Awards Business News

UK Festival Awards takes place in Manchester

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 8 December 2022

The winners of this year’s UK Festival Awards were announced at Manchester’s Escape To Freight Island earlier this week.

Among the winners, Manchester Pride took the Best Large Festival prize and The Great Escape was named Best Festival For Emerging Talent. Meanwhile, there were two winners of this year’s Outstanding Contribution Award, Association Of Festival Organisers boss Steve Heap and outgoing Association Of Independent Festivals chief Paul Reed.

Presenting those outstanding contribution prizes, Ticketmaster’s VP Music & Festivals, Sarah Slater, said of Heap: “His determined work throughout the pandemic, when he should’ve been looking forward to his retirement, could not go unnoticed”. Meanwhile Reed, she added, “transformed [AIF] and through extensive lobbying won several key battles for independent festivals. His leadership was never more prominent than during the pandemic”.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Small Festival: Woo Fest
Best Medium Festival: 2000 Trees
Best Large Festival: Manchester Pride
Best Overseas Festival: Altitude Comedy Festival
Best Non-Music Festival: Mighty Dub Fest
Best Metropolitan Festival: Sound City
Best Festival For Emerging Talent: The Great Escape
Best Family Festival: Teddy Rocks
Best New Festival: RADAR Festival
The Grassroots Festival Award: 3 Wishes Fairy Festival
The UK Greener Festival Award: Green Gathering
Best Festival Production: Boomtown
Promoter Of The Year: Black Deer
Line-Up Of The Year: Bluedot
Innovation Award: Exit Festival/NFT-TiX
Marketing Campaign Of The Year: Parklife
The Positively Perfect Pivot Award: Back 2 Festival
The Sarah Nulty Community Impact Award: Beat The Streets
The Brand Activation Award: Mighty Hoopla/Vodafone
The Outstanding Contribution Award: Steve Heap
The Outstanding Contribution Award: Paul Reed