The Tramlines Festival 2012 Megathread

[Tuffty]

Jared is spot on, the loose coalition of Sheffield venues that pull together for the tramlines event would soon fall apart if any charge was introduced.

 

I also agree that if sponsorship/council funding is down then it should be the booking agent act's fees that are pruned accordingly. (Many of which gain great exposure from the event).

 

Even if there was not finance for a main stage next year, the festival would still be successful, with venues independently doing their own thing.

 

With the financial benefits that the festival brings to the city, none of the partners involved would want to jeopardise things by introducing a charge that would undoubtedly 'kill the goose that laid a golden egg'.

[barpen]

Jared is spot on, the loose coalition of Sheffield venues that pull together for the tramlines event would soon fall apart if any charge was introduced.

 

I also agree that if sponsorship/council funding is down then it should be the booking agent act fees that are pruned accordingly. (Many of which gain great exposure from the event).

 

Even if there was not finance for a main stage next year, the festival would still be successful, with venues independently doing their own thing.

 

With the financial benefits that the festival brings to the city, none of the partners involved would want to jeopardise things by introducing a charge that would undoubtedly 'kill the goose that laid a golden egg'.

 

I'm not sure of the legal ramifications of closing streets and charging people to use them. That sort of thing normally requires an act of Parliament.

[Jordan 1989]

But how does that work for people just wanting to go to the pub? Venues would have to choose whether to be exclusive to tramlines or to not be part of it.

 

The outdoor stages don't need bigger acts either. The acts this year were smaller than last year, and it worked better. If the acts are too big, it takes people away from the breadth of the festival, and puts them in the queue starting somewhere near Actinsons. While it would be amazing for the city to have U2 headline the stage on the Saturday night for free, it would also ruin the event for the many people who were determined to go see them, but never got within a mile of the start of the queue.

 

Perhaps its just the target audience and demographics of the festival have changed but I've found that in previous years I've found far more on offer for me than there was this year... the festival can't stay afloat if the 'biggest' acts on offer continue to get smaller because of problems with funding etc. If you want to maintain the quality you charge - there's only so many years the same good quality bands (eg. Frankie & the Heartstrings who were also on last year) are going to want to come back and play the festival...

 

Plus I'm not talking about booking mega-acts here, just good quality bands of a reasonable size and appeal is all.

 

As far as pubs choosing whether or not to be part of Tramlines or not - will hardly be the most difficult decision a lot of landlords have made. I say do it.

 

I'll say again I honestly can't see the festival being able to both stay free and maintain its status in years to come anyway. Evolution in Newcastle tells us all we need to know about that.

[jake]

i'm a bit bemused as to why some are doom & gloom - more people enjoyed the (free) festival than any other year. Give or take issues with the festival programme & some events being too popular - i'm not sure how it can be viewed as anything but an outstanding success?

[Andy]

There's an article on the Star website:

 

http://www.thestar.co.uk/lifestyle/music/tramlines-sheffield-s-free-music-festival-may-be-bigger-next-year-1-4767823

 

...And Sheffield city centre nanger Richard Eyre said next year’s event – which will again be free – could branch out further afield.

 

He said: “To take some of the pressure off the city centre Tramlines could spread to other areas such as Hillsborough and Woodseats.

 

So it certainly doesn't look like there are plans to charge.

[ediesedgwick]

Loveboat were incredible, best band out of the lot.

[Chris_Sleeps]

But how does that work for people just wanting to go to the pub? Venues would have to choose whether to be exclusive to tramlines or to not be part of it.

Unless they do something like Edinburgh Festival, and have a Sheffield Fringe operating at the side of the main events.

[Guest]

It could be argued, that the pubs do very well out of Tramlines. They make significantly more money over Tramlines than a normal weekend. Maybe some of them should be contriubiting more towards the running of the festival? Most bands aren't being paid, yet bars and pubs make a much bigger profit.

[Jared]

It could be argued, that the pubs do very well out of Tramlines. They make significantly more money over Tramlines than a normal weekend. Maybe some of them should be contriubiting more towards the running of the festival? Most bands aren't being paid, yet bars and pubs make a much bigger profit.

 

Running costs for the pubs also increase with similar proportion though (I would even wager that some pubs haven't done very well out of it at all) so your suggestion on that basis would not be economically possible or an attractive proposal to the bar owners on the circuit that are motivated by profit and not the love of live music (which you'll find will be almost all of them). I don't think you can quite fathom the costs involved in putting on live music from a venue's point of view, extra to that of the normal running costs of a pub or bar not hosting live music (which are already substantial), nor how tight any given pub's profit margins are right now with factors like the continued existence of the drinks tie, VAT rise and the duty esculator.

 

If live music paid then everyone would be doing it 7 nights a week, the whole year round. The plain facts are that it doesn't. Indeed, we ourselves subsidise our midweek unsigned gigs from the money we make at our succesful DJ nights and cover band gigs because we're passionate about providing a public spirited service to musicians learning their craft.

[Guest]

let's take the Bowery as an example.

 

normally quiet during the day, pretty busy at weekend nights. It was full all weekend. They must have made ludicrous amounts on bar take from customers who would not normally be there.

 

Gatsby, Bungalows, Forum etc etc. all one-in, one-out. Must have made an absolute killing.