2024 Music Festivals By The Numbers: Year In Review
Explore trends and other insights from JamBase’s massive music festivals database.
By Team JamBase Dec 10, 2024 • 1:45 pm PST
JamBase is the definitive destination for worldwide music festival data and information. Earlier this year, JamBase launched an interactive dashboard illustrating 2024 music festivals driven by data from JamBase’s extensive festival database.
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.
Want to use JamBase data on your site or app?
The public-facing interactive 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.
In May, JamBase published a mid-year review of 2024 Music Festivals By The Numbers. Scroll on to dig into the database to see what the numbers reveal about music festivals around the world this year.
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, the database records 2,840 music festivals — evidencing the revival and expansion of the post-pandemic live music landscape. Measured against 2,660 festivals logged in 2023 and 2,308 in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, the music festival scene continues to thrive.
The steady growth of festivals can be seen in the 74,586 artists worldwide who performed at a fest in 2024. The total massively outpaces the 41,074 artists booked on festivals in all of pre-pandemic 2019 and substantially increases the 70,444 tally of artists on 2023 festival lineups.
While the overall number of music festivals grew — in the United States JamBase added +100 inaugural festivals — challenges within the industry and other extenuating factors forced 173 festivals to cancel announced events worldwide in 2024.
Festivals Around The World
In 2024, the database presented festivals in 90 different countries, raising the global total from 87 in 2023 and 85 in 2019. The festival scene in America is dominated by California where 146 festivals were held in 2024 (down slightly from 151 in 2023 and 178 in 2019. Florida, New York, Illinois and Texas round out the top states for fests in 2024.
With 1,168 festivals, the U.S. once again is the top country in the database, surpassing 2019’s 1,140 festivals total and 1,120 in 2023. Europe’s leading locales include the United Kingdom and France, with Australia also among the top regions worldwide.
“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.
Festival Familiar Faces
JamBase’s 2024 Dashboard unveils the artists who are dominating the festival circuit, breaking out artists with the most festival plays by genre.
Cuban R&B soul singer Cimafunk topped the Latin category with 23 festival plays. Rising Southern rockers The Red Clay Strays led the country genre with 29 festival appearances. Rapper Flowdan had 24 festivals in his schedule this year leading the hip-hop & rap category. Nashville’s young trailblazer Anne Wilson topped the Christian category with nine festivals on her schedule.
Mass Appeal
The dashboard identifies 2024 festivals with the most artists overall and by day. The U.K.’s massive Glastonbury led with 1,727 artists on the lineup followed closely by the dual weekend New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival with 653 artists, Boomtown Affair in the U.K. with 641 artists and Belgium’s Tomorrowland with 634.
The longest festivals by number of days are dominated by jazz with the top being France’s Jazz in Marciac (18 days) and Jazz à Vienne (17 days) and Switzerland’s legendary Montreux Jazz Festival (16 days).
Top Headliners
Additionally the dashboard calls out headlining artists playing 2024 festivals with the largest Spotify follower counts led by Festival del Globo in Bogotá, Colombia featuring J Balvin, Armin van Buuren, and Julión Álvarez’s cumulative Spotify followers totaling over 19 million.
New York City’s Global Citizen Festival 2024 led by Post Malone and Doja Cat came next with 18.8 million cumulative Spotify followers. Las Vegas’s iHeartRadio Music Festival 2024 lineup boasted 18.5 million cumulative Spotify followers topped by Camila Cabello and Big Sean.
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.
Want to use JamBase data on your site or app?
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.
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.
