The Association Of Independent Festivals has made yet another plea for the UK government to support the independent festival sector. This follows the cancellation of the 2024 edition of Barn On The Farm, the latest event to take a year out due to rising costs and the ongoing effects of COVID losses.
“Barn On The Farm's recent announcement is a further warning sign of the difficult conditions facing independent festivals at the moment”, says AIF CEO John Rostron. “Festivals are being squeezed by the rise in supply chain costs, and the effects of closures and debt incurred during COVID, meaning they are in a unique, perilous position that threatens the future of almost all but the very biggest operators in the UK”.
He then made his now depressingly regular call for the government to drop the VAT rate on ticket sales to 5% for three years “to create the space for festivals to make it through this severe situation and back to the growth we all enjoyed in outdoor events prior to the pandemic”.
Barn On The Farm was set to take place on the first weekend of July, but in a statement yesterday organisers said that “after lots of lengthy discussions we have made the difficult decision to postpone Barn 24, and instead focus our attention on Barn 25”.
Last year’s Barn On The Farm was headlined by Gang Of Youths, Bleachers and Holly Humberstone, and in December was named Best Small Festival at the UK Festival Awards. However, organisers were candid in the months after the 2023 event about the financial losses they had incurred, indicating that it may not be possible to stage their thirteenth festival in 2024.
“As you know the future of independent festivals are uncertain but my god do we need them for new music to survive”, the festival’s statement concluded. “We hugely appreciate every single one of you who supports us moving forward”.
In November last year, NASS Festival announced that it was cancelling its 2024 edition, saying that it was “economically infeasible”. Then too, AIF called for a reduction on VAT for ticket sales, as it - along with numerous other music industry organisations - has done repeatedly since the previous reduction to 12.5%, instigated during the pandemic, ended in 2022.
Critics of the government’s decision to allow VAT rates to return to 20% argue that, by March 2022, the festival sector had not had time to recover from the cancellations that occurred as a result of COVID - not least because we then went straight into the cost of living crisis. Therefore, the industry insists, events still need that support in order to return to financial health.
The government cannot be unaware of this argument, so either does not agree or simply doesn’t care. With a general election looming in the next twelve months, the industry will also be looking to other political parties to pledge support.