Emerging Festival Trends – What’s expected?
This will involve emerging festival trends and features that would attract the public and help to bring positive reviews. It’s certainly understood that a huge wave of enthusiasm for festivals will be witnessed this summer as the first big revival from the pandemic. Confidence was an issue in 2020/2021, but beyond a global reopening, festival-goers intend to go on as they normally do, returning to a late-spring/summer block, rather than the September and October dates that many events were rescheduled to last year.
Even if you run a successful recurring event, do not rest on your laurels. Research into what sells well, what people expect and what is trending will help to maximise the success of your event.
At Booking Protect we lay out some of the expectations of festival-goers and areas where festival organisers could benefit.
Advanced Entry Methods
Often the most painful and infuriating area for festival-goers is the entry and re-entry. Many festivals offer different types of tickets to help skip queues and also staggered entry times to assist with congestion.
A big development is RFID wristbands, using radio waves with specialist readers, offering multiple uses – one being granting rapid entry. Going paper-less has huge advantages in many areas of the event, however has varied security risks which need to be addressed.
Investing in security is not to be overlooked by organisers. Veterans of the industry will tell you how essential security are and getting in touch with a professional security organisation rather than volunteer stewards could save your business a lot of hassle in the long-run. Event security companies are trained guards able to spot dangers before they become threatening. With recent incidents of crushes and deaths at festivals, a competent security detail at the entrance and dotted within your event is key.
E-tickets are now expected of festivals. However many festivals have created their own official app which acts as a placeholder for tickets.
A Festival App
As well as good placeholder for tickets, an official festival app can act as an online hub for you, the organiser, to distribute relevant safety information and marketing. Keep your soon-to-be audience up to date with relevant event news, or offer a customisable map which can be used by the public.
Primavera Sound Barcelona, a popular music festival in Europe, used their app to launch the festival’s official newspaper. It allow customers to read features and daily articles about the artists and some of the auxiliary entertainment that will be available at the event. Force more footfall by encouraging your consumer base to download your official app.
Apps are a great opportunity to collaborate with sponsors, a superb selling point that will vastly increase you online profile and marketing abilities. Include instant notifications for event more accessibility.
Payment Methods
Both RFID wristbands and a festival app can be used to purchase things while at your event. Cash is a rare and perhaps past forgotten notion to younger generations, much preferring the ease that comes with contactless payment. Many events, such as those in Prague, have even gone completely cashless, improving accessibility to foreign visitors and speeding up the purchase process.
Offering the option of both cash and card will maximise your return, however ensuring a good internet connection and plenty of small portable card readers is critical.
Utilising a credit system is also beneficial for speeding up and increasing the ease of the purchase process. Credits can be pre-purchased and then spent via the RFID wristbands. You could also allocate a free amount of credits upon purchase to each wristband in order to encourage festival-goers to make purchases.
The festival app is an excellent tool for allowing festival goers to pre-purchase drinks and food. Many restaurants adopted this online menu system throughout the pandemic, and so the process will not be alien to your customers. The system naturally encourages purchases, similar to BOXPARK London, and makes buying food or drink, quick and easy.
Be Instagram friendly
A report by Mintel showed that the key reason for attending a music festival for 15% of respondents, was to take pictures/selfies. Feed this need by artificially creating instragrammable places and instagrammable moments.
Encouraging your festival-goers to share on social media is good for your digital traffic and will eventually convert to future footfall. Some sure-fire ways of creating moments that will trend on socials include ticker tape cannons, fireworks and light shows. However, implementing areas specifically designed for photos, such as photo booths, neon signs within floral backgrounds and pop-up eye catching branding.
If you are looking for ideas, balloons are popular at the moment, as are repurposed everyday items. Create a unique hashtag to go along with these photos to help create a buzz around your event. Ther eventual goal is to e trending on social, although may be not for the same reasons as Fyre Festival . Popularise this hashtag with signs and marketing materials. Afterall, celebrating together and being a part of something is what draws in customers who perhaps haven’t been to a festival before. They younger generations very much expect to be able to shout about their experiences.
Diversity in food, drink and attractions
Post-lockdown, don’t be scared to change it up. If events like BOXPARK and SPARK have told us anything, it’s that choice in king.
Hybrid festivals; where event organisers arrange both the traditional live music alongside perhaps a food market, craft beer or wine tasting event; are becoming more and more popular. Millennials are shown to drink more alcohol than any other generation before them. And more than half of them consider themselves “foodies.” Adding attractions to feed this need, will help to diversify your event and therefore draw in more customers.
In a recent Forbes survey of more than 5,000 festival-goers, 80% of millennials had attended three or more food, wine, or beer events in the past year. These consumer-bases naturally cross, and therefore offering the option will help place your festival a foothold above the competition.
Booking Protection
Assisting in the initial purchase of festival tickets, seeing booking protection gives customers the confidence to complete the booking. It’s true no-one wants to miss out on a great event, but customers certainly don’t want to be left out of pocket should the worst happen. They understand the benefits of booking protection, and so should you.
Our system integrates seamlessly with your own ticketing platform, offering your customers the opportunity to purchase ticket protection during the checkout process. This ensures your customer will always have a great experience with your organisation, whatever happens. We take the pesky refund process off your hands, and will bring in more revenue.
If any residual nerves still remain after the COVID-19 pandemic, then booking protection is sure to put them at ease. Take a look at our Excellent TrustPilot reviews!
Customers will be on the lookout for cancellation insurance, so provide them with the information and offerings they seek. Contact us to talk directly to one of our expert Account Handlers today
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