Big-name acts are cancelling shows, and the major summer festivals have sold far fewer tickets than they had this time last year. It's going to be a grim few months for music promoters, writes JIM CARROLL
BARELY A day goes by without a few calls, emails or texts about an under-performing show, somewhere in Ireland. “You thought last year was bad?”, one veteran observer of the Irish live scene told me last week. “This summer is going to be a horror show.” I don’t think he was talking about the weather.
In the past two weeks, we’ve seen Ry Cooder cancel one of his three shows at the Olympia. No reason was given, but I’m sure people can read between the lines given the price of the tickets. We’ve seen Kasabian yank their show in a 5,000 capacity tent in Cork. In this case, the reason cited was “promotional commitments” (as in they need to do some more promotion to get ticket sales into four figures). And we’ve seen freebies in circulation for The Breeders in Vicar Street and Chairlift in The Academy.
Oxegen’s innovative ticket deposit scheme has now been extended to June 19th, and tickets will almost certainly be selling for the Punchestown event and for the Electric Picnic right up to the time the gates open. As things stand, both festivals have sold considerably fewer tickets than they had this time last year.
And the promoters had better draft in some pretty special support acts to shift those Coldplay tickets (yes, they’re playing the Phoenix Park in September, a gig everyone seems to have forgotten about).
Add in earlier cancellations (this may be the year that Ireland finally says “no thanks” to contributing to The Eagles’ pension fund) and it’s tough out there at the moment for live-music bandits.
The days of just putting a show on sale and getting an instant sell-out are over. Ticketmaster sources and tallies will likely show that May’s sales volumes are very low, as people take stock of their incomings and outgoings and decide to pass on buying a concert ticket.
It will be interesting to see which festivals manage to buck this trend. Perhaps a well-regarded and burgeoning indie boutique fest such as Castle Palooza (Charleville Castle, Co Offaly, August holiday weekend) will benefit from its policy of astute bookings and smart cost management?
It will be telling to gauge how dance events such as Life (Ballinlough Castle, Co Meath this weekend), Planetlove (Fairyhouse Racecourse, Co Meath, June 6th) and Live in the Park (Newcastle, Co Down, June 19th) perform in the current climate. In years past, there has always been a market for these events, but will the credit crunch keep some of that audience at home?
Yes, some shows are selling. Extra gigs were put on sale for both Dan Deacon and Wilco in Dublin, but they’re smaller shows.
There are definitely fewer outdoor shows scheduled for summer 2009 and that’s not just because the 02 is taking up the slack. For instance, look at the Marlay Park line-up. Last year, Muse, Lenny Kravitz, The Killers, Metallica and Lovebox played in the south Dublin park. This year, you’ve Metallica (yet again) and Fatboy Slim (someone obviously thinks we’re back in 1996). Promoters have become careful and, unless there is a sponsor to underwrite the event, they’re hanging back.
What we’re probably seeing, to borrow a phrase from those much-maligned estate agents, is a correction in the market. Will we see promoters reducing prices?
This is an edited version of a post by Jim Carroll on his blog last week. See the full version, read more comments, or add your own on www.irishtimes.com/blogs/ontherecord
"Irish acts are the new Lidl": what you said on the blog last week
Indiependence is charging for tickets for the first time this year too – wonder how that will do. – unarocks
Apparently Marlay Park is booked for 10 nights this year so a possible 8 more shows to be announced. – cd
If Oxegen and EP can pull through this year in the black, the result of less artists playing big outdoor shows (such as Malahide and Croke Park etc) could be healthier festival line-ups next year.
I would not be surprised to see alot more "stadium" bands playing Oxegen next year, such as Coldplay, who simply cannot fill the big venues without the aid of a festival line-up. – Gary M
70 euros for fatboy slim, a has-been who has being playing the same records for years, I saw him for about €20 in the red box when he was a big draw, it might be time for promoters to rethink how much they bid for acts but we as the consumer will not see the results of this until the end of the year at the earliest as most contracts were negotiated last year before we all copped we were skint. – spacey
The Castlepalooza line-up is 99% Irish. Irish acts are the new Lidl. – Yao Minger
One trend that has promoters at their wits’ end is the countless people who wait until the week of the event to buy their tickets. I’ve no doubt there’ll be a flood of Oxegen and EP ticket sales the week of the event. – JC
Life have came up with a reservation system where you can book tickets but do not have to pay for them until the day of the event, this is surely an idea to try to predict cashflow/ attendance which might keep their bankers happy . – spacey
The most spectacular fall-off seems to have occurred in the dinosaur rock genre. I honestly never thought the day would come when middle-class folk ran out of money to attend biannual Eagles concerts, but I supposed that's how it is in today's recession-tastic Ireland! – Dave
Maybe, beyond the recession, one of the reasons for poor ticket sales is the fact that there hasn't been a half-decent release by any band in the Q/NME bracket (for want of a better pigeonhole), in over a year. Oxegen, for a start, seems to be getting saved largely by the massive radio play for The Killers' and Kings of Leon's worst albums. – dealga
