Initial details for the 2025 Festival Congress have been revealed, with the annual B2B gathering for independent festival organisers in the UK returning to Bristol Beacon on Wednesday 5 February.
Organised by the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), and with Citizen Ticket announced as headline sponsor in 2025, Festival Congress has a progressive and innovative format that includes lightning talks, breakout workshops, keynotes, fireside chats and a host of experts and inspiring individuals and organisations from across the festival and event world.
Around 400 delegates will enjoy a full day’s conference and a full evening’s social networking event. Places are restricted to independent festival organisers and their teams, key supporting organisations and festival suppliers.
Some of the country’s leading festivals and suppliers have already bought tickets for the 2025 event during a pre-sale period for AIF members, with representatives from the likes of Beat-Herder, Black Deer Festival, Deer Shed Festival, Field Maneuvers, Fire In The Mountain Festival, From The Fields, Green Gathering, RADAR Festival and Truck Festival already set to attend.
Citizen Ticket’s Chief Product Officer Phil Hayes said: “We’re proud to be sponsoring Festival Congress for the fifth time this year. Some of you may be reading this and thinking, ‘Citizen Ticket? They’ve never sponsored Congress before,’ and I’m looking forward to explaining why TicketSellers is now Citizen Ticket and talking about queues, dynamic pricing, and how to sell out a festival in 60 seconds. As the independent festival sector continues to face challenges, it’s more important than ever that we all work together through events like Festival Congress and the AIF. We especially look forward to meeting a larger than ever group of festivals following the absorption of the AFO.”
AIF CEO John Rostron said: “There’s a lot of energy going into planning Festival Congress as our association of independent music festivals is the largest and strongest it’s ever been. Promoters and operators are united by their enthusiasm for the great events they run, and the challenges they face together. We’ll have panels, speakers and sessions that support independents in being the best they can be, with some dedicated strands for operations, marketing and for those running multi-venue festivals too. Lots to come and lots to watch out for.”
Tickets, delegates and more information can be found at festivalcongress.com
