Y-Not, and Truck festival boss slams band exclusivity deals

In an exclusive interview with eFestivals (here), Ralph Broadbent the founder of Y-Not Festival, and the new owner of Truck festival reveals that he feels the biggest threat to small festivals is the exclusivity deals made by the major festivals in this country.

The festival organiser reveals that booking up and coming acts for his events has become an "absolute nightmare" because of exclusivity deals. He tells eFestivals, " I think that is probably the biggest threat to small festivals. It's not just the big headliners that are getting sewn up, it's right down through the bill. Whenever we try and book any small artist more often than not they're already under exclusives, normally with the bigger festivals."

Broadbent, who at the beginning of the year announced he had taken over the management of the long running Truck Festival in Steventon, blames the fact large festivals are trying to control access to new music stars.

He adds, "Because we're all about new fresh music this makes big problems for us. New music has really exploded in the last few years. Now the major festivals really want to get involved in that, so they put in exclusive contracts.

"I think that ultimately what they want to do is make anyone that wants to see any of the popular new music acts have to go to the big festivals. This makes things very tricky for us, as we don't have the budgets to compete with them."

It's not just the smaller festivals that are suffering, Broadbent thinks that this policy is also having an effect on the music industry, and stopping bands from developing into major live acts. He feels that bands under contract do not play as much to live festival audiences, where both the bands and their fans can develop. This has created a ceiling for how far bands can go in this country.

He explains, "I think it definitely prevents fans from seeing the acts they love. I think that's also why we don't see any new massive artists nowadays that you used to. I can't imagine a new Oasis emerging now because artists are only allowed to get so big before the amount of live performances they do at festivals are choked a little bit. I mean anyone who does Reading or Leeds can find themselves only doing those in that year. To me, I can't see any massive acts being able to develop, you get to a certain level now and that's the ceiling. That ceiling has been built by this cloak of exclusivities for large performances.

You can read the article in full (here).

Y-Not festival, now in its seventh year, takes place from Friday 3rd until Sunday 5th August 2012 near Matlock in Derbyshire, and has a capacity of 5,000 people, and aside from the music on two stages, there is a whole host of activities including yoga, African dancing, a pub quiz, dodgems and much more!

The festival attempts to have an intimate nature, with many of the bands camping with festival goers, and friendly stewards. Late night entertainment includes a dance tent, or camp fire singalongs and there will be real ales and local ciders available.

Early bird tickets sold out in the first 90 minutes. Tickets are now priced at £75 for a weekend adult ticket. To buy tickets, click here.

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