Many of us already realise that the true cost of a festival extends way beyond the ticket price: transport, clothes, accessories, food, drinks and more quickly drive the total cost skywards.

In fact it has been researched and apparently some fans will spend the equivalent of a week's holiday on a weekend festival. Being a huge festival fan myself I find it very easy to justify the cost, but I am not one of those people to go made making costumes or buying new clothes unless it's a pair of gum boots (wellies).

The research has been done on UK fans and the costs seem crazy even to me, however after living here for a month and seeing the quality of the line-ups I am not surprised. While I would spend an average of $200 AUD on a one day festival, I would only get to see two or three international stars I would be really excited about compared to the ten or so at some of the London festivals.

Let's take a look at the breakdown of the official figures:

Travel: £100
Food: £60
Drink: £130
Clothes and camping gear: £170
Tickets: £140

 It gets more disturbing when you look at the some of the other information:

The study also reveals that music fans are now demanding more from their festivals than just music. Despite a hardcore 8% of us claiming to spend up to 20 hours watching bands play live at festivals in reality a third (32%) of festival goers have admitted that they will struggle to actually remember which bands they see due to excess alcohol. A fifth (21%) admitted they will take in less than 6 hours of music over their festival weekend, preferring instead to socialise with friends, wander around the site, and take in the atmosphere.  Over half (57%) were looking forward to having plenty to eat and drink while a vain 29% confessed that their top concern was looking good.

Having been a festival goer for many years I see this information reflected in many of the people I talk to there. Asked who are they here to see or who their favourite act is, many simple reply they have no idea and are simply there to drink.

This puts me in a confused state of mind: should we encourage this sort of behaviour in the hope of getting more people into the music, or should we discourage it for a more involved audience at the event?

Tom Findlay, from Groove Armada, founders of Lovebox Weekender (the organisation that commissioned the research) commented:

“In these credit crunch times, festival goers are keen to get more bang for their buck and local festivals are a great way for them to watch live music without incurring the expense of camping and travel costs. As festival goers get older, they want to share the experience with their children and they are looking for festivals that not only showcase great bands but also provide great amusement, atmosphere and food options for the whole family. We’ve certainly addressed this at Lovebox Weekender by providing great food, fun family activities and variety of fantastic performers to cater to music lovers of all ages.”

I see another side to this as well, one that is growing increasingly important: the environmental impact. By limiting the size of events and the distance fans have to travel we could significantly reduce the environment cost.

Plus, if there are more events at a cheaper price, think of how many different outfits you would get to wear!