A report by the AIF reveals a significant drop in the number of music festivals in the UK, with major players like Live Nation dominating the market. Initiatives like The Fallow Festival Fund aim to support independent festivals.
UK festival map illustrates sharp decline in number
There are 592 music festivals in the UK this year, a 34% fall from around 900 in 2019, according to the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF).
AIF has issued a report, having mapped the UK festival landscape, that has found that Live Nation is responsible for approximately 24% of all UK festivals’ combined total ticketed capacity.
Live Nation’s festival portfolio has a combined capacity of around 880,000, while Superstruct’s has 350,000 and AEG’s 230,000, according to the AIF report.
Superstruct is responsible for around 80 festivals across 10 countries but, despite its scale, many of its festivals remain members of the Association of Independent Festivals. With that taken into account, AIF said its 148 member festivals have a collective capacity of 1.35 million, larger than Live Nation and AEG’s combined.
AIF’s Festival Forecast 2025 found that of the 592 UK music festivals taking place this year, 360 are greenfield events. Its report breaks down the number of festivals by size, labelling four as major (with a capacity of 80,000+), seven as large (50,000 – 79,999), 33 as medium (20,000 – 49,999), 334 as small (1,000 – 19,999) and 214 as micro (less than 1,000).
AIF’s Forecast also highlights the challenging landscape that festivals are currently operating in, and provides details of initiatives designed to help ease the burden including its The Fallow Festival Fund launched in February, and the LIVE Trust in January.
“This is the first time we have been able to map the UK festival market by the numbers in such a detailed way right down to the micro festivals that make up such an important part of our sector,” said AIF CEO John Rostron. “It illustrates the dominance of two major corporations at the top, with Live Nation in particular having an enormous grip on the festival market. But it also highlights the collective importance of AIF and other independent festivals who make up so much of the festival landscape. This will be an important document when it comes to describing our situation to policy makers, regulators and the media as we move through this summer festival season.”
When previously asked to explain why Superstruct was included within AIF’s membership, Rostron said, “When it comes to ownership, our major concern is those big vertically integrated global players that not only own major festivals but also venues, concert promoters, ticketing agencies, secondary ticketing agencies, management, labels, and have an interest that really gets deep into the music ecosystem.”
Published on 28 July 2025 by Ben Robinson
