Glastonbury Meltdown
By the evening of April 6th the impossible had happened. Glastonbury had failed to sell out within the day tickets had been put on sale.
Despite Emily Eavis' claim as co-organizer of the festival to have been 'blown away by selling 100,000 tickets on the first day of sale', almost 2 weeks on a reported 15000 tickets still remain unsold.
Such a trend goes against T In The Park, V Festival and Reading & Leeds festivals all whom had no problems in clearing out their allocations within hours.
As far as the tabloid press goes ,the blame for this 'travesty' lies with one factor, Jay Z.
Rather than going for the more Radio 1 demographic friendly Kanye West, the Eavis' plumped for an even bigger selling more established hip-hop act and seem to have lost out.
What such shameless castigating hides though is the fact that none of Glastonbury 's headline acts are either exclusive to the festival or providing the kind of ticket selling clout that Glastonbury regulars such as Radiohead and Coldplay possess.
More important still though, is the economic slump the UK finds itself in.
With Glastonbury tickets going on sale behind any other major festival, consumers are likely to be thinking twice before they book their tickets of a value of £164 plus expenses.
The introduction of registration to check touts may have reduced the chances of resold tickets but also places a check on spur of the moment buyers.
By the evening of April 6th the impossible had happened. Glastonbury had failed to sell out within the day tickets had been put on sale.Robert Leedham
Add onto these problems the high likelihood of catching trenchfoot from the year on year occurrence of poor weather plus problems with the Pyramid stage speaker system last year and the public are pushed towards enjoying the festival from the comfort of their living room through BBC coverage more comprehensive than Wimbledon.
It is not only has Glastonbury though that has suffered poor sales. Both giants of the summer, Wireless and Download, remain unfilled and the Isle of Skye Music Festival and Forgotten Valley have recently announced their cancellation with organizers blaming the 'current financial climate'.
However, come rain or shine (my money's on rain), by the time gates open on 27th of June Glastonbury will be host to the most diverse line up and crowd the festival has ever had with Emily Eavis expecting an end to 'fair weather friends' and the beginning of a new era in the 38 year history of the festival.
