Ranked: Festivals Where You Get The Best Bang for your Bass

Glastonbury kicks off this weekend, bringing over 200,000 people (and often an ocean of mud) to the Somerset countryside, and what’s considered to be the largest greenfield festival in the world. Thousands make the trip to the festival from overseas as part of the million plus international concert and festival visitors the UK pulls in annually.

The UK has a world class music scene for sure, but Europe is blessed with hundreds of amazing summer festivals covering all genres. So - is Glasto really worth the hype? Far be it from us to judge your music taste. But getting the biggest bang for your buck is what we’re all about here, so instead we’ve compiled a rigorous report on which festivals offer the best value for money whether you want to spend in pounds, euros or dollars.

Our very serious and robust methodology

Music might be the ultimate expression of personal taste - so, naturally, we wouldn’t try to evaluate the best European festivals based on genre or style. But what we can do for our highly scientific investigation is look at the quantitative date available - ticket cost versus number of available acts.

We’ve taken 45 popular festivals from across Europe, all of which welcome over 50,000 guests a year. We looked at the 2024 ticket prices compared with the last available lineup (2023 in most cases), to see how much on average you’re paying for each available act over the festival period. And, to put our research into a more global context we’ve shown the costings in pounds, euros and US dollars. All currency conversion uses the mid-market exchange rate- our favourite and the best benchmark for getting a good deal on spending in a foreign currency.

Ranking in 1st Place is….Exit Festival in Serbia

Coming in hot at Number One: Exit Festival, held in the impressive Petrovaradin Fortress, Novi Sad, Serbia. Exit has won loads of awards in its 20+ year history and we’re sure they’re delighted to top our table (admittedly we didn’t ask, but who doesn’t love a top prize?).

Exit started as a student movement fighting for democracy and freedom in Serbia and the broader Balkans - and promises over 1,000 artists across 40 stages and festival areas. It’s this huge lineup - and commitment to reasonable and accessible ticket costs - that puts it at the top of our table.

Based on the forecast 2024 act numbers, you’re paying a tiny 10p per act at Exit, which is about 12 euro cents or 13 US cents. What do you get for your money? Exit 2024 headliners include Black Eyed Peas and Carl Cox, with dedicated stages for dance, trance and house music.

So where did Glasto rank? It’s not really a spoiler to say the huge and varied lineup makes Glastonbury pretty awesome value for money if you’re lucky enough to score a pass. Read on for the rest of our top ten.

Our Best Bang for your Bass Top Ten

But what about the rest of our highly scientific countdown? Try these for size:

1. Glastonbury, UK - with over 3,000 acts on offer in 2023 you’d pay a paltry 12 British pence to see each - that’s 14 euro cents, or 15 US cents
   

2. Sziget, Hungary - had you attended in 2023 you’d have paid an average of 0.24 GBP peer act on offer, which is about 36 euro cents or 39 cents in the US

3. Emporium, Netherlands - coming in fourth place with a cost of 42 pence, 49 euro cents or 53 US cents per act

4. Distortion, Denmark - a smaller festival with around 300 acts to choose from, at an average cost of 0.46 GBP, 0.54 EUR or 0.58 USD each

5. Tomorrowland, Belgium - experience Tomorrowland at the tiny price of about 52 British pence, 61 euro cents or 66 US cents per act

6. Mighty Hoopla, UK - back to the UK for our number 7, where acts cost about 0.65 GBP, 0.76 EUR or 0.83 USD each

7. Love International, Croatia - bringing almost 300 acts to their stages, at a cost of 0.73 GBP, 0.85 EUR or 0.93 USD per band

8. Mysteryland, Netherlands - see the best the Netherlands has to offer, for just 80p per act - that’s about 0.94 EUR or just over 1 US dollar. Not bad, huh?

9. Parklife, UK - and last but not least, join all the people (so many people🎵) going to Parklife, where acts cost just 0.84 GBP, 0.98 EUR or 1.07 USD each

Ticket price and fees divided by number of acts in 2023. Prices sourced from official festival websites.

Festivals with the biggest surprise fees

Here at Wise we hate hidden fees. Nobody wants to get to checkout only to discover that the ticket price isn’t really the ticket price because of unexpected or unavoidable fees. Where are the biggest offenders? Here’s out top ten:

1. Afronation - Extra fees come in at just over 40 GBP - a full 14% extra on the ticket price

2. Mad Cool - The festival may be mad cool, but would you be mad about paying an extra possible 23 pounds on top of your ticket price (that’s more than 13% of the upfront cost)

3. Dimensions - Be prepared for an extra 10% or so in fees - just over 20 GBP) added to the ticket price when you reach checkout

4. Creamfields - There’s an extra fee of 20 pounds here, on top of an already relatively costly ticket, pushing up the price by 6.9%

5. Defected - Mid-table, here the extra fee is under 20 GBP, but about 8.5% of the original ticket cost

6. Way Out West - Extra fees add just over 7% to the ticket cost you might be expecting to pay

7. Primavera - Costs of just under 18.5 GBP creep in here, just under 7% of the ticket price

8. World Club Dome - Fees add about 8.5% of the original ticket cost, similar to some of the other festivals in our top ten

9. Sziget - It’s in our top ten of cheapest festivals by act, but there are still a few extra charges to worry about, adding just over 6% to the price

10. Mysteryland - Our final entry, Mysteryland has extra fees of 14.44 GBP, which is 10% of the ticket value

Prices and fees sourced from official festival websites

Bougiest festivals for your buck

Finally, let’s close out with a quick look at the opposite end of the spectrum - the European festivals where we spotted the highest costs per act, based on the 2024 ticket cost and the number of acts in the lineup last year. Here are 5 of the most pricey per band:

1. Orange Warsaw Festival - With 19 acts on the bill last year, festival goers were paying about 9.26 GBP per act available

2. Afronation - Offering 50 acts, but with pretty pricey tickets, here the average cost per act was about 6.55 GBP

3. Isle of Wight Festival - 50 bands were on the lineup in 2023, working out at about 5.4 GBP per band

4. Reading and Leeds - Coming in at under a fiver, costs at the iconic Reading and Leeds festivals hit about 4.64 GBP per act

5. Open'er - Our final pick, here you’d be paying about 3.92 GBP per act available for your listening pleasure

Obviously, summer festivals are a highlight of the calendar whether you’re paying a few pennies or cents per act - or shelling out a bit more for your perfect pick of artists. Wherever you’re headed you’ll have a fantastic time.

Off to a festival in Asia or the US and wondering what you’re paying per act you see? Let us know where you’re going - and share this with their friends so they can see how their choices are panning out, too!

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Disclaimer; All festival ticket price information is taken from official festival websites. Where currency conversion is necessary, exchange rates used are the mid-market rate for that currency pair, taken in May 2024.