Glastonbury tickets went on sale at 9am last Sunday, but for the first time in five years I wasn’t sitting in front of my computer repeatedly pressing F5 in the hopes of being able to get one. Looks like I’m not the only regular who decided not to go; as of right now, tickets are still available for sale- check the website- where as previous years sold out as soon as the ticketing system could physically manage it. Notoriously in 2004 the website crashed under the weight of 2 million simultaneous hits and it was 24 hours before demand was satisfied. In 2005 things were greatly improved and the festival took two hours to sell out. But now, so few tickets have been sold that they’ve re-opened the registration process so that those who weren’t planning to buy a ticket can do so. Michael Eavis is putting a positive spin on things:
“We’ve had a lot of enquiries from people asking if they can register, especially now they realise it’s still possible to buy tickets,” Michael Eavis said today. “This will give them the chance to see the best line-up of any festival this summer.”
Not since the ‘rebirth’ of the festival in 2002 has festival taken longer than a day to sell out. As part of the ‘rebirth’ festival organisers added extra security, including a new perimeter fence to prevent a repeat of the dangerous levels of overcrowding in 2000 when more people jumped the fence than paid for tickets. The 2002 festival was a huge success and proved that Glastonbury could be organised properly without losing it’s old anarchic spirit. 2003 was the first year I went, after having heard the virtues of the festival from friends who went the previous year, and it ranks amongst the best weekends of my life. I sat my final A-level exam with some friends on the Thursday morning with piles of backpacks at the back of the exam hall containing tents, alcohol and illegal substances, and then left for the glorious anarchy of the festival. The sunshine was glorious with 30C+ temperatures every day, and the line up was immense (see the pyramid stage and other stage line ups) with spectacular headline performances from Radiohead, REM and (surprisingly) Moby. But much of the fun of the festival is the sense of freedom you have just wandering aimlessly round this huge area of the Somerset countryside, not knowing what sensory assault will be around the next corner.
I went back in 2004 and 2005, and although these festivals didn’t quite match up to the first it was still an amazing experience. So why not this year? Well, after the festival had a year off in 2006, the return in 2007 was a little disappointing. There were two main reasons for this. Firstly the weather was appalling, taking things way beyond acceptable levels of discomfort. Secondly the atmosphere was markedly different from previous years, probably in part due to the weather but also, I think, a consequence of ticket numbers being increased to 177,000 without any apparent increase in the infrastructure to cope with the added numbers. This might seem like a minor point, but if moving around the festival is like trying to negotiate Oxford Street on Christmas Eve, it doesn’t do much for the spirit of the festival. Leaving the site on the Monday was also a nightmare- I failed to get to Bristol in time to make my 6pm Megabus, but people coming by car were in a much worse situation. Quite simply, we’re returning to the bad old days of 2000, when an estimated 250,000 people made the festival unmanageable, and the idealistic image of relaxing in the green English countryside no longer bares much resemblance to the reality.
There were a few other niggles- the new Pyramid stage sound system was not up to the job, and the line-up wasn’t amazing. But it looks like this year’s line-up will be much worse; headliners are Kings of Leon, Jay-Z and the Verve. Kings of Leon just aren’t big enough to be headlining, and the Verve should have been laid to rest a long time ago. But it’s Jay-Z who has caused the most controversy. The problem is not so much that he’s a hip hop artist- De La Soul and the Streets have both played the festival in recent years, for example- but that as an American gangsta rapper his philosophy is completely different to what the festival is supposed to be about.
Hip-hop emerged representing the harsh reality of life in the urban centres of America, but what gangsta rap does is celebrate the exploitation of others in the race to escape the ghetto. Because this philosophy corresponds closely with capitalism as it exists today gangsta rap has gained cultural hegemony within the hip-hop industry. There’s no doubt that pioneers like NWA made great records, not least because they genuinely frightened the white establishment. But even giving credence to gangsta rap as an art form, it’s clear that now that it dominates the industry it’s become safe and commodified and is supported by the music industry precisely because it is no longer a threat to the industry, or anything else. Furthermore, other forms of hip-hop have suffered as a result of the hegemony, and hip-hop record sales as a percentage of overall sales are falling drastically.
As the Glastonbury Festival was founded in the late sixties hippie ideals of sustainable living and peaceful co-existence, having an artist such as Jay-Z headline was always going to be controversial. But it would still be controversial if he was headlining any other festival in the UK. Gangsta rap does not go over well in the UK (and most other parts of Europe) due to cultural differences and differing socio-political attitudes. Take a look at the reception 50 Cent got when he performed at the Reading Festival in 2004:
50 Cent lasted for 20 minutes, before someone threw a camping chair at him and he stormed off the stage. Reading doesn’t have the same peace and love reputation as Glastonbury, and I doubt we’ll see a repeat of this for Jay-Z’s performance. However rumours are circulating that Jay-Z is thinking of pulling out, although this is denied by the festival organisers. efestivals has some speculation on why this might be.
eFestivals has received several rumours about this over the last week, but they were so vague that we couldn’t take anything solid from them. However, today’s Sun (here) seems to back up those rumours.
The Sun says that Jay-Z has been annoyed by being used by the Festival to appeal to a younger and more urban crowd, as well as angered by suggestions his signing caused fewer ticket registrations than last year, and the reaction to the announcement of his appearance on some festival message boards.
That might be the story that’s being put out for why he’s canceled (if he has - remember, it’s not yet confirmed!), but there’s another angle to this. Last week Jay-Z signed a mega-deal thought to be worth $150M with promoters Live Nation where they get a cut of everything he does for the next ten years and he gets to stuff a whole heap of dollars in his pockets right now.
It seems very possible that Live Nation have demanded that Jay-Z honour the deal from now, and that they see Jay-Z playing Glastonbury on the cheap as not good for their deal. Glastonbury tends to pay its major acts far less than other festivals as around £2M of the money the Festival takes is given to good causes including Water Aid, Oxfam, Greenpeace, and more.
Rumour is that Jay-Z will instead play London’s 02 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park on Thursday 3rd July instead - which just so happens to be promoted by his new best friends at Live Nation. Now that’s a coincidence, eh?
If Jay-Z has pulled out of the Festival, it’s nothing to do with tickets not having sold out when they went on sale yesterday. The information we’ve received very strongly indicates that, if true, the decision to pull out was made in the middle of last week- at a time that coincidentally matches when he signed the deal with Live Nation.
So it’s about money, then, not how popular he is with festival goers. I suspect both are factors; maybe someone sent him a link to the footage of 50 Cent getting bottled off stage. I won’t be around during August, but if I were I think Reading or Leeds (headliners: Rage Against the Machine, The Killers, Metallica) would be a good bet for a weekend of quality music. Both, by the way, sold out in 24 hours.
Glastonbury has got a lot of catching up to do to reclaim its place as the UK’s best festival. I hope they manage it.
