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First established in 1965 by Paul Rayment, Philip Abrams, George Scurfield, and Ken Woollard, the Cambridge Folk Festival was envisioned as a celebration of folk music and a means to preserve its cultural heritage. Since then, the festival has grown to become a cornerstone of the folk music scene, drawing renowned artists such as Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Emmylou Harris, and Mumford & Sons.

The decision follows financial losses incurred during the 2024 edition, reflecting broader struggles faced by music festivals across the UK. Rising production costs, the lingering economic impact of Brexit, and the cost-of-living crisis have led to the cancellation of over 71 independent festivals over 2024 alone. Organisers are calling for government support, lower VAT rates, and improved insurance schemes to help the industry recover. Despite these difficulties, demand for major festivals like Glastonbury remains strong, offering hope for a stronger economic future for smaller independents as well.

Despite the disappointment of the 2025 cancellation, organisers remain hopeful for the festival’s future. The council has emphasised its commitment to exploring innovative approaches that will allow the festival to return stronger in 2026. In a statement on the festival’s website they suggested that “throughout 2025 the festival will continue to support the folk community with a series of locally based events throughout Cambridge, with other initiatives to support local emerging youth and folk artists.”

They can’t afford to run a folk music festival which everyone loves, but they can afford £162m for a lame-ass busway which nobody needs or really wants https://t.co/3d6imzqvRD

— Mike Scialom (@CambsOpenMedia) January 19, 2025

Fans and artists alike have expressed their concerns over the festival’s hiatus, with many taking to social media to share their sadness, support, and hopes for its revival. As the folk music community faces mounting challenges, the Cambridge Folk Festival’s potential comeback in 2026 will be one to keep an eye on.

Earlier this year AIF announced a campaign called Five Percent For Festivals , which should the government grant it, would temporarily reduce the VAT on festival tickets from 20% to 5% to alleviate some of the strain on the budget and profits of festivals across the UK. The government have yet to agree to this, though they recently announced investments in Liverpool and the West Midlands as they were deemed creative hubs. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has been involved with these investments and has commented on them – but the Autumn budget failed to discuss the issues the UK nightclub scene and grassroots venues continue to face.

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    The CEO of AIF, John Rostron has said: “This has been a devastating period for the UK’s festival organisers. Ours is a highly important sector that offers opportunities to artists, audiences, and develops creative skills and volunteering opportunities across all of the UK. The festival sector generates significant revenue in and around local economies as well as to the Treasury every year… We have campaigned tirelessly for targeted, temporary government intervention which, evidence shows, would have saved most of the independent events that have fallen in 2024. It is sad to see that this erosion has been allowed to continue under this government. We have great events, with great demand, and we’re doing all we can. They need to step up, and step up now.”

 

 

 

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UK music sector contributed £7.6 billion to the economy last year, yet the government continues to let grassroots venues and independent festivals suffer the consequences of the economic and financial climate. Earlier this year Readipop was cancelled, with other festivals added to the list including: Nozstock Hidden Valley (held for the last time in 2024) despite running 26 years, Bluedot (taking a year off), Pennfest (cancelled for 2024), Tenterden Folk Festival (shut down) which has run for 31 years.    

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Longstanding festivals such as these, and even newer less stable ones, are going to continue to cancel, postpone or shut down completely should the government not deal with the issue at hand. Associations such as AIF and UK Music continually release figures and suggest some solutions to alleviate the problem. If festival numbers continue to deplete it could be detrimental, even if the investments the government make are beneficial for those looking to get the training and start they need to work in the music career.  What awaits after training is not promising if the grassroots and independent festivals continue to suffer the way they have this year.

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  According to the Five Percent For Festivals official website, the campaign is solely funded by “contributions from those wanting to support the music festival sector.” This means they are asking for anyone who can donate to do so, and also have a section on the website where the public can find out who is their local MP and how to contact them. The campaign hopes to gain support by contacting MPs by writing a letter asking for change in the VAT amount on festival tickets. They also ask site visitors to download and share the campaign assets and share them with others. Assets include shareable images to promote the campaign on various social media platforms, and downloadable logos, presumably for promotion or advertising purposes. They also have a sign up section to allow continual updates on the situation.    

 

 

 

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AIF is a UK based non for profit organisation that represents many of the UKs independent music festivals. The Five Percent For Festivals initiative is just one part of the wider picture of what they do for the festival industry. According to their website, their four main aims are growing membership, providing a network of promoters to allow festival organisers to connect,  government lobbying (which the Five Percent For Festivals campaign is a part of), and festival congress. Currently they represent over 150 festivals and claim to have the UK’s biggest gathering of independent festivals for their festival congress.

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This summer, it was reported that 60 UK festivals had been shut down or cancelled. In a comment earlier this year, the CEO of AIF, John Rostron, said, “The number of festivals forced to cancel, postpone or shut down entirely in 2024, largely because of unpredictable costs and a credit crunch within the sector, shows no signs of slowing”. This all comes at a time where many sectors of the UK music industry are struggling, from independent venues, and events to the nightlife and nightclubs. The Autumn Budget further exacerbates these issues due to the lack of funding, despite over 60 nightclubs closing down in what has been dubbed an ‘unprecedented crisis’.  It’s widely agreed that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are still being felt, and the financial climate in the UK means independent festivals, as well as the wider UK music scene, are affected.

In a more recent interview, Rostron commented: “We really are at a critical point for the UK’s festival sector… Five years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine that promoters would have to endure something as damaging as the Covid-19 pandemic – but many of them did, without passing the inevitable cost onto the consumer.  To think that, since then, they have had to manage the effects of Brexit, war in Ukraine, inflation and an energy crisis is staggering. That festival-goers were able to enjoy some of the fantastic events they did in 2023 is testament to the resilience and passion of those promoters.”

The situation has yet to improve, with festivals like Readipop already being cancelled for 2025, and the list is likely to rise. The importance of campaigns like Five Percent For Festivals have never been as integral as they are right now.

The advice comes from a collaboration between the following bodies: the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), the Events Industry Forum (EIF) and Attitude Is Everything, alongside additional guidance from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and Public Health England (PHE). They have shared their current guidance in a document which you can read in full here. As the situation progresses, the advice will update.

Available now and free to all from @ThePurpleGuide website. The aim is to assist festival organisers, local authorities and other industry parties in assessing risk levels and planning based on a flexible, pragmatic and realistic approach to the current pandemic.

— AIF (@AIF_UK) October 13, 2020

The COVID-19 Supplementary Guidance offers a lot of information for festival organisers that will perhaps be of little interest to festival-goers. Naturally, much of this advice depends on a number of constantly changing variables, including the situation with testing for coronavirus and the potential for a vaccine to be in place. Terms that have become part of our everyday vocabulary come up here as well; there is talk of festival staff wearing PPE, festival-goers bringing their own disposable masks and hand sanitiser, and embracing the NHS Track & Trace initiative.

The document also contains a “mitigation checklist”, as relevant to the current state of the pandemic. This is a list of questions that comprehensively covers the planning and safety of every conceivable area of a festival, including the organisation of the outdoor space, crowd control, and the safety of festival staff.

The guidance is thoughtful with regard to all of this uncertainty; it notes, that the experience of putting on a festival during COVID will be a first for many of them, and also that COVID should not eclipse the rest of their health and safety provision. The COVID-19 Supplementary Guidance maintains a positive tone throughout.

Despite all the uncertainty that the industry currently faces, it concludes with a positive note: “ultimately, the music festival industry is principally defined by planning for and implementing mitigation of risk … Festival organisers are already practically in a very good place to meet the challenges that COVID-19 bring to the festival sector.”

Paul Reed, the CEO of the Association of Independent Festivals, said this about the new guidance:  “Risk mitigation is what festival promoters do for a living, so the intent of this guidance is to outline Covid-19 specific planning considerations that will allow for bespoke risk assessment approaches in liaison with relevant authorities and agencies … I’d like to thank the AIF Ops Group for leading on this important piece of work and also DCMS, PHE officials and the wider festival industry for their invaluable contributions.”

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The live events sector is in crisis. Today, we join with many others to call on the government to provide urgent support to protect an industry which means so much to so many, and provides billions to the economy. #WeMakeEvents (@fineline_lighting)

A post shared by Glastonbury Festival (@glastofest) on Sep 30, 2020 at 4:02am PDT

The document presents comprehensive and reassuring guidance about the state of festivals next year. It is undoubtedly going to be an enormous job for festival organisers, and much remains subject to change. In wake of the new advice, though, festival-goers can finally relax for the time being, and cast their minds longingly to much simpler organisational tasks, like what to wear, and who to see if the line-up clashes.