Monzo reveals Boomtown Fair is the UK's best value festival

With Glastonbury taking its scheduled fallow year, digital bank Monzo has crunched the numbers to find the best value festivals of the summer, and Hampshire’s Boomtown Fair has come out on top, costing festival-goers just 83p per artist.

To calculate the rankings, Monzo divided ticket prices by the number of artists on each festival’s line-up. Boomtown, which takes place at Matterley Estate near Winchester, offers 435 artists across more than 12 stages for around £360 for five days of camping. The eclectic festival (spanning electronic, punk and reggae, with the likes of Skrillex and Scissor Sisters on its 2026 bill) has built a loyal following for delivering extraordinary scale and spectacle. Previous editions have drawn more than 60,000 citizens to its immersive city-style site, with its elaborate districts and theatrical storytelling setting it apart from virtually every other UK festival.

In second place is Creamfields in Daresbury, Cheshire, at £1.12 per artist. The electronic music titan returns this August Bank Holiday weekend with a revamped Downtown village featuring padel courts, a darts league and an expanded gym, alongside a headline line-up that includes Swedish House Mafia, Calvin Harris and Carl Cox. Truck Festival (self-styled as “the UK’s most warped village fête”) ranks third at £1.79 per artist, with Boardmasters Festival in Cornwall (a festival renowned for combining world-class music with surfing on the Cornish coast) coming in fourth at £1.88 per performer.

The full ranking by cost per artist is as follows:

Boomtown Fair — 83p per artist
Creamfields — £1.12 per artist
Truck Festival — £1.79 per artist
Boardmasters Festival — £1.88 per artist
Kendal Calling — £2.04 per artist
Reading & Leeds Festival — £2.50 per artist
Green Man — £2.60 per artist
Download Festival — £3.83 per artist
Camp Bestival — £4.72 per artist
Latitude Festival — £4.92 per artist

Monzo also looked at value per headliner, and here Truck Festival leads the way at just £52 per headline act. Reading & Leeds (£54.20), Kendal Calling (£61.30), Lytham Festival (£69.80) and Green Man (£74) all rank as strong-value options for those prioritising big-name performances.

The research also sheds light on the financial sacrifices people make to attend festivals in the first place. Brits are cutting back on meals out (43%), reducing non-essential shopping (31%), scaling back or skipping holidays (28%) and cancelling monthly subscriptions (24%) to free up cash for festival season. Transaction data from Monzo shows people save for an average of 4.8 months before a festival, with November emerging as the most popular month to buy tickets, and 54% of purchases made around payday.

Once through the gates, the spending doesn’t stop. The average festival-goer spends £523 on top of their ticket price, with the breakdown as follows:

Accommodation and camping equipment: £157
Food and drink: £139
Travel: £120
Rides and experiences: £112

Monzo’s internal data shows festival spending typically peaks on day two or three of an event, with 60% of on-site spend going on food and drink, followed by entertainment (13%) and merchandise (12%). Almost everyone surveyed (96%) sets a budget before going, though the £523 average suggests sticking to it is another matter.

Chris Mucklow-Norell, Head of Brand Marketing at Monzo, said: “Despite rising costs, we don’t want music lovers to miss out on festival season this summer, so we conducted this research to help people look beyond the usual headline festivals and make their money go further. It’s not always the biggest or most well-known festivals that offer the best value. For those willing to explore, there are huge line-ups and unforgettable weekends available at a fraction of the expected cost.”

Full details of Monzo’s research are available at monzo.com/blog/best-value-festivals.