Festivals are kind of over ...it's all about grassroots, intimate gigs this summer

I'M not being funny but... today I want to talk about the sorry state of festivals this summer.

- Fat Tony

And I don't mean that there are s** festivals out there (even though there are plenty), I'm talking about the fact that they're being cancelled left, right and centre. This summer so far more than 45 festivals have been cancelled or postponed. We're talking festivals of all sizes: one-dayers, right the way through to four-day camping festivals like El Dorado.

The most hurt are independent festival owners. Festivals owned by large companies are seeing far fewer cancellations because of greater resources and purchasing power. This combined with a huge increase in production costs post-pandemic and Brexit makes it really hard for festivals to break even, much less make a profit.

We're all feeling it, artists (including me) and punters. Because of the higher prices, fewer people are buying tickets. We all know what we've been dealing with this past year or two with the cost of living crisis. There's a load of reasons why there's such a struggle in the industry at the moment.