A new study by Power EPOS has analysed Amazon data to see which festival fans have the highest demand for festival merchandise, what the average spend is and just how much in Amazon sales the festival is making annually.
By looking at the average searches for the festival on Amazon, live event experts Power EPOS then calculated the average merchandise price, and created an estimated figure if each user purchased.
It’s Download Festival that comes out on top, with over 190,000 searches on Amazon monthly in the UK. With an average listing price on Amazon of £24.80, the rock festival’s fans could be spending over £56 million a year on merchandise from the e-commerce giant.
RANKED: THE MOST POPULAR FESTIVAL MERCHANDISE
| Rank | Festival | Average search volume (monthly) | Average search volume (yearly) | % change in search volume | Ave. merch price – Amazon | Total estimates spend on Artist (Amazon sales) |
| 1 | Download Festival | 191,160 | 2,293,920 | -25% | £24.80 | £56,889,216.00 |
| 2 | Reading Festival | 175,060 | 2,100,720 | 65% | £12.13 | £25,481,733.60 |
| 3 | Leeds Festival | 141,920 | 1,703,040 | 119% | £14.86 | £25,307,174.40 |
| 4 | Isle of Wight Festival | 100,360 | 1,204,320 | -18% | £15.89 | £19,136,644.80 |
| 5 | Glastonbury Festival | 59,890 | 718,680 | -4% | £12.04 | £8,652,907.20 |
| 6 | Creamfields Festival | 7,600 | 91,200 | -48% | £89.24 | £8,138,688.00 |
| 7 | Edinburgh Fringe Festival | 21,970 | 263,640 | 0% | £15.81 | £4,168,148.40 |
Leeds Festival saw a 119% increase on merchandise searches month-to-month right after the line-up was released, with Reading Festival shooting up 65%. With popular artists such as Sam Fender released in the line-up, fans and followers are showing their spending power with huge increases in demand for Leeds & Reading merch. Both festivals could make an estimated 25 million in merchandise sales in 2023, just from Amazon sales alone.
Surprisingly, the infamous Glastonbury Festival came in fifth place – with only 59,890 searches a month for related items on Amazon. The average price of Glastonbury merchandise was also the lowest on Amazon, with an average price of £12.04 per listing. However, with much of Glastonbury’s official merchandise available on their official store – Glastonbury goers may be shopping elsewhere for their merch.
“We were surprised to see that Glastonbury made a humble 5th place, with average monthly searches behind four other major festivals. Although recently there has been whispers of Harry Styles potentially making an appearance, which will certainly turn some heads. It’s fantastic to see how fans of long standing events such as Download Festival keep the music industry thriving year after year.” commented Richard Goodall, MD of Power EPOS.
