Clarity of Communication for Music Festival Announcements.

The link to any external audience for music festival organisers are the announcements and press releases they make about their event. Poor writing and badly timed announcements can have a detrimental effect on the festival’s brand and reputation and confuse the intended audience.

Most music festivals have great announcement and press release strategies with newsworthy content released in the right channels in a timely manner. There are also some organisers that need to address the management of their announcements, what are the key elements to perfecting the press release strategy. 

Content and Writing Style. 
Music festivals want to reach existing and new audiences with their news releases so it is essential that any content is written in a clear and concise way to get across the key information in an easy-to-understand manner. When announcing dates and venues the content can be self-explanatory with perhaps just more detail on the location and transportation options. Line-up and headliner announcements are usually best staggered over a longer time and are to some extent subject to when an artist can be confirmed. Always emphasise the headliners booked and provide details of supporting artists. Avoid long detailed profiles of every artist booked as news channels will be put off publishing the release. Keep the content brief and to the point and avoid jargon language and writing styles that potential new readers cannot relate to, aim for a more generic style.

Timing.
Most music festivals in Europe announce their artist line-up in the months leading up to the new year often peaking in December. Additional line-up acts are then drip fed in the run up to the summer festival season and each release has the potential to generate ticket sales. When there is no significant news, it may be prudent to release more details about a particular artist of other aspect of the festival that may be considered interesting. Regular announcements keep the media coverage momentum going.

Media Channel Coordination.
Where possible festival organisers employ the services of a professional PR Agency who can handle the release of announcements. The agency will have all the relevant pertinent industry contacts to get releases published in target media and they can usually recommend a schedule of announcements throughout the year. For smaller festivals these announcements can be manged in house as long as there is a process in place for getting them out to target media. Press releases should always include the contact details of the festival organisers inviting journalists to get in touch should they wish to expand on any aspect of the release.

With a good press release schedule and well written newsworthy content music festival organisers can convey their announcements to their intended audience in a succinct way that leads to interest and increased tickets sales.

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 Andrea Piacquadio via Pexels

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