Even though our tickets probably be twice the price
Excellent thread, OP.
I concur, a most excellent attempt at threading.
Greed
Logistics
Insurance
Weather too.
A vicious circle of money … gouging …..
we will always be gouged ..
Give us more details man!
do other festivals in Europe allow a collection of bores to spout bollocks like electric picnic minefield area 🤮 etc
David McWilliams fee is higher than kylie’s
what ??!
it’s called sarcasm
…….
neither of the two major camping festivals in ireland are in that fertile May/June/July window. So the international acts around then are playing headline indoor or outdoor shows instead. See craziness of MCD June schedule.
There are extra costs for festival promoters due to the fact it’s in ireland. Equipment etc needs to be shipped here by sea/plane.
Bands need higher fees to come here to justify extra costs of travelling here.
Festivals then have to become more picky about those acts to book as same budget as as uk festival goes less.
We are a country a 13 x smaller than uk so a festival theme that works in the UK doesn’t necessarily have a sustainable festival audience here I.E a download festival.
Honestly none of the uk or europe festival line ups for 2025 are jumping out yet as great tbh.
Also no point comparing a primavera line up or a rock werchter line up to likes of EP. One has no camping whereas rock werchter has 3 stages.
That forestfest looks great though
The most negative covid experience in my life was the cancellation of sunstroke. Some absolutely savage bands that have since split or died
for a indie nostalgia festival it seems to be a dead on line up.
Absolutley !!
Im convinced that a "Sunstroke" type day event would sell very well … RDS or Dalymount (?) or even Tallaght Stadium ….
Rock music has a very strong following right through all the age groups!
Have more or less given up with regards to Irish festivals, ATN is probably the only hope going forward but feel quality has been a mixed bag. FF looked decent last year too also so that is another.
Have been going to festivals in Europe instead the past few years, UK in particular, Longitude and EP both used to have decent lineups but booking policy has changed substantially for the worse.
It's not just Ireland however, it needs to be studied how Primavera went from during the last time I went ( 2023 headliners: Blur, New Order, Depeche Mode, Kendrick Lamar, Skrillex/Four Tet/Fred Again, Pet Show Boys) to now (Chapel Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Central Cee, Charlie XCX), however at least has I suppose 1 decent headliner and decent ones throughout the 2nd and 3rd tiers, I know apparently it didn't sell amazingly in 2023 but still, Sonar the week after there looks much more interesting in recent years.
Is that what it is
re primavera like any festival is dependent on who is touring. In 2023 a lot of legacy indie/pop acts who fitted classic primavera audience profile were around and available and as you said it wasn’t a sell out. This year it seems to have corrected that with its more current pop leaning headliners. Still incredible quality in the midcard
ah yeah it’s a indie nostalgia festival aimed for late thirties/40 year plus audience. doing the job well this year
The Irish festivals need to link up with a UK or European festival. Oxygen used to link up with Leeds if I remember correctly, The person who headlined Oxygen on the Friday would headline Leeds on Saturday etc. It's the best way to get the best acts.
Also were a very small island off Europe It costs a fortune to host a gig here and then it pisses down with rain or it has to be canceled due to high winds.
electric picnic has the same bookers as reading/Leeds and it’s does combo deals for acts to play all three every year. artists/agents work with different promoters in different markets so it’s never easy
I think you mean T in the Park in Scotland (now TRNSMT) it was who would link up with Oxegen with similar line ups over corresponding days.
And most importantly
Any reviews that are poor or dissing by festival goers will be suppressed ignored by RTE radio ( Brendan O'Connor is too worried about getting sued )and what remains of the Irish print media, Now more than ever.
the accounts of Electric picnic , all together now/forbidden fruit are all public. None of them are making off like bandits. Last profits for EP were €1.5m, on revenue in the €20-30m range. It also lost millions in its first decade of existence
I'd say our festivals are better, or at least just as good, as most festivals in Europe, overall.
Take Spain, for every Primavera or Mad Cool, you have several fairly bog standard, 2/3 stage "festivals", in a country with 10 times the population of Ireland (and weather that makes things logistically a lot easier).
Go to many central European countries and they have maybe one festival thats akin to EP, a few that are similar to ATN or BTP (with worse lineups IMO), and lots of smaller things that aren't worth talking about really. Austria and Czech have double the populations of Ireland, yet I don't think their festivals are twice as good. Poland has 7 times the population of Ireland, and this is their biggest/best festival, I'd argue that EP is much better:
All the northern/western Europe festivals significantly benefit from easy public transport options too, so a festival in southern Germany or France or Belgium doesn't just have a potential audience in their country, they can easily attract attendees from other countries who can hop on a train and be there in a few hours.
yeah, Spain/Portugal have the non camping day festivals like madcool, Bilboa etc which do grab great acts but not a festival experience. you have rock werchter which is camping but only 3 stages so lineup is top heavy. pukkelpop/lowlands have great line ups usually but atmosphere is sometimes dead. Limited number of stages/tents in comparison to ATN/EP. the Scandinavia august day festival of OYA/Flow are probably the ones I’d recommend. Excellent line up curation in great cities.
I wouldn't be so certain it's dependable. While it has a following it doesn't translate to ticket sales.
Widely regarded rock headliners consistently fail to come close to selling out an arena here or even be put in there in the first place.
If Judas Priest, BMTH or A7x aren't doing the numbers well it makes no sense for instance why a Parkway Drive, Blind Guardian or Ghost topped event would have a (Satan) prayer of shifting >20k tickets.
and bands expect a 20% surcharge for playing a festival over a headline show.
I think the torrential rain in July 2023 killed alot of the momentum for festivals especially amongst the middle aged, I think forest fest in Laois was a wash out with people unable to get in and out of car parks with muck, another one outside naas was also a wash out and is now gone bust.
The Rory Gallagher festival in Donegal is very successful and has a fan base that comes from all over the world every year. However it is not as weather dependent as it is based on the infrastructure of the town and pubs and outdoor stages, not setting up everything from scratch in the middle of a field. I think that set up saves on costs and is cheaper and easier to do and benefits alot more people
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