For lack of a less-cliche phrase: Music festivals are concerts on steroids. Festivals have become the new version of going to Magaluf with your mates.
(There is a more relevant article in The Sun, but I refuse to link to that website)
Music festivals have become a right of passage for many people and the numbers of people attending music festival is going up and up every year.
However, Music Festivals are also expensive, they require booking time off work and happen far less often.
This all leads to the question: what is better? Music Festivals or concerts?
In this blog post I will look into the pros and cons of each and then not really come up with a conclusion.
Hopefully it will make an interesting 5 minute read though!
Festivals
Pros
3/5 days
A gig will give you between 2-3 hours worth of music, depending on support acts. If you like a longer experience though, then music festivals are for you!
As mentioned above, more and more people are opting to drink in a muddy field for a few days and listen to great music.
The reason for this is that there is more time to enjoy the experience with a festival. It’s not entrance-bar-gig-home. You can relax and enjoy yourself more at a festival.
Multiple big bands
Your ticket to a festival may be expensive, but you do get value for money! For around £250, you can to see 3-4 awesome bands on your bucket list, as well as dozens of smaller bands that you will enjoy.
The cost-per-band is very low for the quality of bands you get. Compare that to the outrageous prices for some gigs now (Seriously MCR, £80 a ticket?!)
More freedom
Going to a high-profile gig nowadays mean queueing up to get searched by security, crowded into a small space and getting stuck behind the tallest person on the planet blocking your view.
At a festival, you can do all the same, but you have more space to do it in. There is more freedom to move and stand and view the gig, it may still be a crowded field, but far less so than a small square building.
Again the security may be stricter (or not), but once you are inside the festival, security is not an overbearing presence. I like to describe it as structured anarchy;
‘Best of’ Sets
If you see a band at a gig, they’re likely promoting their new album. This means they will play a lot of songs from that, whether you like it or not. Bands playing music festivals however, they know to play to their audience.
You are more likely to hear a ‘best of’ set, meaning all the bangers and crowd-pleasers. That’s obviously good for the festival crowd who want to be pleased.
Cons
Expensive
Festivals are expensive, and that isn’t changing.
They are much more of an investment and it’s a high barrier for entry for a lot of people.
Plus, if you have a bad gig, it didn’t cost you too much and you can just move on. If you have a bad festival, you are going to be angry for a long time and unlikely to attend another one.
Take planning
You can leave work at 5pm, get invited to a gig, and be there by 7pm. They are things that can happen on a whim, a spur-of-the-moment decision. See a band if playing tonight and go see them. Easy.
A music festival takes time to plan. How are you paying for it? Are you going to stock up on food now, or pay even more to eat at food vans all week? Need to book the time off of work too. Who’s driving there and back?
Festivals take time and it can get stressful. Gigs; not so much.
Outside. Muddy. Wet.
In the UK, the weather isn’t great. Our national sport is dashing from covered area to covered area and avoiding a sudden downpour.
Spending a week in a cold, muddy, water-logged field is absolutely not everyone’s idea of a great time. Concerts mostly take place indoors, in a warm room, where the only puddle is from spilled beer. You may still smell like sweat and cigarette smoke afterwards, but you won’t have mud under your fingernails for a month.
Concerts
Pros
Back-Catalogue
I mentioned above that festivals often do a ‘best-of’ set list. But if you see that band quite often, maybe you will get a bit sick of hearing their greatest hits, and want the back-catalogue stuff. Then a gig may be better for you.
At a smaller gig, the band knows the audience will be more interested and know the bands music better, so they may play some of the older stuff.
Evening event
With a concert, there is no need to book time off work, get a babysitter or have someone look after your cat. Go out after work to see a great band, and you can be back and in bed at your usual time, just with great music in between.
It’s much easier to just head off to a gig than a festival.
Indoor toilets
Festival toilets are notoriously awful, and I mean AWFUL.
Now, gig toilets aren’t exactly known for being pristine, but the worst gig toilet is still far better than any Glastonbury toilet after a few days (hours).
This may not seem like much, but the toilets are a big part of a gig/festival experience. You probably won’t remember a clean toilet, but you’ll remember the filthy ones!
Cons
Audio Quality
There is something about small-to-medium sized bands that can just make gigs sound awful. The audio check will take ages and work to make it perfect. But then the band comes on and it sounds like fireworks going off inside a metal bin. The smaller the band, the more this seems to happen.
Festivals have more money for quality equipment and a longer time to prepare the sound quality.
I’m not saying that all concerts have terrible sound, but you’re more likely to hate the sound at a gig in a pub than at Glastonbury.
Still Expensive
Concerts are expensive, there is no way around that.
They may be cheaper than a festival, but the cost of gigs is rising (Seriously, My Chemical Romance! How do emos have the money to afford that gig?!)
With Millenials and younger people looking to spend their money on ‘experiences’ more than stuff, things like gigs will get more expensive because they know people will pay it. It’s frustrating, but I dont see it changing any time soon.
Curfew
Festivals have curfews too, yes. At gigs however, they’re often earlier, and it’s getting worse. Anti-Noise legislation has made it easier to get venues to shut down and stop bothering the neighbours.
If this trend continues, then festivals may the next only place to hear bands on till late at night after a few years.
Also, as an aside: if you move next door to a music venue, and then complain about the noise: you suck.
Wrap Up
Now, obviously I’m not going to end this by saying either music festivals or concerts are better than the other, that’s not a claim I can make. It’s not something I can back up, and it’s not something I believe.
I love both gigs and music festivals, and I will continue to go to both.
Concerts are local, often, and still a lot cheaper than a festival. The chance to see small, up-and-coming bands is also a huge plus.
However, the excitement for next years festivals starts to build from the moment I leave the previous years festival. There is something about them that is big, exciting and unknown, even for festivals I have been to multiple times before.
I am a bigger fan of music festivals than concerts, but that is not a knock on concerts at all, I just like the event and scale that festivals offer.
