Highest-grossing music festival

The Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival, staged at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, USA, on 9-11 August 2019, grossed $29,634,734 (£24,624,200) to retain its place at the top of Pollstar’s annual “Top 20 Worldwide Festival Grosses” survey. The three-day extravaganza was headlined by Paul Simon, Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) and rock duo twenty one pilots, and also featured the likes of blink-182, Counting Crows, Hozier, Kygo, Lil Wayne, The Lumineers, Kacey Musgraves and Bebe Rexha. A total of 205,500 tickets were sold for the 2019 festival, with prices starting at $155 (£120).

Outside Lands grossed considerably more than two other three-day festivals that ranked second and third in the Pollstar list: Life Is Beautiful Festival (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, 20-22 September 2019; $17,698,627, or £14,180,900) and Lollapalooza Brazil (Sao Paulo, Brazil, 5-7 April 2019; $14,483,593, or £11,106,500). Lollapalooza Brazil, 2018’s second-highest-grossing music festival ($23,384,475; then £16,541,100), led the way in ticket sales in 2019, with an unrivalled 246,000 people flocking to Sao Paulo’s Autódromo de Interlagos (aka Autódromo José Carlos Pace) to see Arctic Monkeys, Kings of Leon and Kendrick Lamar.

Outside Lands also crowned Pollstar’s 2018 list, but with a smaller gross of $27,743,508 (then £21,715,300). The 2018 festival was headlined by The Weeknd, Florence + The Machine and Janet Jackson.

The annual festival was first staged in 2008 and celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2017. Previous headliners have included Radiohead (2008 and 2016), Pearl Jam (2009), Kings of Leon (2010), Muse (2011), Metallica (2012 and 2017), Stevie Wonder (2012), Paul McCartney (2013), Kanye West (2014), Elton John (2015) and The Who (2017). In addition to the music, food, wine and art are also major attractions for festival-goers.