By Anthony Eskinazi, Founder and President of JustPark

Live events in the UK are thriving. The UK live music industry is now 35% larger than it was in 2019, fuelled by blockbuster tours from Beyoncé, Coldplay, Taylor Swift and the current historic Oasis reunion. In 2024 alone, live music added over £10 billion to the economy, with 23.5 million music tourists making the trip, a 22% year-on-year increase (UK Music).

But it’s not just music. Major exhibitions are back at full capacity. In 2023, there were 1,016 exhibitions at UK venues, drawing nearly 7 million visitors, the highest figure since 2017 (CIT-World). Business conferences, sports fixtures and cultural festivals are all trending upward, as the pandemic bounce-back transforms into a sustained surge in attendance.

The appetite is there. But the parking infrastructure isn’t.

From a fan’s perspective, the experience often looks like this: tickets booked months in advance, travel plans sorted, anticipation high… only to hit a wall (or more accurately, a sea of brake lights) within a mile of the venue. 

Meanwhile, public transport faces its own challenges. As the cost of living continues to bite, for some families, driving to an event can feel more viable than catching a train especially when rail options are costly, unreliable, or limited. However, some venues don’t even provide advice on parking for their guests via their own website or when they receive their tickets, whilst many others still don’t have parking systems in place designed for high-volume arrivals, decisions that often result in frustration for excited fans upon arrival at the venue.

While the event experience continues to evolve, from digital ticketing to premium hospitality, how fans need to get there hasn’t. Many venues still rely on parking systems intended for day-to-day use, not fast-paced traffic surges. These systems were not built for peak arrival windows, unpredictable demand or growing crowd sizes.

Parking is deterring fans from attending

JustPark recently surveyed over 3,000 UK drivers about their event travel habits. More than 70% said the stress of finding parking has deterred them from attending a gig, football match or theatre show. Almost half reported spending over 30 minutes searching for a space.

And more than one in five said they’ve missed the start of an event entirely due to parking issues.

Worse still, over half admitted to leaving events early just to avoid ticket queues, congestion or enforcement risk. And a striking 84% said parking stress had negatively impacted their enjoyment of a live event.

These aren’t just inconveniences. They’re friction points that shape the entire fan experience. 

Event parking is not everyday parking

The difference between commuter parking and event parking is significant. A weekday driver heading to the office follows a familiar pattern. But an event attendee is a different kind of customer entirely, often travelling from out of town, arriving during a narrow window, with little margin for error and heightened expectations. They need information, reliability, and speed.

Yet most UK venues are still relying on outdated access control, limited reservation options, and infrastructure designed for a different kind of user. What’s needed now is an event-specific parking model, one built to handle high throughput, fluctuating volumes, VIP traffic, and real-time validation. Not one-size-fits-all, but event-by-event precision.

A new model, starting at The O2

In April 2025, JustPark became the official parking technology provider for The O2 in London, marking the first time a major UK events venue has fully integrated its parking operations with a dedicated technology partner. For a destination that welcomes more than ten million visitors a year, the standard had to be reimagined.

At the heart of the partnership is a suite of tailored tools that make parking easier for both fans and operators. Visitors to The O2 can now reserve spaces in advance whether attending a gig, visiting a restaurant, or simply heading to the outlet shopping centre. 

Event attendees benefit from EventPass, our dynamic reservation platform that guarantees access and removes the anxiety of “will I find a spot?” For those without a reservation, flexible on-the-day parking is available through the JustPark app. And for staff, media, artists and VIPs, we’ve introduced CompPass, a seamless, pre-authorised digital credential. This helps to alleviate pressure on the box office for operators and ensures fans don’t need to worry about physical passes or payment at the venue. 

Behind the scenes, our Suite platform gives operators complete control over capacity, pricing, and permissions, allowing real-time adjustments based on the type of event or its size. 

One of the key technologies powering this system is Prime, our real-time access control hardware and mobile point-of-sale advice for accepting on-site digital payments and scanning passes. Rather than relying on expensive fixed Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) setups or pay-and-display machines, Prime scans number plates in the lane, validates in seconds, and connects directly with our full range of pass types.

This means that venue staff can see exactly who’s arriving, from a VIP arrival to a season ticket holder, and act accordingly whether sending a welcome message via Reach (our CRM tool) or triggering a digital update to premium seating teams. It also means guests don’t need to fumble with QR codes, enter number plate details, or stop the flow of traffic.

Everything is built to maximise throughput while reducing stress for both fans and operators.

Not every event works the same way. A Saturday afternoon football match has a different pattern than a Friday night sold-out gig or a midweek conference. Our FlexFlow model gives venues the ability to tailor their parking operations accordingly, adjusting lane configurations, access permissions, pricing strategies and staff allocations to match the unique needs of each event.

This kind of flexibility is essential if venues want to reduce costs, avoid enforcement-heavy models, and improve guest satisfaction. It’s not about replicating rigid systems; it’s about creating adaptable ones.

Expanding Capacity

Not every venue has the luxury of dedicated on-site parking, and JustPark was originally founded to solve exactly this kind of challenge. We’ve helped millions of people find parking near venues without enough on-site capacity by tapping into driveways, office parking spaces, and underused car parks nearby. Today, we’ve taken that model and scaled it into a flexible, tech-enabled network of vetted third-party operators. 

Whether it's for overflow during a sell-out gig or providing reliable parking options near venues without dedicated space, we give event organisers the tools to integrate these locations seamlessly into their customer journey. Venues maintain full control over what’s surfaced to guests, so fans only see high-quality, safe, and approved parking, preserving the integrity of the experience, even when the footprint extends beyond the venue itself.

Parking as a premium experience

When parking is designed around the fan, it becomes a revenue generator, not just a utility. With JustPark’s integrated tools, venues can offer upsells like premium spots nearby EV bays, or early arrival bonuses (like food and drink vouchers for showing up 45 minutes before kick-off). And because we know who’s coming, when, and why, we can surface relevant parking options well before the event, with marketing touchpoints embedded into ticketing journeys and reminder emails.

JustPark is now applying everything we’ve learned from powering over 40 million annual event transactions across 450+ US venues (including 70% of major league sports stadiums) here in the UK. Our goal is to support operators in making sure the fan experience when arriving and leaving matches the incredible events happening inside. We’re excited about the possibilities.

Because no one should miss an opening act, an encore or a winning goal because they couldn’t find a parking space.