Industry report shows 19% of UK music festivals from 2022 no longer exist
Sustainable impact agency betternotstop has launched a second version of their landmark ‘More Than Music’ industry report asking what UK music festivals are doing to make the world a better place, and have found they are in need of help.
The 2024 report by betternotstop, which includes analysis from Deloitte*, sourced publicly available data as well as reaching out to various industry experts, including Hope Solutions, The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), Vision 2025, A Greener Future and Earth Percent. The report aims to raise awareness of the challenges festival organisers have in creating sustainable and eco - friendly events.
The latest report compared data collected by Better Not Stop in 2022 on the improvements in the industry and aims to create a practical guide to help organisations prioritise their positive impact, as well as looking at the wider support needed by the industry to survive.
The More Than Music Industry Report 2022 (edition #1 link) provided early benchmarks on 100 of the UK’s biggest music festivals on what is being done to take climate action and have a positive social and environmental impact.
The report was an opportunity to showcase some of the great work being done in the industry and provide inspiration for other festivals to take part in collective action.
The 2024 report, which includes analysis by Deloitte* found that 19% of the festivals originally surveyed no longer existed, due to a variety of reasons, including rising production costs and financial constraints.
The big question betternotstop asks is “what is being done to save our independent festival scene and how can festivals’ influence on climate action span beyond the fields?”
It also showed over 70% of festivals are involved in charitable giving while nearly half of UK music festivals share a sustainability policy, only 30% look at climate action within their organisations.
betternotstop highlight within the report how climate action needs to be more than offsetting, that festivals need to create robust climate action plans, stronger carbon reduction policies and drastically reduce their fossil fuel consumption.
The report also touched on the risks and opportunities available to festival organisers, across a variety of areas of their events, including waste, food & drink, social impact and biodiversity.
Ed Shedd, lead partner for Deloitte’s European Sustainability practice comments:
“The 2024 report findings highlight the need for those running festivals across the UK to fully integrate
sustainability and climate action into their strategies, as well as the organisation of the events themselves.
More action is needed to successfully future-proof this sector against the challenges that climate change
will present. We hope that organisers will be able to use these insights to help reduce the climate impacts of their events, and work towards a more sustainable future.”
John Rostron, CEO of Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) comments:
“The More Than Music report is written by a team who care about the planet, care about the future and who love music festivals. Like us, they know music festivals are one of the most vibrant, vital parts of UK culture. Festivals are spaces for people, for communities, for artists, for families, for the talent development pipeline.
Festivals have made great progress on these challenges, but, as this report shows they need some support from the UK Government to get through these challenging times. A little lift would relieve the pressure and give festival organisers the space and time required to follow all of the many toolkits and recommendations sign-posted here. We all want to continue to make these low-carbon holidays even better than the brilliant things they already are.”
Hannah Cox, Founder of betternotstop and steering committee member of Vision 2025 comments:
“What we need is festivals to take responsibility for not only the impact they have physically, but the impact that they have culturally when it comes to the Climate Crisis. This report looks at what we can do to be better, but reminds Organisers that their influence can span far beyond the fields if they want it to, and asks them ‘What legacy do you want to have?’”
Jon Collins, CEO of LIVE comments:
“Live music is driven by passion. From the artists who create to the festival organisers who put together memorable, escapist experiences.
As an industry we understand our sustainability obligations and want to play our part in greening not just live music but wider society. Unfortunately, we do not operate in a vacuum and the multiple, often existential, challenges faced by festival organisers can mean compromises on sustainability measures when budgets simply will not allow action. LIVE will be promoting this report to policymakers. We hope they will read, process and act.”