Ah, festivals – an undeniable cornerstone of the UK music scene that we all know and love. Each year, multitudes of music enthusiasts pack their rucksacks in anticipation for a weekend brimming with unadulterated bliss.
Whether that be dancing the night away to our favourite tunes surrounded by muddy puddles and our bestest of pals, or opting for a more bougie experience filled with VIP passes, free flowing champers and a warm, dry bell tent. Whichever vibe takes your fancy, there really is something for everyone when it comes to the UK festival scene.
But just how popular are UK music festivals? And which are the nation’s favourites?
To find out, we conducted an analysis of Google searches and instagram hashtags, as well as diving into festival attendance figures from the past few years. Let’s jump in!
The Early Bird View: Key Music Festival Statistics for 2023
Prefer rock and roll to a hefty scroll? We’ve got you. Here’s the quick version:
- The UK’s largest music festival is, by far, Glastonbury. Spanning an impressive 900 acres, the event, held at Worthy Farm in Somerset, attracted 210,000 attendees in 2022.
- Whilst the most sought-after (in terms of Google searches) is Reading festival, with an average of 112,000 searches being conducted each month in the UK for the term, and a further 31,000 being carried out outside of the UK.
- The most instagrammable UK music festival od 2023 is officially Glastonbury, with the hashtag ‘#Glastonbury’ being used 1.1 million times to date.
- Festivals with attendances of between 80 and 100,000 can generate between £8-12 million per day (£25-30 million per weekend).
- Glastonbury brings over £100 million into the South West England economy every year.
- Us Brits typically don’t start our festival planning until the month of June, according to online search trends.
The UK’s longest running festivals are Reading and Leeds, Cambridge Folk Festival, Isle of Wight festival and Glastonbury.
Which are the biggest festivals in the UK?
The United Kingdom’s music festival scene is not one to be sniffed at
- By far and away, the UK’s largest music festival is the much-loved Glastonbury. Last year, the event – held at Worthy Farm in Somerset – attracted a staggering 210,000 attendees.
- The second biggest festival in terms of turnout is London’s largest rap and hip-hop event, Wireless, having been attended by 135,000 music lovers last year.
- In close third is Derby’s Download festival. Famed for hosting some of the biggest names in rock and heavy metal, 2022’s lineup brought in an impressive 130,000 revellers.
- Glasgow’s very own TRNSMT festival, alongside the infamous Reading and Leeds also make the top 10 list, each drawing in over 100,000 people.
- This is followed by Manchester’s Parklife, Portsmouth’s Victorious festival, Radio 1’s Big Weekend and Secret Garden Party, which each saw over 80,000 attendees in 2022.
Quick note: Although they’re held by the same organisers, share the same line ups and happen simultaneously, we’ve classified Reading and Leeds as two separate festivals, given that they’re held in different locations and search volumes and attendance figures are different for each festival.
Here’s a list of the 25 largest UK music festivals based on attendance figures from 2022.
| Rank | Festival | Attendance (2022) |
| 1 | glastonbury festival | 210,000 |
| 2 | wireless festival | 135,000 |
| 3 | download festival | 130,000 |
| 4 | trnsmt | 120,000 |
| 5 | reading festival | 100,000 |
| 6 | leeds festival | 100,000 |
| 7 | parklife | 80,000 |
| 8 | victorious festival | 80,000 |
| 9 | radio 1 big weekend | 80,000 |
| 10 | secret garden party | 80,000 |
| 11 | summertime ball | 80,000 |
| 12 | boomtown | 75,000 |
| 13 | creamfields | 70,000 |
| 14 | godiva festival | 69,000 |
| 15 | green man festival | 60,000 |
| 16 | boardmasters | 53,000 |
| 17 | isle of wight festival | 50,000 |
| 18 | kendal calling | 45,000 |
| 19 | latitude festival | 40,000 |
| 20 | camp bestival | 30,000 |
| 21 | truck festival | 25,000 |
| 22 | slam dunk festival | 23,000 |
| 23 | lytham festival | 20,000 |
| 24 | end of the road festival | 20,000 |
| 25 | whitby gothic weekend | 8,000 |
The UK’s most popular music festivals of 2023
As you can see from the above list, the UK’s music festival scene is certainly well attended, with hundreds of thousands of music lovers heading out to these events every year.
We now know which festivals are the biggest in terms of attendance, but how about demand? Sadly, not everyone who wants to get their hands on tickets for the favourite festivals manage to do so, whether that’s due to pricing, time constraints or perhaps this year’s lineup just wasn’t for them. So which are the most sought after in 2023?
To find out, we used the tool Keyword Finder, which allowed us to analyse Google search volumes for all UK music festivals. This research revealed that:
- The festival with the most demand in terms of online searches is Reading, with an average of 112,000 searches being conducted for ‘Reading Festival’ every month in the UK. Being one of the nation’s longest standing music events, the festival’s popularity is certainly standing the test of time.
- The much-loved Rock festival Download also appears to be very much sought after amongst those in the UK, with 89,400 searches per month being carried out for the term ‘Download festival’.
Next up is Creamfields, a firm favourite amongst those partial to a bit of EDM (Electronic Dance Music), receiving a respectable 80,800 searches per month on average.
| Rank | Keyword | Average UK monthly search volume (2023) |
| 1 | reading festival | 112,000 |
| 2 | download festival | 89,400 |
| 3 | creamfields | 80,800 |
| 4 | isle of wight festival | 77,600 |
| 5 | leeds festival | 73,600 |
| 6 | boomtown | 68,400 |
| 7 | parklife | 60,600 |
| 8 | glastonbury festival | 48,400 |
| 9 | victorious festival | 44,900 |
| 10 | boardmasters | 34,700 |
| 11 | lytham festival | 32,200 |
| 12 | kendal calling | 29,600 |
| 13 | latitude festival | 28,000 |
| 14 | trnsmt | 25,000 |
| 15 | wireless festival | 24,900 |
| 16 | green man festival | 19,200 |
| 17 | truck festival | 15,000 |
| 18 | camp bestival | 14,000 |
| 19 | radio 1 big weekend | 13,700 |
| 20 | secret garden party | 12,500 |
| 21 | slam dunk festival | 12,500 |
| 22 | whitby gothic weekend | 12,300 |
| 23 | summertime ball | 113,00 |
| 24 | godiva festival | 11,100 |
| 25 | end of the road festival | 11,100 |
Note: For consistency with the keyword research, we used whichever term had the highest number of average monthly searches. In some cases this was just the festival name itself, (e.g ‘Creamfields’), whilst in others it was it’s name followed by the word ‘festival’ (e.g Reading festival).
The world’s favourite UK music festivals
So clearly us Brits are mad about our live music! The rush we get from late night dances in muddy fields surrounded by our best mates. The excitement of discovering new emerging talent. And even the inevitable splurging on overpriced burgers and bacon butties that we may have forgotten to budget for!
But how about those coming from further afield? Which UK festivals are most sought after amongst tourists?
- UK Music’s most recent Here, There and Everywhere report for 2023 revealed that the UK live music scene attracted over 1.1 million foreign tourists in 2022 alone.
- Similarly to the UK’s top 5 favourites, our analysis of global search volumes also reveals a strong preference for Reading festival, with 143,000 searches being conducted for the festival each month worldwide.
Whilst the second most popular UK music festival globally is also one of the nation’s newest, and that’s Winchester’s Boomtown. First held back in 2011, the festival now receives an average of 123,000 average monthly Google searches from across the globe.
| Rank | Keyword | Average global monthly search volume (2023) |
| 1 | reading festival | 143,000 |
| 2 | boomtown | 123,000 |
| 3 | download festival | 122,000 |
| 4 | glastonbury festival | 98,600 |
| 5 | leeds festival | 82,000 |
| 6 | isle of wight festival | 84,800 |
| 7 | parklife | 81,500 |
| 8 | fusion festival | 64,000 |
| 9 | victorious festival | 50,000 |
| 10 | the proms | 47,200 |
| 11 | hammerfest | 44,900 |
| 12 | latitude festival | 33,200 |
| 13 | lytham festival | 34,100 |
| 14 | boardmasters | 43,400 |
| 15 | kendal calling | 30,800 |
| 16 | trnsmt | 29,000 |
| 17 | wireless festival | 35,900 |
| 18 | truck festival | 20,200 |
| 19 | green man festival | 22,700 |
| 20 | womad | 21,200 |
| 21 | slam dunk festival | 23,500 |
| 22 | rise festival | 22,900 |
| 23 | shambala festival | 18,400 |
| 24 | camp bestival | 15,300 |
| 25 | radio 1 big weekend | 15,000 |
The nation’s most Instagrammable music festival
Did you even go if you didn’t take a snap for the ‘Gram? As controversial as it may be, many festival goers in the UK love nothing more than sharing their experiences on social media! Whether that’s for the precious memories (or #mems) or to evoke some FOMO from colleagues, friends and family who didn’t come along!
But of all of the funky and fabulous music festivals across the country, which is officially the most instaworthy?
To find out, we dove into the millions of Instagram snaps taken at the UK’s most popular festivals. After doing our fair share of snooping (and wishing we were there!), we then compared the all-time number of instagram photos posted with each festival’s dedicated hashtag. Our snooping.. *I mean research* revealed that:
- The most instagrammable music festival of 2023 is the wonderful Glastonbury, with the hashtag #Glastonbury having been used over 1.1 million times. This of course comes as no surprise given that the festival is broadcast on TV for all to watch!
- In second place comes #Creamfields, racking up over 492,000 photos, many of which exhibiting festival goers glam makeup looks and outfit choices for the event!
#ReadingFestival, #DownloadFestival and #Boomtown also make the top 5, featured on grids filled with legendary sets, late night raves and somewhat questionable dance moves!
How much do music festivals bring to the UK economy?
From job creation to tourism, to accommodation, food, travel and sponsorships, the UK festival scene is bound to bring in a tremendous amount to the economy.. Right?
Well, yes! In fact:
- UK Music’s Here, There and Everywhere report revealed that total music tourism spend in 2022 reached a whopping £6.6 billion.
- Festivals with attendances of between 80 and 100,000 can typically generate between £8-12 million per day, or around £25-30 million per event per weekend in revenue. Not too shabby ey!
Also, did you know that Glastonbury generates over £100 million into the economy of South West England each time it takes place?!
When do we start festival planning?
Just like with our summer holidays, us Brits love counting down the days to our favourite music festivals! But just how far in advance do we start making our arrangements?
To find out, we analysed Google Trends data from the last 3 years in the United Kingdom. As you can see from the graph:
- We seem to leave our festival research rather late here in the UK, with online search volumes for the ‘UK music festivals’ typically peak during the month of June, as this month saw the highest search rates by far in both 2022 and 2023.
- However in 2021, searches peaked much earlier in the year, around February time.
This may have been a result of covid-19 related lockdown restrictions beginning to ease, which for many of us, sparked interest in getting things like holidays, festivals and events booked on the calendar!
Which music festival has been running the longest?
So now we know which are the most popular, well-attended and instagrammable music festivals in the UK, but which have stood the test of time?
- Did you know that the longest running music festivals in the UK are Reading and sister festival, Leeds? With the original festival (which was named ‘the National Jazz Festival) at the time, taking place in August 1961.
- The small, but modest Cambridge Folk Festival. First held in 1965, this folk favourite has a longstanding history of showcasing the best traditional and contemporary folk talent, and in recent years has become famed for broad interpretation of what could be classified as folk!
- The Isle of Wight Festival is also one of the UK’s longest running music festivals, with the original event taking place in 1968. Whilst Glastonbury debuted in 1970.
We hope these fun facts and stats have got you raring to go to your favourite festival or live music event. But if in the meantime you’d like us to bring the music to you, check out our live entertainment portal, where you can book a live band, DJ or solo musician for any occasion!
One last note: To find out more about our research, or for more data such as the full top 100 lists of attendance figures and most Googled music festivals in the UK and worldwide, feel free to pop an email to admin@lastminutemusicians.com and we’ll be more than happy to help!
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