I found a new channel on cable last night... I forget the name; it begins with a P, I think. Whatever it's called, it seems like another MTV/VH1 spin-off, showing only live (well, pre-recorded live concerts) concerts, in hi-def. That's pretty cool. For now anyway. Since it's likely an MTV sibling, I give them 6 months before they're running repeats of shitty music-related movies, nostalgia clip shows and crappy celebrity reality shows, and have moved the actual concerts to two hours late Sunday night - the way all the MTV spin-offs have. Until that happens, though, hi-def concerts!
Last night, they were showing some of the last Glastonbury Festival. I noticed something in the crowd that seemed especially strange to me, something that would never be allowed at shows in the US: people near the front of the stage were waving huge flags on really long poles (for example). Unlike that link, there were dozens and dozens of them. Some were national flags from around the world, some looked like sports teams, some were homemade fan signs, one really long tall one said "I ♥ Sausage". And when they switched to one of the crowd-view cameras, you literally couldn't see the stage for all the flags.
Why do concert venues in the UK allow / permit this?
In America, anyone waving a flag like that for more than a couple of minutes would get his ass beat by some meathead whose girlfriend couldn't see.
This has been a big issue for festival-goers this summer so the recent Reading/Leeds festivals banned flags altogether. Glastonbury might do the same from next year.
To be honest if I’d paid £150 to go to Glastonbury and then couldn’t see sweet FA because of these flag-waving tossers, I’d want a refund.
Not everyone agrees: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/aug/26/reading-festival-flags-ban
More here: http://www.nme.com/news/glastonbury/46909
BTW, it’s only in the last couple of years that these flags have got out of hand. People only have them so they can be spotted on the telly – ‘Mum, I’ll be stood next to the giant cock flag, OK?’
I was at Glastonbury this year – and I saw the I heart sausage flag and took loads of pictures of it. Then found it later in Shangri-la (a trash/art area), it was the sign for one of the food stalls that served… wait for it… sausage. Anyway, I must admit the signs do get a bit out of hand. But they are fun. For example, during Tom Jones there were at least 20 Welsh flags visible from where my friends and I were sitting on the hill in the back. It was a sort of patriotic, but of course we couldnt see anything. But we were that far back, it was better to watch the jumbotrons anyway. Then when I was near the front for Spinal Tap I could still see because the flags are on such long poles. But like Rob said, the flag thing is catching on and I wouldnt be surprised if in the next year or two, the flags will reach critical mass and be banned. Which is too bad, because there are some really cool flags out there, but some people (the ones who wave windsocks & the millions Aussie flags) have to ruin it for everyone!