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The JBM x Skiddle Success Story
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By Jonny
- 20 Oct 2025
- 5 min read
Case study
How Brit Fest built a festival brand for long-term growth
7 min
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Written by Matt Wise
30 Sep 2025
Promoters
Britfest
Genres
Classic Britpop, Rock, and Indie
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Cheshire’s Brit Fest was created with a clear ambition: to deliver a festival that celebrates the best of the UK’s live scene while matching the high standards of some of the nation’s most established events. Launched back in 2024, the now-popular annual festival was never intended to be just another date in the calendar, but rather something with long-term value for both its audience and the local area.
As co-founder Anthony Prophet explains:
“We wanted to create something that celebrated British music and culture right here in Cheshire, merging music, food, and community into one cohesive experience, but with the same kind of world-class standards you’d expect at the big national festivals.”
With a foundation built on years of experience in promotion, starting with smaller gigs and shows around the North West of England, the move into festivals was a natural progression for the founders of Brit Fest, brothers Anthony and Edward Prophet. But stepping up to that level introduced a new set of challenges.
Launching a festival from scratch meant navigating complex licences and compliance requirements, securing partner support, and building trust quickly in a crowded market. At the same time, the financial model required significant upfront investment, with returns only realised much later.
“It’s hard to convince partners to back you in your first year. You’ve got to build trust fast when you’re new… and the upfront costs are massive. You don’t see any return until much later on.”
Anthony Prophet, co-founder of Brit Fest
These early pressures are typical for festivals in their infancy, but they played a key role in shaping Brit Fest’s long-term approach.
A defining moment in the festival’s growth came from a shift in mindset. Rather than treating the festival as a standalone event, the brothers focused on building a scalable brand with a distinct identity. That meant being deliberate about partnerships, defining its position in the market and shaping its team structure.
To help the festival achieve recognised status, Anthony and Edward first established their own brand through the Promotion Centre, giving them access to tools like Brand Alerts.
With Brand Alerts, the team could notify followers and previous ticket buyers as soon as a new listing went live. These notifications, sent to their entire follower database within minutes, supported the wider launch campaign and helped ensure engaged fans didn’t miss out, delivering notifications directly via email and the Skiddle app.
From there, users were directed to a customisable, search-optimised landing page, discoverable through the UK’s leading festival guide.
“Bringing in the right team members and partners like Skiddle, and being clear from the start about the vision for the festival – these considerations played an important role when scaling Brit Fest. It’s a proper brand now, and that’s down to making good choices about who we work with, how we market, and keeping the visitor experience front and centre.”
Anthony Prophet, co-founder of Brit Fest
It also reinforced the importance of stepping back from day-to-day delivery. As the festival expanded, success depended less on doing everything internally and more on trusting a wider team and focusing on long-term strategy.
“It’s impossible to do everything yourself. It’s been a huge learning curve for us, letting go and learning to rely on others to get things done, but it’s allowed us to focus on the bigger picture.”
Supporting Brit Fest’s growth
Brit Fest began working with Skiddle in its second year, when operational efficiency and insight became increasingly important.
The Promotion Centre platform offered a more streamlined and user-friendly ticketing approach, while providing access to real-time data and detailed customer reports – essential when making informed decisions throughout the sales cycle. This gave the team greater control over performance and the ability to act quickly on increased demand.
As the festival has grown, these insights have become key to its planning, alongside ongoing support from the Skiddle team.
“Skiddle’s team have been brilliant whenever we’ve needed them. Our account manager is exceptional and works with us to maximise all our opportunities in the market.”
A balanced approach to marketing
Another key driver of Brit Fest’s growth has been its marketing approach, balancing audience reach with strengthening its existing community.
Organic content has helped strengthen audience engagement over time, with behind-the-scenes content, giving potential attendees a more authentic view of the experience beyond headline announcements, proving to be particularly effective.
Aside from their own content strategy, the team also made use of Skiddle’s integrated marketing tools. In Brit Fest’s case, pixel tracking, paid advertising, and the Remind Me feature worked in tandem, allowing the team to identify interested users, re-engage them through targeted ads, and capture intent ahead of ticket release.
Together, these tools helped maintain momentum throughout the campaign, keeping the festival front of mind at key moments in the customer journey. More recently, abandoned cart emails have also played a role, prompting those on the fence to complete their purchase.
Alongside digital channels, partnerships with local press have helped strengthen the festival’s regional presence, supporting its connection to its Cheshire roots while expanding its wider reach.
From growth to longevity
From its early stages to its continued expansion, Brit Fest has remained focused on creating something with lasting impact. By combining a clear vision with a clear approach to growth, and with the support of Skiddle’s team and platform, it’s evolved from a new entrant into a festival brand with longevity.
With the right systems, partnerships and strategy in place, Brit Fest is well-positioned to continue growing its audience and cement its place as a staple of the UK festival calendar.
