As you know, I’m intending to go to one of the All Tomorrow’s Parties weekend festivals this year (previous post). Part of the ritual is deciding, and then agreeing with your friends, which weekend you’re going to attend. This year it’s got a little odd as they’re trying something different.
The first weekend is the usual formula. One band, The Dirty Three, are curating the event and inviting their favourite acts to play. The lineup is looking pretty keen with Nick Cave, Low and Bill Callahan of Smog already confirmed amongst others. Looks good.
The second weekend, announced yesterday, is a little different. ATP themselves are curating half the weekend with the other half being left up to the fans. Everyone who buys a ticket is able to nominate ten acts they’d like to see. These are then collated into a chart which the organisers will work through to create the billing. The catch is if you wait until the lineup is more solid you won’t have a say in who’s playing.
This has led to something of a mindfuck. Given that those who book early for ATP are more likely (in theory) to have better taste than those who leave it to the last minute, the bands could be really good. On the other hand given that everyone’s tastes are quite eclectic the votes could be spread wide amongst the good stuff with mediocre popular acts bubbling to the top. So, do we go with the certainty of the first weekend or risk it with the second?
The other factor is, given this uncertainty, is the first weekend going to sell out more quickly than usual?
Whatever happens it’ll still be a good weekend no matter what the lineup. I’m tempted to just leave the decision making up to others (though I’d really like to see Low…)
Low…as in the guys that did Cracker? Fantastic. I only know that one song but it used to be one of my college anthems.
Nick Cave is a must…can’t remember if you’ve seen him before. I was gutted I missed him with his orchestra a while back. Have good memories of him at Brixton Academy to see me through.
So what happens if a bunch of Beatles fans (for example) buys all the tickets?
I saw Low about eight years ago in a pub in Manchester, they were phenomenal
Danielson Danielson Danielson !!!
Its a risk for me to go to weekend 2 as I may well miss out on exam work that pays for the summer holiday jaunt to Wales – weekend 1 is shaping up to be very similar to the first one I went to in 2002 which was FANTASTIC – and I know more of the bands thet are on this time (not hard as I knew 2 that first year).
If Bonnie Prince Billy signs up for one its getting towards a dream lineup (yo la tengo would be nice too…hey, maybe they should introduce some sort of voting system..?)
I vote weekend one. I can’t really think of anyone else i would want to see ( when i think about who we got to see last year aswell…). So, yeah- I vote 1 :)