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From summer to the summit Market intelligence for live events industry professionals Summer 2025
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Whether it was Tomorrowland’ s mainstage burning to the ground hours before the festival’ s gates were due to open, Brockwell Park locals crowdfunding legal action against the staging of festivals, or the intensity of arguments around artists’ free speech on stage coupled with controversy about festival funders’ links to Israel – summer 2025 saw more than the usual mountain of challenges to overcome for festival operators. Despite the many headline-grabbing moments, most major event operators benefitted from great weather and strong sales.
In this issue we look back at a summer to remember, one that has seen major festivals including Come Together and Lido launched, independent operators reporting sold-out festivals, huge sports event successes including the Women ' s Rugby World Cup, and soaring stadium show numbers. As LIVE CEO Jon Collins points out( p. 18), the Football Association’ s Wembley Stadium is beginning to be seen as a gig venue that has the odd football match. With its extended concert window coming into effect this year, Wembley
Stadium has hosted around 2 million fans across shows including 10 by Coldplay and Oasis’ seven. The Manchester band’ s UK tour also included five concerts at Heaton Park featuring a vast Star Live stage( p. 24), with Engine No 4 responsible for transforming the site( p. 20) following the Parklife festival.
The number of single-day, noncamping, concert series that are often branded as festivals, continue to grow. We explore what’ s behind that trend, while meeting key players behind some of them including the debut of Labyrinth on the Thames( p. 49), and Krankbrother( p. 34) which hosted its biggest show yet during the summer.
We also explore how operators of well-established events are evolving their offerings. On the back of celebrating his festival’ s 20th anniversary this summer, Kendal Calling co-founder Andy Smith looks to the future. On Page 26, Wimbledon operations director Michelle Dite outlines how a balance is being struck between preserving the Championships’ heritage while embracing new tech and sustainability measures that enhance the guest experience.
At the time of writing, we are just days away from the inaugural Access All Areas Leaders’ Summit. The event will see all the above issues and more addressed in detail by industry figures including Michelle Dite, Pophouse creative director Ryan Amstad, AEG Presents senior director events & operations Lucky Thompson, Green Man Festival director Ian Fielder, and DF Concerts & Events CEO Geoff Ellis who will be interviewed for the AAA Backstage podcast series.
Congratulations to everyone who has been involved in producing so many truly remarkable events and making the summer so memorable for so many.
Christopher Barrett, Content Director
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CONTENT DIRECTOR Christopher Barrett
PORTFOLIO MANAGER Steve Theivendrarajah
MARKETING MANAGER Gus Agostini
PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Sabrina Boucher
CIRCULATION MANAGER Samy Shafeeq
PAGE PRODUCTION The Magazine Production Company
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