V Fests Reflect UK’s Tough Summer

The fact that the twinned V Festivals in Chelmsford and Weston Park didn’t sell out shows just how tough a year it’s been, as both usually sell out upon going on sale.

Photo: (Joel Ryan / Invision / AP)

“Sales were great, 150,000 weekend tickets over the two sites,” festival promoter Denis Desmond told Pollstar. The two two-day fests have the potential to sell 170,000 tickets.

With the exception of Glastonbury and Scotland’s T-In-The-Park, which sold out their respective capacities of 140,000 and 85,000, so far the major UK festivals have found it tough going in 2014. In the lead-up to the V weekend Aug. 16-17, some secondary sites were offering tickets at face value or even less.

The last test of how well the UK’s major festivals have weathered the summer comes Aug. 22-24 when Reading and Leeds, two ore fests co-owned by Desmond, round off the British outdoor season. The acts helping the V fests do better than most included Justin Timberlake, The Killers, Ed Sheeran, Lily Allen, and Rita Ora,