#83

And all really really good…’ “from ghosts” especially because it still counts as the greatest weekend of my life…

1 Like
#84

that was a rad weekend! I somehow managed to blag a free ticket. (sorry Wilwall)

#85

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?

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#86

LGW? comes close, yes, but definitely not the same.

Loved the fact that there were only 3 or 4 stages at ATP.
At LGW? the FOMO is getting the best of me at any moment of the day.

Everything was at walking distance at ATP, you could go swimming, go on some crappy carnival fair, watch some brilliant tv, or just hang with a bunch of likeminded people in front of your chalet.
At LGW? you’re just lost in a city (granted, a nice one) mixed in with mostly people who don’t even know there’s a festival going on.

At any gig at ATP you could just walk in the room and get to the front of the stage without any problem. LGW? is getting too crowded.

“Le Guess Who?” is a dumb name for a festival. “All Tomorrow’s Parties” isn’t.

Sigh, missing ATP a lot now. Thanks.

4 Likes
#87

I know its probably been covered elsewhere already but when was the point where it all went wrong, was it the Jabberwocky fallout?

#88

hard to say really. the matt groening one is the first that’s talked about as losing a ton of money

#89

The Groening one had a pretty solid lineup. The problem was that the Pavement ATP was on the following week so of course people wanted to go to that one instead.
I think it started going wrong when they overstretched how many weekends they could do in a year with a fairly small customer base.
2010 had all this:

  • Matt Groening ATP
  • Pavement ATP
  • Godspeed (nbc)
  • In Between Days
  • Belle & Sebastian

Now if they’d kept it to 2 a years and merged the lineups a bit they may have kept rolling on (a bit longer at least).
I can imagine things like having to move The National ATP to a venue half the size must’ve hurt too as surely they would have sold that out at Minehead never mind Camber.

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#90

I remember thinking it was getting a bit silly when they added an extra one in May and another in December. Doubling your attendees to events with (mostly) relatively niche acts was a bold step. The Les Savy Fav/Battles/Caribou line-up was great but maybe the Animal Collective one suffered slightly (personal opinion obv).

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#91

stay in an empty pontins for a week with nothing happening £75

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#92

ah beat me to it!

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#93

Was at le guess who last year and think it’s probably the best festival I’ve ever been to. A lot of clashes and a few busy venues but I don’t really how you could avoid the odd one.

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#94

Me too. And not just the festivals. The early wave of those Don’t Look Back gigs were amazing

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#95

Also, don’t forget the ones in US/Australia/Japan. They just punched above their weight for several years, causing a snowball effect.

So I agree, 2010 was the year they broke. That said, the NBC GY!BE edition that year was my favorite edition by far.

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#96

Aye maybe they saw it as a ‘business’ opportunity but can imagine they lost a fortune there.
The Iceland ones were the last throw of the dice (and heavily subsidised?) I guess.

#97

They should have accepted sponsorship.

5 Likes
#98

Im telling you either someone needs to pair up with the Germans or we need to charter a DiS flight over. This lineup has become amazing:
https://www.rollingstone-weekender.de/bands/bands_2017.php

#99

That’s the same weekend as LGW - maybe some overlap of bands?

#100

To be fair, for 2006/7 that worked pretty well.

The Mike Pattern/Melvins is the first one I remember as being proper empty. We got upgraded to a bigger chalet and got given some extra (free) wristbands. Some pals came down from London on the Saturday and took those.

As others have said, the expansion to the US, Australia etc was just… poorly timed, given the whole global economic downturn that hit their core market pretty hard. I think that was really what did for them - people just didn’t have £400 four times a year to blow on getting trashed with their mates in a chalet by the sea.

It’s interesting looking back, eg 2009, which was the first year to have four festivals. Vs the Fans 2 I remember being busy, Breeders less so. The two at Christmas were mad and totally sold out. But after that it was so up-and-down.

(remember everyone complaining about the 10 Years One being announced only after MBV selling out? imagine that still being the worst complaint about ATP)

I think they just hit a wall. Left-of-field curators like Groening sold poorly, obvious ones like Pavement didn’t but got criticised for being predictable. You can see why they tried to shake it up with stuff abroad or I’ll Be Your Mirror, it just didn’t work and all seemed to spiral out of control from then on.

#101

2006 with Iggy/Sonic Youth was rammed - first time in Minehead. Versus the Fans 2 and 10th anniversary in 2009 also very busy.

Jeff Mangum rescheduled event was a sign of trouble - ended up being given a chalet for 8 people despite only booking for 2.

Bleakest moment was turning up for a single night of the Inbetween days in 2011 to see Yob - must have been 30 us max in the venue.

#102

Anyone know how the Australian ones did financially? I mean I assume pretty terribly because it’s a very expensive place to run a festival, but the Drones one seemed relatively well attended. Hard to tell with nothing to compare it to though really.