UK music festivals are being hit hard by higher costs, weak ticket sales and tighter consumer spending, and the fallout is now shutting down events that matter to artists, publishers and the wider live business. Womad Glasgow was cancelled after low ticket sales, while other independent festivals have also been postponed, liquidated or shut down altogether.
Womad Glasgow falls as ticket sales disappoint
Glasgow had been pitched as an easy home for Scotland’s first Womad festival, but the event was cancelled last week because of low ticket sales. Womad has been staged in 30 countries since it was co-founded by former Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel in 1982.
The cancellation adds to a growing list of festival losses this year. The article says it is the 20th casualty so far as small and independent operators face belt-tightening consumers, soaring energy and labour costs, and competition from larger companies.
Independent festivals say the risk is becoming too much
Jon Collins, chief executive of Live, said independent festival organisers “eat and drink risk” because they commit to major costs a year in advance and must then sell enough tickets to make the event work. His point reflects the pressure now facing smaller promoters trying to hold the line against rising expenses and softer demand.
That pressure also hit the Secret Garden Party site in Cambridgeshire. After the festival shut down at the end of its 2024 edition, the Chai Wallahs collective had planned a new grassroots event there this year called Where It All Began.
Grassroots plans run into higher infrastructure costs
By April, the team had raised £180,000 through crowdfunding for the not-for-profit festival, but by the end of that month they postponed the event until next year. They cited poor ticket sales and a 10% to 15% rise in infrastructure and transport costs since the start of the Iran conflict.
The pair said that if they had gone ahead, they faced a potential loss of £60,000 to £80,000, and that the festival “would have died before it started.” Secret Garden Party itself ended its 2024 run with a symbolic burning of the main stage, after its founder said it was “no longer sustainable for independents to run festivals.”
Red Rooster goes into liquidation
Days earlier, Henry Fitzroy shut down his Nashville-inspired Red Rooster festival, which had been held at the family’s Suffolk estate for more than a decade. The event went into liquidation, citing higher costs and reduced ticket sales, with no prospect of refunds.
Valerie June had been due to play the now-cancelled festival.
More closures than last year, but still a brutal market
Even with the current wave of cancellations and postponements, this year is the best, or least-worst, on that measure since before the pandemic. The Association of Independent Festivals said there were 43 cancellations or postponements last year, 78 in 2024 and 36 in 2023.
What to watch next: the postponed Where It All Began festival is now scheduled for next year, while this year’s Womad festival at Charlton Park, Wiltshire, is still set to go ahead.
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