What’s going on with festival prices?

Glastonbury music festival cost £1 to attend in its first year and it was free during its second year. However, soon you will have to start a savings account for festival tickets with the price for Glastonbury in 2024 £355.

Research from No1 Currency shows that UK festival ticket prices have been increasing more than any other country with Glastonbury festival increasing by 19.6% and Reading and Leeds festivals jumping up by a tear-jerking 34.4%.

There are many reasons festival prices are rising so quickly, including the demand for tickets, price inflation and the aftermath of COVID-19 lockdowns, when no festivals could take place. There was pressure to honor tickets that had been bought pre-lockdown, which increased ticket prices higher than ever.

Fox Valentine, the stage and production director at Glastonbury together with other festivals told Vice that “infrastructure costs are up so much that the price of the ticket didn’t cover the event, let alone the payment of permanent staff and the storage costs from lockdown”.

In fact times have changed so much that at the first Glastonbury festival they gave out free milk with the tickets. Now those who attend festivals have to pay £15 for a burger and if they’re lucky, the fries are included.

Despite the big increases in ticket prices, some people still have no doubt when spending that amount of money to see different artists and make new memories.

Daniela Lukaza, a university student and a yearly festival goer said: “It is worth paying the price of the ticket because of the experience of them… You get to see multiple music acts in one day instead of paying to see them separately and potentially see new artists you wouldn’t have seen live before.”

People may not think twice about the price they will pay because of how much they get out of it. £355 may sound like a lot from first impression, but for music lovers, it might be a lot cheaper for them to go to a festival than spend money on each separate artist.

With people spending £100 to see one artist on a sold-out arena tour, £355 to see some of the biggest names in one night suddenly doesn’t seem too bad a price to pay.

The future of festival ticket prices is unknown but if they keep going up hopefully what you get inside will match the price tag.

Lukaza said: “If festival prices go up I would probably be more picky about the ones I choose to go to… If they were to become more expensive I would want there to be artists that I already enjoy listening to and would really want to see.”