170,000 UK Festival Tickets Have Been Sold By Live Nation Since Roadmap Announcement

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Global events promoter Live Nation have revealed that they have sold 170,000 UK festival tickets since the government set out its roadmap out of lockdown.

This year has already seen the cancellation of more festivals due to the coronavirus pandemic, like Glastonbury and Hellfest, however since the government confirmed their roadmap out of lockdown, a number of festivals have now confirmed that the will be going as planned, such as Reading & Leeds, 2000 Trees, Slam Dunk, and more.

Since the announcement, Reading and Leeds Festival has confirmed that Reading has completely sold-out, whilst Leeds only has limited Friday and Sunday tickets left. Elsewhere for Live Nation, the dance festival Creamfields, has also confirmed it’s sold out, following the announcement.

Reading Festival is SOLD OUT 🍻 Leeds Weekend and Saturday SOLD OUT 🍻 Limited Friday and Sunday for LEEDS left 🎉 https://t.co/se3B02oFyj pic.twitter.com/HEEngUEjrz

— Reading & Leeds Fest (@OfficialRandL) February 25, 2021

In a new Live Nation earnings call, it was revealed that to giant promoter managed to sell 170,000 tickets since the announcement.

During the Q4 2020 earnings call this week, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino confirmed that Reading & Leeds had sold 100,000 tickets in 72 hours, while Creamfields had sold all of its 70,000 capacity out in just 48 hours.

Rapino told analysts (via Music Business Worldwide) “We are seeing… what we’ve been talking about: [fans] are excited to get back to the show as soon as we get the green lights in these markets to open up.”

During the earnings call, Rapino also revealed that the refund rate for rescheduled Live Nation concerts remained unchanged in Q4 2020, staying at 17% – the same number the company saw in the previous quarter.

The Live Nation CEO noted that “for the tours that have gone through a second refund window, the refund levels were generally much lower for [that] second window as the casual fans requested their refunds during the first window.”

Rapino further confirmed that festivals that have been postponed until 2022, where fans were able to retain tickets for the same event, 63% of ticket holders held onto their tickets rather than requesting a refund.

Melvin Benn, the Festival Republic boss (who runs Reading and Leeds, Wireless, and Latitude) previously cited the UK’s vaccination programme as the key to getting back to large-scale music events this summer. Telling NME “The Prime Minister has said that 88% of hospitalisations and deaths will disappear once the over-70s and frontline workers are vaccinated. The Health Secretary said: ‘When that’s done, cry freedom’ – I’m crying freedom. At that point, I’m saying let’s get on with it.”

Adding “I’m super confident about the end of the summer, I’m super confident about the beginning of the summer. If everyone over the age of 60, or definitely the age of 50, is vaccinated by the end of May, then Jesus – there should be no stopping us.”