As you read this, I will be somewhere in a field on the Glan Usk estate just outside Crickhowell listening to amazing music, drinking Welsh beer and eating incredible street food.
Yes, after a postponement last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I will be again be making the annual pilgrimage to the Green Man Festival with 25,000 other music lovers to enjoy four days of brilliant bands in the Powys countryside.
Given that the last band I saw live was the Selecter at the Tramshed in Cardiff back in October 2019 and I had around fifteen gigs cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic, this is going to be an experience that I (and many others) have been counting down to over the last few months as Covid restrictions have been slowly relaxed.
However, the absence of festivals is not only about the live music that we have all missed but about the economic impact that their closure has had since the shutdown in March 2020.
As the recent report from the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee on the future of UK music festivals demonstrated, festivals contribute £1.75 billion to the UK economy. More importantly, they make a significantly wider contribution to the music industry through engaging fans, increasing commercial sales and continuing to help generate royalties and revenue long after the last tent has been packed up.
Festivals form part of a larger live music industry which, according to the UK music, contributed nearly £6 billion to the UK economy, employed 200,000 and generated £3 billion in export revenue when operating at full capacity prior the pandemic.
For all that to have been lost almost overnight and to have been moribund for a year and a half demonstrates the impact that the shutdowns will have had not only on the industry itself but on local economies that benefits through spending on catering providers, security firms, taxi drivers and especially freelancers.
In fact, there is the danger, as highlighted in the report, that skilled personnel now temporarily working in other industries following the closure of live music may decide not to return to the festival industry, as we have seen in other hospitality-related sectors over the summer.
As we know, the impact of Covid-19 on the festival industry has been devastating - the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has estimated that at least £176 million in off-site spend was lost in 2020 across the UK which is not surprising given that a 5,000 capacity festival is normally worth £1.1 million to a local area.
The impact on many towns where festivals take place has been substantial given the dependency of local businesses on their presence for income. For example, evidence from one festival to the DCMS report showed that during the eight days it was operating, local catering and hospitality firms generated around a third of their annual income. Indeed, it is estimated that for every £10 spent on a ticket for a live music event, £17 goes back into the local economy.
At the Green Man Festival itself, the economic impact it produces within a rural part of Wales cannot be underestimated. Not only does it support the wider Welsh cultural and creative sector but also directly employs 5,000 people and generates £15 million into the Welsh economy.
Even by simply encouraging people to extend their stay to one week results in £500,000 of additional economic impact beyond the festival site with local bed and breakfasts, self-catering accommodation and other campsites full of festival goers.
Green Man also promotes the local food and drink sector with a mini Welsh beer festival taking place in its ‘Courtyard’ area every year and a range of street food businesses given the opportunity to sell directly to thousands of people over four days.
But to many of us attending the event, it is the opportunity to hear live music once more that will be one of the critical element of the weekend ahead. As a survey of 36,000 festival goers for the DCMS Committee showed, what people value most about festivals is the benefits for their mental health, the opportunity to forge wider friendship groups and the feeling of being surrounded by like-minded people. Certainly, after the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, the huge impact that live music will have on health and wellbeing will be appreciated by everyone attending this weekend’s festival and every other festival in the UK over the next few months.
Prior to pandemic, few of us could have imagined life without live music but having experienced that situation for a year and half makes the return to Green Man this weekend even more special. All being well, this is only the start of the return of live music across the UK and I hope that over the next 12 months and beyond, everyone will go out and support our musicians as they get back on stage to do what they do best.