Can UK fests turn the tide after 2024 ‘bloodbath’?
On the heels of a “catastrophic” 12 months for UK festivals, promoters have debated whether the business can reverse the trend in 2025.
Last week’s cancellations of Kent’s Black Deer and Norwich’s Sundown has brought the number of
UK festivals to have announced a postponement, cancellation or complete closure in 2024 to 75 – over double the amount that fell in 2023.
On the plus side, new events are cropping up such as AEG Presents’ one-day festival Forever Now, which will debut at Milton Keynes Bowl on 22 June next year, headlined by Kraftwerk, The The and Billy Idol. The promoting giant is also launching Lido Festival in London’s Victoria Park that same month.
Elsewhere, the team behind the UK’s longest-running independent festival Towersey Festival, which held its final edition this summer, are launching a new boutique event, Found Festival, at Claydon Estate in Buckingham from 22-24 August. Plus, the founders of another indie, Shindig, will debut the 1,500-cap Homestead – a festival open only for over 25s – in Somerset from 18-20 July.
Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) CEO John Rostron tells IQ that although the picture is “mixed”, there is reason for cautious optimism heading into ’25.
“There is more positive news going into next year, because we’ve got some new events starting up”
“There is more positive news going into next year, because we’ve got some new events starting up – probably over a dozen that I can think of, and that’s really positive and encouraging,” he says. “Nothing of scale, but that doesn’t matter; we haven’t had that number since 2019.
“There are at least six other new independent festivals or spin-offs starting, or extra days being added. People are going, ‘This is the climate, but we think we can make it work,’ and it’s quite interesting.
“The focus is on very small events and it’s not based around headliners; it’s based around a community and that feels like where festivals in the independent sector are going. They’re forgetting about headliners and they’re moving into focusing on their core audience.”
Nevertheless, Rostron stresses the situation remains precarious.
“The flip side is we’re also aware of lots of events still rolling the dice, managing to hang on and give it one last go,” he says. “We’re nervous about that because, if they were on fumes before, I don’t know what they’re flying on now. So I am more optimistic that things will stabilise a bit next year, but obviously remain hugely nervous – because there is no margin of error.”
One Fiinix Live boss Jon Ollier referred to the predicament of this summer’s festival circuit as a “bloodbath” in a recent interview with IQ. And with more than 200 festivals in the UK having fallen by the wayside since the pandemic, Jon Drape of Manchester-based production company Engine No.4 describes the climate as “super-tough”.
“One of the biggest challenges… is that festival tickets are too cheap given what we delive
“It’s been the perfect storm, trying to get back to business after Covid but not being able to keep ticket price rises in line with the cost increases, so the margins are tighter and tighter,” explains Drape, who works with events such as Parklife and Kendal Calling.
“Clearly, a whole number of factors are driving the cost rises: whether it be energy, insurance, staff, minimum wage,” he continues. “Looking ahead, I’m hopeful that, with the exception of the labour piece, we’ll be over the worst of the year-on-year rises.”
Part of the problem, suggests Drape, comes down to ticket prices.
“One of the biggest challenges, but we’ve always had this, is that festival tickets are too cheap given what we deliver, when you compare how much you pay for stadium tickets,” he argues. “There needs to be some correction with ticket prices, but it’s very tough to do that in the current cost of living crisis, so it’s a careful balancing act.”
Notably, DMF Music’s Dave Farrow, organiser of Beautiful Days, opted to freeze ticket prices for the Devon festival for 2025, with weekend camping tickets priced £190 (€229). The event sold out in 2024 with a bill featuring the likes of Richard Ashcroft, The Saw Doctors, Levellers and Richard Hawley.
“We did okay this year and I felt that with a little bit of tinkering around the edges, I could probably make some more money out of concessions and the bar, and that would be enough for me to not have to increase the ticket price,” reflects Farrow. “It was my gut feeling that it was the right thing to do for next year, with the cost of living crisis, and it seems to have been very well received. I’m not going to be able to do it forever, but it’s nice to have a good news story when you go back on sale.
“I was hoping that my suppliers would do that as well and, on the whole, most appear to be holding their prices. Or, if they are putting it up, it’s negligible. But I have had a couple that have put another 30% on, and that is unsustainable for the festival business. I think everybody’s experienced 40% increase since the pandemic and that has probably put more pressure on the industry than anything else.”
“We went on sale for 2025 about two weeks ago and have done big business”
Beautiful Days’ sales for 2025 are off to a roaring start without a single act being announced.
“We went on sale for 2025 about two weeks ago and have done big business,” reveals Farrow. “We’ve decided to stick with our usual plan, which is not to announce any acts until the beginning of February. We normally sell just over half of our tickets without the lineup being announced, and we’re on course to do that again easily.”
Derbyshire’s Bloodstock Open-Air is also riding high, having already sold out next year’s edition. The 20,000-cap heavy metal gathering will be headlined by Trivium, Machine Head and Gojira from 8-10 August.
Director Adam Gregory notes the festival also sold out in 2024, albeit not until the weekend of the event.
“As ever, it came with its challenges, but nothing that was unexpected,” he says. “Ultimately, it was a good year for us. We’ve come across a lot of the same battles and constraints as other people and have been very conscious and careful with budgets, so we’ve saved the pennies each year.
“We’ve had to cut back on ‘like to haves’, rather than ‘need to haves’, and made sure that we’re doing what we need to be doing, rather than a wish list, but without compromising what the fans want.”
Rostron emphasises that lack of customer interest is not the issue.
“The really upsetting thing I find is the demand is still there,” he says. “It’s not a failure of demand. Ticket sales are down this year by about 4% and that’s fine. I wouldn’t be here defending things if they were down 50%, but that’s not the case.
“People are starting up because they can see there’s demand: Kendal Calling’s just sold out with record advance sales; Bloodstock sold out; 2000 Trees is nearly there. Across the membership, we’ve had loads sell out this year. The demand’s there, it’s the tightness of those budgets that is the challenge.”
“The 5% VAT would certainly help. It’s become the difference between a profit and loss for a lot of independent festivals”
Back in February, AIF launched a campaign asking for a temporary VAT reduction from 20% to 5% on festival tickets that it says would save many event promoters from closure. But its calls appear to have fallen on deaf ears so far.
“We were really excited by the new government, but they keep closing the door on us on the things that we’ve been asking for in terms of lower VAT,” notes Rostron.
“The 5% VAT would certainly help,” points out Gregory. “It’s become the difference between a profit and loss for a lot of independent festivals, certainly in the years where prices have seen exponential growth as far as the supply chain is concerned. So that would certainly help, but there also probably needs to be some support across the supply chain, because [costs] aren’t just going up by small margins every year, but by huge margins and I just don’t think that’s sustainable.”
With 2024 soon to be in the rear-view mirror, Gregory offers his outlook for the season ahead.
“I would hope that we don’t see another catastrophic year like we’ve had this year,” he says. “It’s been painful. For the industry itself, it’s terrible, it’s the last thing anybody wants. So I would hope that we don’t see those sort of constraints and issues that we’ve had in 2024, reappear in ’25.
“I’d like to see a lot more events go ahead, but I think the government needs to support that as well, and start talking with the likes of the AIF and LIVE.”
In his closing remarks, Drape says he is “looking forward to a good summer”.
“I’m ever the optimist, so it’s always glass half full with me,” he adds. “Clearly, there has been a correction in the market when it comes to the actual number of festivals out there, so hopefully we’ll have a good, solid festival season and we might see a few new ones being introduced into the marketplace. We’re potentially looking to bring something back for 2026, so it’s definitely not all doom and gloom.”
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