Oxegen and the Picnic are blighted by out-of-bounds areas open only to wearers of the right coloured wristbands. But a new festival run by Irish promoter Vince Power is dispensing with commercialism and VIP areas. Access-all-areas festivals are the future, he tells Brian Boyd.
OVER the next few months, there will be about 400 music-based festivals held across Ireland and Britain. These range in size from the tiny to cultural institutions such as Glastonbury. But at all the larger festivals, the song remains the same for the punter: you get up early on the day tickets go on sale with a mouse in one hand and a phone in the other in an attempt to be one of the chosen few allowed (a pricey) admission. On festival day, you're guilt-tripped to death for daring to use your car to get to the middle of nowhere. You queue for tickets, queue to enter the site and queue all weekend for a dubious array of "facilities".
You've paid full whack for your tickets but wherever you venture, there are roped-off VIP areas. As you mooch around, you are bombarded by a blitzkrieg of advertising. Mobile-phone companies, beer companies, banks and building societies overload your already-frazzled senses with frantic sales pitches. All in all, you're just another brick in the festival season wall.
For legendary music promoter Vince Power, music festivals are downright negligent towards paying punters and are now more interested in branding every available space and setting up an interminable amount of VIP and VVIP areas.
"It's the prawn-sandwich brigade, isn't it," laughs the affable 61-year-old Waterford man, who used to head the all-powerful Mean Fiddler music group (which ran Glastonbury, Leeds and Reading as well as many big-name music venues in and around London). "We asked a bunch of 18- to 25-year-olds for their opinions on how music festivals were run. We found that most of the people were really pissed off about how, after buying a ticket, they were made to feel not good enough. Their wristband couldn't get them in to this area or that area and there was far too much branding around."
Power makes a return to the UK festival circuit next month with the launch of his A Day at the Hop Farm event, which boasts that it will be "totally unbranded without any sponsorship, ticket registration or VIP areas". Basically, it will offer festival-goers the same experience as everyone else who has bought a ticket.
"I've been watching the festival market for the last couple of years, and I feel that the punters - who should be at the core of the festival - are getting more and more frustrated with the experience," he says. "At some of these festivals, the person who has actually paid for a ticket ends up feeling the lowest in the pecking order. It's now time to get back to basics and return the festival to the punters. And remember, because of all the changes in the music industry, bands are relying more and more on live performances than they did before. I really believe this new festival could be the start of a major change in how festivals will be run."
Taking place on a real hop farm in Kent, the July 6th festival is headlined by Neil Young and also features Primal Scream, Supergrass and Rufus Wainwright. The day before at the same venue, Power is organising The Mighty Boosh Festival, featuring The Mighty Boosh (obviously), Jarvis Cocker, The Charlatans and Gary Numan.
It is Power's first UK festival since he sold his Mean Fiddler group to Live Nation three years ago. The deal netted Power a reported £13 million and prevented him from being involved in the UK music festivals for three years. Many people were surprised by Power selling to such a huge conglomerate as Live Nation, not least because old rival MCD boss Denis Desmond was also involved in the purchase - due to the strong links between the Live Nation and MCD.
Previously, and after establishing himself as a major player in the UK scene, Power had tried to compete with MCD in Ireland. He opened the Mean Fiddler venue (now The Village) in Dublin's Wexford Street and also ran the Fleadh Mór in Tramore in 1993 which, despite having a line-up that included Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Ray Charles, was a financial disaster. "That is one of my big regrets - and one of my biggest mistakes," he says.
He found taking on MCD in Ireland tough going, and The Mean Fiddler venue closed a number of years ago. "I just couldn't get the acts," he says. Of his relationship with Denis Desmond, he adds: "We are two rivals, two Irishman rivals. In business, we competed fiercely but our personal relationship was always good. We could always sit down for a drink together."
Power, from Kilmacthomas in Co Waterford, moved to London at an early age and, after a series of building-site jobs, built up a second-hand furniture business. His first love though was music - specifically country music. In 1982, he opened the original Mean Fiddler venue in Harlesden, north London. The venue was popular with Irish acts and audiences and also hosted shows by Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. From there, Power bought up a series of other music venues in London and began looking after the Reading Festival, which he transformed into one of the most sought-after festivals on the circuit. He also staged the annual London Fleadh.
As to why he sold his company to Live Nation/MCD, he simply says: "I thought it was the right time to cash in my chips. Do I regret it? I don't really care. It's a bit like being in love with a woman: when it's over, it's over."
During his time with the Mean Fiddler group, he was invited by Michael Eavis to help run Glastonbury, and Power notes how, and why, this year's festival has not sold out.
"It's not to do with the line-up; Glastonbury is an event in itself. I think it's all to do with the problems and hassle with pre-registration. I'm totally against ticket registration and always resisted it when I was involved with Glastonbury. The way it is now is that you have to pre-register and then you have to wait to see if you're one of the lucky few to get a ticket.
"It's nonsense and I think it is in danger of killing the spirit of the festival. I really think it should be first-come, first-served. And as for trying to prevent secondary selling of the ticket, I'm actually not against that. If you're stupid enough to pay what a tout is asking for a ticket, then that's your concern."
The three-year exclusion did not prevent Power from running music festivals abroad and he has been busy building the fantastic Benicassim festival which is held near Valencia in Spain each July. He has also been looking into running festivals in the new EU countries. "I think that's a real growth area; I'm looking at Lithuania and other countries. The festival market is at saturation point in Ireland, the UK, Spain and Germany. It's time for new territories."
Power believes that savvy Irish and UK festival-goers, irritated by how commercialised their home festivals have become, are now increasingly availing of budget flights and going to the likes of Benicassim instead. "The tickets are much cheaper abroad and you get to camp and sleep on a beach in beautiful weather instead of running the risk of getting trench foot," he says.
With the way the festival market is still growing, Power believes that very soon the bands themselves will begin to organise their own festivals. "I'm surprised Radiohead haven't done just that already." As for his return to the Irish circuit, Power says he "would absolutely love to do something festival-wise" in Ireland next year.
In the immediate future, he has one pressing ambition: "One of the biggest buzzes I've got over the years is getting bands to reform to play one of my festivals. I did it with Madness and I did it with The Sex Pistols. I would really love to do it with The Jam . . ."
On The Record
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See also www.hopfarmfestival.com
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