Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Which Bands Will Fill… The Glasto…Football Death Slot ???


Watching England at Glasto 






One thing is always the same about Glasto over the years is it clashes with another world famous festival. Yes I am talking about the festival of football known as the World Cup. Six weeks of football mayhem with all terrestrial T.V stations giving it the up most coverage. More so in this country when England qualify. ….Its flags out of the windows on cars as we live in hope… That we will not be knocked out again on penalties by the Germans.
As I have been working at Glasto for over 30 years. The clashing of the two events is not strange. As well as the Euro’s so it happens with regularity. The festival has accommodated with the open air cinema field up by the John Peel Stage showing the games. Which drew huge crowds for the England games that fell in the 3 days of entertainment. This however this has disappeared over the last 3 years to be replaced by the cinema tent in the Acoustic field. Which brings me to the conclusion if that stays the same …….In true movie tradition …”THEY ARE GOING NEED A BIGGER TENT “. In the event of England getting out of the group stages this year.

So all though the majority of people going to Glasto come for the music and other great entertainment. There is a huge amount of people follow football. As can be seen by the amount of flags and shirts that are football orientated you can see moving round the site. This love of the game as an entertainment has and I am sure will be catered for. So it would be no surprise to me if this year would see the return of the outside cinema field. Over the years it has been a great spectacle of 20.000 plus people watching a footie game in a Somerset field.


But who will take the hit…  In other words which bands will get the… Football Death Slot. Over the years I cannot remember the bands that had this slot in the past ….Which in its self says a lot…. forgettable. But if memory serves me right they always seem to be American bands. Maybe someone can spread more light on this????......But considering the crowds where not tiny there was a considerable drop in attendance for that slot. But this year with the World Cup being in Brazil the slot falls in prime time so a big name could take a hit. This could create a lot of schedule headaches as band management try to avoid this slot on the 3 main stages ….

So what are the key times ………..Well if England get to the knock-out stages. The both slots will fall at 9.00pm. If they win their group it will be on the Sunday the 29th. But more likely considering the strength of the group runners up will play on the Saturday 28th. So both of the slots are major affecting 3 top bands. It would be interesting to hear the views of people on who they would be before the line-up comes out officially. Most people would have a good idea who the main acts will be by now. Who like or not it will affect number of people watching their slot. So after those acts are put in the dreaded slots they will be cheering on.  Costa RicaUruguay ‘Italy. If England get knocked out in the group stages none of this will matter as it is a very strong group . But in the past the harder the group the better England plays. Good to hear your thoughts on this.


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