音乐节热潮——约翰·吉丁、梅尔文·本、彼得·佛罗伦斯
讲座背景
如今，形形色色的音乐节发展得越来越火爆。通常一个音乐节会持续数天，如同一场大型庆祝聚会一般。而音乐节的魅力除了与心仪的偶像零距离接触以外，还为年轻人提供了一个狂欢的场所。他们往往会精心打扮，前去参与这样庞大的音乐盛宴。
然而，并非所有的音乐节都会大获成功，使得音乐爱好者们趋之若鹜地前往。那么，决定一场音乐节成功与否的因素是什么呢？
2008年，英国公开大学的财经栏目小组采访了三位音乐节主办方的相关人员，谈到了举办音乐节对一个地区会带来哪些影响。毕业于哈佛大学设计学院的建筑师、电视演员、设计师约翰·吉丁（John Gidding）谈到了邀请哪些表演者前来参与的重要性以及举办音乐节对地区经济的积极影响。梅尔文·本（Melvin Benn）是Festival Republic音乐节的总经理，他谈到了举办音乐节的盈利模式。彼得·佛罗伦斯（Peter Florence）则是海氏音乐节总监，他主要谈到了作为主办方的一些想法。
John Gidding
On the importance of headliners
You just have to gauge it yourself.I remember,last year,I booked the Rolling Stones after wed sold the event out.And everybody said to me why do you want to pay them all of that money when you could have made that as profit? And I thought well,if I got run over on the Monday at least I was the person who brought the Rolling Stones to the Isle of Wight.
And also,what it does is,you can go to the Foo Fighters,to Muse and say we had the Rolling Stones last year.And its all to do with that premier league of artists.I remember with Coldplay they kept saying no,no,no,then they did the Brits,and they said you wont be seeing us for a long time,and the press interpreted it as them splitting up.And I said well the way to prove youre not splitting up is to come and play the Isle of Wight Festival,which they did.
Its a combination of knowing whats going on,were lucky weve been in the music business a long time,so we know what these headline attractions can draw when they do their own shows.
On the competitive market
I think in England there are four major festivals.The Isle of Wight,Glastonbury,the Vs and Leeds Reading,and that means there are 11 nights a year that have to be filled by major headliners,so thats a competition in itself,you are bound to get some repeats.
Theres also a raft of other events every weekend,boutique festivals that are competing against you because how much money have people got? Do they want to go to a festival every weekend? And whats becoming more apparent is kids are more prepared to travel to southern Europe because the weather is more guaranteed,and its cheaper to get in.They get a bigger range of UKbased artists because they dont mean that much south of the Isle of Wight,so theyll play for cheaper abroad.
约翰·吉丁
关于参与艺人的重要性
你只需自己衡量。我记得去年，我们把音乐节的票全部卖出去之后，我预约了滚石乐队。所有人都对我说，你本来可以从中赚取利润的，为什么你要把这钱都给了他们？而我想，嗯，如果星期一我的音乐节赔钱了，但至少是我把滚石乐队带到怀特岛的。
而如果你这样做的话，当你邀请喷火战机乐队和缪斯乐队时，你就可以说——去年我们这儿举办了滚石演唱会。对于那些超级巨星，这就是我要做的全部了。我记得酷玩乐队一直在说不，不，不，然后他们就获得了全英音乐奖。在现场他们说，你们将会有很长一段时间看不到我们了。而媒体把这段话理解为他们的乐团要解散了。我对他们说，嗯，证明你们没有解散的最好办法就是你们在怀特岛开一场演唱会，他们确实这样做了。
你需要了解所有这些事情的发展情况，幸运的是我们身处音乐行业已有很长时间了，所以我们知道在这个竞争激烈的市场上，什么样的新闻标题能够把他们吸引过来举办他们的演唱会。
关于市场竞争
我认为英国有四大音乐节，分别是怀特岛音乐节，格拉斯顿伯里音乐节，V音乐节以及雷丁利兹音乐节，这就是说，英国每年至少有11个夜晚会被这些大牌艺人占据。这本身就存在竞争，因为你肯定会看到重复出现的人。
每个周末你也会碰到大量的其他事件，那些制作精良的音乐节会给你造成矛盾，比如说，人们有多少钱呢？他们每周都想去参加一个音乐节吗？而最明显的是孩子们更愿意到欧洲南部去旅游，因为那边更有可能会有好天气，而且花费不高。他们接触到的艺术家范围更广，因为这些人在怀特岛以南不被赏识，从而在海外靠较低的收入卖艺为生。
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