Ben Harris’ Post

Just coming off the back of our festival running for the first time since COVID-2020, this article captures the reality of what is actually happening out there. Navigating the post-COVID landscape, independent music festivals face challenges amid a saturation of events and well-funded international promoters. A concern is the demographic shift, particularly with a substantial drop in teenage attendance, possibly due to today’s teens struggling to socialize beyond screens after spending formative years in isolation. Adapting to these changes is crucial, but rising operational costs and real financial risks pose significant obstacles. Ticket prices rise to mitigate risks, and additional costs inside, especially food truck prices, strain attending families. Throw climate change into the mix, and you’re essentially gambling! Despite these challenges, independent music and arts festivals play a vital role in building connected communities. To thrive, a focus on collaborating with fellow festivals and implementing innovative online and offline audience engagement will be key strategies. Fostering community support, exploring creative marketing, and collaborating with local businesses become imperative. Emphasizing unique grassroots aspects, building a board of connected locals, and creating distinct identities are crucial for success. Building partnerships, diversifying revenue streams, and adapting to changing preferences are essential for sustainability in this challenging environment. Undoubtedly, innovative independent events serve as the glue that binds people together, providing a crucial platform for musicians and artists and a strong sense of connection to communities. The recent wave of festival cancellations is devastating. I extend my hopes and best wishes to everyone navigating this challenging time and look forward to us all coming together to create a stronger future. After all, where would we be without music, creativity, art, film, and connection?

🎶 Music Australia launches Music Festivals Survey 🎶 Music Australia is calling for information from festival organisers across the country about their 2024 festivals (held, in planning, or cancelled). Recent years have seen significant challenges for music festivals due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, extreme weather events, regulatory changes and rising operational costs. Following the publication of Soundcheck: Insights into Australia’s music festival sector, alongside ongoing festival cancellations, there has been much discussion about the way forward for the music festival sector. Music Australia are now seeking updated data from festival organisers so that they can understand how current pressures are playing out across the festival sector. Festival organisers are invited to contribute by 1 May 2024 and can contact comms@creative.gov.au to participate. Read Soundcheck: Insights into Australia’s music festival sector via https://lnkd.in/gEBY-32p #music #industry #survey #haveyoursay #festivals #tourism #visitoreconomy #regionalnsw #nsw

Lots of music festivals have been canceling shows this year for a large variety of reasons. From, "surging production costs, high ticket prices and consumer demand.... expenses for producing these festivals...." to "Consumers... reducing the number of live music events they go to," the future of music festivals seems to be up in the air. This article provides a lot of possibilities that may all provide some input as to why music festivals seem to not be doing so great this year, and how the future may look for this part of the live music market a a whole. David Philp #music #musicindustry #musicfestival #concerts

JamBase’s breakdown of the global surge in music festivals, complete with the most booked acts of 2024, is a fascinating read. I know the average festival-goer isn’t losing sleep over the insurance side of things, but with data-driven risk management on the rise, it’ll be interesting to see if insights like these start shaping markets and premiums. And more importantly I am absolutely here for the returning nostalgia acts. “A noteworthy shift marking the recent landscape is the resounding return to festival stages of 90s/2000s pop-punk and nu-metal “legacy” acts in 2024 including: The Offspring (27), Avril Lavigne (11), Sum 41 (23), and Limp Bizkit (11) none of whom or the likes of whom had more than a handful of festival plays in the previous 4 years. After years of contemporary pop artists dominating headlining slots, nostalgia is showing up as a dominant trend in festival lineup curation” #MusicFestivals #LiveMusic #MusicInsurance

#Beonix #Loud #Cyberness Reflect Festival #Fengaros at #ETKO #Kolla in #Limassol and #Nicosia are just a few of the new and upcoming cutting edge productions taking place and lightening up routines with their creativity. A few points below on what goes on behind the scenes of organising a music festival of such large scale, from a legal perspective.

🎵💛🙏🎵💛🙏🎵💛🙏🎵💛🙏🎵💛🙏 ⭐️⭐️⭐️… Happening now … ⭐️⭐️⭐️ “So far this year 45 UK music festivals have been postponed or cancelled. The Association of Independent Festivals are forecasting that that figure could DOUBLE before the year is out.” - Sky News For fantastic in-depth & clear analysis JUST RELEASED… ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e-peu7ch KT Tunstall makes an important point in Katie Spencer’s excellent report (below) about ‘headline’ acts ‘cutting their teeth’ at the smaller festivals long before they walk out & WOW huge crowds at Glastonbury or at the O2, for example.. The appetite for festivals continues to grow and has bounced back since the pandemic.. which is most certainly welcome news. Yet the organic nature & grass roots of the industry.. is under threat, ironically due to its success. WHY? Big international corporations are ‘buying out’ smaller festivals 🤔💭 John Rostron, Executive of The Association of Independent Festivals, wants a return to the initial post-pandemic 5% instead of 20% VAT charge associated with producing smaller festivals… to give the operators & supply chain a chance to fully recover & rebuild. Reading about & reflecting on the many varied benefits of small festivals.. not LEAST that they provide an initial platform for talent to emerge, ‘get their feet wet’ & blossom so that they can then headline the bigger events… small festivals seem to me to be worth supporting for so many reasons: ⭐️ They birth, grow, develop, foster, support & nurture: - New music 💖🎵 - New music fans 💖🎵 - Community spirit! 💖 - Joy & Unity! 💖 😀 - Sustainability 💖 - Diversity 💖 - Inclusivity 💖 - Cultural Growth 💖 - Celebration! 💖🎉 - Families & kids! 💖🏡 - New technologies 💖💫 - Local economies 💖💷 - Cultural Growth 💖 - New Artists… who become big show headliners 💖👏🎵 ⭐️ What do YOU think? ⭐️ - Are you an avid small festival goer? Or do you just enjoy one or two local festivals each year? - What’s your favourite thing about attending smaller festivals compared to the bigger ones? - Have you had your festival plans curtailed this year due to organisers having to cancel or postpone the event? - What do you think.. & how do you feel.. about the threat of the small music festival counter culture being ‘taken-over’ by big international corporations buying out smaller festivals? - And what about them having acts sign exclusivity contracts to prevent them performing at smaller events? Watch Katie Spencer’s brilliant report below… Look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments! 🎵💫😇 #musicfestivals #skynews #singersongwriters #localeconomies #newmusic #liveevents #sustainability #culture #newtechnology #community

I understand the logic. Music Festivals = Tourism influx / economy boost That is undeniable. But I believe this is bad for the industry. The moment gargantuan brands like Summersonic & Tomorrowland (both mind you, have received tremendous support from their respective governments, tourism boards, grant schemes, local fan base and sponsorship from companies) enter another market and is welcomed by the government; there are massive things at play in the back end that many people are not aware about: 1. Artist fees in those markets do not reflect the artist fees for the same artist in the Thailand market -> this means expect fees to go sky high 2.Production expectation are from international players that have no knowledge of the local market ; and this is again going to increase costs exorbitantly 3.Fans are going to 'FOMO' in -> unknowing to all this and see the ticket prices shred their bank balances (USD250 - 500) at the minimum. While I applaud the efforts of the Thai government to take proactive action and looking into boosting revenue, I believe the best brands have been in Thailand all along and should be cultivated to grow into other markets instead: There's Together Festival, 808 Music Festival, S20 Music Festival, Siam Songkran, along side many other insanely amazing independent promoters that work tooth and nail to build something for fans in thailand; They should be getting the grants, the support and the sponsorships to build these brands they've spent their blood, sweat and tears for. Article here: https://lnkd.in/gaHd3szV

🇬🇧 This article outlines how Liverpool's new cultural project,  ‘Discover A New Beat,’ aims to encourage visitors to immerse themselves in the city’s music scene. Music festivals, which are part of this programme, are undoubtedly a powerful way for a destination to showcase its rich musical heritage and engage locals in tourism. 🎶 Considering the increasing number of music festivals globally, it's helpful to consider how festival organisers can make efforts to ensure that attendees have a positive experience and are motivated to revisit. We all know how much work goes into organising music festivals- often by voluntary committees- so organisers must be empowered with the knowledge to make the festival the best it can possibly be! 💡 A recent study by Tan et al. (2023) examined how the fear of missing out (FOMO) affects the flow experience, festival satisfaction, and revisitation intention of attendees at a country music festival in Malaysia. 👇 Interesting findings from the study, which have practical implications for music festival organisers included: ✅ When an individual experiences ‘flow’, they are fully immersed and present within a situation and feel positive sensations. ✅ Working on developing visitor ‘flow’ is an essential consideration for event organisers, as when visitors experience ‘flow’, they are more likely to enjoy their experience and intend to revisit. Accordingly, this can contribute to the success and future sustainability of the event. 👇 Certain factors which contributed to a flow experience within the context of the music festival included: ✅ Skill performance - attendees’ perception towards the quality of the performances in music festival ✅ Ambience - developing a multisensory festival environment ✅ Self-congruity - attendees feeling as though the festival aligns with their values and interests ✅ Other consumers’ passion- being surrounded by fellow music lovers ✅ Consumer-to-consumer interaction - interacting with other attendees 💡 In this study, FOMO (fear of missing out) was repositioned as participants fearing to miss out on the same event they were attending. When festival participants reported high FOMO, the indirect effect of flow experience on revisit intention was higher than those with low FOMO. 👇 Implications for event organisers include: ✅ Leveraging FOMO to generate a sense of urgency and scarcity for prospective attendees. This may be achieved by offering time-limited discounts on social media, which may ignite a ‘fear of missing out.’ 👇 To develop a flow experience among attendees, organisers can: ✅ Use visuals and messages in promotional materials consistent with the target audience's self-image. ✅ Ensure that ambience is an essential aspect of the festival planning process and complements the festival theme (e.g. considering factors such as lighting, sound, and decor). ✅ Promote engagement between attendees by offering areas for people to mingle.

I think an important part to consider is that, besides high production costs and an overall fee distribution that requires some serious rethinking, festivals and artists must also reconsider the expectations of multiple generations, and take into account how they experience live music. For some, it is about the sound and the experience (and cameras in your face streaming live are quite off-putting), but for others it is all about living and reliving off- and online (which means that media inclusion is more than fundamental). Segmentation of audiences is also an issue: how do we achieve this by gathering as many people as we attempt to, but also give each one as much of a personalized experience as possible? I personally don't think festivals are over for good, just going a transition period. What do you think? #musicbusiness #livemusic #music

It’s no secret that music festival ticket sales are down substantially this year. Coachella is almost always a guaranteed sellout, but not this year. Over 50 festivals have been canceled in Europe alone and the trend seems to be carrying over to North America, there is evidence from other markets such as Asia and Australia/New Zealand that this is a wider problem. When a business model becomes successful in a specific market, it’s almost a given that copycat businesses will flood the market until there is market saturation and an eventual bubble burst. What we are now seeing in the festival space may be the start of the inevitable. But what are the causes and what can be done to bring the crowds back next year? #MusicIndusty #LivePerformances #MusicBusiness #IndieArtists #MIMELLC