This is an article from the Ticketing Business website, the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF). It discusses the cancellation of Somerset’s new Homestead festival, which is apparently the 39th festival to fall so far this year in the UK. It feels unlikely that the government would consider tax relief for festivals but the cancellation figures … Read more
It was great to read about this new Edinburgh Fringe venue today. Originally conceived in response to the Covid pandemic, it is now a brilliant response to the increasingly expensive challenge of bringing a show to the Fringe. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/may/07/shedinburgh-edinburgh-festival
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/dozens-of-artists-boycott-sxsw-over-military-sponsorship-israel-ties https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/06/sxsw-musicians-palestine-weapons-raytheon Interesting to read a number of acts have chosen to boycott SXSW this year du to the festival’s connections to military contractors. It seems to be turning into a regular issue for festival organisers, there were artist boycotts at the Edinburgh Book Festival (most notably Greta Thunberg) due to the fossil fuel investments … Read more
Large-scale free events have become more common as towns and cities make increasing use of events in their broader placemaking strategies. Here is an article featuring some of the free events in the UK this summer. https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/may/31/10-of-the-best-free-festivals-in-the-uk
There is another chance to attend our online Festival and Event Management Masterclass on 12 September. Over the past 10 years the Festival and Event Management Masterclass has established a reputation as one of the world’s leading seminars for people who create, support and manage festivals and events. It has been attended by thousands of … Read more
As there will still be some travel restrictions in place at our original date, we have changed the date of our Reykjavik Masterclass. We will now be running the course on Friday 18th June. Here are the new details Reykjavík Festival and Event Management Masterclass
It was so good to see this article today. Even though most of the festivals listed will be compromised in some way, it is at least a sign that we are slowly approaching better times for festivals and events. https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/apr/14/10-of-britains-best-arts-festivals-for-summer-2021
This is such a good move by Denmark. There are so many event organisers here in the UK unable or unwilling to fully commit to a summer programme ‘just in case’. Events are important not just in themselves but for the impact they are likely to have on local economies and as a signal that … Read more
Good to see progress being made in New York. I’m still a bit concerned about the notion of vaccine passports but if it gets our festivals back up and running safely, I’m very much in favour. I hope we can make swift progress towards making this happen in the UK for events this summer. https://www.nme.com/news/music/new-york-launches-vaccine-passport-app-in-bid-to-restart-live-events-2910256 … Read more
Interesting piece from @annaholligan at the BBC looking at a two-day experiment in Biddinghuizen near Amsterdam to see if there’s a safe way to allow festivals to restart. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-56462200
