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Music Festival Evolution Through Technology.

Andy Robertson

The music festival sector may be going through a state of transition and organising entities are going to have to evolve their events to prosper in the future. What is impacting on the success or failure of the current music festival scene and what can organisers do to manage their events in the future.


It's been a rocky ride in recent years for anyone involved in the music festival business, no sooner was the coronavirus pandemic over and the world was plunged into economic uncertainty with inflationary pressures and war in Europe. In the UK alone in excess of 100 music festivals may have gone forever, that still leaves over 500 events each year in one of the world’s centres for music festivals. What technology factors should organisers consider in their future plans?

Innovation. 
Any large-scale music festival will need to embrace the latest technology available to enable cashless and wireless events. The latest 5G installations are now a must for any remote site and they need to be reliable ensuring that the connectivity is available without interruption. Whether it’s Wi-Fi connected technology used in the music production process, vendor operations or festival goer mobile device connectivity, a festival without their own telecoms solution may struggle to survive.

Environmental Sustainability Pressures. 
The technological innovation in the provision of clean power and sustainable waste management is evolving fast. Every music festival has a sustainability policy and while it is sometimes difficult to put these policies into action innovation is helping. Whether it’s increased use of hydrogen or solar and wind power supply or developments in composting toilet facilities, festivals should be able to get closer to achieving their sustainability objectives with technology.

Talent Curation. 
Artist curation is always a big challenge for festival organisers and most still aim to get a balance of established and new up and coming talent. An increasingly important part of the curation process has been the development of live streamed services and the emergence of avatar renditions for artists unable to make a physical appearance. This has implications for fees and agreements between organisers and the artists as the licensing just got a whole lot more complex.

Festival-Goers. 
In a modern era of always connected and instant gratification festival-goers are demanding the latest technology when attending a music festival. They also demand to be constantly entertained without any down time. This can present a challenge for organisers who should ensure that there is a constant flow of entertainment available on a festival site for 2 or 3 days.

The majority of festival-goers demand the latest technology when attending a music festival, however, there is still room for the traditional music festival. The ‘classic’ music festival experience could be the future for smaller niche events catering for those with less interest in technology. 

For festival organisers planning their events 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
Harrison Haines via Pexels

Andy Robertson
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