JIM CARROLLon music

Is the large-scale music festival an endangered species?

WHEN IT comes to music festivals in big fields, Michael Eavis knows the score. The farmer behind the massive Glastonbury festival has been dealing with bands and music fans for decades and has seen the rise and fall of many festival cycles.

Eavis believes we’re at the end of an era. There’s no Glastonbury festival next year – the London Olympics means a shortage of portaloos and policemen in the UK next summer, but Eavis reckons the festival is on the way out.

In a downbeat assessment, Eavis believes fans are suffering from festival fatigue. “We’ve probably got another three or four years. Partly it’s economics, but there is a feeling that people have seen it all before.”

Too many festivals competing for the same disposable income and higher costs means festivals like Glastonbury have to go after huge headliners to survive. Jay-Z’s appearance at the festival in 2008 received huge coverage, but the festival still made a loss of £22 million.

The Glastonbury boss is probably not the only promoter feeling pressure, but he’s the only one talking about it so openly. Just as the big festivals in Ireland are not selling out in advance, the same story is being repeated across the UK this summer.

Last weekend’s Oxegen festival in Co Kildare was not a sell-out, and most punters noted that there was plenty of room around the arena and stages all weekend as punters stayed away.

We may well be reaching the end of this particular love affair with the catch-all big music festival in a field. The move is on to smaller events like Castlepalooza and Body Soul and urban fests like Forbidden Fruit. We should expect to see a lot of changes at Oxegen 2012.

New music

EXITMUSIC

Recently signed to the Secretly Canadian label, Aleksa Palladino (an actor recently seen in Martin Scorcese's Boardwalk Empire) and Devon Church come to the game with moody, dramatic, dark sounds and songs that have the blues in ways you've never heard before. Check out The Sea.

myspace.com/thedeclineofthewest

THE SALT FLATS

New Belfast-based four-piece with experience gained from Skibunny, Kate The Carnival and Coney Island Sound make a fine, feisty racket by giving a new lick of paint to vintage folk songs and sounds. Four-track EP now available for free download from their Bandcamp page.

thesaltflats.bandcamp.com

SUPERHUMAN HAPPINESS

Afrofunk indie grooves with fabulous poise from the New York-based collective fronted by Stuart Bogie and whose members have worked with Antibalas, TV On the Radio, Phenomenal Handclap Band, Roots and many others.

Their GMYL single on Electric Cowbell will make you move.

superhumanhappiness.com

Now playing

Tieranniesaur Tieranniesaur(Popical Island) We can't get enough of the funkiosyncratic from Annie Tierney's brilliant band. Suppporting Tom Tom Club next week.

Pusha T Tyler, the Creator Trouble On My Mind(Decon) Clipse and Odd Future dudes come together over a sparse, grinding beat.

Various The Mizell Brothers at Blue Note(Blue Note) In honour of the great producer Alphonos "Fonce" Mizell, who died this week: 2005 compilation of Sky High dancefloor jazz from Rance Allen, Donald Byrd, and others.

Last Days Of 1984 River's Edge(White) Gorgeous debut single from Last Days of Darren Molony and Brian Rice comes with sandy grooves and sunburnt, hazy melodies.

The Jayhawks Hollywood Town Hall(American) 1992 album where the country-rock revivalists found their mojo with classic songs and spirited playing.