Britain is experiencing a summer party bonanza, with bookings for friends and family get-togethers, weddings and company events booming, while lower-key gatherings such as dating, book club and Dungeons & Dragons events enjoy a resurgence.
Event organisers first began to see the summer boom during England’s run to the final of Euro 2024, with momentum increasing immediately after Labour’s landslide victory in the 4 July general election.
The uptick in bookings for parties and other celebratory events comes despite millions in the UK struggling to make ends meet during the cost of living crisis.
However, there are now signs that the UK economy has turned a corner, with strong GDP growth in the three months to the end of June with warmer weather and Euro 2024 aiding a recovery in retail sales in July. Inflationary pressures are also easing, despite a small uptick to 2.2% in July, with expectations that the Bank of England is likely to cut interest rates further in the coming months.
The event planning website Togather reports a 30% annual rise in bookings across the UK so far this summer, with a 50% year-on-year increase in the average number of inquiries about hiring suppliers for parties.
“We’ve never seen such an immediate wave of parties like this before,” said Digby Vollrath, a Togather co-founder.
“Parties tend to reflect the general mood of the population very well. It is like a button has been pressed on the nation’s optimism.”
The biggest uplift in bookings is in London and Greater Manchester, up 39% and 35% respectively. However, even in the regions experiencing the lowest level of annual increase, Surrey and Essex, bookings are still up by a healthy 18% compared with last summer.
Togather’s summer party bookings have increased by 33% year on year, company get-togethers are up by 27%, and wedding events up 29%.
Eventbrite, the US event management and ticketing website, has identified a desire among gen Zers in their teens and 20s to escape from solitary digital interactions and seek contact “in real life”, as one possible driver of this growth.
This demographic has helped fuel a 350% increase in book club bookings via Eventbrite in recent years, a 42% increase in attendance at dating and singles events in the UK over the last 12 months, and a 248% rise in the popularity of Dungeons & Dragons gatherings.
“Gen Z is actively carving out tech-free spaces as a digital detox from screen time at work and at home,” said Sebastian Boppert, a director at Eventbrite. “That makes them opt for traditional in-real-life events and experiences.”
The live music events sector enjoyed a boost last summer, driven by demand for UK stadium concerts by acts including Harry Styles and Beyoncé, which has continued into 2024 with Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.
Paul Samuels, the executive vice-president for global partnerships at the events venue business AEG Europe, says that the general public and corporate hosts appear to be seeking more premium experiences, perhaps trimming budgets elsewhere to save for that special event.
AEG, which owns the O2 in London and runs the British Summer Time (BST) festival in Hyde Park, where this year’s headliners included Robbie Williams and Shania Twain, has revamped its corporate suites and boxes, while bookings for its £300 to £400 luxury package seating available to the general public is booming.
“Fans are increasingly seeking out elevated experiences, driving demand for premium, and this trend also extends across corporate hosting,” Samuels says. “We have seen significant growth in our premium offering across our venues. This is something we see reflected across the industry.”
The Ascential chief executive, Philip Thomas, the head of the parent company of the Cannes Lions annual advertising industry event, agrees that 2024 marks a return to growth for the events industry. The annual gathering in the south of France has just enjoyed the best turnout in its 71-year history, with 13,000 delegates attending.
Thomas believes that the flexible and remote working practices introduced during the coronavirus pandemic are perhaps counterintuitively starting to pay big dividends for in-person corporate events.
“There has been a genuine realisation of the value that has been missed and lost,” he said. “Events like Cannes Lions are being seen as an opportunity to get together with a broader group of industry people, including their own teams, doing everything in one go. It’s part of a societal change going on.”
