Words by Cecilie Kaasgard
We all know what it’s like. The winter is slowly melting outside, the birds come out, the sun may even be shining.. And all the festivals start to announce their lineups. And every band on the planet seems to suddenly be going on tour over the summer. And you start wondering, hoping, and calculating how much it would actually cost you to go to all these gigs. And realise it’s much more than you paid, last year, and the year before, and the year before…
Everyone knows the record industry is declining. Not the music industry - they just don’t sell cds anymore, and the electronics companies are starting to shut down their productions of CD players. There are no record deals sold anymore - a deal today gives you an album produced to advertise your live shows.
With no money to gain from selling records, the money has to come in through live gigs. This means that the bands demand more money for the shows they play - a difference that has to be paid by us, the fans.
Taking major festivals, let’s say Glastonbury, the prices for a ticket for the whole festival has gone up with nearly 50% in the last five years, from the 2004 ticket price of £112 to the price of 2009, £175. Denmark’s Roskilde Festival have been turning against the current development which had already forced the prices up with nearly 25% in the previous 3 years have decided to lower the ticket price with £10 compared to last year’s price of 1785DKK , putting the price back to 1675 DKK,. Probably an obvious decision following a couple of years of not being sold out after the very rainy 2007. A year where the rumour ran that, “next year they’ll charge us more and spend the money on better toilets in stead of headliners…” Whether that happened or not the ticket prices did go up with an additional £20 for the next year’s festival.
Normal gigs also suffer from higher ticket prices, and I think soon the audiences will start demanding to see some of that money return to us. It’s very small favours we’re after. Heating in the winter would be a good place to start.. Not even happy rockers OK Go! could heat up the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in the snow. And a couple of heating lamps on the walls outside for die hard fans would be appreciated all around.
So, all that’s left to do now is recalculate and once again discover that you just can’t afford to go to all the great gigs and festivals out there. And then comes the hard job of choosing, or selling all your belongings and/or your body…
Posted In Midweek Comment, Feb 10 2010.
Words - Publisher 1