NCS
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Music festivals are going through a disaster.
On the brink of what needs to be one other thrilling summer season competition season, dozens of music festivals are shutting down.
The pattern has been simmering for years — the longstanding Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago isn’t returning this summer season, following comparable bulletins final yr from Atlanta’s Music Midtown and Kickoff Jam in Florida. Meanwhile, festivals like Jay-Z’s Made in America competition and Delaware’s Firefly Music Festival haven’t returned since 2022.
Even earlier than summer season formally began this yr, more than 40 festivals had already been canceled, based on one rely.
These cancellations aren’t the solely indicators that one thing is awry in the competition scene. For the second yr in a row, tickets to Coachella — the preeminent competition in the California desert that after offered out within hours — remained out there for months. Electric Forest, Michigan’s notable digital and jam band competition, has additionally seen a slowdown in sales, igniting extra concern over the landscape overall.
Some blame the spate of cancellations on altering tastes; others level to the lack of curiosity from youthful generations (why pay to see a bunch of acts you haven’t heard of?). And, of course, there’s a normal belt tightening general.
Either approach, the result’s the similar. Music festivals had been as soon as on the leading edge, occasions the place the music and vibe felt recent and distinctive. But taken collectively, the declining ticket sales and cancellations paint a struggling image of the competition business, at the same time as different areas of dwell music thrive.
These days, music festivals have develop into synonymous with summer season, with virtually each main metropolis boasting their very own sweaty sonic meeting.
That wasn’t all the time the case. In 1969, when Woodstock introduced virtually half 1,000,000 individuals to see dwell music at a dairy farm in upstate New York, the occasion continued to resonate even years afterward, mentioned Tiffany Naiman, director of Music Industry Programs at University of California, Los Angeles.
“It lived in the cultural memory of America,” she mentioned, “in this idea of a wonderful musical experience that changed people’s lives.”
Afterward, the want for comparable experiences lingered. Most of the festivals individuals is likely to be accustomed to now — Coachella, Lollapalooza, even Warped Tour — started in the Nineties. Lollapalooza, which started in 1991, notably turned the Woodstock for Gen X-ers, Naiman mentioned, a spot for neighborhood and a various set of music.
“It was a great experience for people, because you got to see so many acts and things like that, for so little money,” Naiman mentioned. “Right now, that has obviously changed.”
Blake Atchison, who lives in Nashville, nonetheless remembers sneaking into the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival again in 2002, the very first yr it was held. Now, he takes his son with him each summer season.
The entire competition expertise, mentioned Atchison — who co-founded Nashville’s Deep Tropics competition in 2017 — is magical. There’s a way of discovery in festivals, he mentioned, with all the completely different levels with differing kinds of music. You can come upon an incredible band or DJ that you find yourself loving, absent of a streaming algorithm feeding you comparable sounds over and over once more. At a competition, in case you’re open, Atchison mentioned, you possibly can uncover one thing completely new.
“There’s just nothing like it,” he mentioned. “I love music, I love experiencing music with people, and I don’t think there’s any purer form to do that than a well put together festival.”
But over the years, that competition expertise has modified. At Bonnaroo, for instance, some longtime attendees have complained that the occasion has develop into swarmed with big, corporate sponsors. There’s a pressure between the two camps: Some mourn the days when the competition felt extra bohemian, whereas others recognize the elevated funding, mirrored in higher bogs and extra common acts. That divide illustrates simply how far festivals have come, but additionally underlines a problem: Once built-in into the mainstream, how do these festivals keep distinct?
While music festivals have lengthy retained a grip on American id, their maintain is likely to be slipping.
Though the quantity of festivals has ballooned since the late ‘90s and early aughts, it’s not clear that the demand has saved up, mentioned Will Page, former chief economist of Spotify.
Inflation and tightening budgets have individuals spending much less in practically each half of American life, together with nightlife, fashion and dining out. While you possibly can as soon as see your favourite act play a serious stadium and nonetheless attend a competition that very same summer season, music fans as we speak are having to decide on between the two.
“Roll forward to 2024, you go all in to see Taylor Swift, and you don’t bother with the festival,” Page mentioned. “We’re seeing an element of displacement, of cannibalization, of the stadium acts eating the festivals’ lunch.”
In different phrases, we’ve develop into extra risk-averse. Why would you need to journey and pay a whole lot of {dollars} for a weekend cross (not together with prices for tenting, drinks, meals, and many others.) to see artists you’re undecided you’ll take pleasure in? Especially when you possibly can spend it on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour as a substitute? People need their echo chambers, Page mentioned, and playing on a competition won’t appear value it.
Running a competition has develop into tougher for organizers, too.
As ticket pricing constructions have modified, extra artists are foregoing festivals for their very own worldwide enviornment excursions, the place they’ll make more cash, Page mentioned. That’s made it tougher for festivals to draw prime expertise.
Operation prices are additionally rising, Page mentioned, however there’s a restrict to how a lot festivals can cost for tickets.
“You have a credit crunch facing festivals across the board,” he mentioned. “But particularly the smaller festivals are less able to hedge, less able to negotiate those terms, to manage that cost inflation.”
The vulnerability of these smaller occasions could cause points for potential patrons. Midwest Dreams, a brand new EDM competition in St. Louis, was meant to kick off at the finish of May, however organizers postponed the occasion to November a few week earlier than the scheduled begin. While a press release factors to the harm attributable to a current twister, onlookers famous that different occasions at the venue are nonetheless continuing as scheduled.
Refunds for the occasion had been additionally reportedly only offered for 24 hours, after which tickets would roll over to the new date — though in an electronic mail to NCS, competition organizers famous the time restrict was a ticket vendor coverage and anybody who desires a refund will get it. Some followers understood the transfer; others claimed the competition was covering for low ticket sales. Midwest Dreams denied these claims.
Then there’s the rising frequency of extreme climate occasions. Acts can’t carry out if there’s lightning, Naiman mentioned, and insurance coverage will also be a headache. Temperatures are additionally getting a lot hotter.
The unpredictability of a music competition is an element of the expertise — however it will possibly additionally make potential festival-goers cautious. Last yr, Electric Forest — the place single-day passes are going for $175 in 2025 — was plagued with a lot rain and extreme thunderstorms that the competition was pressured to finish early and nix performances from headliners. A yr later, some followers are still irate over not receiving a refund or voucher. (Electric Forest didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark.)
Either approach, for each organizers and attendees, festivals are merely changing into tougher bets. And it’s not simply in the US. Festivals in Canada, in the United Kingdom, and across Europe have seen comparable struggles, creating an image of a worldwide music competition hunch.
The issues going through music festivals are the similar issues going through virtually each side of society. Money’s tight, and the approach individuals uncover and expertise music as we speak is altering.
But individuals nonetheless need to see dwell music, Naiman mentioned. Indeed, at the same time as the price of live performance tickets has soared, shoppers have kept splurging.
But amongst bigger festivals, there’s been little change or progress over the years, Naiman mentioned. Instead, there’s been a flattening, with the similar artists taking part in and the similar types of music. (Case in level: Luke Combs, Tyler, the Creator, and Olivia Rodrigo are all headlining each Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza this yr.)
“The larger ones are plateauing because they haven’t changed for the better,” Naiman mentioned. “I don’t think that Coachella is doing anything unique or radical anymore.”
That distinctive, grassroots vibe for which many longstanding music festivals turned common has considerably light lately, significantly as behemoths Live Nation and AEG have gathered possession over main music festivals, leaning towards a extra mainstream EDM and pop-centric lineup. For some longtime followers, that change is tough to swallow.
Lollapalooza, for instance, which started as a farewell tour earlier than evolving into an underground different rock competition, was acquired by Live Nation in 2014. In 2016, bemoaning the inflow of EDM into the lineup, Lollapalooza founder and Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell told the Chicago Tribune: “I sometimes cringe at my own festival.”
And music followers appear to be gravitating towards different areas to expertise one thing new. Currently, The All-American Rejects are embarking on a nationwide home occasion tour, eschewing conventional venues for backyards, faculty campuses and, in a single occasion, a bowling alley. Though the pop-rock band continues to be taking part in some summer season festivals (Warped Tour, Shaky Knees and Aftershock), whereas opening for the Jonas Brothers in stadiums, these unconventional reveals and the ensuing social media hype have revived the band’s early aughts buzz.
To set themselves aside, smaller festivals have needed to transfer past music as a method to entice audiences, Atchison mentioned. Deep Tropics, which he mentioned has seen a median of 43% progress yr over yr since its founding in 2017, has targeted on sustainability, and built-in extra audio system, workshops, and even yoga and breathwork into the competition.
“There’s other elements that fans are searching for,” Atchison mentioned.
Part of the answer may additionally lie in reframing what a music competition truly means. Naiman used the Sundance Film Festival for instance, the place movie buffs collect to not see their favourite motion pictures, however to be the first to uncover the coolest up-and-coming administrators and actors.
“Though we like being in our echo chamber, I think there’s a hunger for new things,” Naiman mentioned. “I think it’s really about framing it, and how festivals frame this idea of discovery and experience versus seeing whoever again.”
That starvation for brand new issues is significant. For music festivals, their survival could very effectively rely upon it.