We were honoured to have Kristy, 18 years old, as our intern for a day. Since she is interested in the music and events industries, we decided to ask her what young people are looking for when they attend a festival. Her answers offer you leads for good practices to explore.
Contents
- Carefully curate your programming
- Highlighting your theme
- Bank on the variety of the overall experience
- Provide the best welcome
- Stay connected to your attendees
1. Carefully curate your programming
When asked how she picks what to attend among all the festivals next summer, Kristy first takes a look at the programming. It’s a fairly classic attitude, but how can we know which music appeals to young people? The first step would be to look at music streaming platforms to find out what the current trends are. Since 26% of Spotify users are under the age of 24, the popular artists on these platforms will generally be known to young people.
For an event planners wishing to do more advanced research, Kristy recommends taking a look at the musical influencers most followed by young people. To do this, an event planner can look at platforms such as Youtube or Instagram. It’s also important to know that young people are no longer really concerned with musical genres, as they navigate just as much as artists between different musical genres. This, therefore, has an impact on their expectations in terms of programming.
2. Promote your theme
A good way to appeal to a younger crowd to your event is to have a story or theme. It doesn’t have to be a complex theme, just give your audience a sense of community. For example, promoting a particular style of clothing can be a good way to support your theme. Since groups are important to young people, following a theme will help them develop a special bond with the other members of the audience. It is also important to build your communications around the theme – from the time tickets go on sale to the day of the event, and the pictures on your website and social media.
3. Bank on the variety of the overall experience
As mentioned above, variety in programming is important, but it is equally important to maintain variety in the overall festival offering. This includes the food offered on site, the experiences, as well as the entertainment. For example, a festival that offers a Ferris wheel or playgrounds to rest between performances can be a differentiating element compared to competing festivals. However, any trend or novelty is imitated, so it is necessary to constantly innovate and find new ideas.
4. Provide the best welcome
Kristy refers here to the speed of access to the various services – including access to entrances and queues at your various points of sale. These elements are easy to master thanks to the different services offered by Weezevent. Indeed, with our WeezAccess Pro solution, festival staff teams can allow up to 800 attendees to enter per hour and per control terminal. For restaurateurs, a transition to cashless payments removes the need for money management, thus improving the efficiency of the process. No doubt, young people are in a hurry!
5. Stay connected to your attendees
Being close to your audience using technology is part of the modern festival experience. For example, a welcome text message can be sent to festival-goers when they access the festival site. Having tech at the heart of your event provides a great opportunity to build a special bond with your audience, including young people like Kristy.
This article is just a preview of all the good practices observed at the many festivals and events we work with. By clicking on the button below, you can discover all of Weezevent’s solutions and their features designed to help festival organisers:
