How Harry Styles, Elton John and Glastonbury boosted UK music tourism – however knowledgeable has phrase of warning

Music tourism generated £6.6bn of spending within the UK in 2022, attracting greater than 14 million worldwide and home vacationers to reside occasions, a report has discovered.

Figures present a resurgence for the reside music business within the first full yr of festivals, gigs and concert events following the suspension of occasions in the course of the COVID pandemic.

It was helped by the return of Glastonbury Festival after two years away and UK excursions from home-grown artists together with Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, and Sir Elton John, in addition to huge worldwide acts together with Diana Ross, Billie Eilish and Lorde.

The report – referred to as Here, There and Everywhere – has been printed by UK Music, an organisation representing the pursuits of the manufacturing aspect of the UK’s business music business.

It discovered 1.1 million international vacationers visited the UK to attend reside music occasions in 2022.

Meanwhile, home music vacationers (those that already reside within the UK however travelled the nation to attend an occasion) accounted for 13.3 million folks.

According to the report, a complete of 30.6 million folks went to concert events in 2022, which included all the pieces from area exhibits to grassroots gigs.

In an additional optimistic signal for an business that was severely hit by job losses over the pandemic, as a result of cancelled exhibits and shutting venues, the report discovered the resurgence of gigs helped maintain 56,000 jobs.

And 2023 is already trying to be a giant yr for UK gigs, with exhibits from Blur, The 1975 and Maroon 5, in addition to the British Summer Time Festival in Hyde Park drawing enormous audiences.

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However UK Music chief govt Jamie Njoku-Goodwin had a phrase of warning.

Calling music “one of our country’s great assets”, he stated: “While music generates huge benefits for our local areas, the infrastructure and talent pipeline that it relies on still faces huge challenges.

“With a venue closing each week and one in six festivals not returning for the reason that pandemic, many studios going through enormous challenges, it is important that we defend the musical infrastructure that does a lot for our cities and cities.”

The Music Venue Trust – which represents greater than 900 grassroots music venues throughout the UK – stated grassroots music venues are closing on the charge of 1 per week amid the price of residing disaster.

Some worry the closures will imply rising artists with the potential to be the subsequent Ed Sheeran or Adele – each of whom began out taking part in in grassroots venues – may discover their careers lower off at floor degree, by no means realising their full potential.