It's not just poor organisation—Labour Live was always going to fail

Tens of thousands of people hanging on your every word and singing your name to the heavens. Who wouldn’t want to experience that? More pertinently, who—having experienced it once—wouldn’t want to recreate it?

It is very easy to see how, after the high of Corbyn’s post-election appearance at Glastonbury, the temptation to go big on Labour Live was as difficult to resist as it has proved impossible to deliver. According to reports, ticket sales are rather low and my younger, cooler friends tell me the line up isn’t up to much. Even I can see that there’s no Stormzy there—an oversight apparently caused by him already being booked to do something else. Which begs the question why that wasn’t checked before the date was set.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a political party holding a festival of music and ideas. Despite some who seem to truly believe politics can only ever be done in grey suits, it is this kind of energy and approach that has played a big part in the appeal of Corbyn that brought Labour into serious contention at the last election. The monochrome mob (myself included) may have missed it, but the Glastonbury spirit infected the whole country for a brief period—or, at the very least, 40 per cent of it—and Labour are absolutely right to want to maintain that.

The problem is they don’t seem to have the understanding of how such a thing can and should be developed over time. Admin and booking issues aside, you’d think the Labour Party, while organising a “Glastonbury-style” festival in North London, would have recognised the importance of organic growth.  Music festivals succeed by being discovered, not being shoved down your throat.

Take the Big Tent Idea’s Festival—nicknamed “Tory Glastonbury”; the problem being equally the “Tory” as much as the “Glastonbury.” It would never live up to that billing. When it actually transpired to be a marquee on the lawn of some posh mate of the organiser, the tag looked sillier still. Not a bong, a naked hippy or even a band in sight. It fulfilled every stereotype and negative expectation. You could almost smell the whiff of cucumber sandwiches from the photos alone.

Young people aren’t—despite the way some politicians talk about them—another species. Nor are they a homogenous group eager to be herded into whatever the latest space their preferred political party is seeking to have them photographed in (you know you’re old in the Labour Party when you stop being pushed to be in the background of the leader’s latest speech). What they can generally spot a mile off is inauthenticity. The reason Grime 4 Corbyn took off in a way that Labour Live is not doing is that it was led by the artists who were laying out their genuine beliefs, not reading from a party script.

There are people in the Labour Party orbit who can do this sort of thing very well. When it was first launched two years ago, people scoffed at Momentum’s The World Transformed festival, held alongside the Party Conference. They’re not doing that any more. TWT is a genuinely engaging space, its attractions eclectic enough to cater to all tastes and its volunteers well-trained and welcoming. When I went along to the second year in Brighton last September, I attended a fascinating debate about end-stage Capitalism with Paul Mason, was shown around the arts and craft space and urged to come to the big party that evening. It was everything a political festival can and should be.

Ironically, though, it seems that the Labour Party under Corbyn is just as keen to retain control from the centre as it was under the now despised Blair regime. So the idea of allowing the people behind TWT or even regionalising Labour Live so it wasn’t one big hit, but local events run for, by and with local people and supportive artists never made it onto the centrally-controlled agenda. It will only be when the Labour Party—whoever its leadership is—trusts its members more that it will be able to confidently deliver authentically good events.

In the future, this kind of event, stripped of the hubris, taken back to the grassroots (and out of bloody London), run by Party members who have the expertise, willingness and ability and allowed to build up over time could be a wonderful addition to the Party’s social calendar.

But it will take a change of political culture that will mean a much more fundamental shift from centrist to left but from top to bottom to make that happen. Top-down control freakery is still the same beast even if you’re doing it with a festival—and an app, not a pager.