Example: 'A lot of festivals don't make sense'

Example has spoken out about his feelings on the UK festival scene, saying he is not surprised to see many events suffering in 2012.

Already this year we have seen the likes of Sonisphere, The Big Chill and Oxegen cancelled and many other events are suffering slow sales and increased criticism from fans fed up with homogenous line ups and increased ticket prices.

Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, Example said his experience of performing at around 25 UK festivals in 2011 left him with a suspicion that the events of the past few months might occur.

"A lot were promoted badly, had bad security, were in bad locations or the line-ups hadn't been programmed well, so they didn't make sense," he said.

Adding: "Some of them had a great theme, a great location and great line-up and the people running them knew what they were doing. And there were other ones which seemed to me were really amateur.

Discussing the future of festivals in the UK, Example went on to say that he suspects only the big ones will surivive along with those who cater to a niche. "Reading and Leeds struggled last year. I think maybe that's because guitar music's not as big as electronic music at the moment.

"But festivals, to survive, just really need to think about their theme, who their market is and book the suitable acts to sell it out.

What do you think? Has the bottom fallen out of the UK festival market? What makes for a good festival and, more importantly, what makes a festival bad?