Music

Modern mainstream music festivals are less set on a single genre of music than previously. Organisers have become savy to the benefits of providing a more eclectic mix of musical styles on ticket sales. As a festival becomes more mainstream constantly it broadens the spectrum of melodic acts it books. For example Reading festival was originally a rock event. Rock merged into rock / indie and nowadays you can hear everything from pop to electro acts at Reading.

More genre specific festivals such as Global Gathering or Creamfields, which cater for dance music fans also broaned the scope of their acts as they move further into the mainstream, booking bands as well as dj’s from each corner of the diverse dance scene.

Festival goers

As festivals become more commercial and mainstream in there musical appeal the audience of the festivals shift as well. Music is less alternative at modern festivals as the organisers have to make sure music appeals to the masses. High ticket prices mean modern festivals are filled with a more elite class of audience- city boys and essex girls don big sunglasses, designer wellies and tight jeans. While the hippy contingent is still represented at Glastonbury and smaller, independently run festivals like womad festival culture has undoubtedly gone mainstream.

International festivals and festival tourism

With eminent United kingdom festival ticket prices, poor weather condition and an more and more mainstream audience sedating the traditionally brisk atmosphere it’s perhaps no wonder that more and more festival goers are choosing to go further afield for their festival experiences, Espana, Srbija and dutch capital are just a few of the destinations Brits festival fans now frequent rather than joining the ticket race for the big UK festivals.

Lots of people prefer going overseas for festivals because they can turn the festival weekend into a mini holiday.

Tickets and prices of Uk music festivals

Festivals which book the biggest acts and bands command the highest ticket prices. While the biggest and most well known festivals book internationally renound headline acts, smaller or newer festivals will book more upcoming or alternative bands.

Music festivals are big business. With popular mainstream festivals massively oversubscribed (2010 Uk V festival tickets selling out in just 1 hour for example) organisers can book the biggest and most expensive bands, safe in the knowledge that they will easily sell their high priced tickets and be able to afford the bands and still make a good profit. Small festivals which have just started find it hard to establish themselves against the big players. This means the bands they can afford to book are limited to lower cost, less well known acts. Without famous bands tickets are harder to sell. This conundrum is the biggest stumbling block for organisers of new festivals when trying to enter the market.