ATP in the Guardian (1 Viewer)

[dudley]

Most thorough breakdown of the ATP disaster so far. ATP keep insisting that not only will they refund us our ticket money but also travel expenses. On reading this, how on *earth* is that possible?

The bit about ATP asking Drive Like Jehu to take out a loan for them is utterly galling.

All Tomorrow's Parties: where did it all go wrong for the beloved indie festival?

 

[MacDara]

So why did it fail? Y'all are more clued up on the intricacies of booking and performing. My only perspective is that of a punter.

I went to the Explosions in the Sky-curated show in Minehead in 2008. The logistics were a pain in the hole: Minehead, as beautiful a town as it is, is smack in the middle of nowhere in coastal Somerset. There was only a smattering of rail-bus connections from Bristol so even leaving Dublin at the crack of dawn, the first bands were already on when we arrived in lashing rain for the book-in rigmarole.

As for the festival itself? For all its pretensions to be different from the average fest the scheduling was fairly typical: smaller unknown artists went on early, all the big ones got evening slots. Even with two-and-a-half days to play with there was very little reshuffling to make sure there was something big going on for everyone at every point - there was a lot of downtime.

Meanwhile, that also ensured the bigger/hotter bands were ludicrously oversubscribed. Battles played two slots at the festival, one of them at 3 in the morning. I was like, I haven't a hope of making the other earlier set, but I get to the venue before 2am and there was a queue 200-300 deep on a strict one-in, one-out policy. (They were supposed to turf people out of the room beforehand but yeah). So in spite of paying €400 for tickets and a chalet, and the band playing twice, I didn't get to see them at all.

What's more, some bands only played a single set the entire weekend. Envy played the final slot, 1am on the Sunday night. They were great and all, but are you fucking kidding me?

On top of that, the undeniable cliquey atmosphere is a definite turn-off. If you're going with a gang of mates, the appeal is obvious, but the novelty wore off pretty soon for me. I'd love to go to Roadburn or Incubate or Temples or Supersonic or any of those, but traipsing to a holiday camp for the chance of maybe seeing a band I like? Yeah.

How would I do it? Just from an organisational standpoint, maybe get in fewer bands and have them play more sets. I get that part of the appeal is the sheer breadth and variety of the programme, but how many of them does anyone really want to see? Fewer bands also means less fucking around with flights and visas and that.

It's not about the money, but it is.

 

[pete]

Themed cruises are the way of the future.

 

[pete]

70000TONS OF METAL

 

[Mormon Nailer]

I went to the first Mogwai one and absolutely loved it. After years of Reading it blew my little mind. People were nice, it was relaxed.

I can't say a bad word about Barry and Helen. I flew to the cancelled Groening one and as recompense was given a ticket to both of the Shellac ATPs, and was offered a ticket to the Modest Mouse one in LA.

As the years went on, there just seemed to be fewer and fewer bands I liked on the bill, and they all seemed to come form the same handful of bands each year.

As well as that the vibe changed dramatically, from awestruck indie nerds to cooler then thou hipsters, and I just lost interest.

 

[тхеодоре кацзынски]

70000TONS OF METAL

Jesus, that could turn hellish.

 

[pete]

Jesus, that could turn hellish.