Its Never Too Old to Party at Music Festivals.

There is a perception that festival-goers are just a bunch of youngsters fresh out of school or university. The under 25’s probably make up the bulk of the music festival attendee community but what are the real demographics for the UK’s most popular music festivals and at what age do people give up? 

For anyone hitting 18, the legal age in the UK for just about everything, it’s a time of discovery and exploration, typically drinking alcohol and partying to live music. Attending a music festival will be high up on the agenda of things these new adults want to do but is this something that people grow out of? Data from Statista indicates that the age spread of UK music festival-goers is quite well spread with just as many aged over 41 as the number of under 25’s.  

• Under 25 years 31%
• 26 - 30 years 12.5%
• 31 – 40 years 18%
• Over 41 years 31% 

In addition, from the almost 4m people that attend music festivals in the UK each year the gender split is 40% male 60% female. The numbers would suggest that once someone goes to a music festival, they stay loyal fans for life. Perhaps wanting relive their crazy hazy days of youth many years ago and festival-goers from the illegal rave era in the 90’s are now hitting the 50-65 age group. Unbelievably Graeme Park one of the founders of the House Music rave scene will be 58 in August this year and he is still active on the music festival scene as is Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) who will also be 58 this year. As long as these popular artists remain active on the music festival scene their followers will continue to attend music festivals maintaining that wide age demographic of festival-goers. 

As these festival-goers get older their preferences may change preferring to opt for a more civilised VIP experience rather than the muddy field campsite and long queues for portable toilets, leaving those experiences to the younger generation. A survey in the Unites States by TickPick found that 72% thought people should never stop attending multi-day music festivals although 73% thought VIP packages were more important the older they got. The general consensus was that people should probably stop partying at music festivals around 44 years old, however that view was not demonstrated by the wide spread of ages actually attending UK music festivals. This is perhaps a reflection of the differences of opinion between the US and UK.

Irrespective of people's views the music festival scene remains as popular as ever for all age groups and once the coronavirus pandemic has been overcome will continue to be a growth industry in most countries. 

For any event organiser planning their music festival using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their festival logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors guestlists and ticketing.

Data courtesy of Statista and TickPick
Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels

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