Festival Woe

Sitting here bored out of my brains in the office on a Friday afternoon, after a pint at lunch which has made me extremely lethargic – so thinking about what to write for the blog post is proving very difficult.

We have a gig tomorrow in Adrian’s pub, The Bull, in Bracknell High Street. Not the most glamorous of locations but it will be a good laugh, and we also have the rather brilliant Matt Hegarty on the bill – who is one of our favourite artists on the acoustic scene.

We’re doing this gig due to having a free weekend because a festival we were due to perform at was cancelled a few weeks ago. Matt Hegarty is doing this gig for exactly the same reason – yet it was a completely different festival he was playing at that was cancelled.

So – right there I’ve stumbled across a theme for today’s post. Are you sitting comfortably?

It isn’t rocket science why so many festivals have gone tits up this year. The term ‘current economic situation’ has become the favoured buzz phrase among business analysts the world over in the last 18 months or so, and with that ‘situation’ comes victims – none more so than in the world of the arts, a sector of business hugely under-resourced at the best of times with many a performer and organiser involved just for the love of it.

The festival season is one that is looked forward to by many acts across all genres and styles – both musically and non musically, as a way of showcasing their craft to a bigger, wider audience – and being involved in something that brings people together, hopefully bathed in summer sun. Aside from the big corporate behemoths of Reading, V, The Isle of Wight – or indeed the master of them all on a Somerset farm in mid June (however this is a whole different talking point – mostly a positive one)….the festivals with real atmosphere are those that are a bit smaller, a bit more local, organised by a group of friends or local promoters with a love of live art and a willingness to share it with the community.

Unfortunately, it is these events that have suffered this year. The type of events that, we as a band performing in more of a semi professional environment look to play. Whether it’s due to the promoter not being able to afford the land due to rising prices, not being able to promote it due to rising costs – or more often than not, getting as far as advertising a fully booked event, only for the punters to keep their money on their pockets this year – because everything is that little bit tighter than last year.

The big corporate events obviously don’t have this problem – as they have the money to throw at the world’s top acts, and the money to advertise this in every single possible way – which then gets the people in. People are happy to pay if they have a guarantee of a good time, which these events can offer. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a major issue with these events – as a punter I have a ticket to one of them this year. It’s just a shame though, that for the smaller events – the events where the term ‘festival’ means so much more, are falling down left, right and centre this year, sometimes just a week or two before the thing is supposed to take place.
I’m sure no-one in the government is going to take a blind bit of notice to these goings on and offer some kind of grant. The Arts Council is over-stretched anyway but at least some events get their backing so not all doom and gloom. I suppose it boils down to the fact that these events are great if they can be justified – but in the ‘current economic situation’, they obviously can’t