Reinventing the Music Festival.

The most successful music festivals are those that manage to evolve over time. This success is measured in growing ticket sales along with an ever-improving number of headline performance artists. With good control and logistics this kind of growth should lead to commercial success too, what are the key elements to this evolution.

Any music festival that churns out the same format year after year with similar acts performing each year are more likely to see a decline over time with the inevitable closure never too far away. Music festival organisers need to reinvent themselves every year to keep their events fresh and broaden the appeal to a wider audience. Many competing music festivals will be doing this and if organisers do nothing to evolve the event’s appeal they will surely decline. What can organisers do to reinvent their festivals to secure their future financial success?

Going Mixed Genre. 
Many music festivals started out specialising in a specific music genre, the older festivals coming from a rock and pop music background. Musical tastes are constantly changing and by introducing more genres the festival will broaden its appeal. The easiest way to do this for festivals based in large open spaces is to set up genre specific stages, shows and areas within the festival site. It is not unusual for a mixed genre music festival to have both a techno DJ and well-known pop music artist performing on different site location stages simultaneously.

Theme Development. 
Having a new theme each year along with some striking designs helps to differentiate a music festival from the competition. This can be achieved with great stage design and lighting along with creative marketing campaigns and PR activity. Themes can be a great way to promote festival-goer engagement and participation by encouraging a colour or dress up theme for example.

Add Attractions and Facilities. 
Adding attractions like fairground rides or introducing arts and crafts areas or meditation, yoga and chill out areas helps add to the overall festival-goer experience. Improving facilities and vendor choice can also be a big draw and many festivals have also seen increased interest in glamping. Increasing the number of bars and toilet facilities will also help make the festival more attractive as these two aspects always receive the most complaints from festival-goers.

Having a music festival that evolves and enhances its appeal over time not only attracts more festival-goers but will see increased demand from vendors, sponsors and performance artists too. The positive knock on effective doesn’t end there as volunteer recruitment will be easier too. The demand for something new is pervasive for any live music experience and the same is true for music festivals, they need to reinvent themselves on a regular basis to secure a favourable future. 

For organisers planning their festivals using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. 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, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels

<< Back to articles