Hope it fails this year and all the non-Coventry people fuck off so we can have our festival back TBH.
I fear the plan is it fails. If you recall the council have tried to scrap it before and there was too much resistance. Then last year they put a fence round it and claimed it wasn't part of any plan to bring in charges.
This year they've brought in charges, not made it clear to people what they need to buy, used a virtually unknown ticketing company. Can see the attendance being massively down and then the council scrapping it as there's 'no demand'.
IMO they'd have been far better off charging more and upping the quality of the bands. If you're going to lose the largest free festival in Europe tag you might as well go for it and not charge so little you'll probably spend as much, if not more, on the extra requirements for a ticketed event as you bring in as additional revenue.
And lets not forget this is all to cover a loss last year that only occurred because they council suddenly decided to become a concert promoter putting gigs on at the Ricoh, to benefit Wasps, that failed leading to acts way over Godiva's budget being moved to the festival.