Is the Festival Industry Killing your Festival Vibes?

What motivates you to attend a festival? An artist? Or do you get a message from your friend?

What makes your festival experience unforgettable? Maybe a unique performance complemented with a stellar production? Or maybe it’s an intimate moment you shared with your significant other?

These questions and more are what festival organizers ask fans and themselves when curating a festival and are the key talking points at the upcoming FestForums in Santa Barbara from Nov. 16-18. This bi-annual gathering of key players who drive the future of the entertainment industry will feature panels, industry-specific activations, boot camps, and networking opportunities with a deeply diverse set of leaders within the film, music, food, and beverage ecosystems.

Why am I excited?

Hello, I’m Oscar Voigt. I handle festival partnerships here at Everfest and happen to also be a managing partner and marketing director at Euphoria Music Festival in Austin, Tx, but more importantly - I’m a self-proclaimed festival evangelist and festival expert who’s spent over 10,000 hours at festivals. I’m excited because I wish I had a panel of experts like “Disco” Donnie (Something Wicked, Sun City, and Sunset) and Max Wagner (North Coast Music Festival, Riot Fest, Suwannee, & Hulaween) discussing the logistics on how-to launch and skillfully executing a festival before relying solely on a passion for festivals to drive my curiosity in the early years of Euphoria. FestForums is a must for aspiring festival organizers.  

Having gotten my first taste for the fest life at the Berlin Love Parade in 2006 raving with half a million people, I feel festivals combine the visceral experience of adventure and spontaneous play which exists in sharp contrast to more predictable entertainment environments. The more immersive and participatory a festival’s environment is, the more transformational, which in turn expedites relationship growth and personal development. It’s no wonder people say, “I Want To Live In A Music Festival Forever!”

BUT is the festival vibe slowly dying?

This is the question I want answered at FestForums and no, I’m not referring to the Darwin Award honorable mentions who climb random things at festivals like this genius at Field Day or this dude at Reading Festival forcing authorities to abruptly stop your festival groove.

If we look back at the 2017 festival season - the trust between a festival and their fans has been broken far too often lately which was further explored by Everfest’s Ross Gardiner, here.  We’ve seen a plethora of cancellations because of financial mismanagement, extreme weather, lack of interest, fire, or a horrible PR missteps by numerous fan favorite festivals and shiny new ones like Mysteryland USA, Y Not (seriously, check out these comments), Fyre Festival, Pemberton, Sound On Sound, Apple Music Festival, Houston Open Air, Karoondinha - you get the point. External factors aside, the genericness and regurgitation of top-tier headliners, cookie-cutter production, and a noisy advertising landscape, has lead to a crowding of similar competing festivals marketing the same experience the same exact way to the same audience.

Maybe festivals have become too transactional? I’d rather spend my money on experiences rather than physical things but festival tickets have gotten so expensive that some of my friends have prioritized them over responsibilities like rent. Massive music festival have taken it further by capitalized on auxiliary revenue stream under the mask of adding value to an attendee's experience, like food trucks, workshops, merchandise, showers, off-site after parties, and concierge services. Brands in the form of sponsorships have wiggled their way into festival culture offering activations fulfilling needs based on a modernized version of Maslow’s Pyramid offering WiFi, chargers, or free swag (Examples). RFIDs and various Cashless options make it much easier and quicker to spend money at festivals. Is the monetization of the commonality that brought attendees together taking away the freedom inherent at a festival? Or maybe the inflating cost of artists has forced producers to seek revenue elsewhere?

The unfortunate festival tragedies in Paris, Manchester, Mexico, and at the Route 91 Harvest Festival will have unprecedented effects on the live-event industry with ACL having felt the earliest ripple effects by opening refunds for those who did not feel safe. So, maybe it the attendee’s legitimate concerns for safety? Here’s the theoretical cause and effect: the larger the festival, the greater the liability of the mass gathering, the more security, the more intrusive and unfavorable the conditions are, and finally the magic of festival vibes and community slowly die. While I make sure to check the “prohibited items” list before entering a festival, I can usually count on hearing my girlfriend ushering a sigh of annoyance when she cannot bring in some type of makeup, but I’m still understanding since I know that cops are primarily there for crowd control and not to kill my vibe. This is such a big concern that FestForums has a dedicated panel featuring David Buttrey (Tortuga Music Festival) that looks at risk reduction and explores solutions and another one addressing how to handle mass tragedies.

I do not have a straight answer if our festival vibes are safe, but I have no doubt festival fans will correct any missteps and I hope to learn more at FestForums. In the meantime:  

• Ooze festival vibes yourself - it’s infection!
• Don’t be an a**hole and be that one person who ruins it for others.
• Stay safe and if you see something say something.
• Support new, local festivals that celebrate a common interest or hobby.
• Give a festival feedback.

The Future?

Do not misconstrue my almost pessimistic analysis for a lack of hope in the festival industry, I just care so deeply that I want to rip the band-aid off and address issues head-on. For one, I have high hopes (as does FestForums) for small-scale boutique festivals that aim to be distinguishable by carving out a niche or promoting some form of offering which is meaningful and attractive to a prospective attendee and as such can be said to be imbued with imagery associated with intensified sensations, escape, and commonality. Festival like Day for Night that have a political ethos have seen sharp increases in engagement online, regionally specific festivals like NOLA’s Mardi Gras still have healthy growth, festivals celebrating a specific genre of music like Dreamstate or Lost Lands are doing extremely well, cannabis festivals are popping up everywhere proof by Everfest’s expanding cannabis list and branded festivals like Cannabis Cup and Enchanted Forest, and eSports festivals like Dreamhack are drawing larger crowds.  

Oscar’s Favorite Panels  

Below are a few panels I am really looking forward to:

CANNABIS AT FESTIVALS: THE 411 ON 420: With cannabis legal in more states than ever but with the Feds breathing down those states backs, how does cannabis fit into the festival industry?

TICKETING: THE NEW MODEL: The advances in ticketing, RFID, marketing tools and analytics are fast and furious. But what matters most to your audience? The ability to purchase tickets and get on site quickly.

PURPOSEFUL FESTIVALS AND THE ADAPTING FESTIVAL CULTURE: What is making an impact now in the festival space? We explore the techniques that festival directors are deploying amongst growing concerns that festivals have become too transactional.

TICKETING & TECHNOLOGY: WHERE ARE WE NOW? Ticketing is a part of the eco-system of the festival experience. Festivals are a community event and the technology solutions are in large part of the full circle participation between patrons, staff and the artists. Additionally, when staff make up 20% of the festival attendance, what part do they play when the technology breaks down and all hands are “on deck”?

FESTIVAL BOOTCAMP: HOW TO START, GROW AND PROMOTE YOUR NEW FESTIVAL! Top industry professionals discuss the logistics of every facet of starting and running a festival- from permitting, budgeting, and organizing, to staffing and event production.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET: START SPREADING THE NEWS! Want to build the hype for your festival or event? Some of the tools in the toolbox include social & traditional media, content marketing, analytics, branding, identity, ambassadors and great planning.

WOMEN IN THE ARTS MAKING A DIFFERENCE