned Bill Bailey / Ross Noble sorts. 

 

People like Leo Reich, Lorna Rose Treen, Sam Campbell, Julia Masli, Ania Magliano and so on.

 

Point still stands - if they make themselves available, they're not going to get turned down.

[fred quimby]

21 minutes ago, incident said:

 

 

* A fairly strong argument at that.

** Same public fields anyway. They're taking a lot more crew camping now with all of the other crews that used to be in those areas pushed out..

Not entirely true. West Holts now take up a chunk of what was T&C camping as block 9 expanded. So more the other way in the last 10 years

[CaledonianGonzo]

8 minutes ago, incident said:

 

Point still stands - if they make themselves available, they're not going to get turned down.

I've no basis for this, but I assume the booker phones the acts (or at least their agents), not the other way round - and therefore that's where the power lies to shake up the line up rather than booking the same names year on year.

[incident]

Just now, fred quimby said:

Not entirely true. West Holts now take up a chunk of what was T&C camping as block 9 expanded. So more the other way in the last 10 years

 

Sure, but the reason I used 20 years as the marker is that most of the T&C expansion happened from about 2005 to 2014. It's stabilised a lot since then. Back in 2004 you had a lot of different crews in the Staff Camping fields inside the eastern edge of the fence. As T&C (and several of the other crews) grew, then most of the others were moved out into newly created staff campsites both inside and outside the fence, with T&C staying in the same spot and expanding to fill the vacated space.

 

3 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

I've no basis for this, but I assume the booker phones the acts (or at least their agents), not the other way round - and therefore that's where the power lies to shake up the line up rather than booking the same names year on year.

 

That's definitely fair, but regardless of who initiates contact the act still needs to be willing to (basically) play for a ticket. And many acts, entirely reasonably, will baulk at that and even find the offer outright insulting. It's a lot easier to have a conversation like that when you know the act is likely to accept.

 

I don't know who currently books Cabaret or Astrolabe, but my expectation is that whoever it is will (as is common across the rest of the festival) have a foot in the genre and so will be familiar with who's out there (both old and new), and who amongst those is likely to want a spot on the terms offered.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I'm fairly sure that the bookers for the main stages have a budget for travelling to see the acts they want to go after to see if they can actually cut the mustard - so one would hope the same applies in Theatre and Cabaret and they're a well kent face around the Soho Theatre or the Pleasance Courtyard.

[philipsteak]

27 minutes ago, incident said:

 

That's definitely fair, but regardless of who initiates contact the act still needs to be willing to (basically) play for a ticket. And many acts, entirely reasonably, will baulk at that and even find the offer outright insulting. It's a lot easier to have a conversation like that when you know the act is likely to accept.

 

I don't know who currently books Cabaret or Astrolabe, but my expectation is that whoever it is will (as is common across the rest of the festival) have a foot in the genre and so will be familiar with who's out there (both old and new), and who amongst those is likely to want a spot on the terms offered.

 

Especially if they are planning on blowing a small (or not so small) fortune at Edinburgh a month later

[Olshansky]

James Acaster, John Cooper Clarke, A night without Kate Bush - f**k yes.  

I try to get to the T&C at least once a festival, and on years where I dont really care about pyramid headliners (this year) I especially look to this area.  I'm very pleased

[stuie]

4 hours ago, incident said:

 

To be blunt about it - not many.

 

The Cabaret tent has plenty spots to fill (and if you factor in Mavericks, Astrolabe, etc then there's even more room for comedy beyond that). If someone with name value makes themselves available for the right price (ie playing for a ticket) then they're not going to be turned down.

 

I really doubt that if say Stewart Lee rang up Haggis or whoever books Cabaret at the moment and offered himself for this year, that he'd be told "Sorry, but we've already got Nish again". Even if the conversation happened today, they'd make space. The area is given shitloads of wristbands as evidenced by all the non-name value acts that didn't make the poster but will also be on the final lineup.

^^ exactly this!