Music Festivals and the Growth of Craft Beer Brands.

Alcoholic drinks have always had a strong presence at music festivals and contribute significantly to overall revenues. Given the high emphasis on alcoholic drinks corporate breweries are keen to provide event sponsorship which presents on-site branding and sales opportunities. The rise in popularity of craft beers at festivals may challenge this status quo.

Although many craft beers are produced by small micro-breweries in low quantities, they have proven popular with festival-goers. A specialist craft beer vendor is now a common sight at many music festivals and organisers choose them because they support local industry which is usually combined with great sustainability credentials. Micro-breweries want to secure vendor pitch spaces because they can get direct access to consumers resulting in sales and brand activation. 

Alcohol Sales at Festivals. 
Sales of alcoholic drinks at music festivals provide large revenue streams for organisers either through percentage markup schemes or through partnerships with corporate alcoholic drink sponsors. Festival-goers will often consume significantly higher volumes of alcoholic drinks than they normally would, usually at inflated prices too. Although corporate brewery sponsors contribute high revenues for organisers their business practices are sometimes questioned by festival-goers who are increasingly skeptical of large corporate organisations. The appearance of crat beer vendors at music festivals has generated much interest as an attractive alternative to mainstream brands for which festival-goers are willing to pay a premium for. 

Demographic Match. 
The demographics of typical festival-goers can be a good match with craft beer target audiences who may be seen as young, affluent, socially minded with a sense of adventure to experiment with alternatives. Micro-breweries are pitching themselves as authentic and local with a strong sense of community and culture. Buying and consuming craft beers is viewed as supporting local business and is a real alternative to corporate branded drinks. For festival-goers concerned about sustainability a micro-brewery is more likely to be able to present their credentials for production processes demonstrating minimal impact on the environment. Corporate breweries are often accused of excessive use of chemicals in the brewing process along with high power consumption and the generation of waste. 

Direct Distribution. 
Micro-breweries offering craft beers at a music festival enables them to go direct to consumers and generate instant revenue. This bypasses the sometimes complex and tedious retail distribution processes that are costly and time consuming for the micro-brewery. Craft beers are produced in low volumes and a brewery with a vendor pitch can easily sell significant quantities of stock over a multi-day festival. The festival environment also presents great opportunities to collect customer data enabling future direct sales. 

Brand Activation. 
Craft beers are known for their weird and whacky names adding a sense of fun to the products on offer and many breweries constantly launch new varieties. The music festival environment is a great place to launch new products with sampling and tasting experiences on offer creating great brand activation opportunities. Vendor pitches are more likely to be staffed by the people who have created and made the craft beer, and this allows great interaction with festival-goers interested in their products. Vendors get to tell their story and history of creation which makes the whole experience very personal increasing the brand’s credentials and value. Equally vendors get the opportunity to get direct and instant feedback from festival-goers on the products they have on offer. 

The increased popularity of craft beers from micro-breweries has not gone unnoticed by corporate breweries who are now creating their own craft beer varieties to compete head-to-head. They are doing this either by creating their own or by acquiring successful micro-breweries. Other strategies being used by corporate breweries is demanding exclusive alcohol sales distribution on a festival site in exchange for a sponsorship deal. This presents problems for micro breweries who will no longer be able to sell craft beers thorough the vendor pitch route. 

For festival organisers planning their next event 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, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by Hugo Magalhaes via Pexels

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