Report: Bluesfest ranked as Australia’s biggest festival, in the Top 20 globally

On the eve of the 30th International Live Music Conference in London, US-based global live music trade magazine Pollstar examined the success stories of those in its Top 20 International Festivals for the past six years.

The biggest was Coachella in southern California, which has reported an increase in gross every year since 2012 and ranked No. 1 on this chart each of those years except 2016.

The 2016 exception was the monstrous Desert Trip, featuring The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, Bob Dylan, Neil Young and The Who. Desert Trip grossed an astonishing $160.1 million.

Desert Trip was the largest event report in Pollstar history.

The magazine reported, “In Australia, Bluesfest was undoubtedly the highest-grossing festival, appearing on the chart nearly every year.

“The festival came in at #11 in 2017 with $10.1 million gross.”

Best performing European festivals are Pinkpop (Netherlands), and Hurricane, Southside, Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park, all from Germany.

Globally the highest-grossing year for the Top 20 festivals was 2016 with a total of $477.7 million.

Aside from Coachella and Desert Trip, there were impressive showings from British Summer Time in London ($30.8 million), Outside Lands in San Francisco ($25.9 million), and Stagecoach country music festival in Southern California ($25.4 million).

The next-highest grossing year was 2014, which, besides Coachella, saw Mysteryland in New York, Austin City Limits in Texas, Lollapalooza in Chicago; and Rock am Ring in Germany all reporting more than $20 million grossed.

Pollstar reported that Latin and country music festivals are starting to pull strong financial figures

But the trend seems to be towards eclecticism, either with successful festivals combining rock, EDM, pop, R&B and hip-hop; or fill them up with big name legacy acts.