Featured Image: Shindig Festival
The UK festival scene’s troubling 2024 has now seen double the number of postponements, cancellations and complete closures compared to 2023.
New data from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) reports that 72 UK festivals will not now be taking place during 2024. Tenterden Folk Festival, which has been running for more than 30 years, is among the most recent closures, with rising costs among the reasons given for the decision.
With 96 events lost to Covid, and more than 70 lost in 2024, the total number of UK festivals to have disappeared since 2019 is now 204.
The AIF said the latest unwanted milestone is further evidence that assistance is required to help the UK’s ailing festival scene. Since the start of February, AIF has campaigned for a temporary lowering of VAT on festival tickets from 20% to 5%. The AIF contends that “a reduction of this kind would have saved most of the events that have closed this year”.
AIF chief executive John Rostron said: “This has been a devastating period for the UK’s festival organisers.
“Ours is a highly important sector that offers opportunities to artists, audiences, and develops creative skills and volunteering opportunities across all of the UK. The festival sector generates significant revenue in and around local economies as well as to the Treasury every year.
“We have campaigned tirelessly for targeted, temporary government intervention which, evidence shows, would have saved most of the independent events that have fallen in 2024. It is sad to see that this erosion has been allowed to continue under this Government. We have great events, with great demand, and we’re doing all we can. They need to step up, and step up now.”
According to data released last week, UK music’s contribution to the economy surged to a record £7.6bn in 2023 despite a challenging year for festivals and grassroots music venues. UK Music’s This is Music 2024 report found that the sector was up 13% year-on-year in terms of gross value added (GVA) to £7.6bn in 2023. The report described a stellar year for live music, citing Beyoncé, Elton John and Ed Sheeran all playing big UK shows.
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