Calls to cap ‘mega festival’ crowds over environmental impact
"Festivals have grown too big, too fast, with too few guardrails," researchers say in a new academic paper
News By Ciaran Donnelly | 2 October 2026
A new peer-reviewed paper has called on licensing bodies to consider capping audience numbers at the industry’s biggest festivals, saying “mega” events cannot cut their environmental impact while continuing to grow.
The paper, authored by three UK-based academics, argues that “degrowth through reducing absolute audience capacity must be on the table for mega festivals”. The paper is set to be published in the Event Management journal and is written by independent researcher Dr Adrian Bossey, Dr Mike Duignan of…
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