Unique Historic Buildings and Estates Available as Music Festival Venues.

Any music festival organisation looking for something a bit different from the usual farmers field for their festival location could consider trying one of Britain's historic buildings. Using such a venue can add to the attraction and help the festival gain improved brand awareness with its association to the site.

Although a quick search online reveals over 50 historic buddings as potential venues for hosting music festivals there will always be numerous restrictions regarding access to certain areas and the genre of music allowed along with the audience demographics. A cathedral may be fine for a choral recital festival but not for the latest PSY trance event for example. Some highlighted historic buildings that may be open for consideration as a multi-genre music festival include the following.

Premium Venues.
Some historic parks and houses host well known music festivals every year and include Kaleidoscope at Alexandra Palace and Nocturne Live at Blenheim Palace. Although these sites are open to the public for visits the music festivals taking place are restricted to designated grounds only. They are geared up for regular large-scale events and can help with the provision of facilities for large numbers of visitors.

The Famous Festival Venues.
Castle Dinnington and Knebworth estates have a long history of running rock festivals and Download festival is still based at Castle Donnington. Cardiff castle is used on a regular basis for concerts and a variety of festivals throughout the year with Depot in the Caste being one of the most popular multi-genre music festivals using the castle every year. Hampton Court Palace has been used as a concert venue for many years although no large-scale music festival has taken place there yet.

Alternative Venues.
There are numerous music festivals that use smaller country estates with impressive manor houses or castles but are limited to the estate’s grounds. Forbidden Forest takes place at Belvoir Castle having moved from its previous venue of Grimsthorpe Castle. The Great Estate music festival takes place at Scorrier House and has been increasing in popularity.

The are many more interesting venues that are available to host events but organisers will need to check details with the owners or custodians (who may well be charitable trusts) to discover what is and is not permissible. The venue fees provide mush needed revenue for the maintenance and repair of the historic buildings and are a welcome boost to their funds. Increasingly there have been concerns about possible damage to some buildings from loud music that may cause unwelcome vibrations in structures. This is still being explored by those responsible for the buildings but for now festival organisers can still explore numerous historic buildings and estates in the UK for their next venue. 

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 Ollie Craig via Pexels

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