Largest UK music festivals 2019

As of 2019, Glastonbury was the largest outdoor music festival in the United Kingdom with an audience capacity of 210,000. This was nearly double the capacity of Download, the second largest festival which was able to host up to 111,000 guests. Reading, Leeds and Creamfields in third to fifth place each had a capacity of between 70 and 87 thousand, while the Isle of Wight festival was able to accommodate 58 thousand guests, slightly over a quarter that of Glastonbury.

When and where do consumers spend on live music?

In 2019, the majority of tourist spending on live music in the UK was in London. This amounted to 1.2 billion British pounds, double that of the South East in second place with nearly 600 million British pounds. When it came to festival ticket sales, only 14 percent of respondents surveyed in 2019 said they waited for the entire line-up announcement to make their purchase. Most bought their tickets earlier, with half or three quarters of the line-up revealed.

Sustainability and diversity

As environmental consciousness within the festival circuit grows, waste reduction and eco-friendliness were cited among the top three most important initiatives to attendees, along with improved security. In terms of line-ups, 37 percent of concert-goers were satisfied with the diversity of acts offered, and 42 percent said that having a gender balanced line-up did not matter in their festival selection. Having said that, 29 percent still wished for more diversity and claimed that gender balance informed their choice of festival.