British music festivals stage tentative revival with perks and payment plans

LONDON: Britain’s music festivals are showing signs of a revival after a rough few years, with big events such as Boomtown selling out at record speed this year as payment plans help fans afford tickets and organisers adapt to demand for higher-end experiences.

That is good news for Britain’s live music sector, which has been hit hard by a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rising cost of living and which industry body UK Music estimates contributed £8 billion ($11 billion) to the economy in 2024.

Download, the around 80,000-person event headlined by Linkin Park, and jazz-focused We Out Here sold out in record time. The Isle of Wight and End of the Road also sold out, while Shambala and Womad reported quicker-than-usual sales.

Some festivals say the absence of Glastonbury, which is on a planned break this year, has helped, although others say that the high-profile event helps drive sales when it is on.

“We’ve had a rough time through the pandemic and through Brexit, but we’re coming out of the other side,” said Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) CEO John Rostron, adding that better weather in recent years had helped.

“People are more often talking about sun cream and water and shade than they are talking about wellies and rain,” he added.

Nevertheless, it remains a very challenging time for the industry, especially for smaller festivals.

The AIF said 36 events have been cancelled so far in 2026, although this could be the lowest number since COVID-19 and compares with 43 cancellations in 2025 and 78 in 2024.

There were 800 to 900 festivals at the peak in 2018 and 2019, the AIF estimates, but that fell to 592 in 2025 as costs rose and competition intensified.

‘They want the very best’

Survivors say glamping, wellness events and other extras are helping people opt for a festival over a foreign holiday, although organisers say rising prices mean higher expectations.

“Customers are being more selective with their spend and their disposable income,” said Toby Gwazdacz, managing director at Boomtown, which offers add-ons such as wellness experiences.

“If they’re going to go to a festival this summer, they want it to be the very best,” he added.

Attendees can expect to pay around £200 to £380 for bigger multi-day camping festivals, meaning the whole experience with travel and spending money can cost over £800.

For example, a ticket to Reading or Leeds in 2026 can cost as much as £361, up from around £230 in 2019. The most expensive VIP packages, which involve a luxury bell tent with beds, can add more than £500 extra per person.

Shambala co-founder Chris Johnson said it is spending more on non-musical acts and experiences such as poetry and speakers as well as offering a luxury camping area for the first time.

“Nicer toilets, a pamper parlour, a 24-hour reception, free charging, access to Wi-Fi,” he said.

Payment plan use has risen sharply, Kaboodle said, with about 45% of tickets for Britain’s camping festivals typically bought using one on its ticketing platform. Tiered ticketing is also now used by almost all British music festivals.

And 2026 is set to be the strongest year yet for ticket resales, said Tixel’s European head Matt Kaplan, adding that the fallow year at Glastonbury, which normally attracts 200,000 people, was likely to have driven demand on the resale platform.

Tough backdrop

Chris Smith, festival director at Womad, whose inaugural Glasgow edition was cancelled this year after low ticket sales, said Brexit was still an issue and that 15 artists were still waiting for visas to perform at the main Womad in England in late July, only four weeks out from the festival.

He said the latter event’s sales were boosted by a “love it or lose it” campaign to highlight the importance of independent festivals.

Heritage Live, which cancelled three festivals in July, said the “might of huge multi-nationals” has driven up supplier, artist and staffing costs.

A spokesperson for a major festival company said the UK market is driven by a range of factors, including inflation and rising production costs, and not by any single company.

Mighty Hoopla and Boomtown are among those to have sold stakes to major companies, which now own nearly all the biggest events, including Isle of Wight, Reading and Leeds and Download.

While many independents say having deep-pocketed competition has squeezed them, Gwazdacz said such sales, which in Boomtown’s case was to companies including Live Nation, are often needed to stabilise a festival’s finances as it grows.