As festival season approaches SafeSite Facilities takes a look at how event organisers can ensure revellers have a safe and joyful experience. With festival goers in 2024 reporting overcrowding and sky-high ticket prices, along with sets cut short at Glastonbury and a crowd surge at Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall, Sandra Howey at Safe Site Facilities gives her approach to a successful 2025 season below: There are so many moving parts to organising a successful festival – including the crucial aspects of crowd barriers, fencing, lighting, walkways and signage. Get these wrong and the festival experience can sour very quickly. Get…
Author: James Robertson
Glasgow Jazz Festival returns for its 39th edition from 18 – 22 June 2025, the city’s longest-running music festival will swing into summer, showcasing the breadth of Scottish, UK and international jazz music. Over 100 musicians will take part in more than 25 performances, sessions and pop-ups, showcasing everything from soul and fusion to funk and classic jazz. Tickets for the festival, which is supported by Creative Scotland, are on sale now at www.jazzfest.co.uk. Headline international talent this year comes in the form of American keyboardist, flautist and singer Brian Jackson, who plays Saint Luke’s on Friday 20th June. Half…
Shangri-La, a radical area in the South East corner of Glastonbury Festival, has shared its line up for 2025, focusing on moments of joy, community and togetherness, along with news of The Wilding, a complete redesign of the legendary field that will be kept completely secret until the festival opens. Each year, Shangri-La reveals a new chapter of its ever-evolving narrative. In 2023 and 2024 it explored the theme Everything Must Go, challenging consumerism, and exploring different currencies, exchanges and values. Now, everything has gone. This year, Shangri-La is re-wilding. The field is starting again from the ground up with…
As April is Testicular Cancer Awareness Month, Test Fest has announced its 2025 edition. Organised by It’s in the Bag Cancer Support (IITB) Test Fest takes place Saturday 21 June 2025 at Taunton RFC, Somerset, with headliners The Hoosiers and Woody Cook. Test Fest is a music festival that promotes men’s health and raises awareness of testicular cancer, with the aim of saving lives. This award winning Music Festival is the only one of its kind in the UK and probably the only festival where it is absolutely normal for people to routinely wear orange pants on the outside. Not…
Flow Festival Helsinki has added more acts to its 2025 programme, revealing the lineups for two of the festival sites’ most unique and celebrated stages, Balloon 360° and Backyard stages. The Balloon 360° stage, with its sphere-shaped form, became an instant landmark for Flow Festival when it was introduced in 2012 as a result of an international architecture competition hosted by EASA. The venue has since gained fame for its stellar program that exhibits top artists from genres around the world. This year continues that story. Detroit techno pioneer Jeff Mills will bring his Tommorow Comes The Harvest project to…
Skiddle has released its most comprehensive Festival Report, produced in partnership with the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), the report analyses key trends, insights and behaviours from the 2024 season, offering festival organisers actionable data to help maximise success in 2025. Drawing on platform data and third-party studies, the report explores shifts in consumer behaviour, the rising popularity of experience-led and wellness-focused events, the impact of early festival launches, and the growing demand for flexible payment options. It also spotlights case studies like Reggae Land and Pavilion Festival, highlighting how independent festivals are adapting and thriving despite industry-wide challenges. With…
Arts Trust, producer of King’s Cross Summer Sounds, has announced that Summer in the Park, the free festivals in the beautiful parks and squares of Greenwich and Bexley, will return this year following a hugely impactful 2024 edition. Last year saw Arts Trust take full creative control of Summer in the Park for the very first time following the closure of long-time collaborator Greenwich Dance; new event partners and a fresh vision inspired a season of free performances and cultural experiences that captured the hearts of local people, brought communities together, and boosted local economies. Through events that draw national…
The Purple Guide Grants Scheme celebrates a decade supporting 24 diverse outdoor event projects with £318,000 of funding, April 2025. The Purple Guide Grants scheme is managed by The Events Industry Forum (EIF), which brings together 32 trade associations involved in the outdoor event sector, committed to supporting, development and wellbeing. The Forum operates as a not-for-profit organisation, allocating money raised from Purple Guide subscriptions into the Grants programme, to promote and fund projects that help to improve good practice and advancement across the outdoor events industry. E.I.F. Chair, Steve Heap, stated: “We’re very proud that the Purple Guide Grants…
FOCUS Wales, the nation’s flagship music industry event, returns to Wrexham from 8 to 10 May 2025, bringing together over 400 industry professionals and more than 250 showcasing artists from across the globe. Celebrating its 15th edition, the festival continues to be a vital platform for new voices and ideas shaping the future of the music industry. With support from the Welsh Government via Creative Wales, the FOCUS Wales Conference will include the participation of music industry professionals from around the world, including organisations such as PRS Foundation, PPL, PRS for Music, British Council, Arts councils and export agencies. This…
In 2015 the former Paralympic gold medallist took his talents from the saddle to become a disability advocate and created Mobiloo. The company looks to give those with disabilities a greater chance of inclusivity at live events with their custom accessible toilets and changing facilities. Brown spoke to Festival Insights about the origin of the company and his hopes for greater inclusion during this year’s Festival Season. Can you tell us about the origin of Mobiloo? Mobiloo was born out of lived experience and a refusal to accept exclusion as inevitable. While volunteering on an inclusive activities programme, I encountered…