AAA White Paper The political economy of informal events, 2030 | Page 14

In December 2018, the Boss
(born 1949) triumphantly
completed more than a
year of five-nights-a-week
gigs at the Walter Kerr
Theatre in New York City
(capacity 975). There, it’s
true, his solo acoustic and
actorly performances
amounted to formal, not
informal events. But in
their intimacy, they also
confirmed that there’s
more to the future of live
music than concerts held in
giant stadia
place and performance. What’s more, performance can extend
beyond the performer, to the audience: there’s often a chance to
dance, to speak up and to speak out. Fashions add to the heady
mix, while mobile phones capture and spread the moment.
In the past 10 years, music festivals held in green fields have had an
impressive run. Putting ticket sales online has helped; more careful
marketing has helped. For the same reasons, but just within the past
five years, urban outdoor events have spread, sometimes across whole
towns and cities.
The picture isn’t entirely rosy. Night-time clubs, though more
fashionable than ever, have suffered a number of closures, especially
in London. In 2017, a House of Lords Select Committee scrutiny of
the Licensing Act 2003 reported hearing the view that over-zealous
regulation was to blame. However, since 2017 others have pointed
to the emergence of a new, competitive breed of nightlife, as special
kinds of foods, games and even trampolining have become more
popular among the health-conscious.
So where then are events headed, not just in 2020, but in the
decade after that?
Of course, no event lasts forever. Also, events alone can’t produce
urban regeneration. Yet, alongside enlightened local government
policies, events can do much to build confidence, incomes and brands
among cities and regions. Between now and 2030, they’re likely to
prove more central to the British economy, and to British society, than
many imagine.
The value of business-to-business
events – conferences, exhibitions and the
like – is £32.6bn, according to the Business
Visits & Events Partnership, or £33.3bn,
as reckoned by Eventbrite. Meanwhile
the value of consumer events – outdoor
attractions, festivals, cultural events, musical
performances and sports fixtures – has been
estimated at a more modest £5.7bn.
This White Paper is about consumer
events, and especially about informal events:
relatively casual consumer gatherings that are
crafted rather than mass-produced, and that are
only rarely held at big, fixed facilities. We focus
on such events in music, especially, as well
as those around sport. We touch, too, on
informal events in art, design, computer
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