AAA White Paper The political economy of informal events, 2030 | Page 23

serving enterprises are likely to include events in what they offer.
When you’re going out to the pub, away from the world of screens
at work, it will remain fun to see or hear something special in the
flesh. That will apply, even if sports bars have already proved among
the first to adopt TVs with screens that are 10x6’ or more in size.
To return to the overall number of enterprises active in events:
it’s worth noting that the statistics in Charts 3 and 4 above don’t
include those UK enterprises in transport and security that owe
some of the work they get to the events sector. But even without
that, the number of UK enterprises directly in and indirectly
supporting events in culture and sport exceeds 40,000. Clearly
informal events provide enormous benefits to events SMEs.
3. BIG INTERNATIONAL EVENTS COMPANIES AND SMALL
INDEPENDENT INNOVATORS
There’s no need to be sentimental about events SMEs. After all,
Britain’s events employers don’t always pay the best wages for the
fewest working hours. Just as importantly, too: in the events sector,
as in others, oligopoly is the rule, not the exception – as is shown by
Chart 5, overleaf, which is based on research done by the Association
of Independent Festivals (AIF). Using data for 2018, it shows how UK
music festivals are heavily dominated by a few major corporations.
The passion, commitment and innovation of independent events
SMEs are, in fact, what have lately led international conglomerates
in the leisure and events business to acquire so many of them. And
that isn’t all a bad thing: the conglomerates offer efficiency through
economies of scale, and who can blame tenacious independents
if they eventually decide to cash out? Already, though, in both
the US and the UK, the state authorities charged with ensuring
fair competition have put the big events conglomerates under a
microscope, concerned about their ticketing arrangements.
23