Why is the festival world so mind-numbingly boring and averse to risk these days? It’s a question Ears To The House has posed before – because this naturally conservative natured beast is being especially dull this year. And week after week, our inbox fills up with listings for festivals which pretty much confirm everything we said.
Another one arrived today which looks – well, just like the other eight which were sent to us in the past week. David Guetta, Amelie Lens, Claptone, Oliver Heldens and Jamie Jones are just some of the names we won’t be racing to go and see at Untold Festival, due to take place in Romania early next month. If you fancy a large dose of eye strain, you can see the full list on this poster…
How this festival will go obviously remains to be seen – but the feedback we’ve been seeing and receiving about this year’s events are quite surprising. After two years of pandemic restrictions which meant most festivals couldn’t take place at all, one might imagine they’d have taken the time to make sure this year’s events were the best, most memorable ones they’d ever done.
Yet the story we keep hearing time and time again is most of the fare on offer in 2022 consists of bland music, terrible track selection and hopeless mixing skills. It all makes us wonder exactly what festival organisers, not to mention DJs, have been doing for the past two years. The new age looks suspiciously similar to the old age.
Why must the dance music world tolerate this mediocrity – especially with the fees some of the biggest DJs are now commanding?
