It's summer, it must be the Verve
As the Verve's anthems ring out over the fields this summer, thousands of festival fans will be hoping for a unique live moment. But for some it may prove a bittersweet symphony as Richard Ashcroft and his band repeat the exercise on stages across the UK and Ireland.
As dozens of summer festivals unveil increasingly similar line-ups, organisers have warned that several of the events are likely to flop as consumers tighten their belts. The problem is too few big-name acts spread too thinly over too many stages.
A wider range of people is attracted to summer festivals these days. So, increasingly, new events look to follow in the successful footsteps of the smaller "boutique" festivals - alternatives such as Latitude, Bestival, and Green Man, which have prospered in recent years.
The Verve and Kings of Leon are fixtures this year at the top of several of the big festival bills, including Glastonbury, T in the Park in Perthshire, Oxygen in Ireland, and V2008 in Chelmsford and Staffordshire.
Steve Jenner, founder of VirtualFestivals.com, said: "It's very apparent that there have been major problems with headliners this year. The surge of people who started going to big festivals a few years ago [has] become more demanding."
While most of the biggest festivals will again sell out, industry insiders said demand had levelled off as the numbers of events had increased. Some also detected a backlash against the corporate branding that has proliferated in recent years as mobile phone and alcohol brands have sought to reach a lucrative segment of the market.
"Bands now have all the power when it comes to playing live," said Jenner, pointing to the alternative options of playing Wembley stadium or a residency at the O2 arena instead.
Vince Power, who took over Reading Festival in 1989 and ran it alongside a network of other festivals and music venues before selling up in 2005, agreed that there were "more festivals chasing fewer bands".
He said he was attempting to tap into a backlash against the corporate festivals with a one-day event at a former hop farm in Kent that sells itself on "no registration, no sponsorship, no branding". It will be headlined by Neil Young, with the rest of the lineup due to be announced this week.
Power said: "We did a lot of research and it became clear that people are a little bit pissed off with festivals. The whole thing has just become more and more about marketing and branding and I just felt people were getting short-changed. We want to get back to basics and do it for the music. We want to make it inclusive rather than exclusive." He said at his event there would be none of the backstage or corporate hospitality areas that had proliferated elsewhere.
Melvyn Benn, managing director of the company behind the Reading and Leeds festivals, and Latitude, admitted that competition for the best acts was fierce and the cash required to secure the biggest acts was rising.
Reading and Leeds still insisted on exclusivity, which made negotiations harder still.
With bands such as Radiohead, Oasis and Coldplay opting out of the festival circuit, despite having new albums to promote, the re-formed Verve and Kings of Leon have cashed in.
But Benn, whose Festival Republic company also has a role in organising Glastonbury, said most artists would still play festivals at some point in the two-year life cycle of an album because they offered the chance to take music to a wider audience.
Benn also rejected the idea that audiences were against sponsorship and branding, pointing to the popularity of Latitude, whose sponsors include Pimm's and Tuborg.
He added that the naysayers should not get carried away. "People will plan their whole summer around festivals and go to more than one," he said. "Festivals have become part and parcel of the British summer."
Chris Smith, the organiser of Womad, said the event he ran - a long-running one, featuring world music - proved that festivals that built up a loyal following and went on innovating would always prosper.
Who's playing where
Glastonbury festival
June 27-29
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset
Jay-Z, Kings Of Leon, The Verve, The Fratellis, Goldfrapp
A Day at the Hop Farm
July 6
The Hop Farm, near Paddock Wood, Kent
Neil Young (other acts to be confirmed)
T in the Park
July 11-13
Balado, Kinross-shire, Scotland
The Verve, REM, Kings Of Leon, KT Tunstall, Kaiser Chiefs, Amy Winehouse, Aphex Twin, The Fratellis
Latitude festival
July 17-20
Henham Park, Suffolk
Franz Ferdinand, Sigur Ros, Interpol, The Breeders, Elbow
The Green Man festival
August 15-17
Glanusk estate in the Brecon Beacons, Wales
Super Furry Animals, Beirut, Black Mountain
V festival
August 16-17
Hylands Park, Chelmsford, and Weston Park, Staffordshire
The Verve, Kings of Leon, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse, Maximo Park, Amy Winehouse, Alanis Morissette
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