Music and arts festival organisers under the Package Travel Directive

Priority question for written answer P-004984/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Klara Dostalova (PfE), Ondřej Knotek (PfE), Jaroslav Bžoch (PfE), Tomáš Kubín (PfE), Jaroslava Pokorná Jermanová (PfE), Antonín Staněk (PfE), Pál Szekeres (PfE), András Gyürk (PfE), Annamária Vicsek (PfE), Ernő Schaller-Baross (PfE), György Hölvényi (PfE), Jana Nagyová (PfE)

Music and arts festivals, of which several thousand are held across Europe every year, are short-term, one-off events. The vast majority of festivals, regardless of genre, also offer accommodation, usually at campsites or in areas for visitors to set up their own accommodation or use tents pre-prepared for them. This is based on the fact that festivals usually take place on so-called greenfields. Very few take place in cities. Accommodation forms an integral part of the music festival ticket.

Festival organisers, themselves or through specialised companies, sell tickets and rent or sublet space for festival visitors' accommodation (tents).

Accommodation within the perimeter of a multiple-day music and arts festival purchased as an integral part of the festival ticket should not be considered as accommodation within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of Directive (EU) 2015/2302[1] (the Package Travel Directive). Therefore, a seller of tickets to a festival that include such accommodation should not be considered an organiser within the meaning of Article 3(8) of the Directive.

Can the Commission confirm that this conclusion is correct?

Submitted: 17.12.2025

• [1] OJ L 326, 11.12.2015, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2015/2302/oj.