Independent festivals demand investigation into Live Nation’s “dominance” in UK

The UK’s Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has renewed demands that an investigation be held into the ownership of Britain’s festivals after publishing an ownership map on its website.

According to the map, Live Nation controls 25.6% of UK festivals over a capacity of 5,000.

These include Reading & Leeds, Download, Creamfields, Lovebox, Parklife, Trnsmt and Isle Of Wight.

This is three times that of nearest rival Global, which controls 7.6% of UK festivals over 5,000 capacity through promoter Broadwick Live.

AEG is third, with a 5% share.

In comparison, AIF’s members account for 20% of the market over 5,000 capacity, with 65 festivals and 37 individual companies across the membership.

This state of affairs is something that the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) needs to properly investigate, the AIF insists.

Its CEO 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.”

The AIF has introduced an online stamp so music fans are aware that the event they attend is run by an independent company.

The AIF also noted that Live Nation also has greater dominance with event promotion (30,000 concerts around the world in 2017), ticketing (Ticketmaster sells 500 million tickets worldwide), artist management (500 acts) and its control of 46% of the top 61 venue box offices

Reed reiterated, “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.”   

Read the AIF’s full report HERE.