Counting the costs

The line-up for this year's Green Man has been announced and (as ever) it doesn't disappoint. Among the names to have got me salivating in anticipation are Ty Segall, Beach House, Parquet Courts, Arab Strap, Jenny Hval, Cate Le Bon, Dry Cleaning, Mdou Moctar, Katy J Pearson, The Murder Capital and Black Country, New Road, plus a real coup of a headline set from Kraftwerk. But the biggest bonus of all is the fact that I'll get to see Low this year after all, despite having been daft enough to miss out on tickets for their forthcoming Bristol show.

The bill is testament to the festival's continued pulling power and the hard work of its organisers - and is all the more remarkable considering the circumstances. As Fiona Stewart told the Guardian's Rhian Jones recently, while ticket prices have increased, costs have risen by a significantly larger amount, and her team have "started to see real problems with sourcing goods and services".

These rising costs and "real problems", which are affecting live music at all levels, can inevitably be traced back to the two catastrophic events that continue to dominate the headlines: the pandemic (which caused a sudden and serious loss of revenue and, as IDLES tour agent Natasha Gregory pointed out, now means that no one can get insurance) and Brexit (which has brought with it visa headaches and charges as well as decimating the nation's live music infrastructure). While COVID-19 could of course have been better managed and contained, Brexit is even more infuriating as a totally self-inflicted wound.

One segment of Jones' article that made me do a double-take was Live Nation's comment that strong demand is justifying 'improved pricing'". This implies that, despite everything, they're pushing up ticket prices for no reason other than to maximise profits, safe in the knowledge that audiences starved of entertainment will cough up. Opportunistic corporate greed at its very worst. 

Whatever the circumstances, though, the fact is that going to gigs and festivals is becoming more and more expensive and therefore an increasingly privileged pursuit - a sorry state of affairs with regard to something that should be accessible to all.