Have music festivals had their day?

News today that the Hop Farm Festival has been cancelled "due to poor ticket sales" is in some ways sad and in others simply a sign of the times.

Hop Farm, which in days gone by fielded headliners like Dylan and Neil Young, struggled this year to put up a bill with anybody worth sitting in a wet field for.

Now I have been a music promoter. Not, I hesitate to say, the kind of music promoter who ran Hop Farm; his name is Vince Power and sometime back in 2005 he sold Mean Fiddler (then the biggest promoter) for £38 million. Vince also did a three year stint running Glasto, so the guy is a player.

Sadly last year's Hop Farm event was mired in financial disaster with reports of artists such as Peter Gabriel and Suede not being paid. Word soon gets about unfortunately and it is no surprise that only the done and the desperate signed up to play this year. Musicians love to go on about the art but most of them (with some interesting exceptions) won't get out of bed unless there is a lot of money involved.

So what is going to happen to festivals? Have they had their day or is it that the specialist fests such as Womad and Cropredy and a host of lesser known ones will thrive because they have a loyal core clientele who not only go every year but brings their kids and their kid's kids?

Personally I have never been a festival goer (I am mildly agoraphobic), though I know plenty of folks who are, including my son who has been to nearly every one going in Europe. What I get from him is that incredible wealth of talent that you just don't see if you hit the front page of iTunes. He tells me about bands that will probably never make it, but who are nevertheless utterly brilliant.

So perhaps that's it. In order to make a festival work you must appeal to the real fans. You have to reach that niche, that corps of believers who will seek you out come hell or high water. And it is them I salute, because without them we are going to end up with Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber and that is a terrible legacy to leave the kids of tomorrow.