Are you paying more, less or the same for your music festival fix this year? Some fans are being hit with well-above-inflation increases, but others are benefiting from frozen prices and two-for-one deals – indicating that some of this year’s events might be struggling to sell out. Meanwhile, if you are keen to get to a festival but money is tight, the good news is that there are a number of free events, many of which have surprisingly decent line-ups (see below).
Britain’s festival season is now under way, with Isle of Wight and Download kicking things off in earnest last weekend, Glastonbury opening its gates to revellers on Wednesday, and Latitude, V, Reading/Leeds and others still to come, before Bestival brings the party to a close in early September.
Some festivals have seen huge price rises over the past few years. For example, the face value cost of tickets to Latitude and Glastonbury have leapt by 76% and 64% respectively in a decade. This is way ahead of inflation, which was about 33% over the past 10 years. Equally, some events have kept their prices pegged for several years, and a few biggies have had to resort to special offers this year – which might suggest the festival market is overcrowded and/or tickets are simply too expensive.
If you have your eye on an event but haven’t yet booked, there may be opportunities to get in for less cash. Monitor the websites of the main ticketing companies and keep a look-out for offer emails etc, as there will probably be further deals over coming weeks.
The cost of a weekend camping ticket to V Festival, for example – which this year takes place in Hylands Park, Essex, and Weston Park, Shropshire, on 19-20 August with Pink and Jay Z topping the bill – has been kept at £189 for the fourth year running. However, last month Ticketmaster launched a 72-hour two-for-one flash sale, and this week the promoter Live Nation was offering one-day tickets for £63.50 instead of £89 for a limited time. Brighton’s Wild Life and the Isle of Wight festival, which both took place last weekend, also had money-off deals in place. Meanwhile, Ticketmaster has a “Father’s Day offer” on the Madness-headlined House of Common event on London’s Clapham Common on 28 August, where you can get two tickets for £60 (normally £37.50 each), and the John Lewis-sponsored OnBlackheath in south-east London on 9-10 September has an offer running until 30 June where under-12s go free.
The £197.50 you will pay for a full ticket to Latitude in Suffolk on 14-16 July, with the 1975, Mumford & Sons and Fleet Foxes topping the bill, is a far cry from the £112 charged in 2007. That said, this price is unchanged on last year – and Latitude is not averse to a discount: in the runup to last year’s event, previous bookers were emailed a survey asking why they hadn’t booked for 2016, and if they identified price as an issue were offered a discounted rate.
If finding £200 to pay in one go is a challenge, some festivals allow you to pay by instalments. They include Bestival in Dorset, with acts including the xx and Pet Shop Boys. It is offering a 10-week payment plan.
Like V, the Reading and Leeds festivals on 24-27 August have kept their prices frozen for several years – the full weekend cost has been £205 since 2014. However, Neil Greenway, who runs independent website eFestivals.co.uk, says Reading “is still selling out pretty much every year” and “always works really hard to put out a strong line-up”.
Greenway says there have been some strong sellers this year, with those putting up the “sold out” signs including Kendal Calling in the Lake District (27-30 July), Green Man in the Brecon Beacons (17-20 August) and Shambala in Northamptonshire (24-27 August).
He adds that the increasing popularity of overseas festivals has meant their British counterparts “have had to think harder about price”. For example, a four-day ticket with camping at Spain’s Benicàssim or Poland’s Open’er will set you back around £131 and £142 respectively at current exchange rates.
The king of British festivals, Glastonbury, is running from 21-25 June and is headlined by Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran. Tickets cost a tenner more than last year at £238 (plus a £5 booking fee). That’s 64% more than the £145 fans paid in 2007, and 217% more than 1997 when it was £75. But the truth is that Glastonbury could probably charge even more: tickets this year sold out in less than an hour. And those attending will get more for their money than a few years ago.
Free and easy
There is plenty of free festival action on offer. All of the below cost nothing and are ticketless – just turn up on the day.
• Godiva Festival, Coventry War Memorial Park, 7-9 July
Acts playing include the Stranglers, Example, the Darkness, Cast and Kate Nash.
• Africa Oyé, Sefton Park, Liverpool, 17-18 June
The line-up includes Max Romeo, Mokoomba, Daby Touré, Black Prophet and Jupiter & Okwess International. This is its 25th anniversary event.
• Walthamstow Garden Party, Lloyd Park, London, 15-16 July
Acts announced so far include reggae giants Toots and the Maytals.
• Dartford Festival, 15-16 July
Acts include the Christians, Peter Hook and Space.
• Rochdale Feel Good Festival, 11-12 August
Saturday headliners are indie rockers Razorlight.
• Festival Too, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, 1-2, 7-9 and 14-15 July
Most events take place at the Tuesday Market Place. Acts playing include the Real Thing, KT Tunstall and Busted.
• LIMF Summer Jam, Sefton Park, Liverpool, 21-23 July
Acts include Gorgon City, Corinne Bailey Rae, Naughty Boy, the Christians and Fleur East.
• Leigh Folk Festival, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, 22-25 June
Acts include Steve Tilston, Jim Causley, the Alasdair Roberts Trio and Marry Waterson.
Britain’s poshest festival?
What might be Britain’s most expensive festival had no problems selling out this year – it did so in 10-15 minutes. Tickets to House Festival, a 7,000-capacity event at Marble Hill House, near Richmond in south-west London, cost £235 with a £5 booking fee (up from £200 three years ago), even though it only runs from 2pm until 10.30pm on one day, Thursday 6 July.
Dubbed “the poshest festival in the world” and organised by Soho House, it is renowned for its stellar pop line-ups – this year’s acts include Erasure, Craig David, Sean Paul, Rag’n’Bone Man and Dua Lipa – and the price includes as much high-end food and booze as you can stomach. It’s estimated that guests will polish off 3,500 lobsters, 6,500 burgers and 3,000 chickens, washed down with vast numbers of cocktails and “several cellars’ worth of wine”.
