The value of Data for Music Festival Producers
Live music festivals are a multi-billion dollar industry with a ton of competitors in the market. Some of these competitors include EDC, E-Zoo, Ultra, Bonnaroo, Governor’s Ball, Coachella, and StageCoach. So how do they distinguish themselves to attract patrons and sell tickets? The answer may surprise you — Data! Big surprise huh. But what data do music festivals collect?
LINEUP
The most expensive and crucial cost that will make or break a music festival is the lineup. To put together a lineup that will attract festival-goers, music festivals need to know the following data:
- Demographics (age and gender)
- Interests and tastes of the demographic
- What artist or music groups are popular among those demographics
- The location of the festival
Music festivals gather this data from previous years’ festivals or 3rd party sources such as but not limited to Spotify, apple music, and sound cloud.
SPONSORS
Other than sales, sponsorships are a big source of income for music festivals. Having the right sponsor represent the festival’s demographic can help attract loyal patrons/customers. How do music festivals choose the right sponsors? Most music festivals use a Data Management Platform (DMP) which allows them to gain insights on behaviors, engagements, and loyalty of their demographics. Now, most of this data has been collected from previous music festivals or 3rd party brands. Since brands pay hefty amounts to music festivals the same data can be used to pitch to sponsors on why they should sponsor your music festival
FOOD & BEV VENDORS
Music & food are like Cheech & Chong, both go hand and hand. Another way festivals make revenue is the food and beverages (non-adult and adult) that are being sold. Most festivals ask local favorites to sell at their festival. But what data is needed to find who is a favorite? As mentioned before some festivals use RFID bracelets that can be used to attach a credit card and just tap your way around all the eats. Which data analysts could then find the most popular vendors by sales and heatmaps.
EXPERIENCE
So we have our lineup, sponsors, and good food but how does the festival feel? What differentiates a festival from the other? Some festivals have created an app for their festival which is used in conjunction with a beacon to track where in the festival patrons move. Other festivals use RFID wristbands (which are usually given with your ticket to gain entrance to the festival). Both forms track where patrons enter/exit, what time of the day they visit stages, what vendors are visited the most, and what time of the day bathrooms are the busiest. All this data is mapped out on a heatmap to better make use of resources and create a layout for the next festival.
RFIDs and beacons are also used to collect and analyze data so festivals can cluster you into 1 of 3 categories: casual (attends 1 or 2 festival /year), moderate (attends 3 to 5 festival/year) and hardcore festival-goers(6 or more festivals per year) and then personalize your experience according to which category you fall into. If you fall into the hardcore festival goer cluster there is a high probability that an individual will be sent discounted upgraded VIP tickets or discounted merch. It’s the equivalent of loyalty points for a specific store or brand. There are so many festivals that go on per year that the experience portion of the festival is essential to retaining patrons for the next year being that most festivals happen once a year.
With the growth of technology, more specifically social media has been included in the experience as well. Festivals collect performance of hashtags, positive and negative comments, and how often the festival appeared on the platform. All this data is collected and analyzed to enhance the following year's festival experience.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Now at home, we flush our problems away and forget about them. Now imagine the waste of 20,000 people in a 3-day festival. Hard to flush that one and forget about it huh. Well, one of the biggest concerns after a festival is finished is what do you do with all the waste (includes, human waste, cutlery, plates, clothing, plastics, metals, and random objects)? Well believe it or not some festivals have started to collect data on waste by means of going through every single trash can. They collect data on the most common things that people leave behind and make plans for the following year to streamline the waste operation.
One person’s waste is another’s treasure. Festivals have found genius ways to recycle and reuse all sorts of waste left behind after the experience is over. For example, most plates and cutlery sold at music festivals are compostable which means along with human waste and food we can also use the plates as compost. Another example is festivals have found that festival-goers like to leave cigarette butts (an exuberant amount) behind. So what did they do when they collected the data they gave out portable ashtrays and created a carnival-like game in which the people were able to get free merch according to the weight of cigarette butts that have been collected.
CONCLUSION
All in all the speed and quality that festivals collect data over a 1 to 3 day period is extremely valuable to create a memorable experience that will keep festival-goers chasing PLUR.
