Are there too many festivals?

Festival season is about to kick off. With the sheer number of events happening over the summer, you’re spoilt for choice. Across the UK and the rest of the world, there are thousands of festivals occurring every year.

While it’s amazing to have so much choice, the festival market dominates the summer season. This can have an impact on clubs and smaller events. So, are there too many festivals? Here are some thoughts…

MOST RAVERS HAVE LESS MONEY
The economic situation means having to rave less and spend money wisely. Faced with the choice of a weekend away in a hot, exotic location, with the lineup of your dreams, or a couple nights out at your local venue, what are you going to do?

MORE FESTIVALS MEANS MORE COMPETITION
In a market where corporate-backed festivals have a lot more reach and financial clout, it can be much harder for small, independent events to survive. With so much saturation, even breaking even can be difficult for the grassroots festivals. On top of this, with less people going out, attendees can end up spread too thinly across too many events - bad for promoters and festivalgoers, too.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
A vital part of this discussion is the environmental impact of festivals. From the amount of energy and resources used to create them, to the thousands, if not millions, of ravers who travel by car and plane to attend them. Then there’s all the waste that’s generated, and the fact they’re often held in places of natural beauty.

THEY CAN TAKE ARTISTS AWAY FROM SMALLER TOURS
Contractual agreements can sometimes mean that artists who play certain festivals are not allowed to perform within a certain radius of the event - what’s known as a “radius clause”. This will impact the timeframe before and after they’ve played, ruling out gigs at lots of smaller cities, towns and events.