The Association Of Independent Festivals (AIF) has launched an updated UK festival ownership map, which reveals several shifts in the sector.
Launched this week at AIF's annual Festival Congress event in Sheffield, the map shows that market leader Live Nation's share of the sector has fallen to 22.81% from 25.26% in 2018. AIF attributes the drop to the overall growth of the market, more available data and the cancellation of Rize festival.
After Global exited the festival business earlier this year, with its events being split between Broadwick Live and James Barton's Superstruct, the latter is now the second biggest festival operator in the UK, garnering a 6.52% share. Superstruct entered the UK market through taking majority ownership of a number of festivals formerly owned by Global including Boardmasters, Victorious, Tramlines, Kendal Calling and Truck Festival.
Superstruct is followed by AEG Presents, which has increased its market share to 6.22%, up from 5% last year).
By comparison, AIF members account for 19.49% of the market. The remaining 49.53% consists of festivals not major owned and non-AIF members.
"It’s our intention to carry out this competition health check for our sector annually to track the industry and in order to keep attention on this important issue," said AIF CEO Paul Reed. “AIF is a growing community now representing almost 20% of festivals over 5,000 capacity in the UK, and the independent sector is in a strong place despite the encroaching and unrelenting dominance of the major companies and the restrictions that can arise from this.
“However, we repeat our warning: Allowing a single company to dominate festivals, and the live music sector in general through vertical integration results in a stranglehold that stifles competition throughout the sector.”
The map is based on a capacity survey of 210 UK festivals over 5,000-capacity.
