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Record Year for Festival Cancellations
Tuesday, 02 August 2011 Written by Elliott Batte
Record Year for Festival Cancellations

The ‘Credit-Crunch’ has claimed many a victim this year, and it doesn’t look like anyone will be escaping unaffected after dozens of music festivals suffered cancellations this year, mostly down to financial problems.

2011 is well on its way to setting a new record for the amount of cancellations, and we’re only in the month of August. 31 festivals have had to pack up their tents and leave in the eight months of the year, compared to the 34 cancelled in the WHOLE of last year. And 99% of the cancellations are all down to a lack of cash. While some of the festival organisers who cancelled will simply shift their focus on to next year’s festival, though, there may be a few who decide to stop hosting the festival all together – money is always a serious matter and at the end of the day, organisers need to earn money.

August alone has seen the cancellations of a number of annual festivals, including Devon’s Bideford Festival, Devon Rox in Exeter, and the Northern Lights Festival in Aberdeen. Jerry Bix, director of the Bideford Festival, thinks that financial constraints including extra petrol costs are what is driving festivals to abandonment.

“In common with many other established festivals this year, Bideford Folk Festival has found that the economic climate and in particular the price of petrol have made people think twice about travelling long distances.

“Many of our regulars at the festival have been reluctant to commit and buy tickets, as they are concerned about the cost of fuel. In past years we have had visitors from Scotland, and other far flung corners of the UK.”

Another organiser, Lee Denny, says freshly-formed festivals that have no experience are more vulnerable to the loss of money.

“I’m amazed when I see the acts that are booked for some new events,” admits Lee. “Because you’re talking about big money for big names. If you don’t have any track record, that’s a massive risk.”

“When you have to stay modest with your finances, it means you have to be creative and innovative with the event itself, and that’s what I’d encourage other start-up festival promoters to do, rather than take a huge risk only to see the event collapse.”

While you’d think big name festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading would go unaffected by the cashflow problems, but as far back as 2008, near the beginning of the world financial crisis, Glastonbury was almost declared bankrupt as it attempted to book headliner Jay-Z and organiser Michael Eavis believed that the festival would struggle to live on through difficult times.

“It’s on the way out. We've probably got another three or four years. Womad and Latitude are not selling out," he commented. "We sell out only because we get huge headliners. In the year Jay-Z played we nearly went bankrupt.”

Glastonbury won’t return next year, as the Olympic games will be taking place, leaving an opportunity for smaller festivals to borrow a few fans (and effectively cash), but after that, who knows what will happen to music festivals.
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