An eternal sigh filtered through music forums today as it was announced that there would be no sideshows to accompany this years Parklife line-up. Death From Above 1979 fans nationwide now have to bump and orally grind with the rest of the shirtless gimps on the green to see their one record heroes.
It appears with the current market saturation, festivals are literally clutching at straws to get punters to their events. Basically, they’re being greedy little bitches and not letting you have any of the international goodness for anything under $150. Splendour in the Grass are also familar with the ‘greedy bitch’ approach after they exercised the same deal with Coldplay and Kanye. Good Vibes started the trend back in February when they held Phoenix to a festival-only agreement.
If this is what it’s coming to then I believe the death rattle of the festival craze must be upon us. Plenty of international artists are touring in Oz because in layman's terms, our dollar gets you paper right now, so bands don’t really need festivals to get paid no mo’. With Soundwave Revolution collapsing only weeks before it was due to commence, the future of Australian festivals are on shaky grounds. My advice would be not to isolate your audience by forcing them to participate just for their money. Find the spirit of the festival again, much like Homebake. In this case it’s not better to burn out than to fade away in my opinion.
I'm sure those bands management teams, record labels, publishers, booking agents, tour managers and the bands themselves really give a fuck that you have to spend money on a festival to see them play.
ReplyDeleteIf there is any comfort here it's that Death From Above 1979 aren't exactly a huge musical entity with a series of chart topping singles under their belt. I can guarantee you that your standard shirtless, sweating, behemoth of a man won't even know who they are.
The perspective of this post was from the consumer, the DFA1979 fan, not from the eyes of the music machine.
ReplyDeleteThe average Parklife drone might not know who the band are but if a genuine fan wants to see DFA play, they have to attend the whole festival in question, that was more the point.