U.K.’s Country to Country (C2C) Festival Slammed for Booking DJ at Afterparty
The Country to Country Festival has brought mainstream American country music and the awfulness of the Bleeding Cowboy font to the U.K. since 2013, and this year festivities commenced on Friday (3-10) with Brad Paisley, Cam, Jennifer Nettles, and Chris Young all taking the stage at the famous O2 arena in London at the start of the three-day festival. C2C is partly operated and managed by the Country Music Association, and is meant to help promote an international appeal for country music across Europe. Concerts are also taking place in Dublin and Glasgow as part of the 2017 festival.
By all accounts, the first night of the extravaganza went off without a hitch, that is until the afterparty. Organizers had the genius idea of booking a DJ instead of live talent for the shindig held at Building Six, which is nightclub that is part of the O2 arena complex, and issues ensued. Not only was it a DJ comprising the afterparty entertainment, of which attendees had to pay £15 to get in, but the music selected wasn’t even country.
You may think the mainstream fans who would attend a concert with acts like Chris Young and Cam may be more amiable to a DJ, but not in Europe where some country fans had traveled many miles and across multiple borders to get their rare shot at enjoying mainstream country music first person.
“DJ Bad Ash,” a.k.a. Ashlee Willis, who is a DJ from Los Angeles, thought Snoop Dogg, Miley Cyrus, and other non-country selections would be the perfect music for the afterparty, but the result was close to an outright revolt, with one report saying security had to be called in as angry country fans fumed their disapproval.
Here’s a selection of angry tweets.
I came to the after party for country music…. what is this @C2Cfestival ?!?! 🙄🙄
— Karla Plaister (@kplaister13) March 11, 2017
This “DJ Ash” at @C2Cfestival is absolutely awful
— Brendan Mc Carthy (@CarthyB) March 11, 2017
@C2Cfestival AC/DC? What? Why? We’ve paid for a C2C after party. This is not it
— Kerrin Mary McNie (@KerrinMary) March 11, 2017
#C2C2017 @C2Cfestival @djbadash Please please sort this out for tomorrow. Technical problems least is your worries. Music is shit.
— Richard Pain (@richard_pain) March 11, 2017
@C2Cfestival @djbadash Please do away with the terrible club mixes and just play country. No Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift or Snoop #C2C2017
— Richard Pain (@richard_pain) March 11, 2017
So, @djbadash do u think the next 2 nites u cud actually play country music @the @C2Cfestival aftershow? It is a country music w/e after all
— steven wilshaw (@vodkaguy) March 11, 2017
@C2Cfestival not sure what your definition of country is… but to me, it’s not snoop dog. Not worth £15…! pic.twitter.com/VadcGWN5y6
— Charlie Hefferon (@CharlieHefferon) March 11, 2017
March 11, 2017 @ 9:51 am
They played pop and rap in between performances at the Delta Country Jam, only nobody cared. According to Scotty McGreery, they outright told him it was a pop show, but he rebelled and played old school country songs.
March 11, 2017 @ 10:01 am
“The Country to Country Festival has brought mainstream American country music and the awfulness of the Bleeding Cowboy font to the U.K. since 2013…
Ha! That’s fantastic! 😀
…and doesn’t the UK have it’s own shitty DJs? They really had to import one from Los Angeles?
March 11, 2017 @ 10:12 am
I would much rather listen to snoop than any of the other artists mentioned.
March 11, 2017 @ 10:17 am
Yeah…Snoop’s significantly more talented than anyone other than perhaps Paisley (Young’s got a great voice, but eh), and the worst songs on The Chronic and Doggystyle stand up with the best any of those artists have produced.
March 12, 2017 @ 1:02 am
Still more country than Sam Hunt.
March 12, 2017 @ 11:53 am
And I would rather have my left arm broken than both of my legs broken.
March 13, 2017 @ 7:59 am
Well, Reba and Marty Stuart were on the bill too. I was at the Dublin festival and it was amazing
March 11, 2017 @ 2:46 pm
Snoop and Miley would probably fit in pretty well on today’s mainstream country radio. Especially Miley, who has a slight twang in her voice. “Wrecking Ball” is more country than Sam Hunt’s stuff, lol.
March 11, 2017 @ 5:31 pm
Please Country fans do not judge this one performance as how country mixing DJ’s are. There is a small group of us that can mix country mix it right and not include the modern day pop crap going in… Along with mixing new country and classics like George, Reba, and others.
March 11, 2017 @ 6:17 pm
At least when I went to see Aaron Watson at Webster Hall in NYC on Thursday night they played country music before the opening act, and between the opening act and Aaron Watson.
March 11, 2017 @ 6:34 pm
Dave how was his show!!!! I have not got to see him Live???
March 11, 2017 @ 6:36 pm
It was awesome. There was no railing in front of the stage, which was nice. He stuck around for a bit after the show posing for pictures, signing autographs, and shaking hands.
March 11, 2017 @ 6:39 pm
Ugh so damn jealous right now, Don’t know you from Adam but I hate you right now… LOL… Boise Idaho Music sucks…. I mean my good friend Arron Lewis came here and he barely filled one of our small venues it shocked me… But Eric church and Tim and faith will be here in Boise soon…. I need to see maybe Aaron will be out this way I have not looked at his tour schedule
March 11, 2017 @ 8:58 pm
I don’t know about you but I got tickets to see Paul and Maxine Hardcastle tonight (father and daughter duo) at least they produce better music. BTW that was a joke.
March 12, 2017 @ 10:06 am
Would be interested in your thoughts on this festival/UK country overall? Us British country fans are frustrated by many of the same problems that you discuss on this site. C2C gets a lot of support from UK BBC radio 2 but to me they are promoting the wrong kind of acts (feel sorry for the likes of Marty Stuart having to share a stage with Maren Morris etc). Also BBc radio 2 / this festival attempt to push UK ‘country’ acts like The Shires and Ward Thomas who are just terrible pop acts. However they do have an online pop-up radio station over the weekend which has some great shows – including ‘comedy of country’ which is well worth checking out x
March 12, 2017 @ 11:30 am
The first album from Ward Thomas was actually pretty good. Their last one was a disappointment.
THe problem here is that the CMA is underwriting and curating all of this. I agree it could be an excellent opportunity to promote country music to the UK. And hey, pop country is part of country, and probably deserves to be represented too. But so does older acts, and more traditional acts, and not just a token Marty Stuart appearance.
ONe good sign is at the same time, Americana is trying to expand greatly to the UK, so perhaps that will rise up in the coming years and offer a counter-balance. The CMA is all about promoting the mainstream, and I don’t expect that to change any time soon. At home or abroad.
March 12, 2017 @ 6:19 pm
I was at the Dublin show.
Between the acts they played an ad on the screen promoting the Jason Isbell European tour
March 12, 2017 @ 11:13 am
Good on the fans for calling out the hiring of a DJ at the afterparty ….even though with that live line-up was pretty much all pop ( Nettles ? ..really ?….she was hardly country even BEFORE she started trying on every genre hat known to man and went MIA in the musical twilight zone . Hard to believe anyone with such a lack of commitment and focus musically gets gigs like the O2 arena . Harder still to believe she wrote ‘STAY’ .)
March 12, 2017 @ 7:34 pm
I go to plenty of country/americana gigs in Glasgow and had absolutely no interest in this event.The only act on the three day bill that I would like to see was Marty Stuart the rest being mainstream cheesy pop country crap.Next year it’s moving to the 15,000 seater Hydro Arena fuck knows how they will fill that
March 13, 2017 @ 7:51 am
I think the first half of the after party WAS a country act (Cam on the first night, I believe), but the DJ came on afterwards. So perhaps not worth £15 for a short live set and then what must have amounted to an awful wedding disco, but not as terrible as just being the DJ set.
It’s a pretty poppy festival but real country/real talent does seem to be fairly well-received. Chris Stapleton seemed to wow everyone last year at the festival, even most of those who prefer their country laced with pop or with a large heaping of bro. Marty Stuart also got a great reception this year despite a lot of whining and ‘who?!’ before the festival.
March 13, 2017 @ 9:12 am
People whined about Marty Stuart???? That’s hilarious. Well, here in the states he’s something of a legend, and he’s a pretty big deal, usually folks are super excited to see him. I guess I’m getting old, but the idea of having to explain who Marty Stuart is to a country music crowd is astonishing to me. Oh well, glad to hear he was well received eventually!
March 13, 2017 @ 8:52 am
What a poxy review, she played a backup set due to technical problems on Friday, but was excellent the next two days,,
Just look for bad tweet to slag modern country music off is journalism
March 13, 2017 @ 9:07 am
A DJ at a country show is proxy music. When your music can be ruined by a bad cord, it should tell you something about the quality.
March 13, 2017 @ 9:00 am
Leave her alone. And cut her some slack! If you want the facts she had some terrible technical issues on the first night and had to resort to a back up library. For those that were there the other 2 nights she was brilliant!
March 13, 2017 @ 11:45 am
She was playing poor choices of music WAY before she had any technical issues. I have no issues with Snoop, Drop It Like It’s Hot is a tune in the right environment but it’s not what I paid for. Baylen Leonard did the last 2 years worth of after parties and did a far better job.
Having said this she clearly took on board feedback and Saturday night’s party was much better. Credit where it’s due, she got back up there after Friday’s fiasco when most people wouldn’t.
March 14, 2017 @ 1:09 am
She improved on Saturday before going somewhat downhill again on Sunday (though still far better than Friday). The first night she blamed technical issues on “not being able to play my (whose?!) music” yet I’m told during the day on Saturday her and her manager had a meeting with an audience member who pretty much handed them a set list.
As has been said, Baylen Leonard did a far better job in years past and knew how to keep everyone happy. You knew you’d get Sam Hunt but you also knew you’d get George Strait.
March 14, 2017 @ 11:03 am
All true comments at the time. Apart from they chose a DJ over live music. The tradition is that each after party kicks off with a live country music artist. This is exactly what happened on each of the 3 nights. Cam opened Friday’s after party which was excellent. But that was followed by disappointment when DJ bad ash started her set. She obviously hadn’t done her home work so her choices were not of most likings. Her equipment seemed to malfunction adding to the revellers annoyance.
Also we were comparing it to the previous years after party that was the wonderful Bayken Leonard.
So Friday’s didn’t end well but apparently the Saturday one went off without a hitch. I think lots of input from members of the Country2Country Attendee’s Facebook group along with positive criticism across social media did the trick. The live artist that night was the amazing Drake White and The Big Fire Band. The weekend was finished off nicely by a performance at the after party by Jana Kramer. It was a fantastic weekend full of amazing country music. Can’t wait for next year!!