Industry impact · 5 October 2026
Festival summer: £1.2bn through supermarket tills
23.5 million people attended a UK music festival in 2025 — and most of them stocked up at a local store on the way.
The UK festival scene is in rude health: 592 festivals ran in 2025, the majority between May and September, drawing 23.5 million attendees who spent an estimated £1.2bn at supermarkets around them.
Festival-goers increasingly treat the weekend as a holiday, stocking up at local convenience stores to avoid on-site prices — toiletries, sunscreen, drinks and snacks — at an average supermarket spend of £67 per attendee per day on food, drink and essentials.
Trending baskets skew premium and practical: ready-to-drink cocktails, boxed wines, protein bars and dried fruit, with alcohol-free alternatives and rehydration drinks growing fast. Co-operative stores have historically set up temporary shops at major events like Glastonbury — the network is already where the audience is.
Sources: Time Out; Asian Trader; Virgin Money; The Independent. Figures from the Media360Coop Summer event pack.