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Summary of our market study
There are some 7300 festivals in France
France's festival scene, and the music festival market in particular, has become an integral part of the country's cultural fabric. More than half of all festivals are music festivals. These events attract a growing number of attendees, with nearly 7.5 million for the top 100 festivals.
62% of festival-goers have attended at least one previous festival, while around 38% are newcomers. On average, participants have attended around ten previous editions. Most participants, over 70%, tend to attend less than 15% of a festival's programming.
The majority of participants are women.
More than half the participants come from the same département as the festival.
Age distribution shows a varied demographic, but with fewer participants in the 35-50 age bracket. Young people are more likely to attend contemporary music festivals, while jazz and classical music festivals attract older people.
42% of attendees did not know the artists before taking part.
The average festival generates around 54% of its revenue from tickets, with sponsorship and local authority subsidies being other essential sources of income.
Major groups such as Vivendi and Live Nation have invested in the sector.
Regulations govern these cultural gatherings, imposing declarations or authorizations for the use of public space and compliance with safety, licensing and legal rights.
French festival market players
- Live Nation: Known as one of the giants of the live entertainment industry
- Vivendi: By acquiring Garorock in 2019 and investing in production via Olympia Production, Vivendi illustrates its integrated approach to festival organization.
- Sony has invested significantly in the festival sector.
- Groupe Morgane: Produces festivals such as Printemps de Bourges
- AEG: A leading player making inroads into the French festival market
- LNEI: straddles the gap between media and festivals (Rock en Seine and Les Incorruptibles magazine).
- Fimalac: holds stakes in festivals aimed at a variety of audiences, including the electronically oriented Nuits Electriques. Its presence in ticketing via MyTicket and community engagement platforms such as Bandsquare testifies to Fimalac's interest in festivals.
- The internationally renowned Avignon Festival for theater
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Summary and extracts
1 Market overview
1.1 Definition and scope of study
A festival is an event organized to bring people together for one or more days in a festive environment, around an activity related to art, entertainment or leisure. It is part of the more general sector of cultural events. Compared to other European countries, France is home to a large number of festivals. There are festivals on a wide variety of themes: music, theater, cinema, comedy, fishing, comics...
The study covers all forms of festival, with a particular focus on music festivals, which are the most widespread and the most frequented. In France, 45% of festivals organized in 2022 were music festivals.
The global festival market is booming, thanks in particular to the success of music festivals, which have been going from strength to strength since the 1950s. While growth slowed in 2019 due to heavy losses in the sector during the covid period, festivals have been posting rising attendance figures again since 2022. The market is coping with rising production costs, mainly due to rising artist fees, and around 43% of music festivals were showing a loss-making edition in 2023.
The French music festival market is aligning itself with the global trend, recording a significant rise in the number of festival-goers since 2016 and a 39% increase in revenue between 2017 and 2022. A number of major groups, such as Vivendi and Live Nation, have invested in music festivals in recent years, with 7.745 million festival-goers in France in 2023, including all types of festival.
1.2 Trends in the European music festival market
In ****, the European Festivals Association published its latest report on the state of festivals in Europe. This sector has suffered greatly from the covid crisis: in **** and **** many festivals were deprogrammed, and health restrictions weighed heavily on these events. The year **** was still very much marked by difficulties in terms of ...
1.3 Rising attendance supports French market
The festival market in France is highly segmented, making it difficult to estimate its size. In fact, there were **** festivals in France in ****, with around **% of them dedicated to contemporary music, **% to live entertainment (***) and the rest to other themes such as cinema, comics...
As in the case of the European ...
2 Demand analysis
2.1 Live performances in France and demand for festivals
Demand for live entertainment
A survey conducted by Harris Interactive for the French Ministry of Culture in December **** reports on the behavior of the French towards live entertainment. The scope of the survey is much broader than that of festivals, and only takes music festivals into account, although it does provide ...
2.2 Festival attendance
Gece has published its **** barometer of music festival and concert-going practices, giving a typical profile of frequent festival-goers.
Male/female breakdown : the majority of festival-goers are men.
Male/female breakdown of festival-goers France, ****, in % Source: ****
Geographical origin of festival-goers: in ****, geographical proximity to the festival was a factor in attendance, with ...
2.3 The growing importance of respect for the environment for spectators
The environmental impact of the shows and festivals they attend is a growing concern for the French. Indeed, **% of those surveyed by HarrisInterractive say that this is an important aspect for them, a figure that rises to **% and **% for **-** and **-** year -olds. This number has not really changed since ...
2.4 Focus on music festivals
Tous les Festivals presents an overview of the most popular festivals in ****. Only paying current music festivals are taken into account, having welcomed more than **,*** people in less than ** days(***).
After two years strongly marked by the Covid crisis and a slow recovery of cultural activities in ****, in a sector impacted ...
2.5 Some demand trends and highlights
Recordings of shows and festivals
surprisingly, festivals are not just about live experiences: **% of French people say they have watched a recording of a show or festival in the past year in ****. This figure is higher among **-** year-olds, where it rises to **%.
Survey: have you watched a show or festival ...
3 Market structure
3.1 Sector organization
Simplified traditional festival value chain diagram
The producer creates the show/festival in collaboration with the artists. It also takes the financial risk by investing in the festival (***).
Olympia Prod, for example, is a subsidiary of the Vivendi group, which produces four festivals: Garorock in Marmande, Les Déferlantes Sud de ...
3.2 Segmentation and player dynamics
Capital links between major groups and leading contemporary music festivals:
In ****, a study examines the presence of certain major groups in the contemporary music festival sector.
Many festival takeovers are part of a global strategy by groups to be present across the entire value chain by diversifying their activities, sometimes ...
3.3 Inflation weighing on the festival sector
**% of music festivals are reporting a loss-making **** edition, with an average deficit of €***,***. With an average of €***,*** in own reserves, or just **% of the average overall budget, concerns about cash flow are compounded by those about the sustainability of a business model that has reached its limits.
Share of artistic budget ...
3.4 Analysis of the most popular contemporary music festivals
average age of festivals :
Some **% of France's *** biggest contemporary music festivals were founded less than ** years ago.
Even so, some festivals have enjoyed a long life, relying on the reputation they have acquired over the years to survive. La Fête de l'Humanité is the oldest festival, having been created in ...
3.5 Geographical distribution of festivals
Source: ****
Looking at the map, the areas with the most festivals are the southern half of France and Ile de France. The high concentration of festivals in the southern half of France can be explained by the fact that they are often held during the summer vacations, as the rest of ...
4 Offer analysis
4.1 Festival typology
Festivals can exist on a wide variety of themes, and there are no restrictions per se on the theme of a festival. There is even a fishing festival: the Festival des filets bleus in Concarneau, Finistère, created in **** and celebrating its ***th edition this year. Here are a few common ...
4.2 Analysis of festival organizers' main revenues and expenses
Francefestivals compiles an activity report for **** by analyzing a sample of festivals. This report has not been renewed in subsequent years, so we have only limited information on festival expenditure and revenue since ****.
Breakdown of main festival expenses (***)
Artistic and technical aspects dominate, accounting for over half of expenses.
Breakdown of ...
4.3 Pricing analysis
A **** study by Weezevent on festivals in Europe provides good information on the evolution and pricing of festivals in France. Festival ticket sales underwent significant changes in ****. In France, the average price of a standard day ticket rose by *%, from €** in **** to €**. This trend was also reflected across Europe, where the ...
4.4 Increasingly committed festivals
Male/female parity in the artists presented on stage is a direction that **% of festivals say they are taking. However, there is a marked disparity between these declarations and the actual performances, with only *% of festivals featuring **% or more ***% female artists or groups. **% of festivals say they are working on improving ...
5 Regulations
5.1 General regulations
Organizing a festival is subject to certain regulations and legal obligations:
if the festival is to be held in a public space and/or attracts more than *,*** people, a declaration or request for authorization must be submitted to the appropriate authority apply for additional authorizations if a refreshment stand or bar ...
5.2 The festivals' sustainable development charter
The Festivals Sustainable Development Charter, updated in ****, reinforces festivals' commitments to sustainable development in France. It focuses on several key areas.
First, it emphasizes environmental commitment. Festivals are encouraged to reduce their carbon footprint by minimizing CO* emissions, promoting the use of renewable energies, and optimizing travel for artists, audiences and ...
6 Positioning the players
6.1 Positioning
- Vivendi
- Fimalac Entertainment
- Live Nation France
- Ticketmaster France
- Morgane Groupe
- Sony Music Entertainment France
- Auditoire (Omnicom Experiential Group)
- Novelty Magnum Dushow Groupe
- Du Show
- TF1 Production
- Videlio
- Shortcut Events
- Radical Production
- Maestria Events
List of charts presented in this market study
- Male-female breakdown of festival-goers
- Geographical origin of festival attendees
- Age distribution of festival attendees
- First-time festival attendance rate
- Intention to participate in various festival shows
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Latest news
Audiovisual: Trévise Participations takes control of Videlio - 27/06/2024
- - Videlio's specialties: Installation and management of videoconferencing rooms, Events, Broadcast (construction of fixed or mobile control rooms, post-production)
- - Year of backing by Hivest Capital Partners: since 2021
- - New shareholder : Trévise Participations, family office of the Noisiez family
- - Reinvestment: Hivest and Talis (historical shareholder)
- - Videlio workforce: 1,000, 700 in France
- - Sales in 2023: 358 million euros
- - Share of international business: Nearly 40%
- - Market: Audiovisual equipment for cruise ships, with over two-thirds market share.
- - Number of customers : Over 8,000, including 40% of CAC 40 companies
- - Objectives of Trévise's investment: External growth in Europe, technological breakthrough, maintaining its position as a leading player in the cruise ship segment.
Sony aims to consolidate its presence in webtoons and digital manga - 13/05/2024
- - Proposed purchase of Infocom by Sony Music Entertainment: $1.3 billion.
- - Infocom owns Mecha Comics, a manga and webtoon distribution platform
- - Mecha Comics revenues for last fiscal year: 340 million euros.
- - Japanese manga publishing sales in 2022: 677 billion yen (4.3 billion euros).
- - Sales of digital manga in 2022: 447.9 billion yen (2.8 billion euros).
- - Paper manga sales in 2022: 175.4 billion yen (1.1 billion euros).
Novelty Magnum Dushow: Equipping more and more shows - 07/03/2024
- the entertainment company supplies sound and light equipment and know-how to France's biggest festivals and concert halls,
- the company won a tender to help organize the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games on the banks of the Seine
- Business is increasingly concentrated in the Paris region, at the Adidas Arena at Porte de la Chapelle in Paris and the Grand Paris Arena in Tremblay-en-France (Seine-Saint-Denis).
Music: billions in the concert business - 04/01/2024
- Taylor Swift has booked 149 concerts in 20 countries up to December 2024.
- The singer is set to become the first music star to break the billion-dollar barrier
- Before Covid, live music generated $21.5 billion worldwide.
- By 2023, live music revenues are expected to exceed $28 billion, according to Goldman Sachs.
- Live Nation, the world leader in the concert business, holds over 75% of worldwide ticket sales via its Ticketmaster platform.
- In one year, Live Nation sold almost 120 million tickets worldwide.
- The group can fill the equivalent of 1500 Stade de France with these ticket sales.
Vivendi demerger project well received - 14/12/2023
- Vivendi climbs over 10% on the stock market following the announcement of its demerger project.
- The operation involves the creation of three separate entities around Canal+, Havas and an investment company.
Vivendi takes control of Lagardère: "A big change" - 22/11/2023
- Vivendi officially takes control of Lagardère on November 21.
Vivendi now holds 57.95% of Lagardère's capital and 50.50% of its voting rights. - Vivendi's sales rise from 9.6 billion euros to 16.5 billion.
- International activities account for 63% of Vivendi's revenues (compared with 54% previously).
- The number of Vivendi employees rises from 38,300 to 65,700.
- Bernard Arnault holds a 7.7% stake in Lagardère via Financière Agache.
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