Christopher BarrettIt’s been a tough few years for festivals but, despite the ongoing challenges, 2025 is set to see some impressive new concepts come to life. Access hears why organisers including AEG Presents’ Jim King and TEG Europe’s Toby Leighton-Pope feel next year is a good time to launch a new festival.
With an estimated 204 festivals having disappeared since 2019, according to Association of Independent Festivals research, it’s encouraging to see big plans being made for major festival launches across the UK, with intrepid independent operators also making a comeback.
Among the many large-scale festival launches planned for 2025 are TEG’s 70,000-capacity Come Together in Newcastle, AEG Presents’ 35,000-capacity LIDO Festival in London’s Victoria Park and 25,000-capacity one-day festival Forever Now in Milton Keynes. Meanwhile, Cuffe and Taylor is planning a new 35,000-capacity Blackweir Live show series in Cardiff’s Blackweir Fields and Chelmsford City Live; a four-day festival at Chelmsford City Racecourse in July that will feature headliners including Justin Timberlake and Olly Murs.
Billed as the “largest outdoor music event the North East has ever seen”, the Come Together festival will debut on 4-8 June at Newcastle’s Town Moor, with Robbie Williams and Kings of Leon being the first headliners to be announced. The goal is to sell around 50,000 tickets in the first year.
TEG Europe, the UK arm of Sydney-based live entertainment company TEG, is overseeing the delivery of the event in partnership with the City Council and conservation body The Freemen of Newcastle, which manages the Moor.
Toby Leighton-Pope was appointed TEG Europe’s MD shortly after it was launched in 2022. For Come Together he has appointed Far And Beyond (FAB) to oversee the event’s production, which will see him reunited with FAB’s Jess Shields and John Probyn who he worked alongside at Live Nation.
Leighton-Pope says Come Together is an opportunity to present a multi-genre event with top-tier talent at a remarkable greenfield site in the heart of a city whose inhabitants are renowned for their appetite for live entertainment: “Newcastle is starved of a really high-level live music event like Come Together. The stadium and arena are not so large and so they miss out on a lot of the big artists, but when you go to Newcastle you see a thriving nightlife, amazing university scene, and a community that loves to go out.”
Prior to joining TEG Europe, Leighton-Pope (pictured) 
was AEG Presents co-CEO, and before that he spent 15 years as a promoter for Live Nation where his roles included senior vice president of music. At Live Nation he was behind the launch of the Hard Rock Calling Festival in Hyde Park. With Come Together, the experienced promoter makes no secret of the fact he is looking to mirror the huge success of what is now known as BST Hyde Park (cap, 65,000).
“I worked on Hyde Park for 20 years, at Live Nation and AEG, so I know how that format works; multi-genre events across a period of days that mean you can attract the best talent and different audiences,” he says.
While the initial goal for Come Together is around 50,000, Leighton-Pope says that there is scope to grow the event to 70,000, and that the size and location of the festival site means there is remarkable flexibility.
“Newcastle’s Town Moor is the biggest inner-city park in Europe; it’s bigger than Hyde Park and New York’s Central Park – it’s absolutely amazing,” he says. “They call it the lungs of Newcastle. It’s right in the centre of town, and it’s enormous. We can go up to 70,000 people, which separates us from everything else out there, and it means we can put offers in for the biggest artists in the world.
“We have a great relationship with the local authority in the city, and we’ve gone in with an ambition to do something much bigger than anything that has ever been attempted in Newcastle. I think the opportunity has been overlooked.”
Making a splash
AEG Presents is to launch its 35,000-capacity LIDO Festival in Victoria Park in June. Building on the success of AEG’s 10-day All Points East (APE) festival in the park, LIDO will run across two weekends with each headliner curating the line-up for their day. Jamie XX has selected acts including Arca and Sampha for his 7 June show, while Charli xcx’s 14 June event will involve acts including Bladee and The Japanese House.
AEG Presents European Festivals CEO Jim King (pictured) says, “We wanted to work with the headliners so that they can take their fans on a music journey throughout the day, showcasing the artists and music that they love.”
Named after Victoria Park’s historic Lido Field, LIDO will be produced by LS Events and feature three main stages and a ‘secret club venue’ that will feature surprise unannounced performers each day. Like APE, LIDO will involve a midweek programme of free arts, culture and wellbeing activities that offer a platform for local talent, aimed at the local community.
King says sustainability is a major focus and a founding principle for LIDO, with the event being designed to become the most sustainable in AEG’s festival portfolio: “We aim to be one of the most sustainable events in the UK. Sustainability does not just end with reducing our carbon footprint but with several initiatives around education and community engagement.”
Asked how the huge rise in costs in recent years has impacted AEG Presents’ festivals and the plan for LIDO, King says the promoter’s events have proven comparatively resilient: “Costs have risen and the consequences are clear for all to see. Not only have some events left the market but the financial barrier to entry is higher than it’s ever been, which naturally hurts the smaller independent operators and entrepreneurs who want to enter the market, and so there is little growth at grass roots levels. However, the festival market is resilient.
“AEG’s European Festivals division has consistently grown every year for the last five years, and we project further sustainable growth in the coming years. Yes, we have to be careful on costs, but we have to be more careful to ensure that we are creating value and exciting narratives and opportunities for artists and their fans to come together.”
Independent progress
Association of Independent Festivals CEO John Rostron says that while the challenging economic environment has seen 72 UK festivals cancelled in 2024, meaning the indie sector is still in need of Government support such as a reduction in VAT on tickets, there are signs of small green shoots breaking through next year.
“I’m aware of about a dozen independent festival launches next summer, which is great,” he says. “They’re all very small; there’s nothing of scale, but it’s really positive to see and it is the highest number of launches we have seen since 2019. They all involve quality promoters, so there’s every reason to believe that they’re going to have a good crack at it.”
Having overseen the final, 60th anniversary edition of Towersey Festival (cap. 5,000) at Buckinghamshire’s Claydon Estate in August, the event’s directors are to launch a new festival on the site next year.
The team behind the UK’s oldest independent festival is planning the inaugural Found Festival on 22-24 August, with the new 2,000-capacity event focused on “musical and cultural discovery, connection and inspiration”.
Originally founded by Denis Manners MBE in 1965, five years before Glastonbury’s gates first opened, Towersey Festival was managed by festival co-director’s Mary Hodson and Joe Heap, two of Manners’ grandchildren who are now working on the launch of Found.
Hodson (pictured) says that it reached the point that Towersey had become financially unsustainable, and it was only after partnering with controversial secondary ticketing operator Viagogo, and gaining Arts Council funding, that the way ahead became clear for a new festival venture.
“Viagogo doesn’t have the best reputation with some artists and some other ticketing agencies, but they are putting a lot of money into grassroots music through venues, emerging artists programmes, and then just last year Viagogo decided that they wanted to invest in independent festivals,” she says. “We believe in what they’re doing, in terms of investment in the right things, and the programmes that they have been running for several years have been really successful and really made a difference.
“The funding doesn’t mean we can all sit back and relax but it is a significant amount of money, and along with the Arts Council grant it just meant that we could get ourselves out of deep water and into a place where it felt it was feasible to launch something new.”
Hodson says that should demand warrant it, Found’s organisers will consider expanding the festival from its initial 2,000 capacity, but with the focus very much being on creating a comfortable boutique festival environment, the ceiling will be around 5,000.
“Among the things that we are really proud of is our heritage. Found isn’t going to be Towersey II but we are going to take a lot of elements from it that we’ve loved and our audience has loved, and pull that into a new environment with Found. One of those things is the community feel, the friendliness and the welcoming nature of the festivals that we run. So keeping it at a 2,000 capacity is a strategic move in terms of finance, making targets realistic, and the environment we are looking to create for festivalgoers.”
Found’s lineup will include a blend of americana, folk, country, roots, blues and world music, along with spoken word, comedy, circus and arts, with audience interaction “a crucial element of the festival”.
Hodson says that while she expects and wants Towersey attendees to attend Found, the focus is on appealing to newcomers: “We definitely want to attract a new audience, and launching a completely new festival is an opportunity to do that. There will still be a huge and eclectic mix of things to do and see. We haven’t announced any acts yet, but what we’re saying is to expect head turners rather than headliners. What we really want people to do is come to Found and discover new music, new skills, hidden talents, and discover themselves again.”
A new age approach
Homestead, a new independent festival open exclusively to people aged over 25, is scheduled to debut on 20 July at Fernhill Farm in the Mendips.
The event concept is certainly unusual, if not unique, with it not only differentiated by the age restriction but also the decision to maintain its capacity at 1,500, and what’s included in the ticket price. Organisers promise that attendees will get far more for the £300 ticket price than just entry to the site. The ‘all-inclusive’ ticket will include breakfast and Bloody Marys, camping, access to all entertainment, talks and workshops, access to VIP areas, and parking or camper-van passes.
Located 30 minutes outside of Bristol and Bath, Homestead will provide a mix of comedy, DJs and live music from a wide range of genres. The lineup includes comedians Paul Smith and Troy Hawke along with bands such as Warmduscher (pictured) and Fat Dog.
The event is the brainchild of Shindig Productions director Will Lardner and his wife Jess who registered the festival name five years ago. Will and Jess were part of the team responsible for Shindig Festival, a 10,000-capacity independent Somerset-based event that ran for a decade before being closed this year. Jess is currently operations manager at Team Love, which produces events including the Forwards and Love Saves The Day festivals.
“We may look at doing another weekend or doing a version overseas but the capacity will remain 1,500,” says Will. “We could see the market is changing and what people want out of festivals is slightly different now, and something that caters for a smaller crowd but with the levels of production and the calibre of acts that you get at large events, just wasn’t there. The uniqueness of what we’re trying to create is based around the 1500 people – we think that’s the sweet spot.”
This article is included in the Winter edition of Access All Areas magazine, which is available here.