Manchester-based independent promoter JBM Music is continuing to expand its festival portfolio, with the company focusing on building long-term event brands across different genres, audiences and locations.

Speaking to Access All Areas, JBM Music director Jorge Meehan and co-founder Brian Murphy said the company has evolved from promoting individual shows and a small number of event brands into operating a broader portfolio that includes Reggae Land, Electric Paradise, Electric Heart, Diaspora Calling! Festival and Barton Live.

The company said its strategy has increasingly shifted from promoting individual events towards developing festival brands with the potential to grow over several years.

Reggae Land drives expansion

Reggae Land has played a central role in JBM`s development. The festival has expanded in scale and is now staged at Milton Keynes Bowl, with JBM saying the event has increasingly developed an audience that buys tickets based on the festival brand rather than individual artists.

According to the promoter, 40,000 tickets for the 2026 edition were sold during the week immediately following the previous festival, before any artists had been announced.

JBM said that figure has increased further for 2027, with 53,000 tickets sold during the first week of sales without a line-up announcement. The company expects the 2027 edition to sell out following the line-up reveal.

Meehan and Murphy said the development of Reggae Land gave the company confidence that it could create further festival brands by identifying specific audiences and investing consistently in programming, production, marketing and customer experience.

JBM has subsequently expanded into new concepts including Electric Paradise, Electric Heart and Diaspora Calling! Festival.

The company said diversification is a deliberate part of its strategy, with the aim of reducing its reliance on a single event, genre or audience.

However, JBM said it is becoming increasingly selective about launching new festivals due to the financial risks and rising costs facing the sector.

Potential new concepts are assessed using artist and streaming data, ticketing history, competing events, geography and venue availability, alongside the strength of the creative identity behind the proposed event.

The promoter is also placing greater emphasis on whether new brands have the potential to scale significantly over a three- to five-year period.

Rising costs increase financial exposure

The expansion has required JBM to invest in additional staff, systems and processes across marketing, operations, production, finance and commercial activities.

The company said managing resources across multiple festivals has become one of its biggest operational challenges, particularly as artist fees, infrastructure, production and staffing costs have risen.

Cash flow and risk management have therefore become increasingly important as the company operates more large-scale events.

JBM said its priority remains maintaining the quality of individual festivals rather than expanding the portfolio purely for scale.

New festival concepts

Looking ahead, JBM sees further opportunities to develop its existing festival brands internationally.

For Reggae Land, the company said its priority is no longer necessarily increasing capacity but growing international awareness, with the long-term ambition of establishing the event as one of the world`s leading reggae festivals.

JBM is also considering opportunities to extend its festival brands beyond their core event weekends through content, partnerships, experiences and other formats.

The promoter confirmed that another new festival concept is scheduled to launch in 2027, although details have not yet been announced.

JBM said its longer-term aim is to become one of the UK`s leading independent festival businesses through a focused portfolio of distinctive events rather than operating a large number of festival properties.

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