Upgrading Music Festival Websites.

Every music festival has a website presence and along with social media channels this is the perfect shop window to attract ticket buyers, artists, vendors and volunteers. In the current pandemic climate this form of communication has been vital in engaging with and updating all interested parties vital to the festival's future

Having recently trawled through hundreds of music festival websites it is clear that the quality varies enormously form extremely professional to horribly outdated cluncky sites. Modern website building tools are readily available and reasonably easy to use and there is a vast number of skilled professionals who can assist festival organisers in getting something very professional looking relatively quickly.

Perhaps for some festival organisers their website and online presence is not a priority maybe because they get sell-out crowds year on year but the festival environment is changing. The competition for ticket buyers will start to intensify as event goers become more cautious about attending events whilst there is still a risk of coronavirus infection. What are key elements a good music festival website should contain to bring it up to date?

Look and Feel.
A professional website designer will give a slick professional look to a website but this needs to be combined with excellent useability too, sometimes referred to as User Experience. The navigation around the site should be easy to use so website visitors can quickly find exactly what they want.

Images and Video.
Use of high-quality photography and video can really help to enhance the festival’s website engagement. Website visitors want to get a feeling of the event and this is best conveyed by the use of images and video of previous events. From a technical aspect this does need to be balanced with the need for speed of the site which can be impacted by large files and videos, however, there are technical solutions that can overcome these potential issues.

Content.
There is nothing worse than arriving at a music festival website to find a single holding page with no menu or any information other than a statement that their 2020 event was cancelled, ‘’visit again soon for information on 2021’’, why would anyone want to go back to that website. The content should provide all the information that a visitor wants with sections dedicated to event goers, vendors, sponsors and volunteers. All these target audiences are seeking different information so ensure relevant and specific information is provided. Assuming that the website navigation is excellent the site visitors should be able to find all the content they are after quickly. The content should be updated on a regular basis with news and links to social media channels so visitors have a reason to return.

Ticket Sales.
As the website is a great shop window for the music festival it is the ideal platform to sell event tickets. Integrating with a secure, efficient and proven ticketing solution will ensure that the website generates ticket sales with revenue going directly to the festival organisers. There are great alternatives to relying on expensive third-party ticket agents that can save money on fees too.

For any music festival organisers planning their 2021 live events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors guestlists and ticketing. The ticketing and artist scheduling also integrates seamlessly with music festival websites. 

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