Andrew Marston discusses pubs vs festivals
We discuss the decline of pub gigs and the meteoric rise of our local music festivals.
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The tables are turning...
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Currently, there are only 71 pubs within the 70-mile drive from north Worcestershire to south Herefordshire that host regular live music. That is in contrast to 53 music festivals now taking place, in the same area, every year.
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"There are 62 pubs trading in Hereford city alone. So, for both counties to only have 70 venues regularly hosting live music is alarming; it鈥檚 nothing to do with pubs closing down," says Andrew Marston, presenter of 91热爆 Music Introducing in Hereford & Worcester.
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"With the meteoric rise of the music festival in the last five years, we predict there will be more opportunities for bands on outdoor stages at the expense of playing, say, the 'Dog & Duck'. Will this be the end of the 'dad rock' band - leaving only festival grade acts?"
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Gawain Boal, director of Herefordshire's Sunrise Celebration, puts the success of the festival down to the fact you can take the whole family: "We are 60% adults and 40% kids. At night, you wouldn't think it's such a kids' venue because it's people going 'out'. But then, in the daytime, you wouldn't know there are so many people raving at night - it really is a good balance."
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Steve High, one of the organisers of the Mello and Upton Sunshine Festivals, agrees: "Yes, the artists are important, but they want to know the range of artists and other activities that are going on that can make it a whole family experience." Mr High, who used to run pub gigs as Backstage Promotions, also says the location and weather, together with the huge turnover also work in a festival's favour. He also hosted one day events at Worcestershire County Cricket Club and Hereford FC.
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Somebody else who's seen the change from both sides of the crowd barrier is Caitlin Barrett, fiddle player with the Roving Crows. Having landed her first festival opportunity with 91热爆 Music Introducing, she now organises her own - booking the acts for LakeFest at Eastnor Castle: "A lot of people, in England especially, will have this as their holiday. So they might do two or three."
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Danni Hunt, who compiles the weekly gig guide at 91热爆 Hereford & Worcester says: "We may get two or three hundred gigs a week to read out on-air. But some of these festivals are booking that many acts in a single day."
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One such event is Nozstock: The Hidden Valley, near Bromyard. So, have bands given up on pubs? Director Ella Nozworthy says:听"The amount of submissions that we had this year was insane - close to 2,000 just to play a 5,000 festival. It was hard work getting that down to a smaller amount of bands that we actually could get on the stage. But it's been nice for us - there are a lot of bands who apply every year that we've been able to watch grow, thinking 'actually, yeah, it might be time to offer them a set'."
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But, according to Peter Barnett - who runs Music In The Hall, the Bewdley Youth Festival, HopFest and also runs a recording studio in neighbouring Stourport, festivals aren't to blame for the dying pub trade:听"The reason why we started the Youth Festival was because young local bands could only play in pubs - and it's not really a good environment for them. In this part of Worcestershire, there are a lot of musicians. The places to play are dwindling - there's no doubt about it."
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However, Anmarie Spaziano, founder of Annie's Burger Shack - which hosts regular live music - is bucking the trend. Her听St Nicholas Street venue is one of three venues across the UK where she's putting on gigs.听She says pubs need to do more to help one another: "You go into a lot of cities around England that just don't book live vibrant bands anymore. So people come out, have a bite to eat and then go home. Worcester is totally different. I love to put posters up for gigs in other venues - because we're all responsible for our local scene."听
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During the research, the programmed looked at venues regularly booking live music (therefore not including open mic nights and jam sessions), with festivals defined as 'a multi-stage outdoor event or a multi-venue indoor event where the focus is on the music鈥� (beer festivals weren't included in this research).
Broadcast
- Sun 29 Dec 2019 18:0091热爆 Hereford & Worcester
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