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Jim Answers Your Questions

Thursday 4 March 2010

Jim Answers Your Questions

Can you confirm if ticket sales are up at this point last year? And do you expect a sell out this year?

We don’t normally release that info until the show as it can be twisted by some of competitors. Clearly Rock Ness doesn’t sell out in advance as it’s still a relatively new show with a large capacity and it’s in a location that’s not got a very large number of people on its door step like the central belt or the south of England.

What I can say is that sales at end of Feb were 18% up on last year and we think that will hold. I think the strokes will prove to be a good booking for us and will really come into play when they start releasing music from the new album. I know there have been a few comments about Fat Boy returning but he hasn’t played in Scotland for 2 years and I don’t think he's overplayed and we have so many new acts on the show for the first time that I think the line-up still looks really new. I also think leftfield will grab the attention more and more as the summer approaches so I think we have the headliners to appeal to a good audience.

It would be great to sell out but we'll just have to wait and see.

Why are you using the same headliner every 2 years?

This is a TITP tactic; I thought you were trying to avoid that?

Also -

What is the story with Leftfield regarding Paul Daley not playing? Was that known at time of booking, and if so why was it not announced as several comments from official sources referred to the 'duo' returning

The situation with Norman is slightly unique and he's the only headliner who's played before.

I think I already replied on the leftfield question last time but it was to do with us having to announce before they were ready to put their own announcement out.

Just out of interest, what is the usual method for booking acts to play at RockNess? Have some acts come to you? Have any acts agreed to play there based on recommendations from fellow musicians?

There’s nothing more complicated to it than us just targeting the acts that we feel are best suited for the show really. Then some acts will also make it known that they want to play the show and their agents will contact is directly saying they'd like to work a deal out.

Are you going to be booking Thomas Gandey (Cagedbaby) this year? As you will know he's been there every year since the start. He's been a great ambassador for RN over the years. Anyone who was at his set in the SoCo tent last year on the Friday night will remember how brilliant it was. So please let's have this RN stalwart back again this year.

Tom is a great guy and we love having him at the show. He’s not been booked yet for this year as we want to see if we can get in all of the new acts that haven’t played the show before.

Anyway my question is will the Carling beer amnesty be returning this year as it was home to many a drunken campsite sing-along last year?

I can’t comment on who the beer sponsor is this year just yet but the CBA really is a great addition to any festival

Will there be proper (Those woollen mental clamp ones) wristbands at RockNess this year? I noticed a lot of people last year cutting their Plastic one off. And using cello tape to put them back on to obviously double people into campsite/arena. Also I would like to keep mine on my wrist with all my others for more than 2 weeks

We use the fabric wristbands at a lot of our shows but they tend to be the larger ones. They are quite expensive so it’s really a budget thing to be honest. The checking of wristbands from the campsite to the arena wasn’t good enough last years and so this will be more robust in 2010. I don’t want to make it too on top like some shows but we can’t afford for people to think they can get in for free. The festival costs too much to put on.

I was wondering if you could tell me what to expect in the VIPs camping section as the price for these tickets has gone up quite considerably compared to last year.

Are there going to be more facilities available as last year although there were the posh toilets they were vandalised and then closed all day on Sunday and replaced with only 5 portaloo's which lead to huge problems and a lot of complaints from people who couldn't find anything to complain about until this happened.

Basically some comedian thought it would be a really great idea to stick a tracksuit top down the toilets in the VIP which not only blocked them up but broke one of the gulping machines.

The polys that we put in there were also badly sited and were only really to take the pressure off the trailers WC first thing in the morning when they get hit. This will be improved this year.

As for the price of the ticket, I think it’s competitive with other shows and when you take into account the free parking I don’t think it’s too much but I appreciate the point being made. The VIP is selling as fast this year as any other year as hopefully we haven’t got it wrong.

Last year we were in VIP next to the tipi campsite, they had a good amount of facilities in there which VIP campers were not allowed access to, will this be the case this year as there only seemed to be a handful of the tents occupied in that area and made it look like each person had a toilet each, just wondered if VIP campers were allowed in as its all contained within the VIP area

The boutique campsite will still have its own showers and toilets. I think it’s a great place to camp as it’s surrounded by trees and feels very chilled but I suppose the rest of the campsites are like that as well so each to there own and I hope you are back again this year and have a great time.

You answered my question about healthier options to eat this year already, but I’d just like to ask if that will be including veggie/vegan options? Rock Ness is the only festival I’ve been to which didn't have the options for me, and you did in 2008 (I can't remember about 2007). It would just be nice to not have to leave the festival to head home for food again

I'm so sorry about that from last year. We will definitely have more veggie options this year.

Can we expect another full announcement soon?

And what is the reaction to the TITP line-up at RockNess HQ, out of interest?

Next announcement is on Friday.

TITP a big line up but to be fair it is every year and I think the ticket price reflects that.

there are 5 or 6 acts that I would have liked to have got for Rock Ness but I think we made the right call this year with the strokes who I’m sure other festivals would have wanted as well as a heap of other acts that we have.

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