All Tomorrow's (Christmas) Parties

So the Parties are over. It's been announced that last weekend's Animal-Collective-curated ATP was the last May event - for the time being, at least.

No reason's been given, but presumably poor ticket sales will have had an impact - the event didn't sell out, I don't think, and the running times indicate that the Main Stage wasn't even required, everything being squeezed into the Centre Stage, Reds or the Crazy Horse. The line-up wasn't great, either - not enough to tempt those of us who are huge fans of Animal Collective's last album Merriweather Post Pavilion but who know only too well how truly awful they are live.

Looking beyond last weekend's bash specifically, it can't be cheap to secure the entire site for a whole weekend or two in May, when the weather would probably mean normal guests wouldn't be too hard to come by. Bar takings will be astronomical over ATP weekends, relatively speaking, but Butlins must miss out in other respects. Much better for them that ATP take over in early December, when the days are short, the town's deathly quiet, the beach deserted and prospective holidaymakers extremely scarce.

As for ATP, they've now added to the calendar the two-day I'll Be Your Mirror event, which I suspect has been dreamt up as an indirect replacement for the May weekends. The already mouthwatering inaugural bill, headlined by Portishead, has been augmented further with the addition of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but it would be sad if the weekends disappear altogether in favour of such day-long affairs with no on-site accommodation. After all, where else can you hear Explosions In The Sky in a Pizza Hut, stumble around looking for Steve Albini's poker den or find yourself drawn into Los Campesinos!' Dancing Circle game?

Incidentally, of the latest additions to the bill for the multi-curator festival in December, the ones to catch my eye were Oxes. If their set's anything like as good as at the Cellar two and a half years ago, we're in for an absolute treat. But damn Les Savy Fav's good taste, though - they join the already crammed Friday night line-up, together with No Age, Holy Fuck, Marnie Stern and Les Savy Fav themselves. The rest of the weekend may be spent having a long lie down...