Market intelligence for live events industry professionals Spring 2026
WELCOME
In a field of their own
As the soaring heat brought my unairconditioned train to a halt for an hour during what proved to be the hottest June day on record, it took just a moment of reflection for me to put the situation swiftly into perspective. With extreme temperatures hitting the UK during one of the busiest summers on record for the live events industry, the work of production teams to build and break complex overlays in such challenging conditions is nothing less than heroic – and a considerably more testing task than remaining motionless on a torrid train.
Despite Glastonbury Festival taking a fallow year, this summer is proving to be one of the biggest yet for live music, with 4.3 million fans attending Live Nationpromoted live events in June alone. Glastonbury’ s year off also saw Download become the UK’ s biggest music festival of the summer; with Star Live supplying it with the UK’ s largest festival stage( p. 6).
In this issue we mark 20 years of Latitude Festival with an article( p. 18) involving key figures who are responsible for making it such a success, including its founder Melvin Benn and arts programmer Kirsty Taylor. They discuss the developments that have made it such a uniquely positioned event.
The sun shone on Royal Ascot again this year, with new and impressive structures throughout the enclosers it wasn’ t just the attendees’ outfits that caught the eye. We spoke to the Ascot management team along with the guys at Arena Group and Neptunus about the challenges involved in balancing heritage with a fresh approach( p. 29).
Since it was launched in 2017, ATP tennis tournament the Laver Cup has never been staged in the same city twice, until now. I caught up with Laver Cup CEO Steve Zacks to discuss what is involved in bringing the complex production, which takes 450 crew members nine days to build, back to The O2.
While the multinational promoters are enjoying huge success with stadium tours and major festivals, the independent sector continues to struggle with a multitude of challenges. On the back of AIF’ s announcement that 20 festivals have already closed this year, it was saddening to hear that DHP
Family will stage the last edition of its 25,000-capacity Splendour Festival in Nottingham this year – bringing an end to its 18-year run.
On page 40, LIVE CEO Jon Collins outlines what the organisation is doing to support the independent sector via the LIVE Trust, and what is likely to be on the agenda for the organisation’ s inaugural conference stage at the Event Production Show.
Maintaining our focus on the state of independence, we also hear from Shambala co-founder Chris Johnson( p. 34) about why independent festival operators should consider switching to employee ownership.
I hope you enjoy the issue.
Christopher Barrett, Content Director
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CONTENT DIRECTOR Christopher Barrett
REPORTER Max Steventon
MARKETING EXECUTIVE Martha Hicks
MARKETING MANAGER Gus Agostini
PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Sabrina Boucher
PORTFOLIO DIRECTOR Steve Theivendrarajah
CIRCULATION MANAGER Samy Shafeeq
PAGE PRODUCTION The Magazine Production Company
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