In the news: IFF 2026 on climate, costs and a hard festival season
International Festival Forum’s opening panel looked at weather cancellations, thin margins and booking further ahead — IQ’s write-up is worth a read.
At IFF London in September 2026, promoters and agents opened with a blunt season debrief — costs up, audiences careful with money, and severe weather taking real events off the calendar (including cancellations such as Defqon.1 and Solidays called out in the session).
IQ’s write-up covers the panel with FKP Scorpio, CAA, Colours of Ostrava and UTA: when to stop pouring money into a loss-making brand, how far ahead bookings now run, and why “extra” programming beyond the headliner matters when tickets are competing with the weekly shop.
Read IQ Magazine’s IFF session report
Why organisers care: weather and late site changes are not edge cases this decade. A layout you can move the week before gates beat a pretty PDF that froze in May.
