Ultimate Festival Guide | Music Festivals Worldwide

It’s been a tough year for many within the UK grassroots music scene, with 2024 seeing the continuation of a worrying trend of closures. However, 2025 begins with a renewed sense of optimism after the Government instructed live music industry leaders to initiate a voluntary levy on all stadium and arena tickets to help support grassroots venues. Progress must be made by the end of the first quarter, with the Government insinuating that a mandatory charge could be imposed if the sector does not show willing.

Regulatory challenges, market unpredictability, financial issues and political instability are just some of the potential pitfalls that promoters face in Asia who are tasked with navigating a variety of headwinds in a region of contrasts. Indeed, 2024 has provided a plethora of momentous political moments in Asia – and beyond – that have given promoters plenty of headaches as they attempt to plan ahead for 2025. This has been the biggest election year in human history, with half of the world’s population – some 3.7 billion people – having gone to the polls in 72 countries.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) passed a rule on Tuesday requiring ticket sellers across the US to disclose total prices in a crackdown on “junk fees”. The Junk Fees Rule aims to ensure that pricing information is presented in a timely, transparent, and truthful way to consumers of live-event tickets and short-term lodging, two industries whose pricing practices the FTC has been probing. The FTC said that consumers searching for tickets or hotels will no longer see service fees and other sundries inflating the advertised price.

FIFA will deploy dynamic pricing for tickets for the inaugural Club World Cup, which is to be held in the US next year. The presale began on Tuesday, while the general sale for tickets begins on Thursday, with fans able to grab seats for the 48-match group stage. European giants Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich will take on teams from the rest of the world in the 32-club tournament.

Whilst it might seem all doom and gloom in the UK festival market there is a small ray of hope! With an estimated 204 festivals having disappeared since 2019, according to Association of Independent Festivals research, it’s encouraging to see big plans being made for major festival launches across the UK, with intrepid independent operators also making a comeback. Among the many large-scale festival launches planned for 2025 are TEG’s 70,000-capacity Come Together in Newcastle, AEG Presents’ 35,000-capacity LIDO Festival in London’s Victoria Park and 25,000-capacity one-day festival Forever Now in Milton Keynes. Meanwhile, Cuffe and Taylor is planning a new 35,000-capacity Blackweir Live show series in Cardiff’s Blackweir Fields and Chelmsford City Live; a four-day festival at Chelmsford City Racecourse in July that will feature headliners including Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs.

CTS EVENTIM AG & Co. KGaA has completed the acquisition from Fnac Darty of almost one fifth of ticketing operator France Billet’s shares. The deal was concluded after CTS Eventim received the necessary authorisations and consultations with employee representatives to buy 17% of stock. With this transaction, CTS Eventim becomes the majority shareholder in France Billet which will be operated under joint control, with Fnac Darty retaining a 35% stake and continuing involvement in the governance of the company.

Another new festival is being planned for 2025! Melton Mowbray Town Estate has announced plans to launch 5,000-capacity festival Melton SKA Fest next year. SKA Fest 2025 is planned as a one-day festival of Ska, 2Tone and reggae on July 26th, featuring acts including Gladness, Stereotype and The AC30’s. A charity promoting cultural and recreational activities, managing local parks, sports grounds and leisure facilities, the Town Estate said SKA Fest will be the first of a series of festivals planned on its parkland.

Berlin-headquartered live entertainment services company DEAG has seen its revenue increase approximately 19% to reach €252.8m (£210m/$267m) for the first nine months of 2024. Additionally, revenue for the third quarter rose by 33% to €120.1m compared to €90.7m during the same period the year prior. As of September 30, DEAG sold roughly 8.5 million tickets for current and upcoming events, an increase of 35% compared to the previous year.

Football-related scams made up over half of all sports ticket fraud cases in the UK, totalling more than £127,000 (€153,000/$161,000) according to Santander. A total of £243,000 has been lost to sports ticket scams between January and September this year. The bank reported that young men aged 19-34 were the prime targets and had lost £80,491 to scammers in 2024 already, equating to 41% of the victims.

The UK festival scene’s troubling 2024 has now seen double the number of postponements, cancellations and complete closures compared to 2023. New data from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) reports that 72 UK festivals will not now be taking place during 2024. Tenterden Folk Festival, which has been running for more than 30 years, is among the most recent closures, with rising costs among the reasons given for the decision.