TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Just had a message from Simon.
It seems to suggest all is not well regarding Cropredy.
Or am I wrong ?

Tell us more…

A message from Simon
Greetings friends, old, new and/or young,

I’m taking the unusual step of writing to you personally to keep you informed about Cropredy 2024. You’re used to us reminding you about the festival’s progress but this time I’m writing about longer term considerations.

These are very hard times for the UK festival industry. In 2023, thirty-six smaller events were either cancelled or endured financial collapse. We’ve stewarded Cropredy for the thick end of fifty years so we feel the crashing disappointment and pain of our fellow organisers.

So far this year the number of cancellations has already reached thirty-four, some of them a lot bigger than Cropredy. We’ve seen swingeing increases in the costs of staging the festival – everything from infrastructure to artist fees, diesel fuel, lighting, PA, and so on – without compromising health, safety and comfort.

Crucially, our festival has no sponsorship: Cropredy has to pay its own way. The fact is there can never be a ‘bad year’ for Cropredy - anything which isn’t self-supporting could mean the end of the line. Simple as that. Which is where you come in.

How you can help
We want your help to secure the future of Cropredy, an event which means so much to so many.

Whole tribes have been created in these postcodes and many families bring three or even more generations together. Some of our key people were first here as toddlers and have lifelong treasured memories to prove it.

Many of you regular Cropredy-goers will have a neighbour, workmate, cousin or sibling who you’ve regaled with stories of great bands unexpectedly discovered or happy encounters at the bar. They’ve watched you pack for the journey and seen you return - sometimes muddy perhaps but always lifted and recharged by the sense of community of those three days in the field.

Perhaps you’ve told them how great it was this year and how much they’d love it. Perhaps they think they’re too old or it’s ‘not our sort of thing’. But if every couple of you regulars push that little bit harder you might persuade them that this is the year to bite the bullet. In other words, help us by introducing new friends to Cropredy.

Your loyalty to Fairport, to Cropredy, and to our collective community is unmatched; and it’s far and away the achievement I’m proudest to have been part of. So I’m appealing to you personally to do a little recruiting between now and August. Bring a friend; make a friend and bring them!

Of course, some of you reading this may be Cropredy virgins yourselves. So if you haven’t been to our festival I urge you to take the plunge and join us this year. It really is a question of use it or lose it, I’m afraid.

We have an absolutely incredible line-up of acts and they’re all set to blow you away. So don’t miss Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2024 and do what you can to persuade a newbie to share the joy with you.

See you for another amazing weekend, OK? I can’t wait!

 

Love and thanks,

Simon

Concerning… 😥

The issue is as more and more fairport fans slip off the plate/ can no longer attend there need to be more newer attendees.
By booking bands that are mainly only remembered by those who are sixty plus (especially this year) it is totally unsurprising that it’s hard to attract new blood.
If there was a 80s /90s headliner this year it would attract more 50s and under.
I’m 51 and can’t remember the likes of ric wakeman, focus etc , I’d need to be well into my sixties.
It’s not rocket science
1) keep the same vibe
2) as people die off you need to book a few bands that the next 40/50 year olds can remember.
It’s all about getting the balance right.
In the email Simon says that the festival isn’t sponsored….
This year they should have approached saga or age concern.
I fear the damage is done
I as always will attend as I love the festival vibe , but this year I cannot relate to any of the main acts with the exception of fairport who I’ve grown to enjoy

Trevor horn …..again
Ric wakeman
Tony Christie.
Focus

Who in their right mind under 40 could I sell that to?
The replies would be
Trevor horn….who’s he??
Ric wakeman ….. I’ve heard of him , wasn’t he in some band in the sixties
Tony Christie…. Heard of him , what did he sing , road to Amarillo , oh yes , is he still alive he must be 90.
Focus…. Never heard of them

Now I’m in no way knocking any of the artists musical abilities and I’m not being cruel but they would be the answers I’d get.

I hate to be argumentative but most unless folk fans wouldn’t even know who fairport are if they’re under 50.

There in lies the problem
Alice cooper bought in fresh blood as although a 70’s star he did have hits in the 80’s and was a world class act
The waterboys were another 80’s band you could sell to people
Madness I actually got another couple of friends to go due to madness performing , again another 80’s band.

In a nutshell you can’t stuff a three day festival with bands that are from the sixties and expect them to still attract attendees…..
Many who enjoyed them in their prime are now dead.
That’s not harsh , it’s a fact of life

I think the festival is on thin ice down to a bad line up this year (to be fair other years have held their own and I really liked last year) but you live and die by your headline acts and someone’s decided to pack the festival with acts whose hardcore fans have died off rather than putting on at least one act who the main core of middle aged people and families can relate to.

What’s also of interest is the mystery act…
If he/she was going to be a decent act that would attract the fans it would have been announced by now given the begging bowls are out……
If I was organising it I’d be frantically looking around for an act to resonate with the main and future customers (the middle aged) rather than make it a festival for the people who were teenagers in the sixties and remember focus in their prime
I’ve mentioned this coming down the tracks for a few years now and unfortunately you reap what you sow

I hope the 60’s teenagers can get their friends to attend so the festival can continue because asking anyone under 40 to drag anyone along to see this line up would be futile and actually put them off coming in the future.
This is my 17th year and this is the only line up that does nothing for me in all that time
Il be going with friends because we get that it’s more than just the music but selling it to others … tricky

That sums up my thoughts, too.

Pretty much mine as well.  

I guarantee you that everybody that first went in the 80s (and 90s) will have those festivals as their favourite ones.  Every one since has been the law of diminishing returns.  It's stopped being a Fairport reunion (and their mates) festival and is, sadly, just another festival (with an echo of what it used to be around the village - although now much of that costs too).  

The economics (let's call a spade a spade, it's capitalism) and 'regulation' mean that it would be almost impossible to now return to it being that festival for 5-10k people who virtually all went with one intent - to celebrate the continued existence of Fairport Convention.  Now, they're a bit part in their own festival - and chasing shadows when it comes to trying to create a festival that works for enough people to make it all work.  I stopped a long time ago, but for me, this lineup is (in conclusion) weak.  

Personally, I think the best way of making this one work would have been to announce well in advance that they're taking a year out to reassess.  That way, demand would have been increased for both this year and, if they decided to continue, for 2026 as well.  It's sad, but some things do have their expiry date...and I do wonder if this (once?) wonderful festival might be one of them...

I also feel the main problem this year is the underwhelming lineup.
I will be there because it is Cropredy after all, but if I saw this prog yawnfest at any other festival I would definitely be giving it a wide berth!

The 2024 lineup's not particularly weaker than other years (although maybe a bit soon to have Trevor Horn's band back), however :

1) The main reason I ever went to Cropredy at all was to see a mega-Fairport Convention gig - their celebratory annual concert in front of a massive home crowd, surprises in the setlist, recreating past lineups, special guests, etc. It's undeniably a lovely festival with a very special atmosphere, but the diminishing significance of THE Fairport Saturday night concert has meant my interest has similarly diminished.

2) The cost. The elephant in the room. Now, I appreciate as per Simon's statement the cost of everything has gone up stupidly, but a weekend at Cropredy has become very expensive. It was an essential part of my year when tickets were £45-£75 for the weekend, however at today's prices (currently £245 including 3 day camping) it suddenly becomes a serious luxury item.

If they had the courage to put on a "fire sale" - e.g. as of now, all tickets £100 per person, get the punters in, get it sold out, then I might consider coming. Total fantasy scenario, though...

I (sadly) agree with all the comments made above. This will be my first Cropredy since 1989 that I’m not attending for the entire festival (bar the year when my daughter was born when I did a pretty knackering day trip). Thursday looks very weak to me, and the extra day off work/cost is something I was really struggling to justify. I also feel that in recent years the Saturday night Fairport set hasn’t really varied much from the Wintour. I love the festival and the band, and Cropredy really is a special place for me that holds a lot of very wonderful memories. Nothing stays the same forever, though…

As relative newcomers, this year marks the 20th anniversary of our first Croppers and is hopefully the last that we'll be camping at. At 68, I do actually remember Rick W. from Strawbs, Yes and Journey to the Centre of the Ice Rink. I also remember the original Focus and being able to sing along to Hocus Pocus when in my mid-teens, wrecking my vocal chords!

We attend / steward 4 festivals in the summer and they've all become less exciting with regard to the acts over the past years. COVID was a major factor in kicking audience numbers down and although lockdown actually introduced several new bands such as the Longest Johns, it seems that there's just very few bands coming along with the right combination of being excellent musicians, not costing a fortune and appealing to a wide age range.

Incidentally, one of the arguments I employed to successfully convince Wadworths to stock diet Coke rather than the full-fat variety a few years ago was that the demographic attending Cropredy meant that fully 40% of the crowd were either already diabetic or on the verge and being careful about sugar consumption.

I was concerned when I first read Simon's note but my reaction was tempered by their having had a very long run, plus they're all, well, pensioners as are most of the crowd. I actually expected when I saw the subject of the email to open it and find this was the last Croppers in its current form, with Fairport headlining. That day must be coming and if not, I think it will peter out in the next few years, which is sad, but almost inevitable.

How many years now have people been saying they don't go for the acts, but to meet all their friends that have survived the year? That isn't a sustainable business model, in my opinion.

Another factor could well be the increasing popularity of the fringe festivals. There must be a fair few who go for the cheaper option of the Brasenose or Field 8 whereby they can soak in the Cropredy atmosphere without the expense.

I tend to think ( along with the obvious financial situation) the growth of so many festivals, coinciding with the rise of the ‘insta-culture’ may have an effect. People who subscribe to that way of life, may not find that a festival like Cropredy, which sticks to its loved formula,  fits their need.

Whereas it means the world to those who have been involved for ‘what it is’ and looked forward to it for many years. It’s a bit like a childhood family home…you don’t want to lose it even if you are no longer able to visit very often. But the inevitable will loom  :'(

Only been to the one so I really can't do a deep analysis. But the analysis above is probably very fair, but I wonder if the band would be damned if they went too far in the other direction-only booking acts guaranteed to bring a youth movement in, to get grumbles from people who like their music of a certain vintage. That doesn't apply to the people on this forum I hasten to add. Here is a diverse range of music fans, but using people from my own age bracket as a sampler, most would not be a fan of newer music in general. The new album from an estabilished artist, yes. But a group 2 or 3 albums in...not so sure. I fear the other aspect is that Simon's famous quote about why shouldn't there be a Fairport in 50 or 60 years from now has never happened either, so the steady as she goes approach (much as I like it musically) is not going to shake things up.

From a Fairport fan point of view, I think I'd now prefer a two-day indoor (Union Chapel, 900 capacity? Possibly somewhere a bit bigger - say £120 x 900 is £108k) 'festival' of Fairport and their alumni and mates.  Sell the Cropredy festival and put your feet up on that score - who needs the hassle any more.  If someone else wants to make a go of it, so be it, otherwise let the 'fringe' events have their way in the village.

The day it tried to adapt to appeal to a very young demographic, it wouldn't be Cropredy any more.

It hasn't been Cropredy any more since Chris Pegg was last involved.  Or more accurately - it has been on a constant move away from what it is since that moment...the change of name crystallised that...

It does need adapting though as the older demographic it currently appeals to are dying off….
It just needs a balance.
A headliner that appeals to people who are middle aged rather than old aged.
Like it or not , they are the future of the festival and need catering for , the line up this year doesn’t , sales are down and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
This years line up appeals to pensioners and not the general public.
Il be there , the main acts do not enthrall but I love the vibe.
My sad opinion is that unless the organisers get in fresh blood to book the acts to appeal to a broader age range but keeping the present values and musical variety (no problem with that , in fact it’s a big plus for me) then the festival will finish.
I hope that doesn’t happen and it certainly doesn’t need major surgery just more thought for the age demographic.
If there was one major act that was from the 80’s playing this year I can guarantee the ticket sales would increase.
There isn’t
They aren’t

This would work for me, and something that I’d love to see happen rather than slow Cropredy decline…

Well what can I say? It seems the younger generation are very different to us. Phones out whilst watching a live show? Just enjoy the moment! Coachella, America's answer to Glasto has proved that this year, inundated with "Influencers" making a quick buck with their fashion choices, and not having a clue about the music...'Blur" comes to mind. With the tick tok crowd and music at the touch of a button, they have no idea of the anticipation of queuing to see your fave band, the rush to be at the front and then the utter enjoyment of seeing a live band with proper musicianship. With A I coming, I see the demise of live bands, think Abba, sad to think this is the future...so let us go out and enjoy live music whilst we still can. I think the expansion of the fringe has also had an effect, however a lot of stuff is now ticket only and not the freebies it used to be.  If (let's hope not) this is our last Croppers....I'll be there, not many acts are my cup of tea, but I will enjoy every moment and recall the great memories of the times I have been there. Then go home and watch holograms of bands I loved and feel sorry for this younger generation who just don't get it!!

That seems like an impossible circle to square - it's as though you're saying they need to change the festival completely in order to appeal to the original audience.  Fresh blood booking the acts will, by default, automatically exclude the (well,the dwindling remains of) the original audience... Won't it?

HOW MUCH?

Indeed. Screenshot of current 3 day ticket prices from the FC website. Plus £55 for a 3 day camping ticket = £245.

I certainly don’t want a radical overhaul but to put it in a nutshell to anyone in their mid forties it’d be easier for me to sell a festival to them with the likes of madness or the waterboys etc who are bands they remember from their youth than the likes of focus , ric wakeman and Tony Christie who would be well before their time , only pensioners would remember them in their prime and pensioners regrettably are not the future of the festival , that’s not being unkind it’s a fact , the pensioners children and grandkids are the future of the festival and imo this years line up would only appeal to a small percentage of a target audience (that’s if the target audience isn’t just people 60 plus)
Like it or not a big 80’s headliner is now needed each year , nothing else much needs to change , it’s evolution not revolution.
The year madness played a lot of people turned up as they were an act that families wanted to see and I dare say a lot of older attendees also enjoyed it.
This line up has been ill thought out , lazy in the case of booking the TH band again so soon and does not have pulling power to attract many floating attendees.
That’s a job for the organisers and imho it should have been evident to them when booking the bands.
Every year up until now has been a triumph but this year they’ve got it wrong.
The last time ric wakeman played he was no where near headlining and please excuse my ignorance but what has he actually done in the intervening years to suddenly change this and make him headline the bill?
If anyone can explain this I’d love to know.

I think fairport is an amazing festival and couldn’t think of life without it but let’s not kid ourselves ,music festivals live and die by their line ups and this one imo is poor for the reasons I’ve listed above.
I absolutely hope the festival can survive after this setback but I only believe it would if the above advice is heeded ….. and no I don’t know everything before anyone asks but I truly stand by my convictions regards this.

I don't think its impossible. What makes Cropredy unique (or at least unusual) is the fact that the original audience now bring their children and grandchildren. Its also a safe and friendly environment. So market and cater for this with acts from as many decades as possible, perhaps with a weighting towards folk music. There is also only one stage, so emphasise families enjoying music together. Fresh blood booking acts doesn't have to exclude the original audience, just widen the net a bit.

Is that hopelessly naive?

It excludes the original audience because the original audience was Fairport's and Fairport have become simply an addendum to the festival (gradually, over the last 20 years).

Fairport are a Sixties band.
They weren't hugely successful then.
You can book Taylor Swift for Thursday night, but I doubt the field would be as populated by the time Dige came on.
Petula and Christie are not really the way to go either.
There was a contestant on Britain's Got Talent, or whatever it was, a pensioner, who came on, whipped off her granny clothes and ripped into an AC/DC song.
Robert Plant is 76.
Granny might have been a Percy groupie back in the day.
Songs don't have intros or endings anymore, because if there's not an exciting hook, the yoof, with the attention span of a deceased goldfish, swipe to the next song (with their decomposing fins, obviously). Well, not ALL the yoof. Some of them enjoy music beyond a catchy 'Woah, woah, woah.'
I remember when Thursday was music free and chill out time, and a young girl with her parents was talking to her friend on one of those new fangled mobile phones, 'It's OK, but it's full of OLD people.'
That was then, and it really is now.
At some point, it's going to take all of Thursday for us to shunt our way across the field, chairs and oxygen tanks strapped to our Zimmer frames to claim 'our spot.'
Our grand kids are going to be waiting for someone to start dancing around the stage, head mic engaged, rather than all those people playing, what are they called, Violets, or something ?

I didn't go last year, voluntarily, for the first time in nearly 35 years.
Cropredy has been like going home for such a long time.
I'm planning on doing just the Saturday this year.
I'd love to do the whole weekend next year.
We shall see.

(p.s I was typing this while David posted. It's not in response to him.)

Respect to your Gran.

Jimmy Page is 79.  His long term girlfriend (34) is younger than my daughter.  They're (apparently) planning to have a baby together this year.

I'm not sure what any of this proves ;) ;D

Looking back at one of the few times I've made it down to Cropredy, 2011 had a pretty good line-up which brought in younger music fans with The Coral (who I very much enjoyed) and Badly Drawn Boy (less so). Then we had Hayseed Dixie and The Blockheads who were, and still are, bands who will go down well at any festival. Headliner Seasick Steve might well have had John Paul Jones on bass and for the folkies there was The Shee, Lau and Urban Folk Quartet. Add in UB40, Horslips, the Dylan Project and Fairport and that was one good festival.

So from all the comments posted so far on this thread I reckon this line-up came close to ticking all the right boxes for making the future of Cropredy look a bit rosier.

This is what a decent Cropredy lineup looks like to me.  Throw in a wonderful Thursday in and around the village and bob's your mother's brother.  You're all invited to my 21st birthday party, too... ;D

Friday 14th
Le Rue
Gordon Giltrap
John Martyn & Danny Thompson

Saturday 15th
The Steve Ashley Band
Mara !
Chicken Shack
Muzsikás
Whippersnapper
Richard Thompson
Fairport Convention with Special Guests:

Richard Thompson
Dave Swarbrick
Ian Anderson
Martin Barre
Ralph McTell
Jerry Donahue
Cathy LeSurf
June Tabor

I'm not sure what either of MY grans would thought of Percy, as opposed to the BGT one, but when we saw him in Ibiza just after the Knebworth concerts, my mom was keen to have a go.

Jimmy, allegedly, has always liked the younger lady.

As to your line up suggestion, that's the sort of Croppers that hooked me in.

So, we have a letter from Simon pushing ticket sales, telling us costs have risen and that the festival has no sponsorship etc etc.

Don't we get this almost every year though - maybe not quite as dramatic but FC make a point of reminding us that Cropredy depends on ticket sales and the support of "The Crowd".

Everyone's costs are spiralling but ask yourself how much did you earn in 2010? Half of what you earn now - because the festival cost £85 then.

With several tours each year / cruise trips / off the desk Cds / assorted merch I feel that FC are close to milking the faithful pretty dry and maybe Cropredy is suffering from that.

DW

My first Cropredy  :D

I think many of fairport original fans are now dead.
You can’t get away from that fact.
That indeed excludes them.
The original fans that still attend are obviously a minority and plenty that are still alive can no longer attend due to health mobility issues.
That’d be the same for every sixties band, it’s just the passing of time.
You cannot base a festival around bands that appeal to a minority and fail to cast an eye to the future.

I hadn’t a clue who fairport were when I attended my first cropredy in 2008 but they grew on me and I enjoy them immensely now.
Therein is the point.
You have to keep the festival relevant
No open heart surgery
Just some tinkering.
All it needs is one family orientated headliner that appeals to middle aged families and if that’s seen as a deal breaker by pensioners who don’t want that then I’m afraid the festival is dead….(by the way they don’t mind because after watching Alice cooper , madness etc they still attend)
This year does not have a headliner that will attract the middle aged and the tickets are unsold , look on Facebook etc , many have said exactly the same and are in fact attending other festivals instead , so it is indeed a line up that is unappealing to them.
THEM being the future of the festival.
You book madness or someone similar as next Thursdays headliner and they’ll be back.
That’s just fine tinkering, the rest stays the same.
Let’s hope it survives.

Maybe they should announce who the special guest is going to be.

The nearest parallel to Cropredy that I can think of is Beautiful Days (no corporate sponsorship, the leveller’s festival, etc). From my recent attendances, I’d guess that their average audience age is c10 years or so younger than Cropredy. I think their numbers are capped at 10,000. In my opinion, their line-up is streets ahead of Cropredy this year, with something for everyone (as a side-note, we were amongst the oldest at a sold-out and heaving Longest Johns gig of c600; brilliant band!). Im pretty sure that their ticket sales are v healthy from what I’ve heard. I think my point is that once your unique selling point (for Cropredy it is/was the band, the fantastic location and a great chance to catch up with old friends) is no longer the main draw, lineup is everything.

That's true, but BD is a multistage event on a bigger site, so they are able to cover a wider range of music, more choice and attract a wider demographic.
The Levellers came to prominence a good 20-30 years after Fairport, and actually had enough top 40 hits to make a bona fide Greatest Hits album.
Most of the acts tend to be 80's, 90's and 00's, give or take the odd Hawkwind or Van Der Graf, so they have that advantage too.
The year Cropredy had Supergrass on did not go too well on the feral yoof front.

That seems very pertinent.

Excellent point, Mike, re: multiple stages, which I hadn’t considered. Is Cropredy the only festival with one stage?

Although it could, depending on who they are, actually make things worse?  A shrug of the shoulders is probably not what is needed here?

That depends on the size of the festival, generally.
The bigger festivals tend to have multi-stages, dance tents, cabaret tents and so on.
Smaller, folky type fests will have one or two.
Cropredy, as David pointed out, used to be mostly FC off shoots with Fairport as the climax to the weekend.
The 'fringe' used to be pub bands in the two, well, pubs, if you weren't interested in the act on the main stage.
That has now took on a surrogate alternative role to the actual event, with bigger names to draw you away from the main stage.
The Thursday headliner now has more importance than Fairport, and that's sad.

I can't see a new generation of Fairport fans coming in to replace us, - instead, new attendees are coming to hear top 40 hits from some Eighties act. Get Boy George or Bananananananarama on and it will probably sell loads.
They aren't Cropredy music.

Since the onset of the sea of chairs, I find myself with the choice of either being at the front or the back.
Obviously, people at the front are there to enjoy the music.
If I am at the back, there is hardly anybody engaged in the music at all.
They are having a picnic or chatting or whatever.
They only pay attention when there's a 'hit.'
'Oh, I know this one !'
It doesn't even have to be the original artist.
'Two Tribes' and 'Relax' may get them excited, but Frankie Goes To Hollywood have never been near the stage.
Maybe Trev will bring Holly on this year.

(I have Frankie, Culture Club and 'Nana records b.t.w, but this is Fairport's gig.)
(As another b.t.w, I have yet to see the Levellers at Beautiful Days..one year I watched Alison Moyet in the Big Top instead.)

Folk By The Oak started off as a one stage festival but they then added a small second stage which I think has bands on during the breaks between acts on the main stage. But then it is just a one day festival.

I haven't been to the Underneath the Stars festival but I'm wondering if it has similarities to Cropredy as it is centred round one artist, in this case Kate Rusby. From a quick look at its website it looks like they have two stages. Not a bad line up this year though I'm not familiar with The Feeling who headline on the Saturday.

The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican are playing with their latest recruit the Rt Rev J R Doonican III aka Jamie Roberts.

https://www.underneaththestarsfest.co.uk/line-up

Underneath the Stars does have two stages (Big Top Tents). But there is only one act on at a time.

My feeling (as I think I mentioned before) is that it will be someone who is a (reasonably) big name, but they will only do a 20 min slot just before Fairport (or with Fairport?), and if they named them, there would be complaints from people who bought tickets expecting to see a full set.  I may, of course, be completely wrong... (it has been known).

I think I'm right in saying that previously announced 'special guests' have always played with Fairport, not as a separate unbilled act.  I can't think of any exceptions to that - can anyone?

Big Country were billed as "special guests" back in 2012 but ...

DW

So named on the bill, but described as 'special guests'?

I can't help but feel that if announcing the guest would enhance ticket sales, they'd have done it by now.

I wonder if reverting to the 2-day format might be worth consideration?

The trouble with that is that the Thursday in the village (which used to be a highpoint of the festivals for me) has been ruined by the pubs wanting their own festivals and charging for them....

Roger Hodgson?

He was an unannounced surprise guest with FC, like Gary Brooker, Joe Brown, Planty, Roy Wood before him.
Also Yusuf Stevens, except he let the 'Cat' out of the bag himself.

So many different categories of surprise guests! Yes, he was indeed of the ‘unannounced, surprise’ category as opposed to the normal ‘surprise’ category or the ‘un-named special guest’ category etc…..

Equally, BDs is a non-sponsored festival, capped at 17.5K attendees and with the extra cost of the infrastructure needed to put on all those extra stages, weekend prices are pretty comparable and they’ve (significantly, I think) already sold out all the camper van tickets. I think it’s about the line-up.

I think the significant difference is that, from the off, BD has been a festival that everybody knows is the Levellers' but it's been deliberately curated to appeal to a much wider audience than just their own, and the different venues permit (even encourage) that.  Unfortunately, the one stage setup in the current festival market just looks far too restrictive...and they've now lost that option because others in the village are offering that alternative and raking off the profits associated with it... opportunity lost.

@davidmjs #word 👍

I agree with this
If ticket sales are slow but you have one excellent joker in the pack left to play knowing that him / she /they would be the draw needed to sell the tickets you’d be announcing it by now….
The fact it’s not been announced sets alarm bells ringing.

Let’s all donate a tenner each to a just giving page to get a top act booked if it saves the future of the festival
I understand the act may not please everyone but a £10 donation and you get a patch/badge showing you helped support the festival.
If I had to pay a tenner to help buy an act and help the festival sell out I wouldn’t hesitate…,
Is that feasible or bonkers?

Also, not to decry the business model, but if you do want to see the band play, it’s not like there aren’t two tours a year where you can see them in a more convenient (seated) venue closer to home.

Well, it's not feasible for 2024 because any good acts have been booked up for this summer for months. A lot of acts are already getting booked for 2025.

As to 2026 and beyond, who knows? That's 2 years hence and when you look at events in the last 2, a helluva lot can happen in that time.

I may be wrong, but I think I remember Peggy saying that Cropredy is the means by which the funds to finance the tours, album and DVD releases and merch is raised.
Probably to fund the next years festival too.

I can't remember the interview, but Peggy looked worried that there wasn't going to be much of a walk up on the weekend.

As evidenced elsewhere, Patreon might seem like the way forward. A regular monthly fee for access to exclusive content, unreleased recordings (if any 🤔😁) and priority booking.

I first went to Cropredy in 1984, but over the next two decades I only attended sporadically, due to family, finances and, you know, life! Since my kids grew up and especially since my retirement, I've been able to go more often. However, as has been mentioned already, old age brings with it other issues. For instance, I've given up regular camping, as it's literally, a pain! In the last few years I tried hiring a camper van at ridiculous expense and (last year) gone glamping at ridiculous expense. I'm glamping again this year, but I don't know if that is sustainable in the long term. The line up doesn't really inspire me and, as others have said, if it wasn't Cropredy, I'm not sure I would have bothered.

I'm not a huge prog fan, but can take it in small doses. Unfortunately some pretty large doses appear to be on the menu. Trevor Horn for the third time in a few years isn't really an attraction to me. Ironically, my daughter who is coming with me for the first time since 1984 (when she was 6 months old ;D) is looking forward to hearing his 'greatest hits' act. She is also a Fairport fan, having been with me to see them on many occasions on Wintours etc, so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of the festival as a whole. Time marches on and, I suppose, the inevitable happens.

I can't see Fairport doing much to change the current state of affairs, and if they did, maybe it's too late for it to make much of a difference anyway. Still, it's a bit of un, isn't it? No, seriously, isn't it?! :o