As the UK vaccination programme moves forward, test events go ahead and the UK Government’s roadmap looks to reopen venues and events, how are live music fans feeling about returning to live music?
We have worked with the team at LIVE to collect over 25,000 survey responses from live music fans. These responses were then weighted to reflect the age and gender demographics of the ticket buying population.
Key findings
- Fans want live music, and they want it now. Over 50% of fans are ready to attend music events right now if they could, with a further 25% ready to attend once they feel the right mitigations are in place.
- Tickets are selling. 73% of fans have already bought tickets since March, and by July 63% of music fans will have been to a show.
- 1/3 of those who haven'y yet bought tickets just haven’t seen something they wanted to go to.
- 75% of those who responded said they would be happy with the idea of Covid certification to attend an event.
- The 25,000 music fans (surveyed in the UK in April) are more passionate about going to more shows than before the pandemic started, with only 3% saying they will no longer attend.
Greg Parmley, CEO of LIVE said:
"After a devastating year for the live music industry it is fantastic to see the strength of feeling from fans across the UK who are desperate to get back to live music events. The industry has worked tirelessly to ensure that we can return as quickly and safely as possible.
"It is notable that fans are willing to live with short-term mitigation measures in order to get back to live music as quickly as possible, with three quarters saying that they would be happy with a Covid-certification system as part of those measures."
Katy Raines, Founding Parter of Indigo Ltd said:
"The survey findings clearly show just what an important role live music plays in the lives of millions of people across the UK. With 64% saying that they have missed the boost to their mental health from experiencing live music, it is brilliant to see how excited fans are to get back to doing what they love. The significant proportion who have made bookings for events in the future is very reassuring for the sector.
"Following over a year of cultural audience sentiment surveying through our After the Interval and Culture Restart projects, we were pleased to be able to work with the team at LIVE to design and deliver the #ReviveLive survey and continue to build our understanding of cultural audiences for the benefit of the whole live entertainment sector."