Promoters Prepare for 2012 Festival Cull As Reading & Leeds Festivals Fail To Sell Out
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Written by Elliott Batte
A leading UK festival organiser has said that there needs to be a cut in British music festivals in order for them to survive next year.
The over-whelming number of summer festivals organised for this year has led to a steep decline in ticket sales as fans have to decide which festival they’re going to attend - both Reading and Leeds festivals have failed to sell-out this year, breaking their lengthy tradition of selling-out instantly.
And John Giddings, chief of the long-running Isle of Wight Festival, believes it has something to do with the “saturated” festival market of today.
“There are just too many events now in the UK,” said Giddings. “It’s impossible for them all to survive. The market is saturated. I don’t think there will be a big casualty; I think there will be smaller ones. I think it’s like a culling affect at a lower level.”
Another festival bigwig, Melvin Benn (managing director of Festival Republic who control Reading, Leeds, Latitude and Big Chill), was in agreement with Giddings.
“There’s no question that tickets have sold slower than they previously did,” he said. “Money is definitely tighter. I think we will end up with fewer festivals as a result of the economic climate.
“But we’ll still have an incredibly healthy festival environment even if we have a few less festivals. There will be a million people that go to festivals this year. The idea that somehow festivals are no longer popular is quite frankly ludicrous.”
While the festival market has increased by 20%, 31 festivals have had to cancel or postpone their events due to financial problems this year, and it looks like the reason is there is simply too many festivals going on in the British summertime.
With no Glastonbury next year, it’ll be interesting to see how things pan-out.
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