UK: Organisers of the award winning music and arts festival LeeFest have announced their decision to take a fallow year in 2015. After a period of rapid growth the 2,500 capacity festival has outgrown its current venue in South London. The festival is set to move to a new venue in 2016 following the hiatus. Festival director Lee Denny commented: ‘LeeFest has reached another monumental stage in its exciting story. We could move to our new site in a hurry and pull off a reasonable party, but we’re more ambitious than that. The festival is still run entirely by volunteers,…
Author: Festival Insights
BELGIUM: Faith No More and Marilyn Manson are amongst the newly announced names for Graspop Metal Meeting, set to take place from June 19 – 21 in Dessel, Belgium. Also confirmed for Graspop Metal Meeting 2015 are: Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, Parkway Drive, Lacuna Coil, H.E.A.T, King 810, Sonata Artica, Aborted, Dragonforce, Ne Obliviscaris, Devilment and Thunder. For more information, visit the festival’s official website.
AUSTRIA: Full Metal Mountain – the new, 3,000 capacity music and winter sports festival – will make its March 2016 debut in the ski area of Nassfeld. “Full Metal Mountain combines something that fits together perfectly: a music festival with different locations, international bands, party with like-minded people, wellness and of course winter sport in all its facets. The snow-covered Alps are the perfect background for this event,” said co-founder Holger Hübner. “We are happy to be the designated venue for Full Metal Mountain 2016 and we already welcoming all the metalheads to this great winter event,” said Markus Brandstättter,…
UK: The Cambridge Folk Festival – one of the longest running folk festivals in the world – recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, drawing an audience of approximately 10,000 people. Taking advantage of this historical occasion, SSE Hire provided Harman Soundcraft Vi6 digital consoles for the main and second stage, while also using the Soundcraft Realtime Rack on the second stage. The result of a unique collaboration between Soundcraft and renowned plugin manufacturer, Universal Audio, the Soundcraft Realtime Rack brings industry-standard UAD studio plugins to the Soundcraft platform. Connecting to Vi Consoles via Optical MADI, the Realtime Rack hosts Universal Audio’s…
WORLDWIDE: As you’re hopefully aware, our Insider Insights newsletter is now in full swing, and although we’ve already received an overwhelming response we’re always looking for submissions on a rolling basis. The weekly newsletter comprises original, focussed content written by those who are passionate about and involved in the festival industry. We are looking for articles between 800 – 1200 words in length that offer a unique perspective on issues pertinent to festivals. Whether you’d like to present an argument either for or against a specific practice, share expertise and guidance on an element of festival organisation, or speculate on…
Research based on the European Festival Census – a study of the habits of thousands of festival-goers. CLick on the image to download a PDF of the report.
They’re probably two of the most hotly-disputed parts of a festival’s costs: Police and PRS. PRS For Music recently carried out a review of the charges it levies on live music events, including how much festivals should be charged. The review was prompted because at 3 per cent of gross ticket sales, its charges are among the lowest in the world. However, festivals are already feeling the pinch of the VAT rise to 20% at a time when consumers are reluctant to spend – and organisers argue that it’s unfair to add further costs because they will have no option…
The great British Summer. Long days, the beauty of the great outdoors, festival fever. And totally unpredictable weather. That can cause havoc for even the best-planned festival. As many events have discovered to their cost, heavy rainfall can mean the cancelling of one day, a whole event, or just add thousands of pounds of additional expense. If you’re not covered by insurance, you’re left high and dry. However, it’s not just the weather which can be costly for festival organisers. James Dodds at Doodson Broking Group explains: “A common mistake festival organisers can make is to assume that the provider…
Research based on the European Festival Census – a study of the habits of thousands of festival-goers.