Fields & Yields: Weighing up the 2024 festival season
With the northern hemisphere's summer well underway, Gordon Masson learns about the triumphs and tragedies of this year's festival season
Feature By Gordon Masson | 16 July 2024
In the last month, a raft of festivals have celebrated banner editions – from “the best Glastonbury yet” to yet another sold-out edition of Roskilde.
But while the good times continue to roll for some event organisers, elsewhere a perfect storm shows signs of being upgraded to a potentially catastrophic hurricane as the cost-of-living crisis, escalating artist fees, increased production costs, competition from other tours and events, and, perhaps, a touch of fan apathy takes a toll on festivals – large and small – around the world.
April’s Coachella – for so long the darling of the North American landscape – experienced its slowest sales in decades, with reports estimating that up to 20% of the total inventory remained unsold. And that purchasing pattern appears to be one…
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