Showcasing gets more and more complicated since it becomes more and more vital for artists that really want a career. The festivals provide the gateway to a more and more international global market.

So far it has been quite fair. The best discoveries have been invited and you had special stages for organizations (bookers, export offices, record labels etc).

Now I can see a rising trend to buy into festivals. Last year one of the bigger one in Europe didn’t even have application almost all stages were bought by organizations.

The problem with this is that the organizations in many cases demand to have their own picking of bands. The organizations also have an agenda and are not always pick the best and choose more political.

Okay, many are going to showcase festivals to meet people in the business and not so much seeing bands. Still, I can see the quality going really down on some festivals.  Even to the point I just took one off my schedule.  The lineup is so corporate there is no point scouting there any longer.

Also, I can see like two camps forming in the festivals. The camp with paying artists that very often doesn’t reach the standard. And then the second camp with extremely good bands running over these paid options. It’s becoming a problem.