Adding to the festival spirit.

Sponsorship within the UK festival sector has become rife in recent years, but with heavy brand involvement appearing to dampen consumer enthusiasm, sponsors are now having to come up with increasingly innovative partnership methods

Major funding from sponsors has helped fuel massive growth in the UK festivals business in recent years, but with the market now at saturation point, brands are increasingly being asked to be inventive - or in some cases stay away.

With hundreds of festivals taking place around the UK this summer it seems that no park, field or village green will remain untrodden by music fans, but speak to any festival organiser and chances are they will tell you that the market has become extremely competitive.

Warning signs appeared in April when Glastonbury organisers announced that they would be re-opening registration to help shift 37,000 unsold tickets for this year's event, while elsewhere smaller festivals were forced to cancel, citing an overstretched market.

It would appear that the bandwagon may have begun to buckle, with some in the festival business believing that festival fatigue is growing among consumers who feel that overt sponsorship and corporate entertaining is detracting from the festival experience.

A number of festivals such as The Green Man, Tapestry and Glade are enjoying success without sponsorship, with Glade Festival organiser Nick Ladd saying that the key to his festival's success lies in creating an oasis of brand-free entertainment.

"For me, a festival is about giving people the permission to relax and be creative," says Ladd. "We like to create a reality bubble, but with branding and sponsorship you always have anchors to the real world."