After two years of events being postponed or cancelled, 2022 was billed as the summer the festival and big outdoor concert was to regain its headline slot in our cultural landscape. What it didn't contend with was a cost-of-living crisis.

From Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller playing sell-out shows in the sunshine at Margate's Dreamland to Simply Red at Paddock Wood's Hop Farm and all things Americana at the Black Deer Festival near Tunbridge Wells, there's been plenty of successful stardust sprinkled across the county this year.

But while tickets for those events flew out of the box office, others struggled.

None of the Rochester Castle Concerts - featuring headliners such as James Blunt, the Human League or The Specials - sold out, leading some to be practically given away on last minute deal websites. Promoters of the shows, AGMP, failed to respond when asked for comment, while organisers of a retro festival in the county in September are currently flogging tickets at half price on a certain discount website.

Word has it the Tears for Fears show at Canterbury's Spitfire Ground was far from sold out before an injury to band member Curt Smith saw the duo have to cancel the remainder of the tour - including their Kent date.

So after two years of being confined to barracks, just why are many event promoters not making hay in the sun?

"We're out of the woods in terms of Covid restrictions," explains Paul Reed, chief executive of the Association of Independent Festivals, "and events are very pleased to be operational this summer after two years of complete or partial shutdown but they are facing a perfect storm of difficult trading conditions. It's very challenging out there.

"There are cost increases of between 25-35% in infrastructure costs across the board - which is obviously higher than the extraordinary rate of inflation we're seeing in the wider economy.

"There's a lot of supply chain pressures, as there's an unprecedented amount of activity this year. Not only returning festivals, but new activity - large-scale tours which have been rolled over from 2020 or 2021, so it feels like an incredibly crowded pipeline of events for this summer.

"The other key factor is the wider economic situation with audiences facing the cost-of-living crisis."

It's hard to understate that last point. When we're all facing across the board price hikes, shelling out money to watch an artist surrounded by premium-priced food and drink can be a step too far - especially when factoring in travelling which so often involves filling your car with sky high prices at the pumps.

And, as we'll come on to in a moment, it could take an almighty chunk out of the confidence of events being planned for next summer.

James Blunt and The Specials tickets, for example, were selling for £60 each. As good as they may be live, some would argue it's hard not to see how they struggled to sell-out.

"The cost-of-living crisis is definitely having an impact," explains James Penfold, programming manager at Dreamland - a venue which has had a successful summer of shows so far this year.

"Last year everyone wanted to come out and do something when restrictions were lifted - 12 months later there's a difference in that people can leave the country now quite easily for holidays.

"The squeeze on everyone's spending means people have to think about what they want to do. Maybe where once they were going to two or three festivals or a couple of gigs during the summer, now they may only go to one.

"It is effecting everyone across the board."

Industry research conducted earlier this year threw some other spanners into the works too.

It found there was still a number of people with Covid concerns - and therefore keen to avoid large crowds. Some pointed to their disposable income being under intense pressure and trying to work out how to afford attending rescheduled shows postponed during the pandemic - let alone any more.

And, perhaps most concerning for the industry, those who have simply fallen out of the habit of going to live shows - those for who "it feels a bit too much effort and is a hassle".

However, from the wider perspective, in many respects it has been a summer to remember for the industry.

"We reckon the weekend when Glastonbury was held - we also had British Summer Time at Hyde Park [headlined by the Rolling Stones, Elton John and the Eagles] and open air gigs from Liam Gallagher and Ed Sheeran in huge stadia - was the single biggest weekend in history," says Jon Collins, chief executive of Live - an organisation which provides a voice to the UK's live music and entertainment business.

"It's great live events are happening and we're giving customers that incredible experience you get.

"The challenge is how do you do that in a way which is giving people the greatest experience and also making some money. That's where all the cost pressures we have eats into the profit margin."

Generally, live events work to something in the region of a 10% profit margin - in other words if your ticket price is £100, some £90 is actually paying for all the associated costs, and £10 is profit.

Which equates to good money if you're putting on a sell-out show. But can quickly lead to slipping into the red if costs increase - as we're seeing this year - or ticket sale targets aren't met. Add to that, many events are carrying over ticket costs and original budgets set for events put on hold over the last two years - but now facing 2022 prices.

Explains Paul Reed of the Association on Independent Festivals: "It's very high risk as you have that one annual opportunity to generate revenue.

'You can't just ramp your ticket prices up by 30% when it's a high value ticket to begin with...'

"If festivals don't sell the tickets that can, of course, have a significant impact on their bottom line. And with these increased costs, there are going to be shows out there that are going to lose money - even on a sell-out, or close to.

"It's a year when people are just trying to get through it. Get back out there and deliver a show again."

It is estimated over five million people in the UK attend a music festival each year - generating some £1.76billion for the economy and supporting 85,000 jobs.

Which is why that issue over pricing is so vital - you don't after all, want to kill off demand for an industry which so many rely on.

Adds Paul Reed: "You can't just ramp your ticket prices up by 30% when it's a high value ticket to begin with. Festivals are grappling with that at the moment as to what the appropriate price point is considering we're in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis - we all want these events to be as accessible as possible.

"Some offer flexible payment plans - but it's a tricky spot to be in and difficult to guess where we'll be in terms of costs next year."

Which presents the next big challenge.

Traditionally, the big summer one-off shows and festivals put their tickets on sale in the autumn - giving them both a steady flow of capital with which to start planning and investing for their event the following year.

While few will doubt that Glastonbury - given its global appeal - will sell-out instantly when its tickets (which for 2023 are likely to be nudging £300) go on sale in October, many events will be only too aware of the energy price cap going up at roughly the same time.

It means potential audience members will need to be working out the equation of just how much their energy costs are going to be as temperatures dip and, given that, whether they can justify forking out for tickets to big shows.

"Organisers are doing everything they can to hold ticket prices down at the moment," says Jon Collins of Live. "They're looking at how they configure their events, do they have fewer stages, fewer acts, do they use a different lighting and sound system, fewer video screens - how can they strip cost out without it materially impacting on the consumer experience?

"That's a real challenge for our world class live music industry.

"Fortunately we have some talented and focused people looking at this right now.

"I don't think ticket prices are suddenly going to drop because the cost pressures mean that does not stack up.

"But I think what you will see - most visibly at festivals - is a lot of thought, energy and effort as to how they can mitigate as much of that cost pressure as possible. But it's not going to be the same price as this year, because this year is the 2019 price. It is going to go up. But not in the simple transfer of those 20-30% cost increases that people are feeling across the board."

For the biggest performers ("which make up only the top 1%" say experts) trying to find a ticket and get much change out of £100 for an indoor or outdoor show. When Bruce Springsteen, for example, plays Hyde Park next summer, you're looking at £101 - double that if you want to be at the front in the 'Golden Circle'.

So just how do the biggest performers - or festivals for that matter - justify the costs?

"You're paying for the spectacle; the grandeur of the show," says Jon Collins.

"Even people who are relatively pared down in how they do things - like an Ed Sheeran for example - will still have over 30 trucks that support their tour for building the stage, creating the light show, the banking of video screens, the state-of-the-art audio experience.

"For those old enough to remember, if you went to a festival 20 years ago, there was just a huge stack of speakers and if you were down the front you were almost blown over and if you were too far back you didn't get the fully rounded audio experience.

"You go to a festival now and the science and creativity gives you that quality audio experience, alongside the visuals.

"Where does your ticket price go? Well if you arrive by car you have the car parking and the stewards; you have the land they may have rented. When you walk into the venue you have the security to ensure everyone's safety, the food and beverage concessions - they all need to be staffed - the merchandise stands; they need staffing, the merch needs transporting to the venue, it needs storing, so cost implications left right and centre.

"Then when you come into the arena, you have the landscaping, the signage, the sound and light system, the crew.

"It can take a week to build out a stage at an outdoor venue and then days to pull it down. For a full festival it can take much longer.

"Thousands of people are being paid to build a small town and then dismantle it. Then everyone from stewards checking bags to the light and sound technicians who are live mixing what you are experiencing to give you the best world-class experience.

"But there's a way of looking at it as value rather than cost. Does the consumer get value for money for that experience?

"You look at festival prices. That covers you from a soft warm up on the Thursday night right the way through to Sunday and saying goodbye to you on Monday.

"You are getting a lot of great content and experiences for your ticket price there."

He may well have a point. It's also where the likes of Dreamland steal a bit of a march over rivals. By offering a 'plug in and play' experience for touring bands, costs are kept tight.

But it may take more than that to convince cash-strapped fans facing a winter of financial discontent.

Which brings us to those offer sites offering cut-price tickets - or, in some cases, literally giving seats away.

Unsurprisingly, those spoken to in this article were keeping tight-lipped about the practice.

For London's West End, the concept of slashing ticket prices close to the curtain going up makes sense - it ensures the venue is full, that money is being spent on drinks and snacks, and that the atmosphere is how you would hope it would be.

For off-peak shows where supply outstrips demand, it makes sense.

But for live music it is, we are led to believe, a rarely used device to give events the atmosphere expected and, of course, for some of that secondary spend at the bar to help swell coffers depleted by a lack of ticket sales.

Although for those with long memories, Kent music festivals from years gone by have used similar schemes to shift tickets - selling disposable rain macs for a few pounds, for example, and coming with two free entry tickets.

It is not, says one industry figure, something seen as a "long-term need" but one which may be more frequently seen this summer during what she describes as a "flux period".

In other words, don't bank on getting cheap tickets in the future.

They added: "There will always be events that won't be a roaring success and some that just miss the mark for whatever reason. Then the promoter, if they don't pull it altogether, will be asking how do they try and maximise ticket sales at a late stage?"

But it does present some potentially challenging conversations.

They add: "It does make things really difficult as you will get people asking the question. They'll say they bought tickets the first day they went on sale and they spent this much, and someone's just bought two for the same price, the week before the show.

"It's to swell the secondary spend. A gig always looks better when it's near capacity. It's then about the marketing and the look of the venue.

"If you're doing all your food and beverage and merch yourself on behalf of the artist then you could almost make the money you lost on ticket sales back. If you're lucky."

For some this summer, bad luck was more at play than sluggish ticket sales.

The team behind the Chickenstock music festival near Sittingbourne were dealt a blow when headliners 10cc pulled the plug on their appearance due to "contractural reasons" and health issues regarding a band member saw legendary hip-hop trio De La Soul pull out of their Dreamland show - a show, coincidentally, that had been in the planning for three years.

Like other industries, live music is feeling the pinch - but, as the saying goes, the show must go on.