I think we’re all just a bit worn out by an excess of excitement and sheer brilliance. We’ve just had a brilliant British Lions Rugby series in Australia, an emotionally powered Wimbledon culminating in an almost tearful Prime Minister saying that no one deserves a knighthood more than Andy Murray…What! He’s only 26 and, yes, he’s very good….. but a knighthood – for heaven’s sake. And now it’s cricket and the Ashes. So far it’s felt like we’re witnessing a story written by a drug crazed soap opera script writer who wants to get things over very quickly….”and then everyone died…hideously. Done. Dusted. The end.”
But it’s not just sport that feels like a calorie crammed feast which leads to indigestion.
I live in Brighton and in May we are battered by the Festival – not one but four festivals – the Festival proper, the Fringe, the Charleston Festival (a major literary event – sort of Hay on Wye on sea) and the Great Escape (300 rock bands hosted in 30 venues over 3 days).
No wonder everyone here looks so knackered in early June. One red eyed Festival aficionado, more incurable addict than aficionado, glumly told me “I’ve been to over 40 events in less than three weeks ….I can’t even think anymore.”
It’s not about grabbing it so much as avoiding being mugged by it.
There are over 200 proper arts festivals in the UK now from Glastonbury (now a national TV treasure) to Manchester to Lichfield (both on now) to Edinburgh to….it makes the brain hurt just thinking about them.
And it’s spread to all media. This summer Hollywood has produced more blockbuster films – something like 15 - than ever before. The need to outdo the competition is making $100 million films a norm and will surely be unsustainable. The benchmark lies in special effects and scale drama and owes rather less to storytelling. “The King’s Speech” and “the Artist” already feel distinctly aberrational. Decimation and World War Z seem the norm.
I doubt if any man or woman is capable of enduring for long this much spectating and exposure to the deadly rays of extreme entertainment.
And I wonder if, in the long run, “going out” will be seen as wonderful as it once seemed. Michael Douglas, whose film“Behind the Candelabra” has created such a storm (by the way it’s not a real film…no, no…they’ve decided it’s only a TV film….because HBO and not a real, Hollywood studio made it) predicted somewhat gleefully the demise of Hollywood blockbusters. He observed that as TV’s get bigger, better and cheaper the ability to get that “film-fix or, indeed, whatever fix you want – opera, theatre, classical or rock music will be brilliantly provided where people want to be most…at home.”
My analysis suggests that, firstly, whilst in the current climate big events still attract big audiences there’s an underlying problem. With so much choice there’s a creeping reticence to commit. Many make last minute choices and if they miss out well that’s OK. People are starting to ration pleasure in a new way. The world has been so sated by quality and thrills and there’s only so much adrenalin we can take. And secondly in the comfort of your own home is a new reality.
If I’m right this represents a new threat to the arts sector which maybe brilliant marketing can help, in part, solve but reliance on product excellence alone will not.
As someone said to me recently watching a primary school sports day “have you noticed how good, how keen they are, how much they do and how competitive they’ve all become nowadays?”
When everyone’s so brilliant and the audience have seen it all before something may have to give.
Like the very will to watch.
Written by Richard Hall and first published on
July 10th 2013
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