2022 to be ‘biggest year ever’ for live music – but watch out for ticket price rises &

From the return of Glastonbury to multiple Wembley shows by Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, 2022 is set to be a record year for live music.

But fans can expect higher prices, longer queues and even a toilet shortage, with roadies and equipment at a premium as the industry battles a post-pandemic squeeze.

Promoters are recording huge pent-up demand, with the biggest names, whose tours cancelled several times, finally able to sell tickets with confidence.

Yet while £580 VIP ticket holders clink champagne glasses to Adele in Hyde Park and Glastonbury welcomes its youngest headliner in Billie Eilish, the number of events packing out next year’s calendar is placing the live music business under strain.

Unable to benefit from the furlough scheme, many roadies – lighting and sound technicians – drifted away into other professions.

Everyone wants smoke machines, the most powerful PA systems and elaborate staging but there are only a limited number of companies providing them and the packed calendar means they are all being booked up. And who will drive those articulated trucks from venue to venue, given the shortage of HGV drivers?

Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons, who also owns a string of grassroots venues in London, told i: “We currently have 260 shows booked in for 2022 at Lafayette” – his 600 capacity club in King’s Cross, north London.

“It’s hard to find a day when we don’t have a show on. But we are having a hard time staffing. A lot of people have permanently left the industry, whether that’s due to the pandemic or Brexit.”

The fans will ultimately have to pay the price, he added.

Stuart Galbraith, the chief of Kilimanjaro Live, a concert and festival promoter, predicted music lovers will have to be patient – for drinks and toilets. “Venues are struggling for bar staff and security right now,” he told i. “Queues will be bigger than normal.

“Toilets for outdoor events are also in short supply in relation to demand. But hopefully those issues will be resolved by next summer.”

Mr Galbraith, who promotes Sheeran’s stadium tours, said his company had “a record thousandplus shows to deliver in 2022. We’re packing nearly three years of gigs into 12 months”.

Covid remains a factor, not least in recreating an environment in which fans feels safe, huddled together and singing their hearts out.

Lovett, who also operates the Omeara and Social venues, said up to 40 per cent of ticket-holders failed to show up at “sold out” gigs that had been rescheduled. “It’s taking a few more months for the public to get over that nervousness.”

Festivals Politics and pop Festivals mixing big ideas with music stars are the latest hot ticket.

Former foreign secretary David Miliband and the singer Grace Jones (inset) are the joint headline acts at Kite, an innovative event planned for Oxfordshire next summer.

A “festival of ideas and music for curious, inquisitive and cultural minds”, Kite will take over Kirtlington Park on 10 to 12 June.

Delia Smith, former Tory MP Rory Stewart, David Olusoga and Jarvis Cocker will also give talks, with TLC, Saint Etienne and Mavis Staples also providing music.

Ciro Romano, Kite’s director, said: “We are thrilled to have developed a festival that puts music and ideas on an equal footing.”

The Left Field tent at Glastonbury, a forum for left-leaning political debate, has become one of the festival’s most popular attractions.

Latitude has also added stages hosting leading authors, and panel discussions between topical figures.

The Festicket website says music fans are spending nearly three times more on events compared to pre-Covid bookings. The biggest global event bookers are Britons.