Reduction of attendees vs cost of ticket

[MilkyJoe]

15 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

I'm with you on most of that, but do young people really give a f**k about Kasabian?

Kasabian were a TBA though, not only will there have been a sizable portion of people that didn't know that they were most likely one of the few 'big' names a lot would have heard of. (Even if that big name was from 10 years ago)😁

[incident]

2 minutes ago, MilkyJoe said:

I know Avril is viewed as a 'heritage' act and was always going to be busy for whatever reasons but I don't think anybody would have predicted the Other being so full.

 

Loads of people did.

[MilkyJoe]

11 minutes ago, tarw said:

No way would they put her up against Shania!  Shania would have been playing to an empty field for the second half of her set. She would blame the festival for it and it would make it harder to book legends in the future. 
It’s in the festivals and artistes interest to create FOMO and overcrowded slots it creates hype and gets people talking about it for months after. For that reason I don’t think they will ever stop having secret slots or people playing smaller stages unless it becomes a safety issue and they have to 

Yeah I did think that as I typed it hence me adding that the same slot on the Saturday would have been better. 

[muffin]

19 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

I'm with you on most of that, but do young people really give a f**k about Kasabian?

Probably not yet it felt like most of the festival was heading there.  But as others have said... a TBC now attracts curiosity also.  

 

But as MilkyJoe said, a lot of the demographic now don't seem to seek out the unknown or weird and wonderful... it's all about the main names/more well known acts.  

[MilkyJoe]

3 minutes ago, incident said:

 

Loads of people did.

Ahh apologies if that was the case. I didn't see any of that because I was ignoring the festival and sulking for the previous 6 months because I missed out on a ticket!🤣

[muffin]

1 hour ago, MilkyJoe said:

The poster for me was a bit meh, but I know I would have still had the most amazing time there if I'd gone this year because I would have been discovering new stuff or I would have researched the acts that were on. There seems to be a large part of the demographic that won't do that. Hopefully it puts some people off from attending this year and ticket day will be easier...

 

 

 

I certainly did research what other acts were on and gave them a listen beforehand and did seek out new stuff... hence still having a wonderful time.  I hate being even the slightest bit negative about Glastonbury, and i know having been so many times there's always going to be a tendency to compare to previous years.  But this year when trying to get to these new acts i'd found... i struggled to get there... it was seriously busy and bottle necked in certain areas.

 

I didn't even get to south east corner in the eve this year, i couldn't get in. I'd rather go have fun in the cabaret field than waste two hours waiting in line for Shangri La.

[incident]

3 minutes ago, MilkyJoe said:

Ahh apologies if that was the case. I didn't see any of that because I was ignoring the festival and sulking for the previous 6 months because I missed out on a ticket!🤣

 

Tbh I think the only real surprise (from my perspective at least) was just how negatively the crowd at Janelle was affected. Which was definitely a shame, and could have been avoided with better placement choices. I'd have liked to see her - but there's not really a rarity factor and that makes a difference.

 

Ultimately, it's been proven time over that if Glastonbury put out an act late afternoon / early evening that has multiple songs everyone knows, and that most attendees won't have seen live before - then it's going to draw big numbers. I can buy "they couldn't have predicted it" on some things, but not this one.

[briddj]

2 hours ago, muffin said:

Probably not yet it felt like most of the festival was heading there.  But as others have said... a TBC now attracts curiosity also.  

 

But as MilkyJoe said, a lot of the demographic now don't seem to seek out the unknown or weird and wonderful... it's all about the main names/more well known acts.  

 

I think it's more that people who go to a festival, in general, want to see acts they know, sing along to songs they know and have a great time to it.

 

Whatever your thoughts on Kasabian, that's what they provided this year and will have been why many went.

 

Glasto struggled to offer that this year.

 

Look at the big crowd Two Door got, no doubt aided by the wasteland of the Pyramid Sunday evening offering. No doubt Two Door got a much bigger crowd due to the familiarity factor. And they played to that perfectly with half the set their debut album.

[DeanoL]

When people say "young people" making up the majority of the crowd, how young are they talking about? I can buy that these people are heavily into the SE corner stuff (as I have literally no knowledge of those genres whatsover) but for someone who was the right age for Kasabian and Avril Lavigne would be at least in their 30s by now. People under 20 weren't born when Kasabian's debut album came out!

[Crazyfool01]

Do we know the festival demographic for Glastonbury has shifted younger ? Was the average age not late 30s ? Or did I imagine that ? 

[muffin]

I would just add when I say 'younger', I personally am talking about people in terms of generations, not really specific ages.  Glastonbury still has a wonderfully diverse age range, something for everyone.

 

My first festival in 1994 I was 20, my point about a changing of the guard or shift in interest purely means the younger end of the spectrum. Also i'm commenting on their habits at the festival, not really specific musical tastes.

 

But it all changes in waves... For example... Someone who's 30 or even mid 30s may not know that there's fire wood and if you want you can have a campfire.  (Although we know this has pretty much died out.)  

 

I just believe 'part' of the reason for over crowding is a mass mindset of we need to go here or there now as it's the thing to do. Maybe even because of social media and the TV exposure... Strummerville more packed then ever because it was all over instagram.

 

Just my own personal theories... i could be wrong.

Edited July 23 by muffin

[efcfanwirral]

4 hours ago, incident said:

 

Tbh I think the only real surprise (from my perspective at least) was just how negatively the crowd at Janelle was affected. Which was definitely a shame, and could have been avoided with better placement choices. I'd have liked to see her - but there's not really a rarity factor and that makes a difference.

 

Ultimately, it's been proven time over that if Glastonbury put out an act late afternoon / early evening that has multiple songs everyone knows, and that most attendees won't have seen live before - then it's going to draw big numbers. I can buy "they couldn't have predicted it" on some things, but not this one.

This is the big thing with the Avril Lavigne debate, she so rarely tours, and literally never played festivals until this year. Its not just that she's an older act, or that people are "ironically" watching her as I've seen suggested, but that most people may have wanted to see her in the past but not got the chance.

 

Just looking at her Manchester gig history, she did Castlefield this year and Apollo last year (both of which were sold out very quickly and were hard to get tickets for nearer the time, we tried for Apollo last year), then before that it was 2011, 2008, 2004 and 2003. I've always liked her and wanted to see her, and now go to loads of gigs but wasn't financially able to go to as many gigs in 08 and 11, and was too young in 03 and 04, so this was my first chance to see her and I imagine a lot in my age bracket would have been the same.

 

Almost every other comparable act has appeared at festivals over the years, Glastonbury/Reading/V Fest when it was on/Kendal etc, but despite being around for over 20 years the opportunities to see her have not been plentiful. 

 

Also, not one person we were with had even heard of Janelle Monae apart from me, never mind be willing to see her. and there was only ever one place I was going to be at that slot.

Edited July 23 by efcfanwirral

[efcfanwirral]

4 hours ago, DeanoL said:

I'm with you on most of that, but do young people really give a f**k about Kasabian?

I think the problem is if you put someone on who young people love then you've got a dangerous situation. Kasabian are the level of like Kendal Calling etc headliners, which fits in really with the level of the TBAs in Woodies since The Killers did it and is probably the road they should continue down to avoid any major issues. 

[goldfishboy]

my perception was that the crowds felt a lot better managed than 2023. though i agree that some of the scheduling of acts was a bit silly, and some hotspots could have been foreseen.

 

the worst we experienced was accidentally getting caught up in the sugababes crowd, we tried to walk down the railway line to greenpeace for nabihah iqbal but it was closed off so the stewards redirected us down through the markets and INTO west holts while the sugababes were playing, that seemed a bit crazy. even then, the crowd was moving, albeit rather slowly.

 

but the crowds never felt unsafe this year unlike some of the bottlenecks i got caught up in last year.

[Skip997]

9 minutes ago, goldfishboy said:

my perception was that the crowds felt a lot better managed than 2023.

The crowd management in the SE corner post midnight was terrible IMO

[sedra]

Thinking about the demographics at Glastonbury an appeal of older/newer acts.
•40-65 year olds who have been going to festivals and gigs since the 80’s/90’s onwards  probably like all sorts and both older acts, new stuff so like to go to acts which they liked when they were in their teens/20’s as well as everything since. 
•30-40 year olds will gravitate to stuff from mid 2000’s onwards and stuff their parents  liked 

•20- 30 year old s will want to see stuff from their teens plus current plus what their parents might have brought them up on from 80’s and 90’s etc

•teens will like current stuff plus what they musical tastes they have got from parents and grandparents. 
parents go to gigs with their kids all the time now so there is such a range of genres people /kids like.

i am always surprised how younger people know the words to sing along to “heritage” acts but they prob have just listened to their parents collection or been taken to gigs. 
I have been going to festivals and gigs with my niece since she was 18- I am now 64 and she is 44 but we still like some of the same music - new and old. Neither of us stream music- it’s vinyl, cd’s or download the whole album. She also has her mum’s vinyl collection from the 60’s! 
my point is that some acts will always draw big audiences because of the cross generation effect as well as preferred genres. 
 Anyway - i do think 25,000 less people might be better. Cost is about right though now. So not sure how to reconcile that. 
 

[Leyrulion]

10 hours ago, MilkyJoe said:

The TBC was always going to be rammed for FOMO and people that genuinely hadn't heard it was Kasabian. Feel they may as well just put them on the poster in the first place as the genuinely secret sets seem to be a thing of the past now. 

 

 

I swear people have said that the TBC is there, in part, in case of a headliner drop out. So they've got a pretty big name act they can drop at very short notice into either the pyramid headline slot, or the slots vacated by someone bumped up last minute to headline. 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

On 7/23/2024 at 9:05 PM, Leyrulion said:

 

I swear people have said that the TBC is there, in part, in case of a headliner drop out. So they've got a pretty big name act they can drop at very short notice into either the pyramid headline slot, or the slots vacated by someone bumped up last minute to headline. 

 

Could be true I guess if it was like for like. Didn't do it for the Sunday tho, they just bumped SZA up.

[gooner1990]

On 7/23/2024 at 2:40 PM, muffin said:

I would just add when I say 'younger', I personally am talking about people in terms of generations, not really specific ages.  Glastonbury still has a wonderfully diverse age range, something for everyone.

 

My first festival in 1994 I was 20, my point about a changing of the guard or shift in interest purely means the younger end of the spectrum. Also i'm commenting on their habits at the festival, not really specific musical tastes.

 

But it all changes in waves... For example... Someone who's 30 or even mid 30s may not know that there's fire wood and if you want you can have a campfire.  (Although we know this has pretty much died out.)  

 

I just believe 'part' of the reason for over crowding is a mass mindset of we need to go here or there now as it's the thing to do. Maybe even because of social media and the TV exposure... Strummerville more packed then ever because it was all over instagram.

 

Just my own personal theories... i could be wrong.

 

Noticed a lot with my own friendship group that there always seems to be some chasing round to find secret act this and TBC that, and the next thing and the next thing then a DJ late at night.

 

Don't sit around the camp in the evenings just chilling out at any point anymore!

[Leyrulion]

2 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

 

Could be true I guess if it was like for like. Didn't do it for the Sunday tho, they just bumped SZA up.

That was before the poster announcement so they hadn't said anything publicly. 

[giantkatestacks]

On 7/23/2024 at 3:20 PM, efcfanwirral said:

I think the problem is if you put someone on who young people love then you've got a dangerous situation. Kasabian are the level of like Kendal Calling etc headliners, which fits in really with the level of the TBAs in Woodies since The Killers did it and is probably the road they should continue down to avoid any major issues. 

My 20 year old was in there, tshirt whirling round his head, covered in lager. He wanted that sort of band in that sort of venue.

[efcfanwirral]

3 hours ago, giantkatestacks said:

My 20 year old was in there, tshirt whirling round his head, covered in lager. He wanted that sort of band in that sort of venue.

Honestly, if I hasn't been on shift I would've been in there too. I got tickets for Manchester for November and it'll be amazing