The festival season may be soon coming to a close, but that doesn’t mean the work ends there.
We’ve seen Brat girl summer have its second coming and Glastonbury bow out before taking its fallow year. Oasis have dominated the live music headlines, and if you’ve recently taken a walk through Manchester our collective fashion choices too. But amongst the Adidas sponsored bucket hat-mania, London’s grime elite reunited for Drake’s Wireless takeover and McFly became unlikely rock gods at Download Festival.
There are many people behind the scenes that make this complicated ecosystem of revelry work. There are production teams who build elaborate stages, those who pour pints and pick up litter, and others who scan your wristbands for a free ticket. Then, there are the festival bookers and the booking agents, who ensure the biggest acts in the world walk out on the biggest stages.
These are the people being celebrated by the International Festival Forum. Taking place from place 9-11 September, the IFF is a meeting between 1000 delegates to discuss the highs, lows, opportunities and challenges that face the festival and booking agency business in the near future. It’s also a hub for new music talent, and welcomes the potential headliners of tomorrow across numerous venues.
The head of all this is Greg Parmley. He’s a Managing Director of all sorts, from the IFF and IQ Magazine to the International Live Music Conference. Here, we speak with him about this year’s event, the new opportunities for the festival industry and why there’s still hope for new festivals.
“This industry is constantly changing, and it’s constantly becoming more interesting. It’s getting bigger, it’s getting broader, and it doesn’t stay still. “
Festival Insights: How is IFF looking for you now? What are your plans for 2025?
“IFF isn’t a conventional conference. We essentially build a campus. We hold it at Omeara in London Bridge, which is a live music venue with two stages. But we also take over a multiple spaces around the main venue, which allows for more networking space.
But the essence of IFF is always the same. It’s putting buyers and sellers into a room at the right time of the year.
IFF is capped at 1000 delegates, which includes around 400 booking agents and then 600 festival bookers.“
Festival Insights: What are the aspects of IFF that you most look forward to?
“The great thing about IFF is, because it’s focused just for festival bookers and booking agents, these are people who are all really creative, interesting people. You’re bringing together a really awesome community for two days and just letting them get on with it.
From there, people can create some of the world’s most amazing spectacles. These people do incredible things every summer, and we bring them together. For me, that’s the really exciting thing.“
Festival Insights: What keeps you interested wanting to promote this industry?
“I’ve done it all my life, and I’m hugely passionate about it.
You only have to go to a show by an artist who you maybe half want to see to be reminded about what a great business it is to be in. It’s constantly changing, and it’s constantly becoming more interesting. It’s getting bigger, it’s getting broader, and it doesn’t stay still. There’s always something new.“
Festival Insights: You said it gets broader and more interesting, what is this industry doing at the moment that excites you?
“The live music industry is growing faster than most other industries, and that’s globally. The spread of live entertainment is broader than it ever has been. There’s an explosion of Latin music breaking out of South America.
For decades, country music was not a scene that translated to the UK or the rest of Europe. Now, it’s incredibly popular here. There’s K-Pop, too. There are new scenes that are bringing in huge audience numbers, and it’s really propelling the business forward.
There are also domestic artists coming through in ways that they never had before. Partly, I think that’s a factor of the COVID pandemic, and the fact that they were given the opportunity to shine for that period. There’s been a noticeable shift in the European festival landscape as a result.
We have new markets opening up, from new stadiums being opened across Africa and the Middle East, to new touring markets that didn’t exist before. The idea of what defines a world tour is bigger than ever, and that’s super exciting.“
Festival Insights: What are some of the new challenges for festivals in both 2025 and moving forward?
“When it comes to festival issues, some festivals have had a tough ride in the last two years, and the business is unpredictable this year for sure.
There are definitely challenges. But that said, a lot of the big legacy festival brands continue to be really strong and do really good business. You also have newer festivals such as BludFest in Milton Keynes, alongside more niche festivals.
There are festivals such as Broken Summer in Sweden, as well as Future Ruins which champions cinematic music. Within the festival market, there’s always room for for great creative events that cater to people who really love what they do.“
Festival Insights: On a similar note, how does the current rise of artist-led festivals impact independent festivals, who may not have a major name attached to it and major label funding?
“I think if I knew the answer to that then that’s the key to a successful festival.
Post-COVID, the cost of everything has gone up. So for some of the smaller, independent festivals who run on tight margins, we need to ensure those festivals are still successful. But it’s been really challenging for them.
Nobody is going to disagree with the fact that promoting and staging a festival is a tough game, but there are many great festivals in the UK that take place and keep coming back every year. There’s something there that works, and it’s something that people keep thinking is magical.“
IFF takes place 9-11 September in the venue Omeara and the Southwark Quarter. Find out more here.
