Noisey article – The Majors Vs The Independents.
An interesting article in Noisey/Vice about the changes in festival culture. Are the independents the ones keeping it real? Has Reading and Leeds Festival forgotten what it means to choose creative and exciting acts?
“With the exception of Glastonbury and the slick move of booking OutKast at Bestival, nobody seems to get truly excited about the Great British music festival any more. Reading and Leeds are not the problem; they’re merely a reminder that music weekenders here are now only synonymous with £8 hog roasts in a field and a line-up that looks like it was chosen by a PTA.
At this point I know there are bound to be a few ready to explode in defence of the UK’s smaller festivals. Don’t sweat it, because Boomtown, Field Day, Secret Garden Party, I got you. You keep doing what you’re doing. You’re saving those who want something a bit niche from drowning with the Titanic of the Reading main stage, and as long as these festivals are in the hands of the fanatics willing to bankrupt themselves, British music culture still has a chance of redeeming itself. These are the sort of places you can go, safe in the knowledge that you’ll see the best performances of the year, even though you’re standing in a crowd of 50.”