Love To Be Festival UK: How VIP Offers Help Grow A Boutique Event

Love To Be, a festival at The Stray in Harrogate, England, which debuted last year, returns on Sept. 6, including what producers Grace & Tailor have described as “an ultra VIP experience,” which is intended to grow the festival from its current 6,000 capacity to 10,000 over five years.

The curated hospitality offering implemented by Love To Be in 2025 addresses audience comfort, exclusivity, and on-site service, and comes in response to changing audience expectations around comfort and curation at live music events – a change noticeable across Europe.

The offer, which is implemented through a partnership with Yorkshire-based premium tequila brand Hacien. Tickets come at a premium price point – £3,000 ($4,000) for 10 people, and perks include dedicated table service, Hacien tequilas, and high end spirits.

The area also features an exclusive stage-side viewing platform supplied by Raven Staging; luxury loos from Loo For A Do; table service staffing provided by Outback Bar Group, who are also overseeing bar operations across the festival.

Love To Be artistic director Dave Biddle led the creative direction of this new club-style environment, which comes “complete with stylish festival décor, complimentary feather-filled pamper room, and additional branding and furniture provided by Hacien,” according to a press release from the festival.

Guests can order food and drinks to the VIP area, they get on-site parking, and fast-track entry, too. These premium tickets are limited to 250.

The festival’s operations director Marc Dennis told Pollstar, how the offer is going to help his team increase Love To Be’s capacity: “By offering more premium tiers (e.g. VIP, VVIP), it helps us generate more revenue without needing more attendees,” he explained, “this extra revenue can be reinvested into infrastructure, talent, and marketing making the festival more attractive to a broader audience. These attendees might not attend otherwise, especially if the standard experience doesn’t meet their expectations. By catering to this group, we can expand our market reach beyond traditional festival-goers.”

He confirmed, that “there’s a growing appetite for VIP packages not only at our festivals but also club events, and especially with the generations who grew up in the comfortable super clubs that now want to attend festivals and want the experience in premium surroundings with perks like fast-track access, premium food and drink, and relaxation zones. Boutique and niche festivals are surging in popularity over more commercial events.”

This year’s Love To Be line-up features house legends, and pioneers including Armand Van Helden, The Shapeshifters, Ultra Nate (Live), Gok Wan, Marshall Jefferson, K-Klass, Trimtone, Juliet Roberts, Jon Pleased Wimmin, as well as roaming Ibiza and Dubai superclub dancers in show-stopping costumes, stilt walkers, fire breathers and epic audio-visual production, all happening across three-stages.

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