How the staggering £470 festival fee is pricing younger music fans out of the market
Last month, 210,000 people flocked to Glastonbury Festival for its 52nd edition to see artists including Coldplay, Dua Lipa and SZA perform on the famous Pyramid Stage.
Given the fierce competition for tickets to this and other major music events, many would think that the festival industry is booming. But look beyond the biggest names and that’s not true.
Just two days before Glastonbury kicked off, Northwich’s Geronimo Festival announced it would be canceling its 2024 festival, making it the 50th festival to be canceled, postponed or cancelled outright this year.
The event organizers made this decision due to rising costs combined with lower festival ticket sales, which they attribute to years of high living costs.
Giving up: Benny Greenstein was previously able to attend the Wireless Festival when he covered the event for a magazine, but says he will no longer buy his own tickets because they are too expensive
The Association of Independent Festivals expects more than 100 festivals to suffer the same fate by 2024.
Following the cancellation, Cheshire’s Deva Festival offered a 20 percent discount to festival-goers who could show proof of purchase of tickets for the cancelled festival.
Although events like Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds and Wireless are not declining in popularity, ticket prices have increased in recent years, with some young people saying they could no longer afford to pay more.
Tickets for Glastonbury have risen from £335 last year to £355 in 2022. In 2022, tickets will cost just £285. Ten years ago, tickets cost £210, but when the festival started in 1970, they cost just £1.
Even those who opt to attend a single concert instead of a festival are likely to face extreme ticket prices. Tickets for Billie Eilish’s upcoming London tour dates are currently on sale for over £250 standing room, much to the shock of her fans.
People who choose to attend festivals spend an average of £469.51 a year on tickets, travel and food and drink, according to MoneySupermarket’s quarterly Household Money Index.
This is approximately 70 percent of the average monthly disposable income of £666.53.
Generation Z festival-goers, mainly adults aged between 16 and 27, attend an average of three festivals a year and spend a total of £566.
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to attend a music festival because the wallet is so tight.
For 26-year-old Benny Greenstein, who has visited more than 40 festivals in the past, this means giving up one of his passions.
Greenstein, a social media personality who focuses on music and culture, told This is Money that his opinion of the events has changed drastically in recent years and that he no longer feels comfortable spending his hard-earned money on festivals.
Stuck: Greenstein says money spent on a festival could be used for a vacation
“As a culture and music fanatic, I loved festivals – the atmosphere, the excitement. For my birthday, I asked my parents to help pay for tickets, and every summer it was all about which festival my friends and I wanted to go to,” Greenstein said.
‘But in recent years I have come to hate them more and more, for the simple reason that I can spend the same amount of money on a summer holiday abroad, in the sun, where I can sleep in a comfortable bed.’
He said: ‘The tickets alone can cost over £300, but then you have to take the travel, drinks, food for the weekend, tents and other camping equipment. That’s hundreds and hundreds of pounds, which people in this climate just don’t have.
‘You wouldn’t have tempted me with a free ticket to Glastonbury. Everything is too expensive anyway.’
We still love our music and a night out, but we can’t afford it
A pint of beer at Glastonbury in 2024 reportedly cost £7, while soft drinks cost up to £6. Even water cost £2.50 for a can.
“I don’t see why I would spend my money on a hugely expensive weekend, most of which could be spent in a wet tent,” Greenstein said. “It’s such a shame, because when they’re good, they’re great. It’s just a risk to the consumer — almost a pressure to have fun.”
Greenstein said the high cost of attending a major festival could soon see millennials (ages 28 to 43) dominate the scene, as they tend to have higher incomes.
He added: ‘It seems like festivals have become more of a thing for millennials; they still like to go out and party, but they have more money to spend.’
According to MoneySupermarket, millennials spend significantly more money on music festivals than younger generations.
Millennials spend an average of £923 a year on festivals, attending up to four separate events each summer.
“A lot of older generations think that we as young people don’t like to party as much as we used to,” Greenstein said.
“Are we more focused on health? Yes, absolutely, but we still love our music and a night out – we just can’t afford it.”
Fed up with rising festival and gig prices? Get in touch: editor@thisismoney.co.uk
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