Selection of Ready Made Outdoor Venues for Music Festivals.

Organisers of music festivals may have long relationships with venue and land owners but sometimes they need to change venue. It may be that their event has outgrown the existing site capacity or for some other reason they are unable to continue, what options are there for securing a new site quickly and without too much hassle.

When festival organisers are considering a new venue location, they usually plan well in advance allowing time to make the necessary assessment of a new potential site, negotiate with owners and obtain all the necessary licences. If a move is unexpected and there isn't enough time to find a new site there are options in the UK to use a venue that is already geared up for large scale events like music festivals. These plug and play venues already have onsite teams who can make all necessary arrangements quickly and licensing for the event will probably already be in place too. What are some good venue options to consider in the UK for a ready-made site?

The Bath & West Showground. 
Located in Somerset this outdoor venue covers 240 acres and has a capacity of 150,000 visitors with a mixture of facilities including indoor buildings, camping, toilets, car parking, catering and an integrated road network. The venue has a full events team to assist with all music festival logistics with a record of hosting music festivals in the past.

Lincolnshire Showground. 
One of the largest purpose-built event facilities the Lincolnshire Showground covers 270 acres of land and includes fixed buildings along with catering, toilets and showers. The venue has capacity for 100,000 visitors with 13,000 car parking spaces and allows camping too.

Fontwell Park Racecourse. 
Located in West Sussex the 65-acre horse racing course is available for hire but with a maximum capacity of 8,000 visitors so will suit smaller festivals. They have the usual facilities available on-site including catering and toilets plus camping.

Smaller Alternative Venues. 
Organisers may also want to consider Tulleys Farm in West Sussex which is better suited to smaller events with a capacity of up to 5,000 visitors. Thorpe Park in Surrey claims to be able to host events with up to 8,000 visitors although their outdoor space may be compromised by the operation of their theme park. These small venues may be more suitable for one day events as camping facilities are lacking.

Whatever music festival organisers may be looking for there is a reasonable choice of venues in the UK that can make a good alternative location for a music festival site. The costs may be higher than dealing directly with an independent landowner but this needs to be offset against the convenience of ready-made facilities and access to in-house event teams.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event 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, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels

<< Back to articles