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UK festivals face ‘really tough’ year due to fewer headline acts and rising costs
Stars must now be booked so far in advance for events that organisers can only guess who will sell tickets in two years’ time
Nobody in 2023 would have guessed that Sabrina Carpenter or Chappell Roan would be festival headliners in 2025, or that the Foo Fighters’ rumoured summer tour would not go ahead after Dave Grohl became the father of a baby girl born “outside of [his] marriage”. Early indications suggest that 2024 was also a strong year for stadium tours, notably Taylor Swift, according to UK body PRS for Music, and the biggest performers, such as Adele, have opted for artists-in-residence shows, where fans travel from all over the world to one venue. Photograph: Martin Bone/REX/ShutterstockSome prestigious London venues are trying to stay nimble, deliberately keeping slots open in case they miss the next zeitgeist act like the Last Dinner Party, Wet Leg or Myles Smith.
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