Festival Competition In Europe Starting To Affect Ticket Sales

Rock am Ring – Rock am Ring 2018
It may not look like it, but the festival suffered from a decline in visitors this year. Promoters made bad weather and and terrorism scares of the past years responsible.

While 2018 has been a very successful year for the European festival industry as a whole, some promoters fear that the immense competition could hurt ticket sales in the long run.

European festival association Yourope regularly gages the economic health of its members, which it currently has 98 of. The list includes flagship events such as Rock im Park, Primavera Sound, Rock Werchter, Openair Frauenfeld, Melt!, Exit, Sziget, and Wacken.

Of the 29 festivals that participated in the latest survey, 19 said they’ve had a “fantastic” 2018 edition. Seven said it was good, but not outstanding, and three answered it could have been better. None of the respondents called it a bad year.

Roughly half of respondents said they sold more than 80 percent of tickets, while 37 percent were sold out. Three festivals reported that less than 80 percent of tickets were sold.

When questioned about what had affected ticket sales in a negative way, 58 percent of those that volunteered an answer mentioned competition. This marks a shift from last year’s survey, when a lack of headliners was mostly cited as having affected sales.

The lack of names to lead the bill, which is partly tied to increased competition, remains the number-two reason for declining sales, followed by severe weather.

Nobody mentioned terrorism/security or the general economical situation in their countries as negative factors.

When asked to think five years ahead, most participants in the survey ticked artist fees. Lack of headliners, competition as well as severe weather more or less shared the number-two spot of future concerns.