Rising operational costs have resulted in higher ticket prices, reducing attendance as individuals become more careful of their discretionary spending. So far, 60 UK music festivals have announced postponements, cancellations, or full closures for 2024.
According to data from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), 192 music festivals have closed in the UK since 2019. AIF is a non-profit festival trade group that represents over 200 independent UK music festivals with audiences ranging from 500 to 80,000.
The most recent cancelation is the Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire, which has stated that the 2024 event will be its last. The main stage was torched in July 2024 as a representation of the hardships that small music festivals face.
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The cancellations for 2024 include the Cosmic Roots Festival in Basingstoke and the Witcombe Festival in Gloucester. Organizers of both festivals cited economic concerns, including growing prices, as reasons for the cancellation. Without action, the UK is predicted to lose 100 music festivals in 2024 alone, owing to increased running costs and the pressures of unreliable ticket sales.
The AIF believes that the UK lost 96 events during the COVID-19 epidemic, 36 festivals in 2023, and more than 60 so far in 2024. This takes the overall number of festival closures (whether due to cancellation or postponement) to 192 since 2019.
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“Without having had successive steady seasons since the pandemic in which to recover, the country’s festivals are under more financial strain than ever,” according to AIF estimates. In February, the AIF began a new campaign requesting a temporary VAT decrease on festival tickets to prevent events from closing. The 5% for Festivals campaign is an awareness campaign that aims to educate festival attendees about the issues that organizers and promoters are facing.
It encourages them to contact their Members of Parliament (MPs) and advocate for a VAT cut on tickets. “Temporary support from the UK government lowering VAT from 20% to 5% on ticket sales for the next three years is needed to give festival promoters the space they need to rebuild,” the event’s association claims. “We hope that the new Labour government will take swift action to save many successful festival businesses that are facing this existential threat,” John Rostron, chairman of the AIF, said.
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