UK festivals cancelled in 2024

[cinnamoncola]

I just happened to see that Pennfest announced today that they're cancelling their 2024 edition. I personally never went to this festival, but I thought it would be interesting to talk about the state of smaller festivals in general. Any insights into other festivals who are struggling as well? Are there just too many festivals these days and more are bound to call it a day?

 

Here's the festival's official statement, they want to come back next year:

 

“We’re very sorry to announce that we are no longer able to run the 2024 edition of Pennfest . This is so we can take a year off and regroup for the 2025 event.

We know many of our regular attendees were very excited about the 2024 edition but over the past few months it has become more and more apparent that with challenging trading conditions coupled with significantly increasing costs in a very challenging economic climate has made it impossible to deliver the event to the standard our customers have become accustomed to, despite looking at all available options.

This is not a decision we have taken lightly and the whole team is devastated by this after all their hard work over the past 12 years since the festival’s inception.

It saddens us even further that unfortunately this situation does not only apply to us with a significant number of festivals like ours in the UK and internationally already cancelling or postponing their events for the same reasons. 

For us it’s important to prioritize the wellbeing and the long-term sustainability of the festival and by regrouping in this way we can deliver on our commitment to further high-quality experiences in the future.

Ticket holders will be contacted in the next 48 hours to outline their options.

You will be able to request a refund however tickets will automatically rollover to 2025 and we are asking you to keep hold of yours for then, allowing you to go to next year’s event at this year’s price.

In the meantime, we will be working on our plans for a revitalized festival in 2025 and we are aiming to announce our plans during the 2nd half of this summer.

We’d like to thank the whole Pennfest family of festival goers, artists and supplier for supporting the event over the years and very much hope we’ll see you all in 2025.”

 

https://pennfest.net/

 

Here's a breakdown of all the UK music festivals that have postponed or cancelled their 2024 edition, or are hosting their final year (as of 15/3/2024):

 

110 Above Festival - Postponed

Barn On The Farm - Returns 2025

Bingley Festival - Postponed

Bluedot Festival - Cancelled

Camp Quirky - Cancelled

Cheshire Balloon Fiesta - Returns 2025

Connect - Cancelled

Doonhame - Cancelled

Hayloft Live - Cancelled

NASS - Cancelled

Neighbourhood Weekender - Returns 2025

Nibley Festival - Final year

Nozstock - Final year

Splendour Festival - Postponed

Spring Classic - Cancelled

Standon Calling - Cancelled

Tunes On The Bay - Postponed

Wild Fields Festival - Cancelled

Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta - Returns 2025

 

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/which-uk-festivals-cancelled-list-bingley-bluedot-b1145413.html

[Neil]

6 minutes ago, cinnamoncola said:

I just happened to see that Pennfest announced today that they're cancelling their 2024 edition. I personally never went to this festival, but I thought it would be interesting to talk about the state of smaller festivals in general. Any insights into other festivals who are struggling as well? Are there just too many festivals these days and more are bound to call it a day?

 

Here's the festival's official statement, they want to come back next year:

 

“We’re very sorry to announce that we are no longer able to run the 2024 edition of Pennfest . This is so we can take a year off and regroup for the 2025 event.

We know many of our regular attendees were very excited about the 2024 edition but over the past few months it has become more and more apparent that with challenging trading conditions coupled with significantly increasing costs in a very challenging economic climate has made it impossible to deliver the event to the standard our customers have become accustomed to, despite looking at all available options.

This is not a decision we have taken lightly and the whole team is devastated by this after all their hard work over the past 12 years since the festival’s inception.

It saddens us even further that unfortunately this situation does not only apply to us with a significant number of festivals like ours in the UK and internationally already cancelling or postponing their events for the same reasons. 

For us it’s important to prioritize the wellbeing and the long-term sustainability of the festival and by regrouping in this way we can deliver on our commitment to further high-quality experiences in the future.

Ticket holders will be contacted in the next 48 hours to outline their options.

You will be able to request a refund however tickets will automatically rollover to 2025 and we are asking you to keep hold of yours for then, allowing you to go to next year’s event at this year’s price.

In the meantime, we will be working on our plans for a revitalized festival in 2025 and we are aiming to announce our plans during the 2nd half of this summer.

We’d like to thank the whole Pennfest family of festival goers, artists and supplier for supporting the event over the years and very much hope we’ll see you all in 2025.”

 

https://pennfest.net/

 

Here's a breakdown of all the UK music festivals that have postponed or cancelled their 2024 edition, or are hosting their final year (as of 15/3/2024):

 

110 Above Festival - Postponed

Barn On The Farm - Returns 2025

Bingley Festival - Postponed

Bluedot Festival - Cancelled

Camp Quirky - Cancelled

Cheshire Balloon Fiesta - Returns 2025

Connect - Cancelled

Doonhame - Cancelled

Hayloft Live - Cancelled

NASS - Cancelled

Neighbourhood Weekender - Returns 2025

Nibley Festival - Final year

Nozstock - Final year

Splendour Festival - Postponed

Spring Classic - Cancelled

Standon Calling - Cancelled

Tunes On The Bay - Postponed

Wild Fields Festival - Cancelled

Yorkshire Balloon Fiesta - Returns 2025

 

https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/which-uk-festivals-cancelled-list-bingley-bluedot-b1145413.html

Good list but plenty of those don't run every year anyway.

[cinnamoncola]

11 minutes ago, Neil said:

Good list but plenty of those don't run every year anyway.

I see, so maybe it's a little less worrying than the article suggests

[John L]

Went to Pennfest once. Stayed in Wycombe and got the shuttle bus in and out. 
Fairly standard small/medium sized Fest mainly for locals.

Decent enough. It was one that seemed to have grown organically so a bit surprised it’s bitten the dust.

The UK Festival market is massively saturated and increasing costs are making it difficult to make them viable. Not helped by the Festival Republic/AEG/Superstruct cartel harvesting acts. 

[Neil]

2 minutes ago, cinnamoncola said:

I see, so maybe it's a little less worrying than the article suggests

Perhaps but the main problem I can see currently is the lack of live acts that people want to see. The music biz has changed a lot but festivals will struggle to put on an appealing lineup without newer stadium filling acts coming through to replace the older acts. It's not just the UK with this problem. It's a bit of a dead end without new acts 

[pedrogooch]

1 hour ago, cinnamoncola said:

I just happened to see that Pennfest announced today that they're cancelling their 2024 edition. I personally never went to this festival, but I thought it would be interesting to talk about the state of smaller festivals in general. Any insights into other festivals who are struggling as well? Are there just too many festivals these days and more are bound to call it a day?

 

Here's the festival's official statement, they want to come back next year:

 

“We’re very sorry to announce that we are no longer able to run the 2024 edition of Pennfest . This is so we can take a year off and regroup for the 2025 event.

We know many of our regular attendees were very excited about the 2024 edition but over the past few months it has become more and more apparent that with challenging trading conditions coupled with significantly increasing costs in a very challenging economic climate has made it impossible to deliver the event to the standard our customers have become accustomed to, despite looking at all available options.

This is not a decision we have taken lightly and the whole team is devastated by this after all their hard work over the past 12 years since the festival’s inception.

It saddens us even further that unfortunately this situation does not only apply to us with a significant number of festivals like ours in the UK and internationally already cancelling or postponing their events for the same reasons. 

For us it’s important to prioritize the wellbeing and the long-term sustainability of the festival and by regrouping in this way we can deliver on our commitment to further high-quality experiences in the future.

Ticket holders will be contacted in the next 48 hours to outline their options.

You will be able to request a refund however tickets will automatically rollover to 2025 and we are asking you to keep hold of yours for then, allowing you to go to next year’s event at this year’s price.

In the meantime, we will be working on our plans for a revitalized festival in 2025 and we are aiming to announce our plans during the 2nd half of this summer.

We’d like to thank the whole Pennfest family of festival goers, artists and supplier for supporting the event over the years and very much hope we’ll see you all in 2025.”

 

https://pennfest.net/

 

Here's a breakdown of all the UK music festivals that have postponed or cancelled their 2024 edition, or are hosting their final year (as of 15/3/2024):

 

110 Above Festival - Postponed

Barn On The 

 

Wild Fields has already returned. Just announced. 

Edited April 15 by pedrogooch

[Neil]

1 hour ago, John L said:

The UK Festival market is massively saturated and increasing costs are making it difficult to make them viable. Not helped by the Festival Republic/AEG/Superstruct cartel harvesting acts. 

its probably less saturated than its been for a while , and a big festival disappeared with v festival  - blaming everything on a cartel which doesn't exist is a swell way of getting the excuses in early.

there's nothing to stop other promoters from building relationships with acts so that acts will want to continue that relationship. there's no magic going on.

[thatTFBguy]

Dunno if it's technically "cancelled" but looks like Community won't be back this year, which as this forum's biggest indie landfill fan is personally very gutting. 

[gfa]

7 hours ago, thatTFBguy said:

Dunno if it's technically "cancelled" but looks like Community won't be back this year, which as this forum's biggest indie landfill fan is personally very gutting. 

It doesn't run every year anyway - they only bother if they have space left i think they can't fill with anything else (hence its often announced super late)

 

mind you it would probably sell better than that irish finsbury park day lol

Edited April 16 by gfa

[eatingglitter]

12 hours ago, John L said:

 

The UK Festival market is massively saturated and increasing costs are making it difficult to make them viable. Not helped by the Festival Republic/AEG/Superstruct cartel harvesting acts. 

I think this is the crux of how things are now. I remember in the mid-00s when there were all sorts of random festivals (There was one in particular I remember discussing when I worked at Corsica Studios that was meant to be held in a zoo??!) 

However, people enjoying something = a chance to make money = being taken over by money people and backed by VC = everything becoming homogeneous. This isn't the case for all, but certainly in the last decade or so this has been the case for a lot imo. It is a bit cyclical though and from this you end up with more indie festivals. I think it's a bit more apparent this year because of the ripple effects post-covid the absolute s**tstorm that is the state of the economy.

 

Edited April 16 by eatingglitter

[Rusty Spoon]

Takedown Festival is another who aren't operating this year. Blaming it on a mixture of the venue being refurbished and poor ticket sales.

[sheffinghell]

Seems like there's been a significant growth in the one-day solo headline events this year. I guess this may impact on available bookings for festivals, and the shape of the overall sector going forwards, if it continues. 

 

Also, as someone has posted on the Tramlines thread, Superstruct is up for sale this month. Given they own several mid-sized UK festivals, and many others in Europe and further afield, this also might have a big impact on what happens next.

[eatingglitter]

26 minutes ago, sheffinghell said:

Also, as someone has posted on the Tramlines thread, Superstruct is up for sale this month. Given they own several mid-sized UK festivals, and many others in Europe and further afield, this also might have a big impact on what happens next.

Oh gosh, wasn't aware of this. I wonder how this will impact Victorious. There has been a hard line on how that's still run by the same team that set it up - would new owners do this? Interesting

[SweepingTheNation]

2 hours ago, eatingglitter said:

I think this is the crux of how things are now. I remember in the mid-00s when there were all sorts of random festivals (There was one in particular I remember discussing when I worked at Corsica Studios that was meant to be held in a zoo??!) 

 

Was this the infamous Zoo Thousand? https://mulebritannia.substack.com/p/zoo8festival

[jenko]

I remember reading an NME article from the late 90s/ early 2000s signalling the death of festivals with many of the cited reasons being still applicable today.

 

There are a few recent trends that are also not condusive:

1.) General gig prices - if people are paying £100++ to go to a few arena/stadium shows each year, are you going to be able to afford to attend a festival in a time when many are skint

2.) Competition of overseas festials with often better lineups and tickets/drinks are half-price

3.) Exclusivity deals dilutes lineup quality - look at how stacked lineups where 10-20 years ago

 

 

[eatingglitter]

13 minutes ago, SweepingTheNation said:

 

Was this the infamous Zoo Thousand? https://mulebritannia.substack.com/p/zoo8festival

That's the one!

[sheffinghell]

1 hour ago, eatingglitter said:

Oh gosh, wasn't aware of this. I wonder how this will impact Victorious. There has been a hard line on how that's still run by the same team that set it up - would new owners do this? Interesting

I can't see them making massive operational changes, early on at least, except perhaps budgets. Most of the potential buyers seem to be investment companies (much like the current arrangement). If it's the media co, however, I guess there might be more scope for change happening.

[gfa]

1 hour ago, jenko said:

I remember reading an NME article from the late 90s/ early 2000s signalling the death of festivals with many of the cited reasons being still applicable today.

 

There are a few recent trends that are also not condusive:

1.) General gig prices - if people are paying £100++ to go to a few arena/stadium shows each year, are you going to be able to afford to attend a festival in a time when many are skint

2.) Competition of overseas festials with often better lineups and tickets/drinks are half-price

3.) Exclusivity deals dilutes lineup quality - look at how stacked lineups where 10-20 years ago

 

 

Festivals every year still manage to get mega stacked lineups - Reading early 00s looks insane for instance because loads of the acts on like the 4th stage are headliners now

 

The struggle really is being so multi genre - its happened in the USA too. If your covering pop, rap and rock then there's a low chance of someone liking all 3/4 headliners

[Neil]

3 hours ago, eatingglitter said:

I think this is the crux of how things are now. I remember in the mid-00s when there were all sorts of random festivals (There was one in particular I remember discussing when I worked at Corsica Studios that was meant to be held in a zoo??!) 

However, people enjoying something = a chance to make money = being taken over by money people and backed by VC = everything becoming homogeneous. This isn't the case for all, but certainly in the last decade or so this has been the case for a lot imo. It is a bit cyclical though and from this you end up with more indie festivals. I think it's a bit more apparent this year because of the ripple effects post-covid the absolute s**tstorm that is the state of the economy.

 

the space created by the cancellations will probably get taken up by new players, just to understand issues i went thru the process of setting up a festival once, and i gave up when i couldn't pick a date which wasn't impacted by festivals i thought were competing festivals.

there's probably  people out there who fancy running a festival, and have the skill and energy to put it together, but are currently put off doing it  because of other festivals, with fewer festivals, they might go ahead now.

[liamglastocrowhurst1]

I think there was certainly a case of that post pandemic bubble bursting last year and this year for some.

 

The creators of damnation and 2000trees spoke about this last week on their podcast they do together and how sales last year for them were down after the boom of 2022.

[Johndenis]

2 hours ago, liamglastocrowhurst1 said:

I think there was certainly a case of that post pandemic bubble bursting last year and this year for some.

 

The creators of damnation and 2000trees spoke about this last week on their podcast they do together and how sales last year for them were down after the boom of 2022.

Hello, what's this podcast called please? Would you recommend it? Now I find myself enjoying logisitcal stuff these days almost as much as the music 🙂

 

Line ups this summer aren't great. I would like to see Orbital at some point this summer but am frankly amazed at what I would need to sit through at Latitude on the Saturday (for example). It's like they're running Springtime for Hitler 🙂

[Rusty Spoon]

48 minutes ago, Johndenis said:

Hello, what's this podcast called please? Would you recommend it? Now I find myself enjoying logisitcal stuff these days almost as much as the music 🙂

 

Line ups this summer aren't great. I would like to see Orbital at some point this summer but am frankly amazed at what I would need to sit through at Latitude on the Saturday (for example). It's like they're running Springtime for Hitler 🙂

2 Promoters, 1 Pod. It's an excellent podcast for any festival-goer. Would highly recommend. 

[cinnamoncola]

Thanks for all the interesting posts, everyone!

 

Woah, had no idea Superstruct will be up for sale. Do we know if all their UK festivals are doing well or would a new owner be interested in trimming the fat?

[sheffinghell]

2 hours ago, cinnamoncola said:

Thanks for all the interesting posts, everyone!

 

Woah, had no idea Superstruct will be up for sale. Do we know if all their UK festivals are doing well or would a new owner be interested in trimming the fat?

If it goes to another asset management company it will be about money / future potential. Look at how acquisitive they've been with Providence alongside. Gone from a standing start in 2017 to £1.5bn valuation, growing by buying up festivals all over the world. It might be a different story with a publishing/comms company in charge. Apparently the sale is by auction, so highest bidder.

[Neil]

15 hours ago, liamglastocrowhurst1 said:

I think there was certainly a case of that post pandemic bubble bursting last year and this year for some.

 

i think thats probably a consequence of festivals which use this years sales to pay last year's costs.