Harvey Goldsmith thinks Glastonbury has run its course; ‘The festival circuit has peaked’Glastonbury 2

Harvey Goldsmith thinks Glastonbury has run its course; ‘The festival circuit has peaked’

While millennials are busy spending their funds on festival tickets, English performing arts promoter Harvey Goldsmith had a few words to say regarding the halt of the festival circuit’s growth. Even Glastonbury, which he argues is the “pinnacle” of UK music festivals, is doomed as it soon will not be able to book large enough acts to fill its Pyramid Stage.

“[The festival circuit] really peaked about two years ago. There’s too many of them and there are not enough big acts to headline them.”

In an age where there is a surplus of multi-day music affairs and not enough acts along the lines of the Rolling Stones, Muse and the Arctic Monkeys to headline, festivals can only recycle acts so much until they become stale. And fast.

Goldsmith believes that the problem is rooted in the fact that fans have changed the way they listen to music. Music is no longer about the beauty of an album, but the popularity of that one radio-friendly hit. Our attention spans for listening to and analyzing artists’ full bodies of work has dwindled.

“People don’t seem to want to listen to a body of work an album, any more. And most rock bands built a reputation on a body of work – they might take three albums to really hone their art, to become great, but young people don’t want that.” 

With no rising performers stepping up to the plate to become the next Coldplay, there simply aren’t enough big-time acts to go around. Glastonbury, Harvey says, has run its course as it has reached the point where “it can’t find any more big acts.” If his sentiments are any indication of the future of music festivals, then it may be more short-lived than we initially hoped.

Via: Western Daily Press

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