Not much rivals the thrill of live performances. The raw energy of artists, booming sound systems, and dazzling visuals deliver an immersive sensory rush. From dancing to pulsating beats to discovering new bands, festivals offer a dynamic musical journey that streaming can’t replicate. Sometimes set in stunning locations, festivals offer a break from routine. Camping under stars or exploring vibrant festival grounds sparks adventure, while themed stages and interactive installations ignite imagination. Festivals also often showcase wider cultural experiences, such as food, art, and workshops. Despite these benefits and pleasures, the current economic climate means many smaller festivals are struggling to survive. Crowdfunding has long been part of the arts industry. Let’s look at some people and organisations that have used crowdfunding for music festivals as a way to secure their future.
Beyond securing money, a crowdfunding campaign also provides additional marketing and a more structured process through which to develop audiences, promote events, and share behind-the-scenes stories about how a project is shaping up.
The music festival marketplace
Festival performances are the main income stream for many artists and bands, since music download platforms greatly reduce their income potential from recorded music. For independent performers, they can be a gateway to greater recognition and more numerous followers. Festivals are therefore important for musicians and singers at all stages of their career.
By August, 40 festivals were cancelled or closed altogether in 2025. In 2024 it was 78, according to the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF). Like most parts of the hospitality and entertainment sectors, festivals have been hit hard by the dramatic rise in operating costs since Covid-19. Wages have risen sharply to compensate workers for the increased cost of living, and festivals have also been hit particularly hard as they tend to employ a larger share of lower paid or part-time staff. The minimum income level at which National Insurance is paid dropped from £9,100 to £5,000 in April 2025. Even when volunteers step forward to help, energy prices have accelerated rapidly.
Farmers increasingly require full payment in advance, rather than take a deposit and receive the balance after the festival is over. Just as the organisers know too well, farmers are also aware that a festival’s profits – and its capacity to pay all its bills – usually come from the last 20% of tickets sold. An undersold festival can easily run at a loss.
Big event promoters are also taking an increasingly higher share of total ticket sales, and use their financial clout to sign artists to perform exclusively at their events. This restricts the supply of talent available to the smaller and one-off events.
Festivals using crowdfunding
In most cases, though not exclusively, it appears to be smaller festivals using donations and reward-based crowdfunding. The crowdfunding appeals for support tap into the emotions and the positive memories of festivalgoers whose own experiences include building a rapport with strangers over discovering new bands, dancing freely, or embracing spontaneity in an inhibition and judgment-free zone, boosting confidence and creativity.
In 2021 the Marsden Jazz Festival in Yorkshire raised £13,760 from 256 backers, beating its £10,000 target.
In 2024 the not-for-profit annual High Tide Festival in Twickenham reached its target of £15,000 with only a few days to go before the event started, and went on to achieve £16,220.
The Long Division Festival in Wakefield raised almost £5,000 through pre-orders of a book that told the festival’s history from 2011 to 2023.
The Rock Oyster Festival in Cornwall, located on a bank of the River Camel estuary (main image), is a family-friendly food and music camping festival. In 2023 it offered festivalgoers (and anyone else) an opportunity to become a shareholder and invest in equity. It had already secured £250,000, and went on to raise over £315,000 from a total of 115 backers. The 2025 festival took place from July 24 to 27. Festivalgoers dived into over sixty activities – from paddleboarding and surfing lessons in nearby bays to yoga and mindfulness sessions overlooking the estuary.
Other music industry users of crowdfunding
Radio stations
Crowdfunding users range from community-based stations, such as the OFCOM-licensed youth-led radio station Reprezent Radio broadcasting from a shipping container in Brixton, to the national digital station Fix Radio with a playlist tailored for building and construction industry tradespeople.
Early in 2024, Reprezent Radio asked for donations to resolve a cashflow crisis while its registration as a charity was delayed. 375 backers contributed almost £65,000.
Fix Radio eventually raised £950,234 in 2022 from 347 new investors through a successful round of equity crowdfunding that was 26% over-subscribed. The station is going from strength to strength, with higher audience figures attracting the support of advertisers and programme sponsors including building material suppliers such as Wickes, and commercial vehicle makers such as Citroen.
Music industry mentoring
Helping young artists get a toehold in the industry can be invaluable support. In 2024, the MusicGurus.com platform, which aims to be a “Netflix for learning music,” closed its equity crowdfunding campaign after beating its £150,000 target. It is also backed by business angels including the founder of Caffè Nero, Gerry Ford.
Grounded Sounds is a South London-based music organisation and charity providing 15-to-26 year olds with free music workshops, mentoring and career pathways into the music industry. In August 2025 it began a round of donations crowdfunding, with a target to raise £25,000 to plug gaps created by cuts to other funding sources.
Music venues and their staff
The 2023 annual report from the grassroots charity Music Venue Trust showed London’s grassroots music venues were in crisis. Mounting post-Covid debts, whinging neighbours and speculative property developers are all part of the problem, the Evening Standard reported. 125 venues were forced to close down in 2023. Crowdfunding can be used in several ways to help ease financial pressures.
A new restaurant and music venue in Islington broke global fundraising records on Kickstarter in 2023. The campaign generated £248,000 in eight weeks from supporters, which at the time was the largest sum for any restaurant anywhere in the world on the crowdfunding platform. Soul Mama opened in the autumn that year, and continues to serve food from the Caribbean, Africa and South America accompanied by jazz, soul, reggae and gospel music.
Also in 2023, the trade union Unite Hospitality launched a crowdfunding appeal to help staff facing redundancy with just one week’s pay after the sudden closure of a Glasgow music venue bar, the 13th Note. The venue owner claimed it was union activity and staff walkouts over pay and safety concerns that had led to the insolvency.
In 2024, a crowdfunding appeal to raise £35,000 and pay off rent arrears for the grassroots community space Matchstick Piehouse in Deptford failed to reach its target. Money was returned to the donors, and a new £35,000 project began to convert the venue to a workers’ co-op.
Staff lost their jobs when grassroots music venue The Moon closed in Cardiff. With the approval of the musicians concerned, a resident recording engineer compiled a 10-track album from his gig tapes, and £8,766 from sales via reward-based crowdfunding in December 2024 went to the former employees.
Part of the vinyl revival
In 2024, the Scottish startup vinyl record pressing plant Rockvinyl was crowdfunding to buy and install three new presses. It also planned to launch a crowdfunding platform for artists to release new music without personal financial risk through “fan-funded-vinyl.” Its £1.75 million target was perhaps over ambitious, and its website is no longer available.
In January 2025, a 19 year-old former student in Brighton launched a crowdfunding campaign aimed at people who want to support grassroots music. She hoped to raise £6,000 to release her debut three track Indie Pop E.P. 65 backers pledged £6,145 to make her Kickstarter project a reality.
Musical instrument retailers
In June 2025, Hobgoblin Music, the UK’s best-known family-run musical instrument chain, offered 9.5% equity for £190,000 through equity crowdfunding. Customers can get personal expert advice and help from the active musicians who work in their nine shops. The crowdfunding raised £50,881 from 115 backers. There were also investor perks of branded merchandise and discount vouchers that could be collected from stores.
Crowdfunding to block a festival happening
Some residents close to Brockwell Park in south London campaigned in 2025 against an annual music festival going ahead. Their main cause for complaint was the length of time required beyond the festival itself that made parts of the park inaccessible to the public. This included stage construction beforehand, and sewing new grass afterwards.
The anti-festival campaigners crowdfunded over £30,000 to meet legal costs of taking Lambeth Council to court for authorising the event without applying to itself for planning permission to restrict access to parts of the park for more than 28 days. However, the council’s subsequent appeal was upheld. Campaigners are already raising more funds to try and prevent the 2026 festival taking place.
Key takeaways
Some projects for crowdfunding festivals, and other aspects of the music industry fail, though many succeed. Some appear to start slowly without the benefit of any pre-selling so that the crowdfunding begins with a bang and not a whimper.
The wide range of music industry-related projects shows the flexibility of crowdfunding to help any type of organisation raise not only funds but also its profile while forging network of followers and supporters.