LONDON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Despite the economic gloom, some of the UK's top festivals are shelling out major cash in order to stay competitive.
Some festivals are spending to make infrastructure improvements. Glastonbury, known for its epic portions of mud, dropped £400,000 on a new reservoir. Other events such as Bestival, are paying premiums to artists such as Kraftwerk and Massive Attack to secure them for exclusive sets.
"Budget-wise we're going up. There are two ways of looking at it, either you go for the best line-up you can and hope you sell at least as many tickets as last year, or you scale back, cut your budgets and try and scrape through." Bestival organiser Rob Da Bank told the BBC's 6 Music.
"For the middle sized festivals, it's becoming increasingly tricky to make your line-up stand out." Da Bank added.
Other promoters have gone the other way and festivals from Scotland to the Isle of Wight have been cancelled in the face of the economic turmoil.
"Sadly it's a busy market already. We thought last year was going to be the crunch year with the amount of festivals that were around. " Da Bank told the BBC. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
