NY Festival cancellations

So Music To Know, Trucks and Festival For Humanity all got canceled because of poor ticket sales. My question to you guys is - had you guys even heard of these? Were you planning on going? Just wondering what's up. Music To Know actually had a few big names (Vampire Weekend, Bright Eyes, Ra Ra Riot, Matt & Kim) so that one was a little surprising. Maybe it's just simply that people didn't want to spend $200 on a two day fest. Though Escape To NY still happened and that was $275 for 3 days... who knows. I don't.

never heard of those so i can't talk about them. but i do know what happened in luxembourg this year: there's one big rock festival every summer, and every summer it gets bigger and bigger and more people come. it has been sold out every year. however, this summer there were only something around 11.000 people (compared to the 15.000 or 17.000 of previous years), a first in 8 or 9 years. this was probably (surely) due to the fact of how high the tickets costs were:

2007 - price: 45€ for the day
2011 - price: 80 € for the day

so almost the double as it was 4 years ago... so if they want people to go the festivals, they should start thinking about lowering the prices -.-

i'm assuming something similar happened to those festivals

here's something on this

http://gothamist.com/2011/08/08/festival_fail.php


Why Are New York's Rock Festivals Struggling?

Woodstock 1969 was a long time ago, and since then New York's festival scene has seemed to go downhill (while other states have seen success with Coachella, Pitchfork, and Lollapalooza). Throughout the years festival organizers have tried to bring massive music events to the city and state, but even those that weren't cancelled after disinterest have been plagued by traffic nightmares, last minute venue changes (hello, Field Day 2003), and violent riots. This year's festival season is no different, and in fact may be the worst. Here's a recap, so far:

ROCK BEACH: After no one showed up to Floyd Bennett Field for JellyNYC's summer-long Rock Beach event, the organization downsized and are now holding a much smaller show in a venue closer to their demographic in East Williamsburg.

MUSIC TO KNOW FESTIVAL: This was supposed to take place in East Hampton (scheduled for this coming weekend), but was just cancelled. Organizers, who had booked acts like Bright Eyes and Vampire Weekend, said: "Despite our unique vision and arranging a world-class line-up, ticket sales were not adequate to allow the event to continue."

ESCAPE TO NY FESTIVAL: This one sort of happened in South Hampton over the weekend, before being shut down. Brooklyn Vegan reported back saying they "weren't exactly packing them in, especially on Friday," and then they officially cancelled the whole thing due to weather.

TRUCK AMERICA FESTIVAL: This one was scheduled to go down at the Full Moon Resort upstate in early September. And now that's been cancelled, too.

One of the people involved with Truck America told us this morning: "I guess, in our case, we still haven't heard anything from the organizers in the UK. From what we know, they had a terrible UK festival (they've been doing that one for 14 years) and thus, it affected the U.S. version. I was proud of the lineup and the way tickets were selling, so it's just unfortunate." He added that "the most successful festivals are the ones whose ticket price is very low per day [under $50] but you get to see several cool bands."

Earlier this year the ATP organizers announced their festival would relocate from upstate New York to New Jersey (a decision made prior to this article about the Brooklynization of upstate NY!). And last year All Points West called it quits after two years, with one organizer saying, “I don’t know how great an experience it was for the fans."

We should note that our own John Del Signore did experience a successful New York music festival earlier this year, courtesy of Phish, a band that has been mastering the art of fan-friendly festivals since 1996. Del Signore also tells us, "Moedown has also been quite successful."

By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on August 8, 2011

Bamboozle had a good turnout, as did APW in '09. I think it's that NYC residents don't want to trek out to the middle of nowhere for a meh lineup. Bamboozle & APW were both easy to get to from the city. I don't know why the Jelly stuff is thrown in. The only reason I know of that name at all is because of Brooklyn Vegan, otherwise who ever heard of it?

Thanks for that article!

Jelly did the McCarren Park Pool Parties/Waterfront shows the past few years. Never had the chance to make it into one....gah that Cap'n Jazz show.... But every lineup was interesting and fun, not sure if they were involved with the paid shows though.

People from Manhattan hate to make the trek anywhere, APW in 08 was pretty empty as well except for when Radiohead came on. I had an extra ticket for one night and I could not give it away.

I've been to Sasquatch Festival in 09/10 and people drive some states away and Canada for a diverse lineup. I had friends from State College that drove out specifically for Sasquatch for the lineup/cost of the fest. Shows the dedication of certain fanbases, also, that not all festivals in the US are struggling. None of my friends went to Sasquatch this year because it sold out in a week. Coachella is happening two weekends in a row for 2012 with the exact same lineup.

I also have never heard of Music to Know or Escape to NY and I like tons of the bands/live in the area. Maybe poor marketing could also be a factor?