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Godiva Festival - the two quid ticket controversy.

Started by Icehaven, May 21, 2019, 10:23:51 AM

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Icehaven

Coventry's Godiva festival, long billed as the biggest free music festival in the country, has this year introduced tickets at a nominal charge of £2 per person per day (it's 3 days and there's no camping or anything). The reasons given have been health and safety and reducing the cost of staging the event for the taxpayer. It's been getting bigger and bigger every year, so I can see why it might be sensible to start having at least some system to track and limit attendance (although of course it's perfectly possible to have a free ticketing system), however obviously there's concerns it's the thin end of the wedge, £2 this year, £5 next and upwards thereafter, and also that the touts will swoop in (tickets could end up going for as much as, oooo, £10?*)

It usually attracts about 120,000, and while there's not much been said about what the actual limits will be, obviously there will be one. To my knowledge (and I'll stand corrected if I'm wrong) there's never been a problem with overcrowding as there's always been a gate system, nor are loads of people turned away every year due to it being full or anything. Fair fucks on reducing the cost to the council (if it's a genuine motive, which it probably isn't), however I'm firmly of the belief that this is just to get rid of the notion of it being free and the price is simply going to skyrocket over the next few years. Maybe they're running out of 80s throwbacks and 90s also-rans and want to have more modern and/or high profile acts that a free festival couldn't accommodate, but either way I give it 5 years until it's at least £50 a day and is just another dull inner city "Big Day Out" type pop festival for whatever shit is being pushed that year. 

Anyone else care/have an opinion? Or know of any other similar events which started out free and now are most decidedly not (apart from Glastonbury)?




*Although interestingly the Saturday headliners haven't been announced yet either, so jokes about it not being worth £2 to see either the Levellers or Busted (Friday and Sunday's respectively) may fall flat when it turns out to be the Rolling Stones and Macca in a double headliner.   

alan nagsworth

I would pay 10x that entry fee to see Busted alone, let alone the rest, who presumably will not be as good as Busted. I'm looking at you, The Levellers. I'm saying you're worse than Busted and I mean it.

Icehaven

Other thing that could potentially be an issue if it does sell out or even gets close; quite a few people (myself included) will buy tickets now without even being sure if we're going to go or not (particularly if the weather forecast is a bit shite) as it's hardly a vast loss if you decide not to bother. Could be a very empty festival with lots of pissed off people standing outside it if too many of us do that.

The Evolution Festival in Newcastle started free due to arts council money, then sponsorship by Orange enabled bigger acts to play, then sponsorship was pulled and they charged money for folk to get in (about £3 or so), plodded along with skyrocketing prices for entry over the next few years (from £3 to £15, then £25, then £35, then £40), and then they "took a break" in 2014 and haven't been back since.

Your suspicions about Godiva turning into a "Big Day Out" thing aren't without foundation, I reckon.

Icehaven

Quote from: An Actual Propeller on May 21, 2019, 01:51:35 PM
The Evolution Festival in Newcastle started free due to arts council money, then sponsorship by Orange enabled bigger acts to play, then sponsorship was pulled and they charged money for folk to get in (about £3 or so), plodded along with skyrocketing prices for entry over the next few years (from £3 to £15, then £25, then £35, then £40), and then they "took a break" in 2014 and haven't been back since.

Your suspicions about Godiva turning into a "Big Day Out" thing aren't without foundation, I reckon.

Exactly what I was thinking. At the moment it isn't in competition with the many, many other things like that as it's just not the same kind of beast. It's mostly local acts on the smaller stages with a few higher profile ones later on in the day, and it's all very casual as you just come and go and it's all quite relaxed.
I think someone somewhere has designs on changing it and trying to make it into a massive cash cow, despite the risk of it just turning into another version of the one you mention. It's watch this space I guess.