UK summer music festivals forced to close as cost of living crisis hits home

theguardian.com:

Blissed-out crowds, sunny fields and pop-up tents. This year was meant to be a vintage year for festivals, and there’s barely a weekend this summer when there isn’t one happening somewhere around the country.

But while big hitters such as Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds are already sold out, sales elsewhere are flatlining, and many promoters are struggling to sell tickets in the face of rising costs. Some events due to take place in the coming weeks – including This Is Tomorrow in Newcastle, Brainchild in Bentley, East Sussex, and Summerfest in Ewood Park, Blackburn – have been cancelled.

“We normally sell out but when we went on sale in December we knew something was wrong,” said Marina Blake, 29, creative director of the Brainchild festival, which has been running for nine years, except for 2020 when Covid got in the way. “It was so much slower than normal and there just wasn’t the demand. We’ve recently made the decision to cancel.”

She says it was a confluence of factors. “Artist fees are higher as people are trying to make up for income lost during the pandemic, production costs have increased and even just getting the labour to put the tents up was an issue.”

The organisers of Summerfest, which was meant to take place at the end of May, made the same call. “We had to take that decision because ticket sales were flatlining. It’s a 30,000 capacity site and tickets stopped selling at around 16,000, so it wasn’t financially viable to run. Three other festivals went that same week. It’s been a domino effect,” said a spokesperson for the event.

“With the cost of living crisis, people are struggling to pay for tickets and production costs have gone through the roof. The price of diesel has rocketed and we have to transport