13 September 2010
Newsdesk
After receiving a rapturous welcome back at the Reading and Leeds festival, The Libertines have scooped three accolades in this year’s NME Festival Poll, released today. The reuniting of The Libertines has been named the defining moment of the summer and best comeback of the summer, whilst The Libertines song, ‘Don’t look back into The Sun’, has been named anthem of the festival season!
Over 4000 festival goers logged onto NME.com to have their say on the highs and lows of the summer festival season, and interestingly, the large majority of festival goers did not get high! 73% of festival goers did not take any drugs at music events this summer.
Of those that did, most were using cannabis (21%) followed by ecstasy (7%) and MDMA (6%) with methadrone only taken by 4%. Legal highs were equally absent with only 11% taking them. Whilst the rising use of methadrone and legal highs may have been a big media story, the results of this annual survey show that this could all be government hype as festival goers were far more interested in what was happening on the stages.
Following incidents at Latitude, safety was an issue that dominated the festival season. However, its good news for festival organisers as 91% said they do feel safe on site at festivals.
There’s more good news for the organisers of Reading and Leeds festival after the August Bank holiday extravaganza retained the title of the UK’s favourite festival, beating Glastonbury for the fourth year in a row!
It was not such good news for Reading and Leeds headliners however. Guns n Roses have been named ‘Let down of the Summer’ proving it wasn’t just the music critics who thought their late running set was far from a top billing performance.
The cost of summer festivals rose again in 2010 but it seems that this will not put off music fans from returning in 2011. Whilst 71% agreed they were too expensive, 83% said they plan to go again next year. However 37% admitted that the cost of festivals had meant they had to choose a festival over a holiday this summer and with average person spending £379.16 on festivals it’s easy to see why.
Music lovers may have hung up their wellies for 2010, but their already thinking about 2011 – Strokes are the first choice for top billing in 2011. 10 per cent of those polled appealed for the US rockers to lead the line ups next year, narrowly beating The Libertines (9%) and David
Bowie (8%). The band they’d most like to see re-unite is still not clear with Led Zepellin and Oasis on level pegging with 23% of the vote.
The NME Festival Poll Results (Top 5):
Best Festival
Reading and Leeds 42%
Glastonbury 24%
= T In The Park 8%
= V Festival 8%
Download 3%
Best Small Festival
Camden Crawl 16%
Standon Calling 10%
Camp Bestival 7%
Secret Garden party 6%
Green Man 5%
Which do you prefer, major UK festivals or smaller ‘boutique’ festivals?
Big 75%
Boutique 12%
Don’t know 13%
2010's Defining Festival Moment
The Libertines' comeback 34%
The sun shining at Glasto 18%
Reunions! 10%
Reading and Leeds mud and floods 10%
The Edge with Muse at Glasto 8%
Biggest Festival Let-Down
Guns N' Roses at Reading and Leeds 30%
Ticket prices rising again 24%
Gorillaz' Glasto set 11%
U2 pulling out of Glasto 8%
Football taking over 6%
Best Festival Comeback
The Libertines 44%
Blink-182 23%
The Strokes 13%
Eminem 8%
Pavement 3%
Best New Band of the summer
The Drums 25%
Marina and the Diamoinds 10%
Ellie Goulding 9%
Magnetic Man 8%
Everything Everything 6%
Anthem of the summer
The Libertines – 'Don’t Look back into the Sun' 21%
Arcade Fire – 'Wake Up' 11%
Kasabian – 'Fire' 11%
Blink 182 – 'What's My Age Again' 8%
Muse – 'Plug in Baby' 6%
Did you take illegal drugs?
Yes 26%
No 74%
Of those who did, the most popular drugs were:
Cannabis 21%
Ecstacy 8%
MDMA 7%
Cocaine 6%
Methadrone 4%
Are Festivals to Expensive?
Yes 71%
No 21%
Not sure 8%
Will you go again next year?
Yes: 83%
No: 2%
Not sure 15%
Who should headline next year?
The Strokes 10%
The Libertines 9%
David Bowie 8%
Foo Fighters 7%
Muse 6%
Who do you want to reunite for 2011 festivals?
Oasis 23%
Led Zeppelin 23%
The Stone Roses 19%
Pulp 13%
New Order 6%
