Pollstar (07/19/23) Gottfried, Gideon

UK Music reports that 14.4 million people attended live music events in Britain in 2022, with domestic tourists comprising 13.3 million while 1.1 million were international tourists. UK Music defines a domestic tourist as someone traveling from within the U.K. to see live music events if they traveled more than three times an average commute. The trade body calculates last year's overall concert and festival attendance at 37.1 million, including 30.6 million at concerts and 6.5 million at festivals, meaning 39% of overall concert and festival attendance was by music tourists. Music tourism spending in 2022, including direct and indirect spending, totaled £6.6 billion ($8.6 billion). The year 2015 saw 27.7 million people attend live music events in Britain, of whom 10.5 million were tourists who spent £3.7 billion directly and indirectly. The report states that music tourism employment reached 56,000 last year, “highlighting the key contribution the sector adds to the workforce” and indicating resurgent enthusiasm for live music for the first full year since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to UK Music CEO Jamie Njoku-Goodwin. He cautions that continued pandemic fallout like grassroots festival closures makes it critical “that we protect the musical infrastructure that does so much for our towns and cities.” To that end, UK Music partnered with the nonprofit Center for Music Ecosystems to develop the Music Powerhouse Toolkit, which comprises four core lessons for local governments divided into policy areas.

Read the full story from Pollstar.