Spent the day at the UK Festival Conference yesterday, very interesting day with all the key players from across the industry together. A two minute summary/key points list around the different sessions below:

The Crime Busters

• Partnership between festival organisers, security teams and the police is working very well with lots of up front intelligence.
• Online ticket scams remain an issue, educate the ticket buyers
• Festivals are very safe with much lower crime rates than typical towns and cities
• One area of concern is organised criminals targeting smaller festivals now that the big festivals have well developed crime prevention

Non-Ticketed Events Should Be Banned

• Overall opinion was heavily in favour of ‘No’ but with some strong points (below)
• They must be organised by professional, experienced event management companies
• Understanding the environment, location, draw, capacity, contingency factors are all paramount
• Licence granters must not be the organisers

Best Practice for Leveraging Brand Activity at Festivals Without Selling Out

• Expect another year of reducing budgets
• Move is much more towards ‘experiential’ (hate that word) i.e. tangible benefit to attendees
• It’s now more than just the attendees, it’s the whole position of the event within the market (especially online) with an appreciation of the broader number of followers
• Looking for year round association, not just the few days of the event

UK Festival Market Report 2010

• Market still growing, although exact data hard to define (approx 700 festivals)
• PRS, Government Policy & Policing costs all possible issues
• Average age of festival goers 31, average age of ‘first timer’ 18
• Average spend £363 (inc ticket)
• Average attendance 2.1 festivals pa
• Biggest ‘downers’ – bands that clash, cost of food and drink
• Reasons for choosing – line-up, being with friends, organisation
• More of – cashless payment, Wi-Fi, festival information and of course toilets.

Making Your Festival More Profitable

• Big variance and issue around policing costs, no easy answer
• Focus on the bottom line from day 1!
• Build and grow in a controlled fashion – you will not get 50,000 people in year 1!
• Build partnerships and trust with suppliers, who grow with your festival

Battle of the Bands

• Promoters want the cost of bands to come down, agencies want then to go up!
• Market is changing now that a bands primary income is touring/festivals rather than album sales
• Many bands are on the road continuously leading to a ‘staleness’, hence more reunion bands as they are attractive as they haven’t been on the road for a few years
• It’s not all about the headliners, increasingly it’s about the whole festival experience and ‘like minded’ attendees

Dispatches from the Field

• It isn’t easy getting to the top, there is no quick route other than a lot of hard work and a true passion for festivals!