Can the Luddite Music Festival Organiser Survive.

Large scale music festivals emerged in the 1960s and were built on a foundation of free spirit, organised chaos and avoidance of external control or interference from authorities. Over the following 3 decades music festivals thrived but times have changed. The reliance on technology is now greater than ever, are the days of the luddite festival organiser numbered.

The free-spirited luddite that shuns technology applied to a music festival can be appealing to potential festival-goers. However, the practical reality of running an event in modern times is making this virtually impossible. Technology is essential for the management of costs, marketing, safety, and general operational logistics. Festival-goers, artists, vendors, contractors and sponsors are more demanding, and their needs cannot be met without the aid of technology.

What is a Luddite Music Festival Organiser.
Although it’s difficult to run a music festival without the aid of technology, some small festivals continue to operate without it. These are likely to be small events with no more than a few thousand attendees specialising in niche genres like folk and bluegrass run by individuals using their own land. A luddite will traditionally oppose any form of automation or use of technology for tasks that can still be performed manually. Their events will rely on paper tickets, with all payments in cash. Operational logistics are performed using pen and paper, phone calls, and a great reliance on the organising team's memory. Line-ups and schedules will appear on a hard copy of paper posters, and site signage is made by hand. The overall ethos of such events is having strong grassroots non-commercial appeal with an independent spirit which can appeal to niche audiences.

Financial Control.
A luddite’s financial accounts will probably be performed using simple double entry bookkeeping manually with pen and paper or at best a spreadsheet. This is incredibly inefficient, time consuming, and prone to errors leading to poor cost control and problems with cash flow. A festival that does not use RFID or cashless payments can impact the amount spent by festival-goers reducing overall revenue for all involved. With paper tickets sold for cash at entrance gates, the organiser is seriously limiting ticket sales combined with no knowledge of expected attendance numbers.

Safety and Risk.
A music festival that does not use technology assistance to manage safety is putting festival-goers at risk. Technology and CCTV systems are increasingly used to monitor crowds and predict choke points, enabling staff to attend quickly and manage any emergencies. Too much reliance on visual checks and runners can potentially increase the safety risk. Compliance with prevailing health and safety regulations may be more challenging where no technology is utilised. Use of simple printed tickets opens up the organising entity to fraud as counterfeit tickets are more easily made leading to lost ticket revenue and reputational damage.

Logistics and Efficiency.
Organisers must plan and manage a multitude of factors to bring every aspect of the festival together over the live dates. Recruitment and management of staff and volunteers will be chaotic without using some technology. In addition, booking and managing artists, contractors, vendors, and sponsors will be virtually impossible without the use of some technology. If planning and implementation relies on phone calls, paper documents and manual processes, it will lead to delays and errors with riders, tech specs, contractor deliveries along with vendor or sponsor issues. Modern day festival-goers have a perception that a music festival will provide cashless payment options and will have site wide Wi-Fi, where these are unavailable festival-goer satisfaction can be seriously diminished leading to fewer repeat attendees for future events.

Sustainability.
Most music festivals now have sustainability objectives and initiatives as a key element of their overall operation. These can include increased use of solar, wind, and eco-friendly fueled generators for power along with reductions in event waste and a focus on food and vendor products from sustainable sources. Many of these initiatives rely on integration with technology to reduce carbon footprints and increase efficiency. Whilst a luddite festival organiser may think that by shunning technology, they are taking their event back to nature, it may have the opposite impact on their sustainability credentials.

The luddite music festival organiser may survive in certain circumstances, but their events are going to become smaller and smaller over time as it becomes increasingly more difficult to operate their festival without technology. However, the free-spirited luddite music festival may survive where the organiser selectivity adopts some technology essential for its operation.

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 Caleb Oquendo via Pexels

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