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.”

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Amsterdam-based fan-to-fan ticket marketplace TicketSwap is expanding its leadership team with two senior hires ‘in anticipation of strong demand’ for live music this summer.

Margriet Rijff joins the company as COO and Oscar Kriek takes on the newly-created position head of business strategy.

Rijff was formerly a senior executive at beauty booking platform Treatwell, where she helped grow the platform in 11 countries through launches, mergers and acquisitions.

As COO of TicketSwap, Rijff will oversee operations across all markets from the Netherlands to Brazil and facilitate the platform’s ‘aggressive expansion’.

“I am very pleased to be joining such a talented team with an amazing culture,” says Rijff. “The company has great potential to help music fans and event organisers. I’m particularly excited to help TicketSwap grow internationally, and make buying and selling second hand tickets easy, transparent and safe around the globe.”

“We have consolidated in order to get through the last year. Now, as events start to pick up, we are stepping up”

Under the role of head of business strategy, Kriek will bring a wealth of knowledge to further enhance the data, insight and services TicketSwap can offer its partners.

Kriek is a mainstay in the Dutch music industry and has experience working with artists, events, venues and most recently in business strategy at See Tickets Benelux.

In addition, he leads the Tech Programme for Amsterdam Dance Event, bringing in various high profile thought leaders over the years such as the CTO of Amazon.

“It’s great to have Margriet and Oscar on board,” says TicketSwap co-founder and CEO Hans Ober.

“Like so many in the live entertainment space, we have consolidated in order to get through the last year. Now, as events start to pick up, we are stepping up. Margriet and Oscar bring a wealth of experience running and expanding international businesses. Together they will really help us forge ahead in our mission of becoming the world’s favourite place to buy and sell tickets.”

The two senior hires signal a rebuild for the Dutch ticket marketplace after making redundant 30% of its workforce in May 2020 due to the financial impact of the coronavirus.

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