Trends you MUST know about

Festivals are nowadays more than only good music. Technology, marketing strategies and options to fill your festival with. It has all grown. We have selected a few trends which you need to know before organizing your next festival.

1. Crowdshaping

Organizing a festival is all about knowing what your target audience wants and wishes for. Through online data, festival organizers can now respond to the needs of their visitors. It's possible to get real-time date to adapt variables such as temperature, music genre, brightness of lights or temperature. How can you get this data? You can develop a check-in app where the visitors get questions about what you want to know at that moment.

An example is from Pepsi. They were the first ones to use crowdshaping. Prior to the festival, visitors got a wristband. This wristband registered the movements to find out which music was moving them. The DJ could use the data to adjust the music selection to the energy of the audience. In addition, the wristband also measured the body temperature of the visitors; this could be anticipated by lowering or increasing the thermostat. It was also possible to measure whether the volume was too loud for the public.

2. Food line-up

Foodtruck festivals are hot, but are decreasing. Why? Not only food trucks is enough anymore. People want a combination. Good food and good music. Think about your food line-up at your music festival, because that's important to the consumers.

3. Cashless pay sysytem

It's still in it's child shoes, but 2018 was the year where there was plenty of experimenting with it: cashless pay system. But what is it? Cashless pay system is a way where people don't need to use their cash or debit card to pay drinks, food or merchandise at your festival. Visitors of the festival get a bracelet with a RFID card. They can put money on their wristband and easily scan it through RFID when they buy something.

A few benefits are:

• Real-time sales reporting for complete control

• Dramatically reduced queuing and transaction times at bars and vendors outlets

• Cost savings from carriage, security and administration of cash

• A safer, more convenient way to transact at events

• People tend to spend more money

Interested? Get to know more about RFID in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktIFAXR7BSM

4. Selfie experience

People attend festivals to express themselves and social media is a way to let their network know who they are and what they're doing. Sharing on social media is a thing, and it's not new. Sometimes festival organizers still forget to encourage their visitors to share their experience on social media. So what to do? Make a experience booth, corner or pop-up where your customers can make amazing pictures to share with their friends.

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Sources:

Cooper, K (June 2018) How to use crowdshaping at an event to boost engagement

https://helloendless.com/crowdshaping-at-an-event/

Eventbranche (June 2018) Festivalseizoen 2018: trends & ontwikkelingen

https://www.eventbranche.nl/nieuws/festivalseizoen-2018-trends-ontwikkelingen-15312.html

Bano (n.d.) Trends in Events 2018

https://bano.nl/trends-in-events-2018/

ID&C (n.d.) RFID Integration

https://www.idcband.com/rfid-applications/

Kershaw, M (December 2017) 5 Event Trends That Will Shape 2018

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/blog/event-trends-2018-ds0c/