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Privacy Policies for Music Festival Websites.

Andy Robertson

Technology has enabled the creation of websites that are increasingly user friendly and interactive. The music festival website is a key platform for organisers to communicate to a wide-ranging audience interested in a particular festival. This invariable means the collection of personal data and therefore it is a legal requirement that the website contain a privacy policy.


Privacy policies on websites have been around for some time and in the UK since the creation of the Data Protection legislation in 1995. At that time the European Union (EU) introduced the Data Protection Directive for all its member states. The rules and requirements have changed over time and currently in the UK a website privacy policy is a legal requirement. It relates specifically to compliance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is now part of the Data Protection Act 2018. The privacy policy lets website's visitors know how personal data is collected, handled, stored and shared.

Essential Content.
Any privacy policy must clearly state how personal data will be processed and comply with the principles of GDPR. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) provides guidance on what should be included in any privacy policy and includes: 

  • The business’s name and contact details and any representative’s name and contact details.
  • The purpose the business processes personal data.
  • The categories of personal data obtained.
  • The recipients or categories of recipients of the personal data.
  • Details of third countries or international organisations if personal data is transferred.
  • How long personal data is kept.
  • People's rights concerning the processing of their data.
  • The right to withdraw consent.
  • The right to complain to a supervisory authority.
  • Where the personal data was sourced from.
  • Details of whether people are under a statutory or contractual obligation to provide personal data.
  • The details of the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling.
  • How a person can seek recourse if the business fails to comply with the privacy policy 

Sample Templates.
Too many organisations use simple templates to create their privacy policies usually sourced from the internet, but these are often out of date and do not include the required information set out by the ICO. Music festival websites are just as guilty of this practice as any other business conducting online data collection. It is preferable to get a proposed privacy policy checked by a professional law firm to guarantee compliance.

Breaches. 
Music festivals do collect large amounts of data which can relate to vendor, volunteer and artist applications or festival-goer registrations for newsletters and ticket sales. There is an increasing interest by the public regarding how their data is collected and used and referral to the privacy policy should give them all the information they need to make further enquiries. Many festival website privacy policies contain little specific information about the organisation and contact details of the event organisers. The penalties for non-compliance can be severe and in 2019 Google was fined $57 million by French regulators for a lack of clarity and transparency in how it informed users about how it handled personal data, this related specifically to their inadequate privacy policy content.

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 Markus Winkler via Pexels

Andy Robertson
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