European Festivals Plan to Avoid Future ToD Bookings
02/28/2007 -- by merlin

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Several promoters for major music festivals in Europe have vocally declared their intention not to book former festival favorites ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead after the band's distaste for the European-based galas was revealed in an uncanny off-the-record assault during a recent interview.

The scathing verbal decapitation was made by energetic drummer/guitarist Jason Reece in comments he was assured would be off the record by his German interviewer.  His remarks were recorded and later posted on the internet.  "[Your festivals are] all the same.  It doesn't make any difference if they're in Britain, Germany, or Moldova," Reece said in part.  "Our experience with festivals in America, Australia, and Asia has been much more positive.  They're not as watered down and are far less frequent.  Here you get the same bands playing each and every festival all summer long.  That might be okay if the bands were original and pushing boundaries, but they're not.  Most of the new acts are totally mediocre and more concerned with things other than the music.  They have to learn that once the buzz around your band wears off you have to start paying for [the other things] because organizers will quit handing it [all] over to you.  Take it from me, I've been there.  That rock star mentality of overindulgence is what brings your festivals down, man.  At American festivals they treat us like indentured servants and that's how it should be."

Per Hansen, a spokesman for the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, couldn't understand Reece's comparison to other world festivals and brushed aside his supposed first-hand knowledge as a categorical fabrication.  "You cannot even begin to compare European festivals to those in other parts of the world," Hansen explained.  "The things he mentioned [in his interview] simply do not happen at our festivals.  We would never tarnish ourselves in that way.  Our festivals are long established with a proud history of treating all our acts with the same bitter distain and distrust we treat our patrons."

"The fact that most European festivals book a similar lineup of artists isn't because we're greedy, unoriginal, or overtly bigoted.  Those traits are common in European society, not at our festivals."

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