The death of ‘festival season’

As the UK clubbing fraternity blames the closure of half of the UK’s nightclubs on the growth of the festival market (see recent article) and Bristol’s Syndicate closes its doors, we look at how festivals in Bristol and beyond are no longer confined to the summer months.

There was a time, even here in the West Country, where you’d pop your festival boots in the garage at the end of August and leave them there til the following May – the next festival season. Hell, I deliberately got pregnant in September so I wouldn’t miss too much of festival season (was back on the festival horse the following July).

But those days are now gone. With more thousands of festivals taking place on these shores, contributing over £1 billion into the UK economy and European and international festivals turning their marketing efforts in our direction, you could argue that the market is becoming saturated – forcing some promoters to schedule their events ‘out of season’ in order to give them a better chance of succeeding.

“We chose November because the kinds of up-and-coming acts we wanted to book we more likely to be bookable during actual touring season,” says Loki Lillistone, editor of Bristol Live Magazine and co-organiser of Fear of Fiction Festival – a multi-venue festival which took place in Stokes Croft venues back in the autumn of 2012.

“It was more financially possible, both for us to book them and for the acts themselves to finance their total live dates in a tour block, rather than one-off shows here and there. The students being back, considering it’s a student city, was also a big plus. And there were less festivals to compete with.”

Loki added: “I think ‘festival season’ exists less than ever before, but for the mainstream public and for the purposes of marketing (e.g. Brothers Cider, Southern Comfort, Primark, etc) it does. As we see the big festivals fail and the smaller ones kick ass even this perception will probably change slowly.

“I think it’s probably a positive thing that dates are diversifying and I’d say it goes hand-in-hand with the de-institutionalisation of the festivals and the music industry in general. That’s to say, it’s not just that big labels are becoming less relevant, all institutions are, with us seeing more smaller indie festivals each year doing what they want, when they feel like it.”

Anna Rutherford, director of Bristol Festivals, an umbrella organisation for more than 30 Bristol-based festivals, agrees – she highlights a new generation of festival promoters, promoters who get how to use the digital world to create communities around their events.

“Festivals are run by a younger generation of people, who are often locked out or simply alienated by the programming in traditional venues, but who want to make things happen, who understand the digital tools of engagement, and who aren’t afraid to work very hard and take risks,” she says.

“They seem to have proliferated in a digital age and a time where so much is about the individual. People need to connect with a wider society and to share experiences. Church fulfils a similar need in people, admittedly with less beer.”

Bristol is now hosting a number of ‘out of season’ offerings across a range of disciplines and it’s not hard to see why clubs are accusing festivals of playing a role in their decline. Of course, the savvy clubs – instead of bemoaning this – just get in on the act. Take Motion and its new venture, the Marble Factory, home to several festivals including Temples and Bristol Ska & Mod Fest, both of which take place outside of ‘festival season’.

But holding your festival outside of the summer rush does not guarantee success. Bristol Hit The Deck Festival, which has taken place in April over the past few years will not return in 2016. Pat Somers, from DHP Group which organises the event, said: “There are a lot of festivals in that style vying for the same market at same time of year, I think. D2D in May was traditionally the beginning of festival season for most, although there are now lots of fests earlier than that.”

A 2014 YouGov report suggested that customers were turning their backs on some of the bigger festivals – dubbing them too expensive/not value for money. James McCoy, research director at YouGov, said: ‘’The report shows that while demand for music festivals has remained high, it will be interesting to see which events survive pressure on disposable income as the market becomes increasingly saturated.” 

Dr Rutherford, who also runs InBetween Time Festival, which took place in Bristol back in February, added: “We have some sustainability issues as a sector, and perhaps we could be more strategic as a city.”

Some festivals are spreading their net more too – not confining themselves to a day, weekend or even a week – but including pre-parties, fringe events, fundraisers and even using the term festival as an umbrella term for an ongoing series of events – take Bristfest/Rave on Avon/Arcadia involvement as well as the brilliant Bristol Festival of Ideas. Slapstick Festival is another Bristol event which has a presence either side of the January event.

Guy Manchester, one of the organisers of Bristol Slapstick Festival and editor for Louderthanwar music publication says the festival works well at the start of the year.

He said: “We’ve run over 10 editions of Slapstick now and people have come to expect it to be in the last weekend of January. Certainly with the main event, the gala at Colston Hall, we get the sense that it’s become a part of people’s cultural routine as it were, a conclusion we draw from the fact that we always sell a good chunk of the tickets before we even announce the host.”

He added: “The absence of much in the way of competition is handy and the fact that we’re a comedy festival at the time of year when most people are in need of being cheered up. It’s unlikely guests will have other commitments at the end of January too. We’re also close enough to Christmas to persuade people to buy tickets as Christmas presents!”

But he said they had to prepare themselves for bad weather and people being skint after Christmas, so it wasn’t all plane sailing.

Considering the death of festival season, he said: “Film festivals run all year long, from Cannes in spring through Venice, Toronto, Sundance, London and Edinburgh etc. Similarly comedy festivals run all year long. However, I would definitely say there’s a music festival season – even your indoors, urban festivals tend to be either just before (spring) or just after (autumn) the outdoor (summer) festival season.

“Last year, it started to feel like music festivals had reached a peak with several having to cancel, but I still think there’s room for more if the organisers can hone a niche say – look at the soaraway success of Temples Festival and ArcTanGent for instance, both of which cater to a very specific kind of music fan. And in terms of comedy and film there’s room for more of these kinds of festivals.”

ATP Festival has events across the world at different times of year. It became known on these shores for its UK holiday camp festivals in the spring (April/May) and winter months (Nov/Dec). After launching at Camber Sands, they headed west to Minehead before returning to Camber Sands for a swansong in 2012. They’re now back, but have hopped across the border to Prestatyn in Wales – maintaining their spring and winter dates.

ATP’s John Jeffreys said: “It’s always been a matter of necessity in a way with the holiday camps ATP was born in, and that we’re most well-known for holding festivals in – that they simply weren’t available or affordable to hire in the summer months; as they were already booked up with their regular programming.”

Like Guy, John believes that the notion of ‘festival season’ is still relevant. “The majority of festivals are still heavily weighted toward the UK summer months,” he said. “But the sheer amount on offer now means that if you’re a music-lover – you can probably find something to your taste going on at any time of the year.

“The discerning music fan is doubtfully going to return to an event the year after that disappointed them the year before, and on the other hand – will keep returning to an event they know offers them a good experience and lineup time and time again. So the not-so-good festivals are unlikely to last for very long.” 

See our top autumn/winter/spring festival picks here.

(Thanks to Shot Away for the photo of Simple Things Festival)