If all the years felt like they were too good to be true, then, they probably were. With the second weekend of Coachella upon us, this year’s run of main slate festivals is officially underway, albeit to some underwhelming response.
From Coachella, to Bonnaroo, to Governor’s Ball, this year’s festival lineups have been met with little excitement due to their lack of thrilling, surprising headlining acts one can’t see on any major touring circuit. With unexpected reunions becoming the norm as the years progressed, U.S. audiences have become accustomed to being surprised by ballsy festival choices. So much so, that when 2024’s major festival announcements rolled out, everyone felt a little glass half-empty, resulting in the slowest Coachella ticket sales in a decade. Where was room for all the alternative acts? Why are they all pop stars we could easily see anywhere else? And higher ticket prices? The answer is not as simple as one would think. There are many facets that factor into these decisions, because choices like these aren’t made within a vacuum.
To assess why festival lineups are so lackluster this year, one must look at the live music economic climate we’re currently in.
The Cost of Touring
The current climate in today’s touring ecosystem has all but dwindled since the comeback from the pandemic, having never fully returned to pre-2020 levels due to the high cost of touring in the United States post-COVID. In the wake of the circuit coming back to life, it only became more expensive to tour due to venues and ticketing companies trying to recoup expenses they lost. Even as recently as this month, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services instituted a 250% visa fee increase for global musicians hoping to tour in the U.S. The touring/gigging life was hard enough as it is, but when the pandemic came and left, it became nearly impossible. Sure, 2023 may have been a record-breaking year for Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Drake. But for grassroots venues and artists, the financial cost hit hard.
This, as a result, has become the new catch 22: where venues in major cities like New York or Los Angeles had pay-to-play policies, touring is now looking very much the same way. There are countless stories by reputable musicians who have been dupped by this broken touring system, such as Arooj Aftab. After being mentioned on Obama’s year end list, nominated for Grammys, playing Coachella, even she saw difficulty in making ends meet. “We headlined a ton, had massive turnouts and have proven ourselves in all the markets,” she tweeted. “Yet still, running 10s of thousands in debt from the tour and I’m being told that it’s ‘normal’. Why is this normal. This should not be normalized.”
Add in how ticket prices have soared due to price-gouging (*cough* Ticketmaster *cough*), and given that many of these acts are international who require visas that need to be paid for, the touring circuit as we know it has dried up significantly. And those that do go on tour often aren’t on the road for as long and only visit the biggest cities. Ultimately, rising costs means fewer bands are touring.
Cost of Living Crisis
Take also into account the cost of living crises occurring in both the U.S. and the U.K. As rent prices soar in metropolitan areas, many local art and music scenes are driven out due to in-affordability. This results in fewer local bands gigging, which results in fewer music goers going to see shows, which results in venues shutting down. And as rent costs soar, energy, service, and supply costs do as well, forcing many venues to shut down or raise prices to pay bills. Just this year, the Music Venue Trust (MVT) – a charity in the U.K. that aims to protect, secure, and improve grassroots music venues – released figures that show two grassroots venues closing per week, with 125 venues shutting their doors in the last 12 months. And those that do remain report a 38% financial loss despite seeing an increased demand for tickets in 2023.
But local venues aren’t the only ones that are suffering, entire festivals have been forced to close shop due to these circumstances. In the U.S., Jay Z’s Made in America has been forced to cancel yet another year, as well as Delaware’s Firefly Music Festival and Memphis’s Beale Street Music Festival due to lack resources and finances, therefore closing off any type of international exposure smaller artists previously had access to. And in the U.K., festivals such as Barn on the Farm, Bluedot, and Nozstock have either been cancelled or postponed, amongst others.
Fewer People Going to Gigs
Moreover, fewer and fewer people are going to gigs as a result of these soaring prices. Combined with an energy crisis and a cost of living crisis, more concert goers have become discouraged to splurge on what used to be an affordable night out. This has resulted in an almost runaway feedback loop: as venues continue to shut down, fewer young bands are able to launch their careers, which ultimately discourages the younger generations to start any type of band without the hope of a future.
And as the younger generation focuses on making music for TikTok and Spotify to cater to algorithm rather than performance, venues are close to running the well dry in finding fresh acts.
Even the artists who can afford to tour are deciding not to. Residencies have become more and more popular among established artists, because why spend money on tour expenses with little return when audiences can just come to you? Ever since Celine Dion became the first modern popstar to enjoy the financial benefits of touring from the comfort of a Vegas suite in the early 2000s, many artists have approached the same model, either in one market or bringing the residency to other markets. And since these residencies take place in destination locals like Vegas and Palm Springs, there’s already a healthy amount of foot traffic coming through to offset production expenses without the need for travel.
What also takes away from “general interest” festivals like Coachella or Lollapalooza is the current rise of niche, genre-specific festivals. Festivals such as Goldenvoice’s Just Like Heaven or Live Nation’s When We Were Young serve to cater to different demographics that might have felt out of touch with the current general interest festival circuit, further draining a pool of potential acts who may have been deemed too specific for a prominent spot at Bonnaroo or Governor’s Ball.
All of this, and more, leads to an un-eclectic lineup pool to draw from. Headlining festivals is just not as lucrative or prolific as it used to be. The dearth of touring artists, combined with high cost of living, and a dwindling concert-going clientele can only lead to so many options. Whereas festivals like Coachella usually rely on big “gets,” this year’s lineup selections feature headliners who can easily be seen anywhere else, or in other words, the ones who can afford to tour. That’s not to say 2024 didn’t have the potential to pull off such a feat – there were many possibilities that could’ve come into play. Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, even the Rolling Stones… big names who just did well attended, highly sought after tours with sky-rocketed ticket prices.
On the reunion side of things, much less probable, but still in the realm of possibility: Talking Heads were rumored to reunite after doing several Q&A’s for the Stop Making Sense 40th anniversary, with Live Nation reportedly offering $80 million to reunite and Goldenvoice offering $20 million to play Coachella, but it became very apparent from the rapport of the members that reunion talks were off the table. A Smiths reunion had been rumored on and off for years, but due to the recent death of bassist Andy Rourke that window seems to have shrunk. The White Stripes always circle the minds of entertainment promoters, but that decision will be entirely left up to Meg White. And of course, as every year, there’s Daft Punk.
But even as we see a dearth now, this can’t bode well for the future of live music. As grassroots ecosystems are phased out, and stadium-sized headliners continue to inflate, soon there isn’t going to be anyone to fill those arenas or to headline these festivals. It’s a pipeline that’s been broken and the gap between the two extremes is only widening further.
However, both the U.S. and the U.K. are doing what they can to thwart this shift in culture. The MVT in the U.K. recently introduced a move to secure a £1 contribution to grassroots venues for every arena ticket sold to help sustain their ecosystem. France has adopted laws for taxation that feeds back into grassroots venues as well, an acknowledgement that local, live arts are an integral part to both countries’ cultures. In the U.S., the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), which played a pivotal role in forming the “Save Our Stages” act early on the pandemic, provided financial bonuses to local promoters and tour representatives who help execute shows, as well as venue crew members who have worked over 500 hours in 2023.
People often take for granted the art scenes they locally have access to. Particularly in big cities, live music is always there. You may ignore it, which by all means is fine, but it’s there to be enjoyed. However, people often don’t realize it’s a foundation for something bigger – not just future “Coachella headliners,” but a rich, creative, challenging, forward-thinking culture, one that stays in touch with what’s contemporary. It’s there to be valued, it’s there to be talked about, digested. It’s there to remind us just how much live music can truly be a gift to the world.
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Featured image courtesy of Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times