Study: 1 in 4 people attend festivals sober
Streaming platform Cloud Cover Music has examined the changes in music festival experiences across the United States over the last few decades in a new survey asking respondents about sobriety, drug intake, sex, memorable acts and life-changing experiences.
The study finds that 24% of those surveyed reported being sober at music festivals. Alcohol consumption at festivals has been higher in the past decade than previously, rising from 64% in the noughties to 71%.
The survey finds that festivalgoers in the 1980s were more likely to consume marijuana or hard drugs, witness violence and rioting, have sex and witness nudity at a festival than they are now. 83% of attendees in that same decade described festivals as life-changing, compared to 53% in the 90s, 62% in the noughties and 65% now.
Burning Man consistently proved to be the least sober event, with 45% of festivalgoers saying they drank alcohol and consumed a mixture of drugs at the event
82% of respondents stated that Woodstock 1969 was life-changing, making it the most impactful music festival on the survey. However, the festival had only 17 survey respondents. Ultra Music Festival was voted the second most life-changing music festival with 78%, followed by Electric Daisy Carnival (75%) and Burning man (73%).
Burning Man consistently proved to be the least sober event, with 45% of festivalgoers saying they drank alcohol and consumed a mixture of drugs at the event. The results coincide with secondary ticketer TickPick’s survey of drug consumption at festivals last year. In contrast, 72% of respondents say they did not consume any substances at Warped Tour.
Across genres and festivals, Red Hot Chili Peppers were ranked the most memorable act at music festivals, with Jane’s Addiction, Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Tiësto also making the top five.
The full study can be read here.
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TickPick acquires ticketing search aggregator Rukkus
After enjoying a period of ‘aggressive growth’, TickPick has announced the acquisition of a significant portion of ticketing aggregation service Rukkus. The deal will give TickPick access to the company’s state-of-the-art app features.
Since its creation in 2014, Rukkus has allowed consumers to search across a number of the US’s largest ticket sellers to find the best value prices for various sports and entertainment events. The company boasts some 300,000 customers, a million website visitors and a further million app downloads.
The idea of getting customers the best value tickets possible is shared by new owner TickPick. The New York-based business has a no-fees approach which, alongside algorithms that consider price vs value, aims to give customers a good deal on what it calls the often exploitative secondary ticketing market.
Besides sharing the same value for money-based philosophy, the highlight of TickPick’s acquisition of Rukkus is the use of its high-definition 360-degree seat view feature. After conducting research that concluded first-person seat views were important to some 90% of secondary ticket buyers, Rukkus developers spent a year working to create its Seat360 technology. The service gives ticket-buyers a virtual reality panorama look at the venue from their prospective seat.
“We’re continuing our growth path by making smart acquisitions, developing partnerships and constantly improving our technology
Manick Bhan, CEO and CTO of Rukkus, suggested last year in IQ’s European Arena Yearbook that the feature was “the single biggest innovation in the ticket-buying space since the first seat map was introduced.” The technology has since lived up to expectations: since the introduction of Seat360 functionality to Rukkus’ app, the company has sold more than US$100 million worth of tickets.
Under the new deal, Seat360 will be integrated into TickPick’s platform and users of the Rukkus app will be redirected to TickPick’s website when making purchases. The deal has been labelled a smart move by TickPick co-CEO Brett Goldberg. “Rukkus brought in several hundred thousand valuable customers, and they also built a very impressive seat-view capability that is much more immersive than the ‘virtual’ views offered by many of our competitors.
“We’re continuing our growth path by making smart acquisitions, developing partnerships, and constantly improving our technology for the industry’s best customer experience.”
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