Skiddle’s End-Of-Year Summary

Wrapping up the year in a neat bow, just in time for the Christmas break, may we present to you Skiddle’s summary of 2023.

In this blog, we’ll take a fine-tooth comb to the past 12 months, picking out and shining a light upon some of Skiddle’s most notable moments as a business in 2023. A sort of pat on the back from yours truly, to yours truly. We’ll use this blog as a vehicle to not-so-slyly show off all the great things we’ve achieved whilst featuring some of the outstanding brands we’ve welcomed aboard and worked with over the year.

We’ll also be providing some valuable data analysis from the year past and using said analysis to make some Nostradamus-style predictions for 2024, to help you get one step ahead with your ticketing and marketing strategies. Without further ado, let’s jump straight in.

A brief overview of Skiddle’s performance in 2023

While the cost of living crisis has continued to weigh a heavy toll on the economy in 2023, the event sector remains resilient and robust as we approach 2024. Despite a decline in disposable income and increased costs associated with event management, the industry still has vibrancy as event-goers maintain an insatiable appetite for in-person experiences. All of this is reflected in our year-end data.

Across the entirety of 2023, we witnessed an impressive 39% rise in ticket sales, with the total number of people who visited our site and app up by an equally impressive 23%. The increase in events listed on the Skiddle website was staggering, up by close to 50% from 2022.

The desire event organisers have shown to provide guests with higher quality lineups, next-level show production and more immersive and unforgettable experiences throughout the year making all the difference. Not to mention the strategies our diligent team has employed to help improve the visibility of your listings.

As highlights go, the festival season in 2023 stood out as a particular success, despite being significantly influenced by the unusual weather conditions that, pun intended, dampened events across the UK in the spring and summer. Regardless of the unrelenting rain, we saw a vast improvement in our stats when compared to 2022.

Festival page views rose by a staggering 150% year-on-year with users also up by 69%. These new customers brought pocket money along with them too, as we observed a notable uptick in conversions. Festival ticket sales were up 23% whilst festival revenue was up by 30% in 2023. Elsewhere, we saw a 5.78% increase in new promoters joining Skiddle since 2022 and a 20% increase in Artist Alerts sent out since 2022. 

Other significant events and seasonal holidays, from Halloween and Bonfire Night to Black Friday, all saw a growth in demand and provided high value to the promoters who work with us.

So, what impact have these statistics had on the working relationships we have with event organisers, venues and artists?

Our sustained efforts to offer a customer-first service which surpasses that of our competitors have been converted into contract renewals. Documenting one of our best years on record, our Account Management team shared with us that 95% of accounts chose to continue using Skiddle’s services. Of that figure, 92% penned multi-renewal deals ahead of this year. 

Our Business Development team also exceeded expectations in 2023, smashing their targets in all areas of reporting and welcoming more new accounts than ever before.

Club night events accounted for 32% of new signings in 2023, whilst Lifestyle events, such as theatre shows and attractions, accounted for 21%, and Festival’s totalled at 20%.

Music venues accounted for 16% of new signings with the team aiming to build on this number in 2024, as our partnership with the Music Venue Trust ramps up. More on this later.

In a year marked by growth both externally and internally, the Business Development team experienced a doubling in size. Our Skiddle family welcomed new sales experts, strategically positioned to support the company’s expansion into uncharted territories. Seasoned team members, alongside newcomers, ventured to various destinations across the British Isles to engage with new and potential clients.

A worthwhile effort, the campaign achieved hugely positive results. Broken down by percentages per region, across the year, the North of England accounted for 23.3% of new signings, followed by the South East at 22.1%, the Midlands at 18.2%, Scotland at 16.6%, Wales at 10.2%, and Ibiza at 9.7%.

Commenting on a remarkable year for the team, Samuel Garlick, Skiddle’s Head of New Business, said:

“We’ve reported substantial year-on-year growth for new account signings and account worth as a team from 2021 to 2022, and 2023 has been no different. This year marked our highest number of signed accounts and total value. Moreover, we achieved a balanced distribution geographically and across various event types, including festivals and live music.”

Ticketing trends observed in 2023

The cost of living crisis (the buzzword of 2023) kept us all on our toes as consumer habits shifted and changed monthly, reflecting the turbulent price of food, utilities, fuel and other factors affected by inflation.

In the second quarter of the year, in the lead-up to the festival season, we witnessed sales being taken much later in the campaign than usual, as customers held on to their money, making more considered decisions about the events they attended. An average of 26% of sales to be exact were taken in the 7 days before any given festival took place.

In the third quarter of the year, we ran a data exercise to determine the behaviours of the undergraduate demographic of Skiddle customers, more commonly referred to as freshers. Our results showed that, like festival-goers, students had also become more choosy about the freshers’ events they were attending, opting to attend fewer events but spending more on tickets for those they did.

As we transition from 2023 and into 2024, we predict these trends to continue as the grip on household finances gets even tighter. We also expect sustainability in the events sector to become an even popular trend, as consumers get serious about climate action and the environment.

To help offset the possible detrimental impact of such trends on your returns, we recommend reading up on how to use our free market-leading tools and services. Take our Payment Plan feature, for example. Payment Plan allows your customers to spread the cost of their tickets, making your events more affordable and allowing you to plan more efficiently. There’s also our Discount Codes feature, which can help ramp up mid-campaign sales by offering limited sales promotions.

Speaking on another trend spotted in 2023, our head of Account Management, Jemmy Varley said:

“We saw festivals launching lineups early, a new trend in Q4 of 2023, to get ahead of the rush and noise that we usually see in January. Looking at how successful this strategy has been, we fully expect early launches to become an annual trend moving forward. Some of the onsales over-performed by up to 30% versus the festivals announced in January 2023.”

Keep a close eye on our blog for more Ticketing Trend Reports in 2024 and stay up to date with the latest changes in consumer buying habits.

Partnerships, sponsorships and events

2023 was a year of collaboration during which we got to show our support for the industry upon which Skiddle was built. We sponsored a list of renowned industry gatherings, attended numerous trade conferences and partnered with some extremely important initiatives and organisations to aid and promote the live events sector.

Among some of those we joined forces with were the likes of Un-Convention, one of the UK’s longest-running conferences championing independent music, the NTIA or Night Time Industries Association, and the National Promoter Society, which we collaboratively set up with the NTIA to give support and representation to event organisers across the UK.
There was also The Showman’s Show, Glasgow’s Resonate music conference, Beyond The Music, which made its debut in Manchester this year, Amplify Your Music, CityCo, Street Monkeys, Freshers Festival Group, Cardiff University, Leeds Beckett University, Glasgow University, BIMM Manchester, Birmingham’s Lab11 and Glasgow’s BAAD, Hiyrd and producers of quality craft lager, Manchester Union.
One of our proudest moments of the year and most notable link-ups featured the Music Venue Trust. Announced at Un-Convention back in October, you may remember seeing details of our joint plan to provide financial support to grassroots venues located right across the UK.

Duncan King, our Head of Partnerships here at Skiddle, explains more about the initiative below:
“In October we announced a new partnership with Music Venue Trust to help support Grassroot Music Venues with a new ticketing levy rolling out in 2024. This levy, which will see Skiddle matching donations made by eventgoers at checkout, goes directly into the Music Venue Trust’s Pipeline Investment Fund, providing venues with much-needed cash grants up to £5000.”
This year also saw the introduction of a handful of new Skiddle-run initiatives and events, namely the Skiddle Industry Drop-in and our ‘How To Launch A Club Night’ masterclass.

Our Industry Drop-in popped up in Glasgow and Birmingham and offered promoters in each region the chance to meet and chat with members of the Skiddle team, whilst gaining insider knowledge from special guests the likes of Continental GT and Frazi.er.

The ‘How To Launch A Club Night’ masterclass gave us the chance to meet the next generation of party-planning entrepreneurs. Through conducting these masterclasses, our goal is to empower individuals aspiring to enter the events industry. We offer our experience and advice to undergraduates studying at colleges and universities throughout the UK, intending to maintain the UK music industry’s global leadership position.

Skiddle’s plans for 2024

The coming new year is set to be our busiest yet and we’re excited to see what 2024 will bring. As per usual, we’ll be putting in the hours behind the scenes to ensure your events are given the visibility they deserve, whilst enhancing our app, making it is as user-friendly as possible, and optimising our website to it’s full potential.

We’ll be bringing new products and features to the table to help you achieve your ticketing goals. We’ll be sharing insightful content from our in-house team of ticketing experts, via our blog, our social channels and our weekly newsletters, and developing our existing services to make sure you’re never left without an answer to any queries you or your customers might have.

Get ready to learn from some of the biggest promoters in the business, to hear their stories and to use their experiences to better your own. Get ready for more Skiddle Industry Drop-in events, coming to a city or a town near you. Get ready to see us stepping up our support for the industry with more bursary schemes and more free resources, and watch as we prove our commitment to the industry by educating and inspiring the next wave of event organisers.

See you in 2024.