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Business News Live Business
War of words over UK rock fests following new arrival
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 10 February 2009
Now, this is what we want, festival promoters dissing each other’s events. Yes, more of that please.
Former Live Nation UK boss Stuart Galbraith has been comparing his latest festival venture, the Europe-wide touring festival SONISPSHERE, which he announced yesterday, with Download, the heavier rock festival he headed up while with his former employer.
He told Billboard: “Certainly in my latter-day period at Live Nation, I was dealing with increasing numbers of complaints from fans that the [Download] band quality was diminishing and that the scheduling of the festival meant that they couldn’t get to see half of what they wanted to see”.
“I think the market [will decide between Download and SONISPHERE] and the fans will vote with their feet. I have to say, I think Download last year had a few things that were not done as well as they should have been – both the layout and the booking policy I thought were bad”.
Billboard quickly ran to Live Nation UK’s current COO and Festival Director John Probyn for a quick response to Galbraith’s comments. And he duly dissed his new rival’s choice of headliners, Metallica.
He told the trade mag: “There’s only one group of people we pay attention to and that’s the fans. They tell us [via our online forum that] they love the number of bands [that appear at Download], they feel that they get value for money, it’s not just about the big headliners it’s about finding new bands. Download is here to stay”.
“Metallica have played Download four times I think. If you look on the forum, people are saying ‘Metallica, so what? Seen it before’. They toured the year before last, they were out last year, they’re out again this year”.
Asked about having a new rival in the UK festival market, Probyn continued: “I don’t really care. Last year we were up against Reading and Leeds [festivals] who had a very similar line-up to what we’d normally have, and we still did our numbers and we’re happy. This year if we’ve got something else to compete with, then fine”.
Brilliant. Tomorrow we’re hoping for Michael Eavis v Rob da Bank.
