Last year, as Fortress Europe solidified its borders with unprecedented spending, the UK's music industry funnelled £5.5 billion into fencing and security for concerts. This indirect expenditure, part of a record £11.2 billion generated by music tourism, reveals a continent increasingly obsessed with control, even within its own leisure sectors. The figure highlights the vast sums dedicated to surveillance and exclusion, mirroring the escalating budgets for border enforcement across the European Union.
The Cost of Control
The total £11.2 billion spent on music tourism last year marked an 11% increase from the £10 billion recorded in 2024. This sum included £5.7 billion spent directly by music tourists on tickets, food, drink, merchandise, travel, accommodation, and meals while travelling to events. The remaining £5.5 billion, however, went towards the infrastructure of control: fencing and security at concerts. This massive investment in private security apparatus underscores a societal trend towards securitisation, a trend that benefits the burgeoning migration industry and its contractors.
Record numbers of music tourists, 24.7 million, attended concerts and festivals across the UK last year. This figure, up 4.8% on 2024, was driven by major acts like Oasis, Coldplay, Lana Del Rey, and Beyoncé. The vast majority, 85%, were UK music fans classified as domestic tourists, travelling more than three times the average commute to attend an event. Overseas music tourists also saw a significant rise, increasing 27% to 2.1 million from 1.6 million in 2024, aided by artists who played exclusively in the UK.
Profits Over People
The report from UK Music gave particular credit to the Gallagher brothers’ reunion tour, which saw Oasis play for the first time in 15 years. Despite a scandal over ticket pricing, the tour was called the most profitable run of gigs in British history. Oasis fans alone spent more than £1 billion on the reunion tour, averaging over £766 per person across the tour. The band’s five shows at Manchester’s Heaton Park pushed music tourist spending in the north-west up 16% year on year to £1.4 billion.
Ian Murray, the creative industries minister, celebrated these "record-breaking figures" as a "testament to what the UK’s music industry does better than anywhere else in the world." He stated the government's commitment to "backing the entire music ecosystem," including "protecting fans from the exploitation of ticket touts" and "working to improve opportunities for UK artists to tour in Europe." This focus on the economic mobility of artists and the protection of consumers stands in stark contrast to the criminalisation of migrants seeking safety or opportunity across the same continent.
Selective Mobility
London’s music tourism spending rose 27.4% from £2.7 billion to £3.4 billion, accounting for more than 30% of the total spend last year. Other major acts contributing to the boom included Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Chris Brown, Sam Fender, and South Korean artists Blackpink and Stray Kids. Glastonbury, featuring Neil Young, Olivia Rodrigo, Charli xcx, and The 1975, also fuelled a bumper summer. The report noted that the record spend was further boosted by inflation and soaring ticket prices, indicating that the industry's profits often come at the expense of ordinary people.
Tom Kiehl, the chief executive of UK Music, asserted that "The billions spent are a huge shot in the arm for towns and cities right across the UK." He urged the government to "support music fans by delivering on their manifesto pledge to tackle the menace of ticket touts who charge exorbitant prices for resale tickets, squeezing the amount of cash fans have to spend on gig-going." While concerns for consumer exploitation are voiced, the systemic exploitation and criminalisation of people crossing borders remain unaddressed by such institutions. The number of full-time equivalent jobs in live music rose 3% last year, from 71,760 to 74,000, demonstrating the sector's growth within this securitised economic model.