How do we save UK festivals and nightlife?

Last week saw Glastonbury 2024 take place in England. From the global monolith that is Glastonbury to the quirky immersive experiences of Boomtown, the carnival of chaos at Leeds/Reading to the oft-misunderstood metal-moshers of Download, the UK music festival scene has for many years been seen as a premier European destination for live music festival enthusiasts.

I was lucky enough to spend much of my twenties frequenting various festivals of all sizes across the country. Every summer you’d find me in a field somewhere sweating to the beat, dancing bare feet and grinding teeth. The privilege of experiencing these adventures exposed me to previously unknown sub-genres of music, different cultures and lifestyles and ultimately helped shape the person I am today.

The abundant nature and ease of access to music festivals in the UK used to mean that your average Joe could attend multiple festivals a year, broadening their social, cultural, and personal horizons. Unfortunately, due to the continuing decline of the economy, the ongoing cost of living crisis and the post-pandemic cost of hosting a festival skyrocketing by 30%, meaning that the number of people who can comfortably afford the cost of tickets amongst already soaring living costs is steadily diminishing.

It is not just punters who are feeling the pinch. Thankfully five out of six festivals survived the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, but honouring prior tickets and the resulting financial hit resulted in events losing money across the board. The loss of revenue forced some festivals to shut down entirely, with many others restructuring to reduce the scale of their events or increasing prices to cover costs.

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) revealed in spring 2024 that 96 UK festivals were lost during the lockdowns and another 36 festivals were cancelled or postponed in 2023.

With Brexit making the booking of artists evermore difficult, poor partnership decisions provoking boycotts, and the continuing decline of the average citizens’ standard of living the long-term forecast for the UK festival scene is bleak. And with the costs for attending multiple-day festivals now approaching the costs of foreign holidays, individuals may have to choose between going to a festival with their mates or a summer trip abroad, if they can afford either.

Current State of Affairs

The AIF figures show that things aren’t getting any better, 45 UK festivals have already been cancelled or postponed in 2024 – with projections that an additional 100+ UK music festivals will cease existing by the end of the year. This monumental loss represents the demise of an estimated 1 in 3 UK festivals in just 5 years – at this rate, Glastonbury will be the UK’s only music festival in 2030.

For a full list of cancelled festivals, click here.

It’s not just music festivals currently suffering from the UK’s protracted economic decline, the nation’s pubs and restaurants are experiencing a decades-high number of closures. Nightlife isn’t holding up much better. The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) reported earlier this year that the UK is losing a nightclub every two days – with none expected to exist by 2030. 

In January 2024, the AIF responded to the ongoing mass extinction event by launching the ‘Five Percent For festivals’ campaign – pleading with the UK government to temporarily lower VAT (Value Added Tax) on festivals reducing it from 20% to 5% for three years.

This isn’t unheard of, in July 2020 then chancellor Rishi Sunak announced on X (then Twitter) that the UK government would provide a ‘rescue package’ worth £1.57 billion to ‘help cultural, arts, and heritage institutions.

While the campaign is a great incentive, that may provide reprieve, without tackling the larger systemic and endemic socio-economic issues plaguing the country and urgent and extreme governmental intervention and investment, the UK’s festival, nightlife and live entertainment sectors will likely go the way of the dodo.

The UK’s nightlife scene is close to breaking point with unprecedented numbers in closures for pubs, restaurants, nightclubs, and music festivals. We can also add live music venues to that rather depressing list – as a recent report by the Music Venues Trust (MVT) found that over a third of grass-roots venues are losing money and face an uncertain future.

My experiences attending gigs and music festivals taught me so much about myself, life, and who I wanted to be – so it greatly saddens me to see the death of the UK’s nightlife culture. However, my despair may be somewhat premature after I learned about a recently formed grassroots movement dedicated to fighting back against the demise of the nightlife economy.

Save Our Scene, is a grassroots group working in alliance with the MVT“to harness the power of music to create positive impact, conversations and change around culture, the environment, equality and mental health.” So maybe there is still hope for our nightlife scene yet! 

On a lighter note, one type of festival that is currently thriving in the UK is the underground cannabis ‘field events’ -which we’ll be covering on Legacy Culture soon.