Stuart WoodThe Association of Independent Festivals has published a festival ownership map, which shows American corporation Live Nation owns over 25% of UK festivals with higher than 5,000 capacity.
Festivals owned by Live Nation include Creamfields, Isle of Wight Festival, Parklife, and many more. Other major festival owners include Global/Broadwick Live, which owns Boardmasters, Festival no. 6 and SW4, as well as AEG, which owns All Points East and British Summer Time.
The AIF says 20% of UK festivals over 5,000 capacity are members of their organization, which comprises 65 independent festivals.
Live Nation also owns Ticketmaster, the world’s largest ticketing company, which controls an estimated 46% of the top 61 venue box offices in the UK and sells 500 million tickets worldwide annually. The company also manages over 500 artists and promoted 30,000 concerts globally in 2017.
AIF has also renewed its call for UK competition authorities to properly scrutinise Live Nation’s vertical integration and dominance, and the detrimental effect it has on the independent festival market.
AIF chief executive Paul Reed said: “AIF’s festival ownership map paints a stark picture of the sector. Allowing a single company to dominate festivals, and the live music sector in general, through vertical integration reduces the amount of choice and value for money for music fans.
“It can block new entrants to market, result in strangleholds on talent through exclusivity deals, and stifle competition throughout the entire live music business.
“AIF has been sounding the alarm for some time now but the effect on the independent festival sector continues. Simply put, this damaging market dominance needs to be given the scrutiny it deserves.”