Isle Of Wight Head Honcho John Giddings

John Giddings, the organiser of Isle Of Wight festival and the Solo main man who often interacts with festival fans on twitter and the IOW forum, told the BBC that the festival market has become saturated saying:

“There are just too many events now in the UK and it’s impossible for them all to survive. The market is saturated. I don’t think there will be a big casualty, I think there will be smaller ones. I think it’s like a culling affect at a lower level.”

Melvin Benn, The Reading and Leeds top dog, disagreed with Giddings blaming faltering ticket sales on the financial downturn:

“I think we will end up with fewer festivals as a result of the economic climate. But we’ll still have an incredibly healthy festival environment even if we have a few less festivals.”

Strictly Our Opinion: Both men make very valid points. The market is clearly over-saturated, but not by bad products. Smaller festivals are offering unique selling points and strong well priced line ups, and are undoubtably crowding the marketplace.

Benn is right in the sense that the economic situation cannot be underplayed, public spending patterns always lag behind the stock market and while the crash was at it’s worst in 2008, with the government’s cuts biting, and unemployment taking hold, festivals are being hit now. As the markets continue to plunge in the face of a sovereign debt and Euro-zone crisis it would be foolish to assume we’re anywhere near out of the woods yet.

All three of Benn’s festival’s have struggled with slow sales, and if this interview is a true reflection of his thought process, it would seem that there will be little or no change in the approach of Reading, Leeds, Big Chill and Lattitude.