2024 Music Festivals By The Numbers: Bigger Than Pre-Pandemic & … Pop-Punk’s Return?
Take a deep dive into JamBase’s massive music festivals database.
By Chrissy Greco May 14, 2024 • 4:00 pm PDT
In the dynamic realm of music festivals, JamBase is the definitive destination for worldwide music festival information. In conjunction with the launch of its Festivals For Everyone campaign JamBase unveiled an interactive dashboard that lays out 2024 music festivals by the numbers where you can explore who’s playing where and when. The public facing dashboard scratches the surface of JamBase’s comprehensive and detailed concert and festival database which it offers to partners across industries via a thorough API with multiple endpoints.
As a provider of music festival data for Google, JamBase harnesses and organizes the diverse musical landscape of the world’s music festivals with unparalleled depth and breadth. With comprehensive coverage of North America and South America, Australia and Europe, and working to include Africa and Asia more thoroughly, JamBase’s festival database grows year over year as new festivals enter to be counted for future years. Not only does JamBase record who and how many artists play each festival, the database breaks out artists by day providing a clear picture of not just number of artists but total number of performances.
“We’ve long had the most comprehensive festival listings on the web, and I am thrilled this year we have leveraged that data to build a powerful experience powered by it, and further our mission to help fans Go See Live Music,” said JamBase CEO David Onigman.
JamBase defines festivals by what they are not: multi-venue events like SXSW or the Amsterdam Dance Event are not included, nor are concert series or radio showcases like z100’s yearly Jingle Ball in New York. JamBase’s data team of music industry veterans operate on “I know it when I see it” criteria for deciding to include an event in the festival database. They look for more than one artist headlining and a multi day ticket, as well as any type of amenity not normally found at a venue concert as leading indicators of a “festival” designation.
“Festivals come in all shapes and sizes, but at their heart it’s about a musical gathering that’s more than just a concert. It’s a place for music lovers to share in a communal experience, whether it be an all-day affair or a week-long celebration,” said JamBase head of festival data Jon McLennand.
Festivals By the Numbers
JamBase’s festival database unveils a staggering narrative of growth, resilience, and the ever-evolving pulse of music culture pre- and post-pandemic disruption. In 2024, as of this writing, the database records 2,184 music festivals — a testament to the revival and expansion of live music post-pandemic. Comparing this to 2,660 festivals in 2023 and 2,308 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the trajectory is one of consistent growth.
The flourishing of festivals is demonstrated by the 45,522 artists gracing stages worldwide in 2024 so far. This figure has already surpassed the entire number of artists booked on festivals in all of pre-pandemic 2019 which saw 41,074 artists and stands in stark contrast to the 70,444 artists on festival lineups in 2023.
Festivals around the world
In 2024, the database currently has festivals in 74 countries coming close to the 87 in 2023 and 85 in 2019. California historically dominates U.S. festival counts with 111 festivals so far in 2024 (151 in 2023, 178 in 2019), followed by vibrant scenes in Florida, New York, Colorado, and Texas. The U.S. leads the database each year with 2024 on pace to potentially exceed 2019’s 1,140 festivals total (2023 came close with 1,120). England and France come in second and third respectively each year with 197 and 130 festivals announced in 2024 so far.
From EDM to Jamgrass to… 2000s Pop-Punk?
EDM artists historically dominate the sheer number of festivals booked year-to-year, and cumulatively since 2019, with the Top 30 artists with the most festival plays falling into the genre. A virtual medal goes to the booking agents for Vini Vici (143 festivals/152 performances), Charlotte de Witte (143 festivals/151 performances), and FISHER (138 festivals/144 performances) who have dominated the festival circuit over the last 5 years.
Second to EDM/Electronic artists with the most festival plays since 2019 are categorically “jamgrass” bands with The Infamous Stringdusters the first non-EDM act to hit the list at #31 with 110 festivals and 122 performances. The genre had other artists with large number of festivals in their schedules since 2019 with the likes of: Leftover Salmon (92), Sierra Hull (92), The Lil Smokies (87), Yonder Mountain String Band (81), and (80) all with over 80 festival plays in the last 5 years. Other non-electronic artists with over 70 festivals in the last 5 years include: Jungle (84), Denzel Curry (81), punk grammy nominees Turnstile (77), Khruangbin (75), and headlining giants The 1975 (75).
Meanwhile we can see the comings and goings of the world’s biggest stars with artists like Ed Sheeran playing only 10 festivals in the last five years, and Billie Eilish‘s meteoric rise the year of her debut album demonstrated by 25 festival plays in 2019 and a post-pandemic come back of 15 festivals in 2023 and five in 2022 supporting her 2021 release Happier Than Ever.
A noteworthy shift marking the recent landscape is the resounding return to festival stages of 90s/2000s pop-punk and nu-metal “legacy” acts in 2024 including: The Offspring (27), Avril Lavigne (11), Sum 41 (23), and Limp Bizkit (11) none of whom or the likes of whom had more than a handful of festival plays in the previous 4 years. After years of contemporary pop artists dominating headlining slots, nostalgia is showing up as a dominant trend in festival lineup curation.
Festival Royalty
JamBase’s 2024 Dashboard unveils the artists who are dominating the festival circuit, breaking out artists with the most festival plays by genre. Top artists include: Cuban R&B soul singer Cimafunk leading the Latin category with 20 festival plays. Breakout country rapper Jelly Roll has 20 festivals in his schedule this year leading the hip-hop & rap category and joined by legends T-Pain (18) and Killer Mike (17) and newcomer Sexyy Red with 17. Nashville’s young trailblazer Anne Wilson leads the Christian category with nine festivals on her schedule.
The Bigger the Better
The dashboard identifies 2024 festivals with the most artists overall and by day. The U.K.’s massive Glastonbury leads with 712 artists on the lineup followed closely by the dual weekend New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with 654 artists, The Great Escape Festival in the U.K. with 501 artists, and Belgium’s Tomorrowland with 486. The longest festivals by number of days are dominated by jazz with the top being festivals in France, Jazz in Marciac (17 days), Switzerland’s legendary Montreux Jazz Festival (16 days), and Belgium’s Gent Jazz Festival at 13 days.
Major Headliners
Additionally the dashboard calls out headlining artists on 2024 festivals with the largest Spotify followings lead by Rock In Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil featuring Ed Sheeran, Travis Scott, and Mariah Carey’s cumulative followings of over 14 million. Followed by Romania’s Untold Festival lead by Sam Smith and Swedish House Mafia, Exodus Las Vegas (Calvin Harris, Tiësto, Martin Garrix) and Knotfest Brazil with one of early 2000s titans Slipknot‘s eight 2024 festival plays.
Authoritative Music Festival Data Around the World
With a dashboard and database that spotlights the vibrancy of music festivals around the globe, JamBase invites music enthusiasts, industry professionals, and “top lists” enthusiasts to immerse themselves in its 2024 Music Festivals Dashboard and tap into the world’s most comprehensive music festival database.
*While we work to have the most comprehensive database of music festivals and concerts in the world, we know we don’t have it all! If you don’t see a festival or concert on JamBase please let us know.
