Festivals threaten to collapse due to sky-high costs

The festival and concert season is in full swing in the Netherlands this summer. From massively attended Harry Styles and Beyonce concerts in Amsterdam to Pinkpop festival and Stadspark Live taking place this weekend. However, festivals are not keeping up with the desired attendance numbers and many smaller festivals are facing collapse, partly due to increased costs, Het Parool reports.

This is the conclusion of researcher Lex Kruijver of the agency Response, which investigates the development of the event industry. Festivals and concerts were able to record 32.5 million visits in 2022 despite the pandemic, with 80 percent of those coming from music events, Kruijver says. However, according to his research, festivals tend to be among the losers in the industry, as even the largest festivals in the Netherlands are not fully attended. "We see that the concert industry is still doing very well in 2023, but that the festivals are clearly lagging behind," he tells Het Parool. "In 2023 this trend will continue at the concerts, but at the festivals you see a different picture. Only the top layer of Lowlands, Paaspop and Mysteryland is still selling out nicely, although a large festival like Pinkpop is not sold out,” Kruijver explained.

According to festival manager Niek Murray of Pinkpop, there is still room for improvement in terms of capacity, as 10,000 tickets are still for sale for the next three days.

The declining attendance could be a consequence of rising ticket prices and inflation, the newspaper reports. Because the ticket prices have risen on average by about 14 percent. This means that festival lovers, for example, have to pay 15 to 30 euros more for a Pinkpop ticket than they did the year before.

For Murray, however, the ticket price increase is a necessity. According to the Pinkpop manager, “It's necessary to stay financially healthy so we can do this again next year. Our costs have risen so much, it's in the entire chain. From the tents we have to rent and transport, with higher fuel costs, to the staff that has also become more expensive,” he told Het Parool.