ILMC 37: Festival heads weigh up changing tastes

Top European festival organisers came together at ILMC 37 to discuss the changing tastes of festival fans and how their events are vying to stand out in an increasingly competitive live music market.

Moderator Alex Bruford, ATC Live (UK), was joined by Jim King, AEG Presents (UK), Virag Csiszar, Sziget (HU), Jana Posth, Rock am Ring (DE) and Ben Ray, Slam Dunk (UK) for Festival Focus: Survive & Thrive.

The session kicked off with a health check on the festival market at large, with panellists agreeing that the sector is in flux and still facing some challenges. While rising costs and artist fees are ongoing concerns among organisers, a newer hurdle is the “festivalisation” of concerts and the competition that poses to traditional festivals.

Rock am Ring’s Posth used Adele’s blockbuster residency in Munich as an example: “It wasn’t just a concert – you could spend the whole day there like you would with a festival. People obviously really like this in-between of festival and concert.”

In addition to a pop-up stadium, the Munich site featured Adele World: an area the size of a small festival, with a recreation of lost Kilburn (London) venue The Good Ship, a fairground, and live performances including a Spice Girls tribute group, for pre-event and after-hours fun.

“Younger people are not really interested in the whole [six-day] package anymore”

Discussing whether younger music fans prefer a one-day event to a multi-day festival, Sziget’s Csiszar noted a change in ticket-buying behaviour for the Budapest-based event. “Younger people are not really interested in the whole [six-day] package anymore,” she said. “We try to convince them to not only come for specific artists but to enjoy the whole experience and to provide exciting stuff.”

However, King – who promotes festivals such as All Points East, BST Hyde Park and Lido – argued that both single-day and multi-day festivals have their place for Gen-Z but that a strong identity is key.

“They’re two different things and they’re both relevant but they should be marketed differently,” he said. “You’re trying to create a different environment, and I think it’s important to achieve that.”

Ray, who promotes the one-day pop-punk, emo, metal and ska-themed festival Slam Dunk, said that attracting new audiences isn’t much of an issue due to the event’s brand and format.

“Luckily, we get a lot of repeat business,” he told delegates. “Being a specialist festival, people that are really into that music attend year after year. They will go to Slam Dunk a lot older than they would do a camping festival.”

“Expectations for camping are a lot higher now, it has to be more than a tent and some grass”

Indeed, greenfield festivals have been stepping up their camping offering to attract the newer generation of festivalgoers. Last month, Reading & Leeds announced details of a ‘historic overhaul’ to its camping offering, unveiling five new campsites featuring a range of improvements, experiences and complimentary add-ons.

Rock am Ring has also updated its camping site, with Posth adding: “Expectations for camping are a lot higher now, it has to be more than a tent and some grass.”

Expectations of food and beverage at festivals have also changed, according to Posth: “It’s true, the younger ones don’t drink as much – I can see this. And they’re also more focused on healthy food, which influences that aspect of the festival. In Germany, you cannot just offer fries and sausages and pizza.”

Though bar-spend may be less among Gen-Z customers, King said there are plenty of other revenue opportunities associated with that generation. “I think you’ve got to understand what your business model is and be flexible with it, especially if you’re going to nine headliners across a festival like BST,” he said. “Our sponsorship numbers are the best we’ve ever seen for every single show that we do and they extend even further when we get into the Gen-Z audience.”

The panel also said that the availability of A-list artists is still an issue for their festivals, though some are looking to the next generation of headliners to fill the gap.

“Our sponsorship numbers are the best we’ve ever seen for every single show that we do”

“It’s always been really hard to find the right six headliners in August – especially because we set expectations high after having Prince and Rihanna,” said Csiszar. “It’s been tough but we managed to secure a really strong lineup of young artists this year [including Chappell Roan and Charli XCX] and I’m really happy to see them reaching this level already.”

King responded: “We’ve got our youngest-ever BST lineup this year and I struggle to think of a time that there were so many young headliners – Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan. We have made a conscious decision to contemporise our lineups.”

However, the discrepancy in artist fees for touring and festivals is the single biggest issue for festivals according to the AEG Presents veteran.

“You go back five, maybe seven, years ago and there was a marked difference between a major outdoor show where you have concessions – and therefore other forms of revenue – and a concert,” King told delegates.

“Now parties can make much more from headline shows and that’s become a major challenge to the festival industry, which is trying to secure that level of artists so you can’t compete against that.”

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