Mendip District Council, the local authority responsible for the Glastonbury Festival, has revealed last week's event will contribute £73m alone to the UK economy and as British summertime kicks into gear, hundreds of smaller events are preparing to play their part in boosting local economies.

With approximately 3.4m people expected to attend a music festival this summer the Local Government Association has predicted as much as £550m will be earned from UK festivals in 2011.

This represents a slight rise ...