Wings of Desire have decried the way the music industry treats artists after travelling hours with their baby to play a music festival, only to learn the stage they were booked to play didn’t exist.
Husband and wife duo James Taylor and Chloe Little were due on stage at Valley Fest last Friday (July 31), but ended up having to go home without playing, an experience they likened to “going to an airport, through security and waiting three hours for a non-existent flight”.
In a lengthy post shared on social media, they told fans they’d been booked to play the festival’s Yard Stage back in February. After travelling with their 11-month old in tow, they said they finally arrived at the “infamous not-on-the-site-map stage” they were booked on, only to find it was hosting a “PowerPoint presentation about property development”.
“The curator of the stage confirms he hadn’t booked us,” they wrote, “and the line-up had been in place for months”. They were left to wander around, with their calls to the bookers going unanswered, after which it was: “Back to the car, pack up the stuff, nappy change on the back seat, more tears, drive 2 hours home.”
The festival’s website described this year’s edition as a “programme crafted with care across every stage”, and said: “Every booking, every collaboration, [and] every experience has been chosen with intention.”
The band said that they shared the story as “a lovely example of how the music industry treats artists”. After sharing that Instagram post, Little spoke to the BBC, shedding further light on the ordeal.
“We didn’t end up playing our set,” she told them. “That’s never happened to us before. We’re used to no dressing room, but there was nowhere to go with the baby, and that added to the stress.”
In response, festival founder Luke Hasell said he was “really sorry to hear about Wings Of Desire’s experience”, and said that ahead of the festival, a decision was made to merge the Yard Stage with another venue, with artists due to perform there being reprogrammed across the weekend.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “it appears there was a breakdown in communication around Wings Of Desire’s performance, which meant they weren’t given the information they needed ahead of arriving on site.
“We’ll be reaching out to the band’s management to apologise, better understand their experience and make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
In a subsequent Instagram post, Wings Of Desire said: “We have of course heard nothing from them and have not been compensated. We do not appreciate being gaslit into being told it was a miscommunication. We have all the receipts.”
It echoes a comment the duo gave to NME today (August 4), in which they said: “We are sharing this story on behalf of all musicians who have been treated poorly within the live industry.
“Quite often it is considered a bad look to kick up a fuss, however we felt it necessary after turning up to a festival with our baby and being tossed around and then completely ghosted. We have yet to hear anything from Valley Fest.”
NME reached out to Valley Fest for comment.
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