If you’ve been to a UK music festival in the last few years, there’s a chance you’ve come across one of Co-op’s pop-up c-stores at the event.
The stores are part of Co-op’s partnership with Live Nation UK, who the convenience retailer began working with in 2018.
The business has run more than 55 pop-up stores at festival events since 2014, and has operated more than 40 stores at Live Nation UK festivals and has partnered with Glastonbury Festival since 2022.
In July, Co-op extended its tie-up with the live entertainment company until 2031, meaning many more of its pop-up stores are set to arrive at future music festivals.
“A firm fixture on the live music circuit”
Under the partnership extension, Co-op is set to remain the official supermarket sponsor of Download Festival, Klarna Presents Latitude Festival, Pepsi Presents Reading & Leeds Festivals and Pepsi Presents Creamfields Festival.
The pop-up shops themselves, which average around 6,000 sq ft, sell more than 300 products, spanning breakfast, lunch and snacking ranges alongside festival essentials such as toilet paper, personal care products and alcohol.
Co-op head of partnerships and events Nuala Donnelly says: “Our pop-up stores have become a firm fixture on the live music circuit since launching, enhancing festivalgoers’ experiences with a proposition that has reset expectations of conveniently accessing the same trusted, quality own-brand and branded food and drink ranges available on the high street within the traditional festival setting.”
She also says that there is “a great experiential element” to its festival stores.
“We provide entertainment for shoppers that are queuing, live DJ sets in the stores and various competitions for customers to win money can’t buy experiences.”
A growing opportunity with festivals
Donnelly explains that Co-op renewed its partnership with Live Nation UK since “live music and festivals are reaching wider and more diverse audiences than ever”.
She highlights 2025 Mintel research that showed festival attendance spanned generations, with “roughly half of Gen Z and over 40 per cent of Millennials attending a music festival in the past year, alongside 19 per cent of Gen X”.
“Customers are also increasingly open to brand engagement at these events, with activations at live events driving four times higher recall than traditional advertising,” she points out.
“Our festival stores are the ultimate brand activation, making Co-op an intrinsic part of the festival experience and allowing us to turn that reach into genuine brand impact.”
She also highlights that its festival proposition has “evolved into one of our key drivers for new member acquisition” over the past eight years, “especially in the under-25 age demographic”.
“From the introduction of member perks in 2022, the partnership has enabled Co-op to create more value for our member-owners, with access to exclusive prices and deals in the festival stores,” she says.
“The focus on integrating member benefits to the stores has made Co-op membership indispensable to festivalgoers and generated sales back to our core estate post event.”
A community “made up of festivalgoers”
Of course, Co-op’s pop-up stores complement its existing high street estate.
The exec explains: “Our store strategy is consistent wherever we’re located, we operate to serve the community around us and, at a festival, that community is made up of festivalgoers.
“However, one of the things that makes our festival stores unique and special is the people behind them.
“Our store colleagues are recruited from across our Co-op, so you might be served by someone who usually works in a depot, have stock replenished by someone from digital marketing, and be guided through the queue by someone from our buying team.
“I don’t think you’d find that anywhere else. It’s an incredible learning opportunity, and it’s genuinely led to some brilliant career moves for people across the business.”
She also notes that the stores’ “range and SKU count” are “where you’ll see some of the biggest differences”.
“The store’s stock has been specifically curated to meet the needs of the festival shopper,” she says.
“Our pop-up stores have more of a focus on food-for-now, with a light touch on food-for-later. We also over index on soft drink options, to ensure this key demand is met.
“The in-store experience itself is also dialled up to match the energy of the event.
“It’s more playful, more surprise-and-delight, than your everyday shopping mission.
“But ultimately it’s the same principle we apply on the high street, tailoring our range and experience to the community we’re serving. We’re just doing it for a very different kind of community.”
The future of Co-op’s pop-up stores
Due to the temporary nature of Co-op’s pop-up stores, it could be assumed that they may present unique challenges compared to the retailer’s high street estate.
Donnelly explains: “The scale of some of the festivals are like temporary cities, with huge amounts of planning involved to build and maintain the infrastructure.
“Success is based on how all the different components work together within that ecosystem.
“We’re part of that, which comes with challenges, but it also presents an unmatchable platform for our teams to learn and grow, working through issues at speed whilst serving thousands of customers every hour.”
With more pop-up stores due following Co-op’s extension of its partnership with Live Nation UK, what does the convenience giant have planned for its future set of shops?
Donnelly notes: “We can’t predict exactly what festival culture will look like in five years. However, what we do know is that live music keeps growing, audiences keep diversifying and fans expectations keep rising.
“So, rather than trying to guess the future, our plan is to stay closer to it than anyone else.
“So we’ll listen to our customers and fans, and as their tastes and demands evolve, we’ll evolve with them. That might impact the products on the shelves or how we serve them.”
She continues: “We want to keep delighting fans. A festival visit to our store shouldn’t feel like a transaction, it should be something people remember and talk about.
“That means continuing to innovate, testing new formats, new experiences, new ways of showing up that feel authentic to each event.
“We’re also not doing this in isolation. We’ll keep bringing in learnings from our wider partnerships, across music, culture, and beyond, so our festival stores keep getting sharper and more relevant.
“We also want the magic we create at festivals, the energy, the creativity, the surprise and delight moments, to come back into our main stores too.”
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