The Future of Festivals:

8 Trends You Need to Know

 There’s a premium on experience these days. In fact, over 75% of millennials and 59% of
baby boomers say they value experiences over possessions.1 This is good news for your
festival. You’re already offering a unique experience — it’s just a matter of showcasing it.

So how can you make your festival a once-in-a-lifetime experience? How can you tap into
your attendees’ desires, and build strong connections that bring them back year after
year? To find out, we asked festival organizers to identify the most prominent trends
they’re seeing today. We also checked in with all kinds of festival-goers to find out what
they love about the events they’re attending.

This paper draws on those conversations, as well as recent research, to give you the
latest festival innovations, emerging technologies, and marketing tips. Read on for the
eight trends that will put your festival at the head of the pack.

Trend #1
More payment methods mean
more spending
Does your ticketing system allow for multiple ways to check in? Attendees are getting
more and more savvy about their ticketing choices. We’ve already seen this trend
booming for music events. Half of music festival attendees prefer RFID wristbands that
grant them rapid entry so they can skip long lines. RFID can also offer other perks that
paper currency cannot.2

How it works
The technology that powers RFID is already familiar in items like hotel keys and toll collection
systems. Now it’s gaining momentum as a great way for festival organizers to enable event-
goers to leave their cash at home. A chip, usually embedded in a wristband, communicates
with an RFID scanner via radio signals. Those chips replace paper tickets. If attendees link their
RFID bracelets to credit cards, they can also use them as cashless payment for food, drinks,
and merch while at a festival.

1 Eventbrite research, Millennials: Fueling the Experience Economy - September 2014, Baby Boomer Trends -
January 2016.
2 Eventbrite research, Hardcore Festies: The Driving Force Behind Today’s Growth in Music Festivals

The Future of Festivals: 8 Trends You Need to Know 1

 Our research shows that 69% of festival-goers still carry cash, 47% have paid with a
credit card, 35% with a debit card, and only 17% with a wristband. However, nearly a
third (31%) would consider paying with a wristband if they had the option. And that’s
good news for your festival’s bottom line. Research shows that fans spend up to 20%
more onsite when they’re using RFID instead of cash.3

17% 47% 35% 69%

have paid with an have paid with a have paid with a have paid
RFID wristband credit card debit card with cash

“Research shows that fans spend up to 20% more onsite

when they’re using RFID instead of cash.”

Tap into this trend

If you’re not already offering your attendees multiple purchasing choices, you could
be missing out on part of your market. Worse, you could be ignoring a potential way to
delight your attendees.

There is another competitive advantage to RFID, by the way. You can use it to understand
how your attendees move throughout your festival. These sorts of metrics can give you
great insight into where attendees spend the most time and what they do there. This can
help you improve your festival experience every year — and make the most of your high-
traffic areas.

Trend #2
Instagram is amplifying
word of mouth
For superfans, casual festival-goers, and even first-time attendees, sharing what
they’re doing on social media is a key way to communicate with friends. And friends are
important: 83% of people say they completely or somewhat trust the recommendations
of friends and family.4 In fact, Eventbrite has found that 20% of traffic to events on our
platform comes from social media.5

3 Tour Tech, RFID Access Control: A Comparison of 7 Leading Technologies

4 Eventbrite research, Millennials: Fueling the Experience Economy - September 2014, Baby Boomer Trends -
January 2016
5 Eventbrite research, 9 Simple Steps to Master Social Media for Events

The Future of Festivals: 8 Trends You Need to Know 2

If you’re hoping to harness the power of social to sell more tickets, don’t underestimate
the power of Instagram. A 2016 study by TrackMaven showed that Instagram’s rate of
interaction is much higher than other social media platforms. On average, for every
1,000 followers an Instagram user has, between 50 and 70 of those followers interact
with each post the user makes.

Help your attendees show their friends what a great time they’re having at your event,
and you’ll grow your audience. Impress an attendee, and you can impress a friend — a
friend who might just show up next year. 6

Tap into this trend

You want people to share your festival while they’re enjoying it. Here are a few ways to
encourage even more social sharing among your attendees:

> Hashtags exclusive to your event help you brand it. They also encourage attendees
to share it. For the best results, create a short, memorable hashtag that includes your
event name. Keep in mind: The ideal length for a hashtag is just six characters.

> Of event-goers who typically use social media at a festival, 85% are likely to post a
photo to their feeds, and 62% are likely to post a video. Inspire them with visually
appealing artwork, installations, and scenery to inspire more snapshots. And make
sure your event logo is on everything!

> Take it up a notch and offer an on-site Instagram photo booth. This is a place where
attendees can print out paper copies of Instagram pics they’ve uploaded using your
event’s hashtag.

> Don’t forget about Snapchat. The number of Snapchat users is growing every day,
and nearly one out of five event-goers (17%) is likely use a festival’s Snapchat filter.

For more ideas about how to capitalize on social media marketing, check out 9 Simple
Steps to Master Social Media for Events.

Trend #3
Your attendees are hungry for more
In a recent Eventbrite 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.7 Millennials
drink more alcohol than any other generation before them. And more than half of them
consider themselves “foodies.”8

6 Smart Insights, “Global social media research summary 2016”

7 Eventbrite, “The Sweet Spot for Food Festival Pricing”
8 Distribution Property Solutions, Inc.: Millennials Drive Wine Consumption and
Futurecast: Millennial Marketing

The Future of Festivals: 8 Trends You Need to Know 3

 The more food and drink options your attendees have, the happier they’ll be. But there’s
a more strategic reason to offer food at your festival: 84% of food festival-goers are likely
to post pictures of food while at an event. That’s priceless social media marketing.9

There’s also good news for sponsors of food-based festivals: After attending a food
and beverage festival, a staggering 99% of millennials say they’d recommend a winery,
brewery, restaurant, or food purveyor afterward.10

Tap into this trend

Add to your festival by offering food-based entertainment. Engage your audience with
interactive formats like cooking demos or contests. If you want to go big, bring in a
celebrity chef or hire a popular local restaurant to cater.

But remember: While food is almost always welcomed by your attendees, be selective
about what you serve. It’s important to make sure your on-site food offerings are also
on brand. If your festival is positioned as family friendly or health conscious, classic or
classy, your food should reflect that. (Read our Ultimate Guide to Event Branding for
more on how you can better define and express your event’s brand.)

Trend #4
Location awareness is making even
large events feel personal
Location awareness technology will drive close to $44 billion in sales in the retail industry
this year.11 Event organizers are quickly realizing how relevant it is to their industry as
well. Location awareness technology can help you pinpoint beyond the most popular
stages, exhibits, booths, and sponsors at your festival.

How it works
Beacons are small wireless devices that transmit a radio signal. They are placed at strategic
points throughout your event. A virtual barrier called a geofence determines the radius the
beacon will reach. These invisible boundaries enable you to customize and differentiate areas
of your festival.

Then, you can communicate relevant messages to nearby attendees through their mobile
devices. For example, a mobile push notification can send a discount coupon to an attendee
about to walk by a live exhibition: “One-time only demo! Happening now!”

The Future of Festivals: 8 Trends You Need to Know 4

Aloompa, the leading provider of mobile event technology in the US, says that in 2015,
they saw opt-in rates for beacon technology shoot sky high: 80%. Proximity messages
had an average click rate of 30%, but that number shot up to 80% when exclusive
content or offers were pushed.12

Tap into this trend

Use location awareness technology to offer attendees exclusive content and special
deals as they wander through your festival. But don’t stop there. This technology can
also give great insight into where your attendees are spending the most time onsite.

Trend #5
Attendees are craving personalized,
unique experiences
The festival market is saturated, and competition is fierce, but audience demand
for unique live experiences is still very high. When we polled music festival-goers who
also frequent other types of festivals, 55% cited “uniqueness” as a major draw to
attend an event.13

Colleen Curlin of JASHFESHT, a brand-new grassroots comedy festival in Palm Springs,

has noted this trend at her own event. She says that “fans are interested in seeing
something totally unique that they can only experience at your event, that one-of-a-kind
moment that they can share and remember forever.” Creating a festival that fills a unique
niche is a great way to attract crowds hungry for new experiences.

According to Kimberly Moening, VP of experiential marketing agency Moening

Presentation Group, “Audiences want hands-on, personalized experiences now more
than ever.” When you focus on a niche, you make a specific group of people feel taken
care of. This might seem counterintuitive if you’re trying to grow your audience, but
remember the old adage “a jack of all trades is a master of none”? Be a master of your
niche, and you’ll be surprised at how many passionate followers you can gain.

Tap into this trend

To distinguish your festival in a saturated space, look for your niche. Attendees are drawn
to themed events like CUESA’s “Summer Cocktails of the Farmers Market” event and
Cannonball Production’s “Bacon & Beer Classic.” Millennials in particular look for unique

9 Eventbrite, “Millennials and the New Era of Food, Wine & Beer Festivals”
10 Eventbrite, “The Sweet Spot for Food Festival Pricing”
11 Forbes, “Beacon Technology: The Where, What, Who, How and Why”
12 Eventbrite, “The Buzz on Beacons: Introducing the Latest Festival Technology”
13 Eventbrite research, Hardcore Festies: The Driving Force Behind Today’s Growth in Music Festivals

The Future of Festivals: 8 Trends You Need to Know 5

combinations of themes that will make a festival stand out: art and wine, beer and
pingpong, film and cupcakes. Smaller niche festivals like this create an opportunity to
cater to attendees’ yearning for new and different experiences.

Trend #6
Year-round connection is
increasingly important
According to Kimberly Moening, attendees expect personalization and VIP treatment.
“And that doesn’t end when the event is over,” she says. “Companies are finally starting
to realize the importance of staying connected beyond the [event].”

Stay connected to attendees even during the offseason (if you have one). This builds on
the momentum you created at the event and gets them excited for next year.

Tap into this trend

There are now a lot of ways to stay connected to attendees long after the festival gates
have closed:

> Social media — With a little bit of imagination, there’s no end to the subject matter you
can mine throughout the year to post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Maker Faire, a gathering of crafters, tinkerers, and tech enthusiasts, takes place in
locations around the world, from Detroit to Beijing. There are currently eleven Maker
Faires each year, mostly scheduled for summer and fall. But even in the winter and
spring, Maker Faire’s social media presence is lively, with reminiscences of past events,
excitement about future events, and plenty of great curated content for the inventor in
all of us.

> Email — Following up after your event with a “thank you for coming” is certainly a nice
thing to do. Make it more tactical by emailing your audience a survey to help you make
next year’s event better, or a reward for being a loyal attendee. For instance, offer an
early-bird discount if they sign up for next year now.

> Smaller events throughout the year — Burning Man is an incredibly popular
event that happens every August in the remote desert of Nevada. Attendees are so
devoted to this event that entire subcultures have cropped up to keep the spirit alive
throughout the rest of the year. From the “Love Burn” in January in Miami, to the
“Western NY Burnal Equinox” in February, to Montreal’s “taBURNak!,” Burning Man
participants around the world stay connected and excited until they can get back to
“the playa” in the summer.

To amp up excitement around your festival, consider hosting smaller events

throughout the year that target your most avid fans. Encourage them to band together
as a community, invite friends to participate, and share how they celebrate year-round.

The Future of Festivals: 8 Trends You Need to Know 6

Trend #7
Virtual reality is getting augmented
Technology is transforming the event experience. This year, the Tribeca Film Festival
fused live and virtual events in several ways. They sold tickets to a Virtual Arcade where
some of the leading VR artists showcased their projects. Their Storyscapes exhibit
offered an immersive, experiential, and educational experience. It used technology to
raise awareness about important global social issues. In fact, while in 2012 the festival
offered 10 VR experiences, this year, that number was tripled.

Virtual reality creates an immersive, fantastical experience for a user in a static

environment. Augmented reality takes the concept a step further and overlays the user’s
actual reality with virtual images. The recent surge in popularity of Pokémon GO is just
one example of how popular augmented reality is becoming.

Colleen Curlin of JASHFESHT is intrigued by VR. “We’re excited about the possibility of
using VR to build a unique experience for both the performers and the fans of JASH,” she
says. For festival organizers, the possibilities of laying a virtual experience over an already
exciting reality are thrilling indeed.

Tap into this trend

Use virtual reality and augmented reality to deliver an experience your attendees can’t
get anywhere else. It doesn’t have to be an expensive investment, either. Take a page
from Coachella. In 2016, they sent ticket-holders inexpensive Google Cardboard VR
glasses in the mail. Then, they released a free virtual reality music app to go along with
the glasses.

Trend #8
Livestreams can help you grow
your festival
From Coachella to Dreamforce, livestreaming is taking the events industry by storm.
And for good reason: 30% of people who watch a livestreamed video will attend that
same event the following year. Live video isn’t just a cool feature for festival fans— it’s an
investment in your business.

Colleen Curlin of JASHFESHT says that she sees “festival programmers thinking about
the experience beyond the live event, including content for people at home. There is a
great opportunity to expand your audience beyond the live event and create experiences
for fans all over the world.”

The Future of Festivals: 8 Trends You Need to Know 7

You can also use livestreaming to make your on-site experience more enjoyable for
attendees. Coachella offers festival-goers who prefer to stay out of the crowd the option
to watch certain sets afar via live video.

Tap into this trend

If you’re interested in adding a livestream element to your festival this year, here are a
couple of things to keep in mind:

> To be effective, video must be high quality. According to Livestream’s research, 62% of
consumers are more likely to have a negative perception of a brand with a low-quality
video experience.14

> More and more people are watching video on the small screen (mobile devices and
tablets), so mobile optimization is a must.

To learn more about how you can use livestreaming to grow your event, check out this
on-demand webinar.

14 Livestream, “The Ultimate Guide to Livestreaming Events”

Take a step forward

Creating a dynamic, unique experience for your festival-goers is the best way to bring
crowds back year over year. By tapping into the eight trends driving festivals right now,
you’ll cultivate an experience your fans will never forget.

To learn more about how Eventbrite can help you put these trends to work, visit
www.eventbrite.com⁄blog⁄overview or give us a call at (866) 902-2531.

The Future of Festivals: 8 Trends You Need to Know 8

Powered three million events in 2017.
Eventbrite brings the world together through live experiences. More than 700,000 organizers
used Eventbrite in 2017 to drive ticket sales, promote and manage events, handle on-site
operations, and analyze results across multiple sales channels.

Grow your event

More than 200 million
tickets were issued in
2017.

Simplify your planning Impress your attendees

Promote, manage, and Delight with ease of
analyze your event purchase, convenient
from any device. ticket access, and
speedier entry.

Get started

Set up your next event

Read more

Contact Us