Festivals in Edinburgh eh? Well that doesn’t happen very often…
The tourists have hardly vacated, the Fringe banners and venue markers are still held aloft and millions of discarded flyers have hardly been gathered into rubbish bags. Now, the line-ups for the two music festivals showcasing Scotland’s musical talent are slowly being revealed.
Personally, I have been looking forward to writing a blog post about this very subject for many weeks now. One of the very first things I had thought of was an EH1/Haddow showdown and you know what? I feel rather cheated…
Before I kick off and start a mild (and ridiculously long – too long of a) rant, this post is not aimed at any artists or bands who are involved in either festival and I do not want them to feel insulted by it. That is not my aim. Having witnessed a good majority of the artists lined up for both festivals I can say that they are all excellent in their own right and yes, you should go and see every single one if it is humanly possible. This post is me harbouring my own thoughts and you, the reader, may have an entirely different opinion and that is fine by me!
However, here is my own…
Trying to compare this year’s Haddow Fest and EH1 Live is like comparing Seriously Strong against Cathedral City . Yes one might be a tad more mature than the other and one might have a slightly larger price tag in your local Tesco Express store – hell I even find Seriously Strong to be too crumbly for my own taste – but they’re still fucking cheese and they are still fucking cheddar!!!
Maybe my initial reaction to the whole thing is a little overzealous. What was I really expecting? Well some diversity for a start! Too much to ask?
Let’s look at the facts;
The organisers of EH1 Live, which had its maiden outing last year, followed the same formula of a multi venue festival which has been organised by Haddow Fest over the past lots of years and decided that they could do it better. After all, the reports of last year’s Haddow Fest; bands being switched to different stage times at the last minute; fans turning up the advertised stage to see an act and were left bitterly disappointed as they found out said act had been moved to a new venue entirely; artists who were advertised to play and never knew anything about it – it is difficult to see anyone making more of a cock-up of a festival. EH1 Live however, did it well. What they provided was basically a showcase for unsigned talent (mainly indie bands from Edinburgh) and gave them a platform to play in front of audiences that may not have taken an interest in them without having a day pass to all the venues participating. For the most part it was successful although there were reports that some of the bands turned up to play without an audience to play to, probably because they were all rammed in the Liquid Rooms to see The 10:04s and The Dykeenies rather than sweat it out in the old GRV! However, the event did what it said on the tin and people left happy.
Haddow Fest was basically the same and it promised to be much more with the inclusion of old Johnny Borrell and his new band of cronies taking the headline slot. Okay, the day did not run smoothly and yes there appeared to have been some fairly rough managerial issues but what Haddow fest gave us was a festival that was a step up from what EH1 was inevitably going to give us later in the year. They had the likes of The Undertones and Broken Records on the bill as well as some variety in musical genres with dance, hip-hop, rock, emo and even a DJ Slot from Jim Gellatly. In the end the event ended up being maybe a bit too ambitious but what we had on paper was a truly fantastic lineup.
So, what was I expecting this year? Well, development from both festivals. Something that would take what they had learned from previous years and step it up a gear. What we got was the same old stuff repackaged on a new poster and sold to the loving public.
The line-up for EH1 Live has not really surprised people, in fact over half of the bands who are listed played the very same event last year. The surprise coup for me is the inclusion of two of the best bands from this year’s TBreak in Anderson McGinty Webster Ward and Fisher and Davey Horne. John Wean and Ok Social Club (note; also confirmed for Haddow Fest) are there too. However, last year EH1 scored with the presence of indie favourites The Dykeenies and I’m not sure if the bands that they have at the moment will be able to fill the shoes of such a well followed and respected act.
Haddow Fest for me has pulled it out of the bag with capturing Indie favourites The Cribs and indietronica favorites Hadouken! Yes, by booking these established and well followed artists Haddow Fest will sell many many tickets indeed. However, what about the rest of the acts? Well apart from the odd few we can probably expect near enough the same lineup as EH1 Live. To be fair to Haddow Fest they have only just issued their first press release of the first wave of artists confirmed to appear. Nevertheless eight of the twenty bands confirmed so far will also be playing EH1 Live only a month before. It does not really fill you with confidence that we will be seeing something altogether different. I might be entirely wrong! I hope I’m entirely wrong but where are the likes of Discopolis, Stanley Odd, Miaoux Miaoux, North Atlantic Oscillation to name but a few? Even the likes of Lost in Audio, 4dayweekend, Laki Mera, Beerjacket, Meursault, I can go on and on! There are a huge array of bands out there who would suit the bill for a festival looking for more established artists who are not already on the bill for either festival. The same can be said for EH1 Live but considering that they have confirmed their line-up for a while now then you cannot really fault them.
At the end of the day, what we have are two very similar beasts; both one-day multi venue festivals, both situated in Edinburgh. There is only so much you can do to provide the viewing public with a reason to come to one particular festival and for that it cannot be underestimated that the organisers of both have a very difficult job. The biggest pitfall for me is that both events are happening a mere SIX weeks between each other, in comparison to last year’s five months! As a consequence, it is inevitable that due to double dip recessions and times of economic hardships (fecking banks), punters will be flocking to one or the other, not both. For me that is a real shame as I genuinely want both festivals to do well and to keep coming back year after year. I personally want a reason to go to both but I’m not going to part with £40 of my hard earned cash (probably from the same pay check) to see what may turn out to be a very similar billing twice.
As I previously said, it is very early days yet for Haddow Fest but let us hope we can get two festivals that can stand on their own merits, both with outstanding lineups and give us a reason to fork out that hard earned cash to support both festivals. Of course it is inevitable that some artists will appear on both bills – there are only so many current Edinburgh bands after all and these are Edinburgh music festivals. Edinburgh must be represented. However, they both have a massive opportunity to trump each other and to get line-ups that are both unique to each event and yet stand up to each other in terms of excitement and to get the paying public’s attention.
As much as we both want to be a part of it EH1 Live and Haddow Fest, we implore you to show us what you can do. We need to be convinced…
EH1 Live; sunday 16th september – tickets here
haddow fest; sunday 28th october – tickets here
