Live music events/ festivals contribute £1 billion to UK economy

“Is there anything else, other than music that has the power to transform the utterly mundane, like a pedestrian crossing in north London into an international hotspot?”

This was the question which inspired UK Music to conduct research into the UK Music Tourism industry to find out just how much the industry contributes towards the economy.

A National Brand index survey ranked the UK at No 4 for being an “interesting and exciting place for contemporary culture such as music, films, art and literature”. The survey was based on interviews with 20, 000 individuals worldwide, suggesting that creativity should be the nations calling card.

Live Music festivals such as Glastonbury, T in the Park, Leeds and Reading contributed approximately £1.4 billion towards the economy in 2009, creating and sustaining around 19, 700 jobs. Glastonbury Festival alone contributed as much as £100 million.

5% of Festival goers were from overseas. However, overseas visitors accounted for a massive 18% of the spending.

It’s also interesting to not those overseas visitors who are defined as music tourists spend nearly a quarter more while in the UK than the average tourist who is not primarily motivated by music.

‘UK Music is an umbrella organization representing the collective interests of the UK’s commercial music industry’.

Source: https://www.ukmusic.org/assets/media/UK%20Music%20-Music%20Tourism.pdf

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