A trio of expert panellists offered tips on how festivals can keep pace with the changing expectations and demands of Generation Z in a discussion on the final day of the 2024 International Festival Forum (IFF) in London.

Emily Anatole of United Talent Agency and Mika Christofferson of Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, plus Ella McWilliam of PR and creative communications agency Full Fat each gave presentations in the Changing Demand: Couch surfing to crowd surfing session moderated by TicketSwap’s Oscar Kriek.

Anatole, who leads cultural insights at UTA IQ, the company’s data, research and client strategy division, began by detailing the results of a recent study that showed Generation Z’s motivations for attending festivals.

“They are experiencing the loneliness epidemic at the highest rates of all generations, which correlates with their highest levels of digital connectivity,” she explained. “Seventy-nine percent of US Gen Zs feel lonely, according to a study from Cigna. This, in turn, makes the in-person connection and community that festivals provide all the more important to them, so festivals that really emphasise this and that can still feel intimate – even if they are mass in scale – are especially appealing to them.”

Anatole noted that Gen Z is “experience-oriented”, crediting it with contributing to the rise of music tourism.

“When you take the experience of festivals and their love of travel, we found that they feel that it maximises benefits and the best of both worlds,” she continued. “That’s not to say they aren’t going to festivals close to home. But among Gen Z music festival attendees, one in two of them agree that festivals are an excuse to travel, so it’s an impetus to book a trip.”

“While they are going big in terms of what they want out of festivals and their willingness to travel far, they aren’t partying as hard as other generations”

Alcohol consumption was another talking point, with Anatole citing research that US Gen Z’s have been found to drink 20% less booze per capita than millennials.

“While they are going big in terms of what they want out of festivals and their willingness to travel far, they aren’t partying as hard as other generations,” she said. “This sober curiosity tendency is translating over to festivals: they are spending a lot of money and want to be fully present and enjoy the experience – and festivals are increasingly responding to their desire for expectations on site that are zero or low alcohol.

“They’re also looking for wellness, beyond drinking less, just in terms of festivals having this as an amenity overall. This is a far cry from the past, where people would go to festivals, party hard, put their health on the back burner and then be really worn down afterwards. Instead, Gen Zs want to go to festivals to not just maintain their healthy habits, but to improve upon them mentally and physically. So we’re seeing a lot of festivals with more offerings in this vein.”

Moreover, Gen Z-ers also expect festivals to align with their values in terms of championing diversity, inclusivity and sustainability.

“Gen Zs, typically in the US, are the most multicultural generation, and about half are non-white, so it makes sense that they’re looking to be represented on the stages that they go to,” said Anatole. “And just as they support brands and organisations that champion diversity and inclusivity, they vote with their wallets for festivals that do so as well. We’re seeing this actually impact the lineups – in 2023, it was the first time that a major US festival like Lollapalooza had a K-pop artist as a headliner – and this past year at Coachella they had more Latin artists than ever before.”

Anatole added that six in 10 Gen Z festivalgoers were attending with the purpose of discovering new artists.

“This is a generation that really takes pride in being the first to discover something, to share it with others, to be in the know.” she said. “So they’re going to festivals not just to know all the names on the lineup, but to be there and see an artist first before everyone else.”

“Don’t just start your campaign off when your first announcement happens, make sure you’re communicating with your audiences throughout the whole year”

In her talk, Christoffersen, Roskilde’s head of DEI and behaviour, further outlined the audience’s increased expectations.

“They are expecting more from the festival: more comfort, safe spaces and the art as a tool for change,” she said. “The level of information that we have to provide is way higher than what it was with millennials, and that’s going to be a barrier to entry for a lot of the Gen Z if they can’t find that information.

“We are seeing an increase in the no alcohol space, especially in alcohol-free beers. We’re also seeing an increase in caffeine products because what are you going to do when you’re not drinking alcohol? You still want to party all night. You’re doing the mate green teas, those kind of products with lots of caffeine but low sugar. That’s the niche product that we’re seeing.”

McWilliam, meanwhile, urged events not to limit their promotion to certain points of the year.

“Don’t just start your campaign off when your first announcement happens, make sure you’re communicating with your audiences throughout the whole year,” she stressed. “As soon as you finish your festival, you should be working towards communicating for next year’s event.”

The agency co-founder and CEO also tackled the effectiveness of utilising influencers around event marketing, saying it comes down to “authenticity and trust”.

“This is a question we get asked all the time, do influencers even work? And actually done right, they definitely do,” she said. “There’s definitely an art form to it. Sixty-nine percent of consumers trust what influencers and recommend. That is a widely recognised statistic, and it’s growing. And actually, people are buying from their influencers – people they see online, people that they trust, that they follow – and so they cannot be ignored.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

Major agents and festival promoters at this week’s International Festival Forum (IFF) in London agreed that 2023 has given them much cause for optimism but have warned there are issues to overcome.

Last-minute artist cancellations, rising ticket and production costs, decreasing numbers of Generation Z attendees, and severe weather conditions remain huge hurdles to clear, as the industry looks ahead to 2024 and beyond.

The conversation went underway at IFF (International Festival Forum) during the event’s opening panel ‘The Festival Season’, which featured Alex Bruford (ATC Live, UK), Pavla Slivova (Colours of Ostrava, Czech Republic), and Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio, Germany), with Yourope’s Christof Huber (Switzerland) moderating the discussion.

“Though 2022 brought about a lot of excitement with everything coming back to a semblance of normality, I’d say that there’s been a gap where we’ve seen a generation not accustomed to attending festivals due to the pandemic,” Slivova said, who has seen two out of the four headliners for this year’s Colours of Ostrava cancel their performances at the last minute. “In my opinion, there needs to be a change in marketing. What worked in 2019 or 2022 isn’t working this year, so we need to refocus our attention on what Gen Z finds attractive these days.”

While Bruford cited the consistent turnouts at the Reading & Leeds Festivals as examples of younger audiences still flocking towards such extravaganzas, he agreed with Slivova when it comes to thinking about what would appeal more to that particular demographic. “There were a number of festivals that struggled with attracting the Gen Z crowd, who aren’t gravitating towards more hedonistic activities than previous generations,” he said. “We need to have a collective think about what an actual festival means to them, and what’s appealing and appropriate to today’s young people.”

“What worked in 2019 or 2022 isn’t working this year, so we need to refocus our attention on what Gen Z finds attractive”

One big issue this year was the inevitable increase in production costs, causing a knock-on effect through the rise of ticket prices. Despite overseeing a successful year, Thanscheidt pointed out that festivals aren’t finding it easy these days to make any profit. “Costs are a major problem at the moment,” he explained. “There’s a limit that a lot of fans would pay to attend festivals nowadays, so we’ve had to advertise better camping and VIP experiences to entice more people into coming,” also adding that sponsorship backing isn’t the same as it was before the pandemic. “Keeping ticket prices under control while maintaining profit margins at the same time is proving extremely difficult right now.”

Despite the panel’s unanimous agreement that festivals need a more accessible approach when pricing tickets, Mojo Concerts’ Eric van Eerdenberg (Netherlands) — who was among today’s panel attendees — pointed out a potential issue that could arise from such measures. “I think that when you have a low ticket price, there will always be secondary markets pushing prices up again and making a profit,” he said. “It’s very difficult to get a grip on it.”

A major topic of discussion today was how severe weather has negatively impacted festivals across Europe, with Wacken Open Air suffering major losses after being forced to send nearly 20,000 fans home due to inhospitable surroundings. “The whole ground looked like Mordor from the Lord of the Rings movies,” said Wacken’s head booker Jan Quiel. “It was heartbreaking having to send so many people home. That was even worse than having to cancel due to COVID. We also incurred a heavy financial loss due to the additional costs we paid to have an extra campground to host more shows.”

While the panel agreed that more measures were needed to ensure safety in preparation for extreme weather conditions, Slivova added that festivals in the Czech Republic aren’t covered for such situations. “We have liability insurance for things like steady rain, for example, so it can cover some costs. But by and large, we aren’t insured for bad weather, unfortunately.”

Such concerns will always be in the back of agents and festival bookers’ minds, but 2023 has already proven to be a mostly successful post-COVID year in a lot of aspects. “Compared to last year, 2023 has seen more experienced crew and staff, logistics are a lot easier now than they were last year, and global headliners are combining their tours with festival performances,” Bruford said, with Thanscheidt adding that he’s relieved that people are having fun again after a hellacious 2022. “Nobody had fun last year, so seeing that people are having fun organising such immense projects has been great.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.

American company Shutterfly has released the results of a survey it commissioned in which a thousand Generation Z Americans were asked which songs they would preserve for future generations in a time capsule.

The results are a mixture of easily anticipated number one hits and some more unexpected choices and reflect the musical landscape Gen Z – people born in the mid-1990s and early 2000s – have grown used to. Shutterfly also surveyed a number of people outside of Gen Z, and the differences are somewhat noticeable between the ages.

Here is what Gen Z believe the future needs to hear:

1. This is America – Childish Gambino (41.03%)
2. Shape of You – Ed Sheeran (34.62%)
3. Despacito – Luis Fonsi (29.49%)
4. Happy – Pharrell (23.08%)
5. Shake it Off – Taylor Swift (19.23%)
6. Hello – Adele (19.23%)
7. Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen (16.67%)
8. Hotline Bling – Drake (14.10%)
9. Chandelier – Sia (12.82%)
10. Bad and Boujee – Migos (11.54%)
11. Formation – Beyonce (11.54%)
12. Uptown Funk – Bruno Mars (10.26%)
13. Body like a Back Road – Sam Hunt (10.26%)
14. Sorry – Justin Bieber (7.69%)
15. Love me Like you do – Ellie Goulding (7.69%)
16. Tennessee Whiskey – Chris Stapleton (6.41%)
17. Bang Bang – Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj (6.41%)
18. Black Beatles – Rae Sremmurd (5.13%)

And here is what all the survey respondents, regardless of age, want to preserve:

1. Happy – Pharrell (33.67%)
2. Hello – Adele (32.87%)
3. Uptown Funk – Bruno Mars (26.79%)
4. Shape of You – Ed Sheeran (24.50%)
5. Shake it Off – Taylor Swift (24.00%)
6. Despacito – Luis Fonsi (17.43)
7. This is America – Childish Gambino (17.03)
8. Tennessee Whiskey – Chris Stapleton (14.34%)
9. Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen (13.65%)
10. Sorry – Justin Bieber (10.16%)
11. Formation – Beyonce (8.96%)
12. Chandelier – Sia (8.57%)
13. Body like a Back Road – Sam Hunt (8.47%)
14. Love me Like you do – Ellie Goulding (8.17%)
15. Hotline Bling – Drake (6.08%)
16. Bang Bang – Jessie J, Ariana Grande & Nicki Minaj (4.58%)
17. Bad and Boujee – Migos (4.48%)
18. Black Beatles – Rae Sremmurd (2.49%)

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.