Having attended the local (and very large/commercial) summer music festival, in the shape of V Festival, a couple of times I’m always on the look-out each year for the impending line-up announcements.
Tickets for this year’s festival go on general sale on Friday, but already rumours are circulating online about supposedly confirmed acts. If said rumours are to be believed, it seems that the festival may be back “on form” this year. However, it appears ticket prices have sky-rocketed yet again.
According to my source, punters will be asked to stump up a whopping £58.50 for a day ticket — a £19 increase from day ticket prices only 4 years ago (and thats before adding on a fiver in booking fees). Surely, thats not on, is it?!
I mean, lets face it — “regular” gigs are about 20 quid a go (for a pretty successful signed band). You get a roof over your head, a fully flushing toilet and wash basin facilities alongside the chance to see at least 3 bands in relatively-close proximity.
For over three times the price, you get a muddy field, pissy weather/heat stroke and toileting facilities that should be contestable in a court of Human Rights. Admittedly, there are more acts on offer, but you can only be in one place at any one time, so the average festival-goer only gets to see about 6 acts a day, tops. Nine times out of the proverbial ten, you end up miles away from the stage and have to resort to watching the screens (and this is different to watching TV, how?) All this is before you have to stomach paying a fiver for a 38p can of Coke at the end of the night because all but one vendor is out of stock and is therefore taking the right royal piss. Just because they can.
It’s a shame as I was really contemplating going again this year… But, if it’s going to cost over a ton before petrol and food — and that’s just for one day for K and I to go, then unless David Bowie, Prince, The Cure, Placebo and Marilyn Manson turn up and Marc Bolan resurrects himself from his grave and reforms T-Rex just for me, its simply not worth it.
Talking of Placebo, they’re returning in the next week or so with a new single, album and subsequent sold out UK tour.
In a predictable fashion, I have switched to Fan-Girl-mode and have been frantically recording promotional TV appearances. I am also eagerly awaiting the arrival of my gig tickets. Having not seen them since 5th November 2004 at Wembley Arena, their new tour is long overdue for this obsessive.
Keep an eye-out for the new album, I have every faith that its going to be amazing…
EDIT: I’ve just listened to clips from the album — they f*cking rock!! Listen to them HERE.
A full-time wheelchair user since 1998, Claire lives in an adapted bungalow in England with her Partner of 10 years and their two dogs: 
I remember going to reading (well its very blurry) and the prices were not that bad… thats shocking, but I suppose expected in this day and time, I suppose that we could blame oil prices for it, but I dont know why…
Stelly
Everything is money..people are just getting greedy. Government, companies..yet do we see much benefit from this extra funding? Nope.
It made me swear on the news the other night, where ministers were offered a choice between new Jaguars, or an eco-friendly Honda electric/petrol hybrid car..
We fund this remember..they should all have bicycles..it IS london after all. Public transport and bicycles. Bog off the cars, the chauffers (sp?) etc..is it needed? No.
Think of the monetary saving. Grr.
But no..up goes gas prices, up goes council tax, up goes everything..and do we even get a tube of KY to ease the pain of this? Nope.
Society is losing the plot..
*nods* I’m in agreement, completely — especially the point you (Karl) made about (not) seeing the benefits of extra funding. The first time I went to V Festival was in 2001 — I could only find one wheelchair accessible porta-loo…But couldn’t use it as it was “engaged” for hours…Now where’s the staffing to check that some poor guy in an electic wheelchair hasn’t passed out/gotten stuck etc? What if someone was in there and had slipped etc and was left for hours without help? We tried to find a steward, to no avail…
When I went back in 2002, I did admittedly find about 2 more accessible porta-loos than the year before (obviously the ticket prices had gone up to compensate), but the design of those things are crazy, yes for a porta-loo they were big, but put a wheelchair in those things and you can barely move! Now, I’m only tiny (5’3 and about 6 and a half stone) and I’m in a manual chair that’s only one size up from technically being a “child-size” chair — if I can barely move, what chance does a fully-grown bloke in a motorised chair/scooter have?!?!
I also noticed that there was a distinct increase in the amount of wheelchair users who turned up, but the size of the viewing platform wasn’t increased at all — resulting in some people being turned away… Now if I pay £60 to see someone, I want to be able to see them, turning people away is digusting…But hey, atleast they could afford to erect little stations all over the place where you can charge up, top up or even buy a mobile phone… :S
No prizes for guessing that the event is sponsored by Virgin Mobile
Ah, but you see…less able bodied people are off the corporate radar..
Less able people shouldn’t be going to things like this. Less able people are less able to cope you see…they should be sat at home gibbering in a corner and watching it on TV as befits their lot in life…
Or thats how it feels sometimes, it seems. Wheelchair users need portaloos? No, of course not..hang a bucket under the seat and cut a hole in the cushion..
or not..
How many less able people do YOU think sit in on their planning/advisory/committee meetings? How much thought and insight do you think goes towards it? Next to none in my experience..
By the able bodied, for the able bodied. Tiddles me off no end. At least I had a hand in designing our IT facilities to allow our less able students to use them. We’ve had parents in wheelchairs on open evenings complimenting us on it..wide opening doors, low desks, huge movement aisles and all on one level, accessible from the car park by ramps.
Every company or event should have advisors from all walks of life and abilities involved in the planning and execution of things..but what hope? Sigh.
LMAO…Exactly! It’s like the concept of wheelchair accessible pubs and clubs, isn’t it? It completely boggles the mind, doesn’t it — this concept of the local “specials” being released into the community
That IT department sounds like a place I’d want to move in to lol…And you’re right, it is a case of the able designing (or not) for the disabled. So many people have said to me “Before I met you, I never realised the trouble with X, Y and Z” or “Before it happened to me, I never thought about X, Y and Z”… Sometimes you need someone with personal experience to point out the blindingly eff-ing obvious to these people…
All this reminds me of the “bane of my life” otherwise known as the “quest for a decent pair of left-handed scissors”… ALL bastard “left-handed” scissors (especially those in schools) are designed by RIGHT-handed people…I’m convinced of it!
Phew…well, that’s my soap-box knackered for today.…
Oh..you’re left handed? I missed that! God..can’t we tell I’ve been virtually asleep for 4 months..:o
I’m pleased to say I’m neither better with the left or right hand..I’m just crap with both..haha!
So, that makes you ambidextrous in the unimpressive way, then…right?
)
Yep, I am indeed left-handed (take after my Dad on that one — only my handwriting is at least legible for the most part — unlike his LOL