Rob Da Bank's Blog #12

Camp Bestival is nearly a sell out

United Kingdom | by Rob da Bank | 08 June 2009

A week of festivals as seen by Rob da Bank...

Quietish week in the world of da Bank (if you forget the 5am wake ups with the kids and non stop torrent of emails from agents and artists about our shows!). I’m chuffed to say that Camp Bestival, only in its second year, is very nearly sold out so that will be a relief and Bestival ain’t far behind. To sell out both in a recession will be amazing.

If you’re in the Manchester area then you might be off to the Oasis shows in Heaton Park with Kasabian and The Enemy supporting, 75,000 over 3 nights…

it brings up that perennial question about whether something like that is a festival. The London versions of the one-day outdoor concert certainly look like festival line-ups with Neil Young and Seasick Steve, Basement Jaxx, Killers and Bruce Springsteen all playing in Hyde Park. Being a festival promoter these kinda shows definitely trade off the back of the big festivals like Glastonbury who often book the artists in the first place but it looks like we can all survive with our different ways of doing things. The effort that most festivals we represent with our Association of Independent Festivals goes way beyond these one-day concerts though. We are in fact building mini towns, something councils, police and collecting societies really need to have a little more respect for, as the costs and responsibilities and planning that goes into the events is something that is rarely documented or recognised. The fact is many people want to see these acts but don’t want to drink pear cider all day before retiring into a rain sodden tent for three hours broken sleep. What’s wrong with them all?!

I’m just back from playing on the best sound system in the land tonight at Fabric with my mates L-Vis 1990 and live acts Beardyman, new signing to our label Lemonade, brilliant electronic dude Tim Exile and many more. It was the first of my Rob da Bank & Friends show in room 2 and was an amazing night of new music.

Rob da Bank