Ticketmaster has released its State of Play Festivals 2025 report, exploring the latest trends shaping the UK festival scene.
Focussing on what matters to audiences, using insights from fans, industry partners and its own ticketing data, the report highlights several areas including ‘families at festivals’, ‘solo festivals’, ‘values and sustainability’, and ‘phones in the field’.
Ticketmaster – which was recently announced as Headline Sponsor for the UK Festival Awards 2025 – partnered with market research company OnePoll, which conducted an online survey of 2,000 UK adults who have attended a festival within the past five years. These survey results were then supplemented with anonymous transactional data from Ticketmaster’s festival portfolio, covering events between January 2022 and December 2024.
Among the headlines from the research was a significant increase in solo festival attendees (from 8% in 2019 to 29% in the 2025 report), with festivals launching specific initiatives such as Reading and Leeds’ solo-specific campsites to meet these trends.
Also highlighted is an increase in festival bookings before any acts have been announced, with 2019’s figure of 6% more than tripling to 19% in the 2025 data and only 23% waiting for the full line-up to be announced. The data also indicates that more day tickets have been purchased in the past five years, with 47% citing price/value as the main motivator.
Sarah Slater, SVP Music & Festivals at Ticketmaster UK, said: “Festivals are the new family holiday, the new weekend escape, and the place people go to connect. Fans want more than just the music – they’re after comfort, culture, and moments that mean something. Our State of Play report shows just how much festivals are evolving – and why they matter to every generation.”
You can view the full report online here.
