"We're putting €3.7 million on the table, and it's a game of roulette. There's no other economic sector where you take such wild risks to barely break even, even after selling all the tickets." This chilling observation from Carol Meyer, director of Art Rock, a music festival in the eastern town of Saint-Brieuc, illustrates the turmoil faced by many directors of music festivals. France is known for its large number of contemporary and popular music festivals. According to Emmanuel Ethis, the government's interministerial delegate for artistic and cultural education, there are around 2,500 festivals each year. However, very few of them manage to stay afloat.

The latest study by the French national music center (CNM), published Thursday, July 24, highlighted the sector's extreme structural fragility: "In 2024, two out of three festivals ended the year with a deficit." The reason is not even a lack of audiences, since "68% of festivals with an occupancy rate above 90%" still ended up in the red in 2024. According to another study by the Ministry of Culture, released Tuesday, July 29, music festivals appear even more financially fragile than others. Out of 800 festivals, all disciplines combined, "only" 46% admitted to being in deficit in 2024.

You have 86.17% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.