Following a fall in the number of people registering for Glastonbury tickets this year compared to last, the actual sale of tickets to the uber-festival were also slower that usual yesterday. 100,000 tickets had been sold by late afternoon, which is pretty good going really, but there wasn't quite the phone line melting, server crashing surge for tickets that there have been in recent years.
As previously reported, Glasto chief Michael Eavis has previously admitted he thought this year's headliners were not quite as showstopping as recent years, and that that may have reduced demand for tickets this year. Daughter Emily, meanwhile, thinks the bad experience some Glasto regulars went through during last year's rain-filled water-logged Glastonbury may have put some off returning this year. Pessimists might also wonder whether, as long predicted, the UK festivals market is slowly reaching saturation point - with the plethora of newer, smaller, niche audience festivals that have launched in recent years perhaps competing for Glastobury's purist audience.
Or perhaps Michael's right and it is headliner Jay-Z's fault. Given how many reports I've seen of Glastonbury 2008 which have felt the need to add the word "rapper" before the name "Jay-Z", with the seeming assumption their readers may not know who one of the biggest names in US hip hop is, perhaps Eavis was taking a risk in booking the former Def Jam chief for his prestigious Sunday night headline slot. Certainly it seems that Jay's people have been watching coverage of his Glasto set with increasing concern - so much so that Eavis has said he plans to personally introduce the rapper when he takes to the stage, hoping that doing so will win over any of the Glastonbury faithful not so keen on a bit of hip hop for their grand finale. Eavis admitted to his festival's website that Jay's management had told him they were "slightly worried about the [Glasto] audience not being a London or Birmingham urban crowd. So I said, 'OK, I'll do something that I haven't done for the entire 38 year history of the Festival - I'll take you on stage and introduce you to the audience'". Which is very nice of him.
Though some gossipers are saying that Jay won't be there to be introduced, gossiping as they are that the hip hopper is planning to pull out of the festival. The gossip says that Jay will pull out of Glasto not because of the seeming lacklustre response to his headlining it, but because of conditions of his previously reported new 360 deal with Live Nation, though given that the live music conglom have a stake in Glastonbury via their stake in Festival Republic, I can't see that being true. Who knows?
Let's stop reporting gossip and report some Glasto facts shall we? Details have been announced about the Left Field stage at this year's Glastonbury, with the news that both Levellers and Alabama 3 will appear on it - which deserves a 'hurrah' I reckon.