Music festivals, both outdoor and multi venue indoor, exist for a variety of reasons: to make a profit, realise new talent, bring footfall to a town and communion with your tribe. Your tribe is connected normally by a sense of what is musically pleasing, entertaining or in some other way has value. Sadly, that last point is becoming a problem in our divided times. The additional value of an artist is often the mirror to the world that their art holds up. Whether it's a medieval jester being the only person allowed to mock the monarch, LS Lowry reflecting the plight of the poor, the horrors of the trenches mused on by First World War war poets, or Woodstock, art in all its forms has pushed back, protested and pissed off those in power.
So if artists are being censured for their opinions, does this mean that in the third decade of the 21st century, our Music festival lineups must match politically as well as musically so we don't offend any listener that may have taken a delicate step outside their own (often online) echo chamber.
A case in point has been brought to light by the gentrification and middle class shift of the once highly political and socialist Glastonbury Festival. This year's festival was somehow marred in controversy because of the viewpoints of three or four artists butting up against the establishment. When Bob Vylan led a chant of 'death to the IDF', they were no more calling for fatalities against individuals than when IDLES sing 'Fuck The King', they are suggesting we should go all go and ask King Charles if he'd bend over for us.
So do we limit the acts on festival lineups or curate them? I'm asking this question as this writer is soon to be going to a festival lineup which by all accounts is what could be called ‘woke’ as both a compliment and an insult depending on who you are talking with. This date has been added since the newly available Bob Vylan have become both hero and, if you will pardon the pun, villain of these times. However, I would hope the audience for the acts on the bill should surely know the viewpoints of their particular favourites.
Bob Vylan, Snayx and Soapbox all signed the 'music for a ceasefire' OPEN LETTER in 2023 and are part of a lineup that also includes Hyphen (Hate Yachts, not Dinghies) and has been last minute added to an additional day of the alternative festival Burn It Down in Torbay. Here lies another possible contradiction: in Torbay during Labour's landslide general election win of 2024 Labour polled 7.1%, 12% less than Reform and 23% less than the Conservatives. So logically, only a small proportion of the local gig goers are in sympathy with these acts, will the local Council get involved?. But It shouldn't matter one bit - if you disagree enough with an act to NOT pay money to see them that that is your power as a consumer. What you should not be able to do is stop these viewpoints from being aired or dictate where they can be aired (are you listening Donald Trump?)
So come on down to Torbay on Thursday night of Burn It Down and be ready to be bombarded with woke ideology, feel free to bring your Palestinian flags, but also your Reform UK flags, and any other flag you want. That's the beauty of a free democracy: you can come along, pay your money and agree or disagree with the acts and each other. Ultimately it's Rock n Roll and no one ever said it was going to be safe.