Witness/Oxegen

The Golden Miller

Getting close to the summer now, and it makes you pine for the festival days. Hard to see when they'll be back, but you can't beat the outdoor drinking, stumbling into randomers drunk all weekend. As Witness in Ratoath the line-up's were good but camping restricted with the small size of the village.

When it moved to Punchestown it grew to a phenomenal size. You look at the likes of Glastonbury or T in the Park, and the further down the stages you go, the bands become more obscure. In Oxegen you had the likes of Calvin Harris headlining the 3rd stage. Looking back at the line-ups, they were probably the stongest, year in year out, of any festival in the world.

I'm not really sure what happened it, went broke paying for all the big names I suppose. Don't know why it couldn't have succeeded as a smaller festival instead of becoming a joke dance festival for a year before it went all together. But looking back it put Electric Picnic to shame, best festival I was ever at anyway

The chan chan man

Is there a question?

EmmetSpiceland

The crowd at Witness/Oxegen was decidedly scummier than any of the other “mainstream” festivals.

Collie D

Here come the lawyers...

The Golden Miller

The chan chan man wrote: »

Is there a question?

Does there need to be? Just thinking back that it was a great festival that just disappeared

Bobblehats

Longitude not suit you? Don’t get too drunk at that you might be stumbling into something pointy.

Why it’s not Latitude instead is a bit suspect...

Snotty

Witnness*

StupidLikeAFox

Bobblehats wrote: »

Longitude not suit you? Don’t get too drunk at that you might be stumbling into something pointy.

Why it’s not Latitude instead is a bit suspect...

Latitude is its sister festival in the UK

Bobblehats

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

Latitude is its sister festival in the UK

Hardly its sister line-up though is it

An entire weekender of exclusively rap? Must be mighty popular. Is it nailed on every year now?

The Golden Miller

Bobblehats wrote: »

Hardly its sister line-up though is it

An entire weekender of exclusively rap? Must be mighty popular. Is it nailed on every year now?

Suppose it's hard to get a real festival going these days anyway. No actual new bands coming through anymore. Could count on one hand the bands that have made it that started after 2010

The way it's going, gigs will probably die out anyway, unless they become "rap" festivals, with scutter of the ilk of Post Malone headlining. Sure Slane has resorted to getting old bands in, despite Slane being about showcasing the biggest band of the day. Blur are probably the only band left who haven't played it that might sell it out. No guitar based bands of the last decade could anyway.

Think Damon Albarn and Lord Henry had a row at some point though, so Blur would probably be out too. Something over who would pay for the holograms if Gorillaz played. Can't find anything online though

Bobblehats

Musicians? A dying breed

There’s not much diversity in that Marley park thing but ey if that’s what the kids are led to believe they think they want then

Dick Turnip

The Golden Miller wrote: »

When it moved to Punchestown it grew to a phenomenal size. You look at the likes of Glastonbury or T in the Park, and the further down the stages you go, the bands become more obscure. In Oxegen you had the likes of Calvin Harris headlining the 3rd stage. Looking back at the line-ups, they were probably the stongest, year in year out, of any festival in the world.

You honestly think that Oxegen had the strongest lineup of any festival in the world? They were good in fairness but if memory serves me right, the festival was on the same weekend as Reading/Leeds, so had a lot of the same lineup but was always a few that didn't appear at Oxegen that were playing R/L the same weekend.

The Golden Miller wrote: »

No actual new bands coming through anymore. Could count on one hand the bands that have made it that started after 2010

Welcome to your mid to late 30s

Dick Turnip

Bobblehats wrote: »

Hardly its sister line-up though is it

An entire weekender of exclusively rap? Must be mighty popular. Is it nailed on every year now?

Longitude seems to be a rite of passage for 16 & 17 year olds to get dressed up in "festival style" and get it pissed. It will sell out regardless of lineup it seems.

Was at it once, the time Kraftwerk played. Really nice venue & setup. Have heard the crowd is ridiculously young in recent years though.

melekalikimaka

Bobblehats wrote: »

Hardly its sister line-up though is it

An entire weekender of exclusively rap? Must be mighty popular. Is it nailed on every year now?

Originally it was quite a similar line up. Realistically Latitude is heavily weighed on non music attractions, spoken word/comedy etc.

No real appetite for that here

Bobblehats

Dick Turnip wrote: »

Longitude seems to be a rite of passage for 16 & 17 year olds to get dressed up in "festival style" and get it pissed. It will sell out regardless of lineup it seems.

Was at it once, the time Kraftwerk played. Really nice venue & setup. Have heard the crowd is ridiculously young in recent years though.

Yeh it was decent a few years back. But the fact the festival has morphed into a into a recurring roster specifically tailored for a particular demograph is a cause for concern imo

French Toast

Oxygen 2009's lineup was immense. You'd get jealous looking back at it.

Bobblehats

melekalikimaka wrote: »

Originally it was quite a similar line up. Realistically Latitude is heavily weighed on non music attractions, spoken word/comedy etc.

No real appetite for that here

I’m not saying there’s appetite for Snow Patrol or Mumford & Sons here either but why do they stick us with the dregs? The festval has become three days of rapers

Hodors Appletart

careful now

melekalikimaka

Bobblehats wrote: »

I’m not saying there’s appetite for Snow Patrol or Mumford & Sons here either but why do they stick us with the dregs? The festval has become three days of rapers

Its a market that was under fulfilled by Irelands largest promotor, Sunstroke was close to filling another gap in a similar way until it got cancelled. If anything its progress from decades of jack of all trades festivals

Bobblehats

melekalikimaka wrote: »

Its a market that was under fulfilled by Irelands largest promotor, Sunstroke was close to filling another gap in a similar way until it got cancelled. If anything its progress from decades of jack of all trades festivals

A new and improved Sunstroke. Now incorporating anything from alt to metal; to punk btw not banish Longitude out to the countryside instead I can’t imagine the older crowd are too keen on travelling / camping nowadays? And no matter how loud a racket it’d ultimately be ultimately less of a hedache for the locals.

Dick Turnip

I'd imagine insurance costs for camping festivals are crazy now compared to what they were 10-15 years ago which may explain partially why lineups have decreased in quality as the money is not being pumped into lineups in the last 5 years

Not to forgive the organisers too much.

I know with Body & Soul the quality of lineup seemed to be inversely correlated to the crowd capacity. As the years went on and the capacity increased from 3k to 5k to 10k etc the lineup got worse if anything. A great weekend none the less but you still want a few headliners to feel like your getting your money's worth.

Greyfox

The Golden Miller wrote: »

Getting close to the summer now, and it makes you pine for the festival days.

Na, festivals in Ireland are overratted and overpriced and constant rain is never fun

EmmetSpiceland

Greyfox wrote: »

Na, festivals in Ireland are overratted and overpriced and constant rain is never fun

And that’s before you get anywhere near the toilets.

AndrewJRenko

Dick Turnip wrote: »

I'd imagine insurance costs for camping festivals are crazy now compared to what they were 10-15 years ago which may explain partially why lineups have decreased in quality as the money is not being pumped into lineups in the last 5 years

I'd guess that it's not so much about insurance as it is about the pure hassle associated with overnight camping for the younger generation of concert goers. I'd guess that MCD and friends are more than happy to have a 'day festival' with no camping for this generation. Lots of kids come up to Dublin and stay with relatives, or some will airbnb it - making it someone else's problem.

There's little profit and lots of hassle with the whole camping facility.

Tchaikovsky

Like so many festivals, Oxegen ate itself by filling the line-up with ****e and letting scrotes have the run of the place.

lertsnim

Dick Turnip wrote: »

the festival was on the same weekend as Reading/Leeds, so had a lot of the same lineup but was always a few that didn't appear at Oxegen that were playing R/L the same weekend.

It was T in the Park in Scotland that they shared a lineup with. Reading and Leeds is typically later in the summer

Potential-Monke

I reckon it's because mainstream music is too diluted. There's so many different genres in the charts these days, that it's impossible to have a one themed show because it wouldn't bring in the crowds.

Myself however, I've only been to one outdoor festival and it was Slane back in the early 2000's. Can't remember who was playing, and tbh I only went as the then missus wanted to go and didn't want to go without me (with her group of friends). By the time the main act had come on that night, I was well sick of it. Drunk people falling over the place everywhere, puke and rubbish everywhere, constant strong smell of watered down booze in plastic cups. Just not the scene for me.

Then you have events like the Tidy Weekender is still selling out in a couple of weeks. So maybe it's not the people, it's the music. The mainstream are too broad (and personally full of moaney guitar playing bitches - no females included). I had already resigned to never going to a gig/concert again because crowds, eugh. But then Alestorm decided to announce their UK/Ireland tour in December, and of course Gloryhammer are playing also. The first time in the last 10 years that 2 bands I have actually bothered to go see separately are finally together, and it's making me rethink my decisions...