UK FESTIVAL PLACES DROP BY A THIRD

A recent study by UniHomes has identified that while demand for live events is set to soar off the back of COVID restrictions easing, music goers may face a struggle for festival tickets as places drop by a third.

UniHomes looked at which of the UK’s top festivals are set to go ahead this year and found that currently, as many 37 are still due to run in 2021 including the likes of Latitude.

However, festival goers could still struggle to get their fix as the research from UniHomes also shows that there could be potentially over 600,000 less tickets available due to event cancellations.

So far six major festivals remain cancelled for another year, including Boomtown, Glastonbury, and Download, wiping out a combined capacity of 532,000. A further four, including Lovebox, continue to hang in the balance meaning capacity could be cut by a further 84,500 should they also fail to go ahead.

In total, Covid could still cut festival capacity by 33% this year, meaning increased competition for tickets to attend your favourite festivals. Those in Scotland, Wales and the West Midlands face the toughest time securing a ticket, with just one festival taking part in each area to a combined capacity of just 80,000.

It’s not just festival goers that will be hit hard by this reduction. Based on the cost of a weekend ticket to each festival, UniHomes predicts that lost ticket revenues sit as high as £129m for those festivals which have already been cancelled, with a further £14.3m potentially lost across the four that are yet to confirm.

The South East is this year’s festival hotspot as the region is not only home to the most festivals, but the highest capacity at 375,000. The North West also ranks high with festival capacity at 230,000 this summer, with the South West sitting third at 168,000.

Co-Founder of UniHomes, Phil Greaves, commented:

“We know festivals are a huge interest to students across the nation, as well as providing a great draw for local audiences.

With the successful test events in Liverpool this weekend it’s abundantly clear that there is still a huge appetite for live music across the UK, and many will be eagerly awaiting the return of festival season.”