Splashing out: T in the Park is in rude health despite its own share of mud. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA
IT WOULD take a brave or foolish man to predict the death of live music festivals but, if Glastonbury's currently unsold tickets are anything to go by, then it would take a lion-hearted numbskull to launch a new greenfield festival right now. In recent years, tickets for the venerable Somerset bash have sold out within hours. This year, tickets for the festival were still available a week after the phone lines went live.
Several reasons for this year's less than perky sales figures have been mooted. Predictions of another soggy summer probably won't have helped, while some commentators have pointed the finger at tightening purse strings caused by the credit crunch. Noel 'Guess My Age' Gallagher has weighed in to the debate by blaming the inclusion of rapper Jay-Z in the line-up. "I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury," noted the stodgy Manc sage. "It's wrong."
However fat-headed Gallagher's comments are (Glasto will almost certainly sell out, with or without Jay-Z), there is some evidence that the festival fever of the last five years has peaked and that the public's appetite for sitting in a field doesn't stretch to every weekend of the summer. In Scotland, the recent boom in music festivals was fed by T in the Park's massive success. As the event began to sell out earlier and earlier, other festivals opened shop to mop up the fans who couldn't get T in the P tickets. This took place against a wider trend of outdoor festivals becoming more polished, more user-friendly and even family-oriented. That once growing appeal is now showing some signs of contracting.
Having swiftly sold out again, T in the Park is still very much in rude health (although the news last week that LiveNation have bought over the festival from DF Concerts has raised some concerns over the future of the event's bespoke Scottish identity), while Connect, Belladrum, Rockness, Wickerman, Retrofest and Loopallu festivals have all set their stalls out for 2008. However, there has been a thinning of the pack. Last week, the Skye Music Festival went into the hands of administrators with a reported shortfall of half a million pounds. The Outsider Festival, which launched in Rothiemurchus last summer, is not taking place this year, although it plans to return in 2009. Organisers of the Indian Summer Festival, which ran in Glasgow's Bellahouston Park for the last two years, were keeping tight-lipped about its future last week. Whether Indian Summer takes place or not, it would not be a huge shock if, by the end of the year, there were further casualties. Mixing music and economic theory might not be very rock'n'roll but the plain fact is that last year there was more music festival supply than demand and the consequences are being felt now.
Back in the cities, Scotland's indoor music festivals are changing fast. The T on the Fringe concerts, which ran as part of the Edinburgh Festivals, have been axed and details of their replacement, called The Edge, have yet to be announced. What is certain is that the big outdoor stadium acts of previous years won't be part of the line-up come August. More imminently, next weekend sees the Triptych festival wheeze its last. When it launched eight years ago, the Tennent's-sponsored gigs could make a legitimate claim to be on the cutting edge of left-field music from around the globe. It is much harder to substantiate that with this year's line-up.
In its place, Tennent's has launched The Tennent's Mutual, a new, many would say brave, venture in which the public get to call the shots. Having signed up to the Mutual website, members can then vote on everything from which bands they want to see play to the venue they should perform in and even how much the tickets should cost. The beer company are putting up £150,000 and a lot of faith in the public.
It is a risky proposition. The Tennent's Mutual is envisioned to be a non-profit-making organisation, one goal which won't be hard to achieve. If the internet has taught the music industry one thing, it is that fans want to pay precisely sod all to download music, and artists might not be pleased to see that concept transferred to live performance.
It will be fascinating to see how this democratic wishlist works out. In an ideal world, this radical experiment could create the perfect festival, with bands and venues chosen by music fans for music fans. It could also go horribly wrong should the public decide that what they really want is to see a double bill of Radiohead and Elton John gigging in their living rooms for free with the door and security staff provided by young ladies from Hooters.
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www.thewickermanfestival.co.ukThe full article contains 849 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
