Reading Festival 2013
Discussion
Changes to Reading Festival in 2013 have been announced today, along with the first handful of acts. Link below:
http://www.readingfestival.com/news
Two new stages. A 3 day Dance Stage (instead of the previous 1 day), and a '1Xtra' stage for fans of Radio 1's "black music sister station". Ignoring the fact that I find the 'black music' station hugely inappropriate, because there would be outcry if Radio 2 ever started to refer to itself as a 'white music' station, I'm actually quite angry about these changes!
I've been to Reading Festival for 8 years in the recent past, despite gradually reducing numbers of decent acts performing, and rapidly increasing numbers of chavs attending with little interest in anything aside from sitting in the campsites behaving like chimps. I didn't go to Reading last year, partly due to the pee-poor lineup, and I know that the festival struggled a lot more with ticket sales than in the previous decade.
But the solution to this ticket-selling issue is not to get better acts. It is to get a larger number of mediocre acts from all genres - increase the 'appeal' to as wide a range of people as possible in order to maximise sales.
The festival used to be referred to by residents of Reading as "Reading Rock". It will never be that again. I know that the organisers will not be in the least bit interested in my lack of attendance this year, as they will instead be selling 'my' ticket to a chimp in a tracksuit, but they have damaged something that I once loved. And I'm angry!
Sell outs.
Know that there have been a lot of attendees at Reading / Leeds from PH in the past - interested in your opinions on the changes. Am I being a big fanny? Well, yes, obviously, but do I also have a point?
http://www.readingfestival.com/news
Two new stages. A 3 day Dance Stage (instead of the previous 1 day), and a '1Xtra' stage for fans of Radio 1's "black music sister station". Ignoring the fact that I find the 'black music' station hugely inappropriate, because there would be outcry if Radio 2 ever started to refer to itself as a 'white music' station, I'm actually quite angry about these changes!
I've been to Reading Festival for 8 years in the recent past, despite gradually reducing numbers of decent acts performing, and rapidly increasing numbers of chavs attending with little interest in anything aside from sitting in the campsites behaving like chimps. I didn't go to Reading last year, partly due to the pee-poor lineup, and I know that the festival struggled a lot more with ticket sales than in the previous decade.
But the solution to this ticket-selling issue is not to get better acts. It is to get a larger number of mediocre acts from all genres - increase the 'appeal' to as wide a range of people as possible in order to maximise sales.
The festival used to be referred to by residents of Reading as "Reading Rock". It will never be that again. I know that the organisers will not be in the least bit interested in my lack of attendance this year, as they will instead be selling 'my' ticket to a chimp in a tracksuit, but they have damaged something that I once loved. And I'm angry!
Sell outs.
Know that there have been a lot of attendees at Reading / Leeds from PH in the past - interested in your opinions on the changes. Am I being a big fanny? Well, yes, obviously, but do I also have a point?
SWAT78 said:
The festival used to be referred to by residents of Reading as "Reading Rock". It will never be that again.
That said, it started out as the Jazz and Blues Festival, so probably all the beardy sandal wearers were saying the same when all those nasty rock bands started taking over.I can't comment, I only went once (in 1983) and only for the Friday night. It seems to me (from TV coverage alone, which is not that diverse) that most festivals seem to have the same acts on - if they're on at V, they're probably on T in the Park as well.
t for years...since people started going so they could look cool rather than to enjoy the music. droopsnoot said:
That said, it started out as the Jazz and Blues Festival, so probably all the beardy sandal wearers were saying the same when all those nasty rock bands started taking over.
Interesting - did not know that! Maybe the organisers just get sick of the same type of fan and tries to change every few decades. My money's on it being a Christian Rock Extravaganza by 2050.Ferg said:
Hanoi Rocks were fantastic. 
Really? Not my recollection, but then not my kind of thing in any case. In all honesty I don't remember what they were like, just that I didn't like them on the day. I thought some of the prog bands (Pallas in particular, Pendragon a little less) were good, Big Country were good, and I was there for the Stranglers headlining that night.Looking back there were quite a few artists I should have grabbed the chance to see - Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath for example. But I couldn't take the thought of being stuck in a field until Sunday night so only did that one day.
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