2025 Live Event Trends: A First Look

Before our Industry Year in Reviews drop in January, we're sharing an early look at the top questions around fan spending trends across artists, venues, sports, and festivals.

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The main takeaways:

• The average $/head for concerts in 2025 is slightly above 2024 at $10.24
• Fans kept buying merch with specific genres continuing to show higher interest year over year, like k-pop
• Festival food & beverage spend dipped slightly overall, driven more by what fans bought than whether they bought
• Concert attendance showed slight dips earlier in the year for larger shows but bounced back by mid-year
• Mobile ordering, promotions, and sponsor-linked offers showed measurable revenue impact

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What is the average $/head overall for 2025 for concerts?

It is slightly above 2024 at $10.24 (+3%).

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Did event attendance change in 2025?

Yes — and it depends on the event.

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• Concerts: A softer start early in the year (mostly at 10k+ venues), then a solid rebound by May.
• Pop-up events: On the rise, with higher attendance and stronger spend per fan.
• Music festivals: Overall attendance dipped slightly, but several genres held steady or grew.
• Sports: Similar to prior year.

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What are the biggest genre $/head differences?

K-Pop, EDM (electronic), and Punk concerts have the largest growth in 2025, with $/head up double digits, while Folk, R&B, and Alternative are seeing the most notable declines.

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Are fans still buying merch? Yes.

Black tees remain the top-selling item, and the percentage of fans buying merch stayed consistent year over year — averaging around 21%.

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Is K-Pop continuing to dominate? Yes

K-pop continues to grow in 2025, with more shows across every venue size — including a noticeable increase in smaller-cap venues. Venue size didn’t dampen merch demand. Fans showed up ready to buy regardless of room size, driving an average merch spend of $37.41 per fan and the highest average transaction value of any genre. We’ll dig deeper into K-pop trends in our January genre series.

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Across festivals, fan spending on merchandise, food, and drinks remains a major topic of debate. We highlight some key takeaways from the year and the most common questions asked.

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Are fans spending less on food and drink at festivals?

Overall, yes by a slight decline (-3% to the prior year). But once you analyze by festival type and genre, it's not that fans are spending less overall across all festivals; instead, it’s more about specific genres, and the price of items also appears to affect spending. Some genres experienced declines, while others actually saw increases in average spend.

We explore this in more detail in our January report.

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Are fewer fans buying drinks at festivals?

Short answer: no.

The percentage of fans buying drinks remains fairly consistent year over year. What’s changing is what they’re buying.

In 2025, fans are:

• Swapping cocktails for beer or seltzer for some genres
• Showing growing interest in specialty non-alcoholic options (coffee drinks, boba, etc.)
• average number of drinks purchased has decreased for some genres

These shifts are more pronounced in certain genres, including folk, K-pop, and indie, while others continue to show growth in alcoholic purchases. Multi-genre festivals see this most clearly, as spending patterns shift dramatically by day due to the headliner audience.

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How are events leveraging some of these shifts to their advantage, creating revenue and sponsor opportunities?

Strong results came from:

• Mobile  ordering at arenas, stadiums, and amphitheaters (5,000+ cap), driving an average 23% lift in merch revenue per show from both an increase in percentage of fans buying merchandise and higher order values
• Festival mobile ordering, paired with targeted promotions
• Sponsor-backed offers tied to discounts, early entry, or exclusive access

In many cases, fans spent more throughout the day, and sponsors received clear, trackable value.

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We break down our insights by industry and provide more details on the questions above and by genre. Stay tuned!

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Cheers!

The atVenu Team

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