La scomoda verità sul pay-to-play Glastonbury

> Amazingly, one venue on the Glastonbury lineup is not only unable to pay a fee, but is also asking its performers to work three eight-hour bar shifts as well – also unpaid – in order to have the chance of playing Glasto.

They should learn how to say “piss off”

My tiny violin is worn out in the pity party for the middle class pop festival its become.

It’s really difficult this.

Glastonbury is an institution that, in the past, has never been commercial and has great charitable outcomes. I think we can all agree that having established bands paid less than normal or doing it for free is fine – provided they still pay their crews fairly.

To an extent, getting free tickets to play is sort of ok as well for smaller acts, provided they want to go the festival anyway. An hours work for a £350 ticket at something you wanted to attend is fair enough. Making people work in a bar in top of that is outrageous and bang out of order.

The worst is the squeeze on artists in the middle – big enough that it isn’t a hobby, but not big enough to have a major label try and bankroll them. Last year Nadine Shah was supposed to play. She is an established artist, sells plenty of records and tickets – music is certainly her full time job – but she’s not headlining arena tours level. She couldn’t play because the fee wouldn’t have covered paying her band, let alone provide anything to live off. Another act that was due to headline the Other stage a year or two back had to pull out because the festival couldn’t cover the cost of their crew.

That’s why we’re seeing a lot more DJs at the festival – its cheaper and more easy to justify a low fee when there is one or two of your compared to 7 or 8 or more.

Another example are the artists that build certain areas of the festival. Someone I know does various set dressing things for another festival, as well as run workshops and all sorts – it’s her full time job. As an example, a small independent festival with 20k capacity pays her £400 for a weekends work – painting some signs, running some workshops, as well as give her free tickets and meals the time she’s there which she feels is fair when it includes a free ticket and a load of spare time to enjoy the festival itself. Glastonbury wanted her to do this same artwork for free, but also do some general handy-work around the site to ‘pay’ for her ticket.

It’s difficult for the festival. Inflation is doing them over, plus increased faff and regulation so that what was once a party for like-minded folk that was a bit lawless and edgy is a middle-class day out for many. The festival have done a great job milking the corporate teat for all its worth; getting free headliners from record labels, just enough corporate sponsorship to keep things ticking over without impacting the should of the festival too much (although a Adidas football shirt is just a touch too far..)

With the stuff around forced bar shifts it really does feel like the festival is going too far and is unethical and abusive towards smaller acts these days. But I fear without that it would cease to exist.

So? No one has a gun put to their heads and are forced to pay/work at Glastonbury. People do it because they want to.

>140,000 tickets, at £378.50 each

I paid about a tenner at the gate when I went…

I can’t get any paid gigs because I’m not good enough to attract an audience.

I still very much enjoy playing and when I do events, a parking space is something I’m most grateful for.

It sounds like a way of paying off the ticket which doesn’t seem too bad and no-one is being compelled to do to go.

It’s possible that it’s a good deal for all parties. 

Time to take it out back and shoot it, it’s had its time.

Well their last published accounts showed a bit over £3m in the bank and a year on year increase in profit & loss reserves of around £550k. So financially pretty healthy.