What is Festival Awards Ltd?

Festival Awards Ltd is an independent company. We produce the UK Festival Awards and Conference as well as Festival Awards Europe (in co-operation with Yourope).

What are the Festival Awards?

The Awards are the chance for the people who invest colossal amounts of work and creativity making music festivals happen, to be recognised for their efforts.

The majority of the Awards are voted for by the general public through our online platform. Voters can choose to be entered into our prize draw to be in with a chance of winning two tickets to every winning festival for the following year.

The more specialised categories are decided by panels of journalists and other informed industry experts. For example, judges in the ‘Line-Up Of The Year’ category will examine how well the event has catered for its particular audience, taking into consideration the budget it had to work with.

In order to create a level playing field for events, no matter their size, voting is weighted based on capacity and the number of tickets sold.

The winners are presented their awards at a gala ceremony which, in the UK, takes place at The O2 in London in November. Uniting the entire industry under one roof for one night, this event is a unique opportunity for everyone in the business to let their hair down and celebrate the past year’s hard work together.

Why should I nominate my event for the Festival Awards?

Aside from the fact that it’s the only way to be in with a chance of winning a Festival Award, it’s an ideal opportunity to continue the conversation with your audience, by engaging with them through the voting process – in the normally quiet autumn/winter months – and reminding them of what a fantastic time they had at the event. Consequently, many festivals now co-incide their on-sale dates with the Festival Awards.

Of course, if your event wins an Award, the fact it’s been given the stamp of approval by festival-goers can carry significant tangible value. Previous winners have experienced other benefits, from increased revenues through merchandise, tickets and sponsorships, to a higher profile with artists and booking agents. BBC News valued one winner’s ‘Best New Festival’ Award at “hundreds of thousands of pounds”.

Whether your festival needs this or not, it’s still an accolade to be proud of.

Why should I attend the Festival Awards show?

If you work on music festivals, this event is a unique and special opportunity to gather with the rest of your industry, including many of the people you work with throughout the year, in an informal setting. The festival industry continues to mature through increased co-operation and collaboration and this event serves as an important hub for that process. Many promoters also see the show as a great way to reward the key staff, suppliers, sponsors and even super-fans that contributed to their event’s success.

So how do I win?

At market level, by uniting and illuminating the festival industry, Festival Awards is helping to strengthen it for all and therefore, regardless of gongs, everybody who takes part is a winner.

At event-level, core to the Festival Awards’ ethos is the principle that all festivals enter the Awards equally and the only variable factor in the public voted categories – the measure that will decide the winners – is proportional fan loyalty. It’s as simple as that. The weighted voting mechanism ensures that relative size has no bearing – a small festival has the same chance as a larger one.

Of course, in order to encourage your fans to vote for your event, you have to reach out to them. Fortunately this is something that all festivals are more than proficient at, as it is fundamental to the ticket-selling process and core to the operation of the event. We feel that the ability of a festival to leverage its database is sufficiently indistinguishable from its overall calibre in its worthiness of winning an award.

We cannot stress enough that winning a Festival Award has nothing to do with size of event or size of database. It is a pure and simple measure of fan loyalty in terms of the willingness of the audience to click on a link and vote for that festival. We believe that’s as fair as it can be.

It’s not all about voting, though. Several of the categories require a more informed understanding of the marketplace that only industry professionals can provide. We compile expert jury panels to compile the shortlists, and in some cases, the winners (such as the ‘Greener Festival Award’) of these particular awards.

What happens to the data you collect about my festival(s)?

The information you provide us is used so we can communicate with you about the progress of your nomination, to give you information about the Awards and Conference. It is also used so we can weight voting, meaning there is a level playing field for all events, no matter what their capacity.

We do not pass on your information to anyone outside Festival Awards Ltd. If you wish us to pass your details onto our media partner Virtual Festivals, you must check the box on the nomination form. If you wish to contact Virtual Festivals independently, you can email them at: editor@virtualfestivals.com.

What happens to the data you collect from voters?

We collect email addresses from voters so we can communicate with them about the voting process and send them news about Festival Awards. We do not share that information with anyone. Voters have the choice of opting-in to receive updates from Virtual Festivals, but it is not mandatory or automatic.

What is the Festival Awards Conference?

The festival industry is rapidly shedding its fragmented roots, is growing up and prospering as a result of an increasing openness, co-operation, collaboration and sharing of ideas within the marketplace. The Festival Awards Conference provides one roof under which this fruitful transition can unfold to its fullest extent.

The Conference was launched in 2008 following demand from the industry for a dedicated forum in which to discuss common challenges, meet and network, during the day before the evening’s Festival Awards show.

Focussed discussions feature key experts, with opportunities for delegates to put their own questions to the panel, and meet them afterwards. It also includes a drinks reception to make new contacts, reaffirm relationships and continue the debates from the day.

A Brief History of Festival Awards

The Festival Awards were first launched in October 2004 to give due recognition to the people responsible for what was rapidly becoming the most exciting and booming sector of the music industry and a vital part of mainstream popular culture – the festival movement.

The first edition featured just 12 categories and was run purely online with Xfm, Virtual Festivals.com and Carling coming on-board as partners. 12,000 votes were cast and the industry immediately rallied to embrace its new awards body. In the absence of a live event, the awards were all presented in person at the promoters’ offices.

The second year saw an expanded format with more categories and welcomed BBC 6 Music’s involvement as the main media partner. More than 34,000 votes were cast in this year, placing the awards firmly on the map.

Due to overwhelming pressure from the industry (including many who hadn’t even won awards), a live event was staged for the first time in 2006. Taking place at London’s Islington Academy, this standing-room-only shindig was a ramshackle occasion (compared to the present day event) but is fondly regarded by most in attendance, today. Significantly, it was the first time ever that the festival industry was all gathered under one roof to celebrate itself and the likes of Melvin Benn, Andy Copping, Geoff Ellis and Rob Da Bank were all there to cheer on the proceedings, pints-in-hand.

2007 upped the ante with a move to the larger (and marginally less shambolic) Koko in Camden. The awards’ elevated profile saw Michael Eavis make his first visit, as well as some artists including members of Faithless, and Andrea Corr who was there to present John Giddings with his ‘Outstanding Contribution’ award.

In 2008, the Festival Awards moved to its present home, IndigO2 at The O2, and ‘grew up’ into a more respectable (but no less rock ‘n’ roll) gala ceremony that still boasts ‘the best awards dinner on the calendar’ (courtesy of the Gaucho restaurant). The daytime saw the debut ‘UK Festival Conference’, which rammed far more people into the Gibson Rooms than the venue’s license permitted and, like that first awards show, seduced all in attendance with a cocktail of chaotic charm and milestone significance.

In 2009, the Conference was upgraded to a much larger event which took place in Europe’s biggest cinema (the Vue in the O2 – a stone’s throw from the evening’s awards show) to great success. More than 300 delegates attended the panel sessions which made headlines across the world and saw the four leading trade media publications (Music Week, Audience, IQ and TPi) coming together in unison – a theme that underlined the ethos of the event. Once again the evening’s Awards gala in the neighbouring IndigO2 smashed the venue’s previous record for bar takings, in spite of the copious free drinks on offer, and crowned another incredible festival season with the party of the year. More than half a million public votes had been cast that year.

Just a few weeks later, at the start of January, saw the staging of the first ever European Festival Awards, taking place in the Grand Theatre, Groningen, Netherlands on the opening night of the Eurosonic Festival and Conference. Run in co-operation with Yourope (the European Festival Association), this debut was a great success and saw a powerful turn-out of European promoters despite the snowy weather conditions which grounded many flights across Europe (including all in the UK).