Connecting the live music industry
New Directory Helps Fans Discover Independent UK Festivals
February5
The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has launched a new Independent Festival Directory aimed at increasing visibility for the UK’s independent festival sector and making it easier for audiences to discover non-corporate events.
The directory, available to the public via aifdirectory.com, allows festival fans to explore independent festivals, follow those they are interested in, and discover new events. It is designed to act as a central discovery platform for independent festivals across the UK.
The launch coincided with AIF’s 2026 Festival Congress, the association’s annual B2B conference for independent festival organisers. The event returned to Bristol Beacon on Thursday 5 February and welcomed a sold-out audience of 400 delegates from across the UK festival sector.
AIF CEO John Rostron said: “Listening to our member festivals, we’ve known there’s been a problem that the bigger budgets of the corporate events can crowd out the independents when it comes to festival discovery. Trying to battle that out with them has been a zero-sum game. So we’ve moved to a new playing field. We know festival fans are increasingly seeking independent spaces, so we wanted to build something where they could find and follow their favourite festivals, as well as discover some new ones, without the corporates crowding them out.
“It’ll also be an incredibly helpful tool for festivals. After early bird and line up announcements, promoters have to spend a lot of money during the ‘hard yards’ that follow as they try to sell the rest of their tickets - putting significant resource towards ads, social media campaigns and more during that time. This directory allows them to come together in one space where independent festival fans will also gather - meaning greater discoverability and cross-promotion. It’ll make a big difference for many events.”
AIF represents more than 170 independent music festivals across the UK and works to support the long-term sustainability of the sector through advocacy, research and industry initiatives.
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