Electric Eden: A journey Through music, movement, and energy

Competition between the nation’s biggest festivals has hit a boiling point, all announcing their lineups and first on sales within a few days of each other, and all targeting the same broad audiences. People are losing interest in huge festivals with $500-600 tickets,  and are shifting their eyes to smaller "niche" events. 

While the big players fight it out, that leaves plenty of room for smaller festivals to double down on a focused, defined market. The festivals that have embraced this strategy are already seeing success, even growing into national phenomenon in their own rights. 

Average age: 32 | Gender: 59% male 41% female | Average Income: $75k + 

Attends an average of 5-6 festivals per year, and is responsible for more than half of the total annual spend on festival tickets in North America.  

Hardcore festies only make up 20% of festival attendees — but they spend an average of 78% more on festival tickets than casual fans. 

Hardcore Festies are more likely to choose the deluxe ticket package: two out of five hardcore festies have bought VIP tickets to a festival, and they’re 19% less likely than casual fans to consider cost first when deciding to attend. And their passion shows — they spend an average of $550 on their most expensive festival ticket.  

Hardcore festies have been to their favorite festival an average of three times.When deciding whether to attend, they’re 1.5x more likely than casual fans to consider the festival producer or promoter. They’ll also rally their friends. 69% of hardcore festies say their friends rely on them for information about upcoming music festivals, and they’re 42% more likely than casual fans to post on social media at festivals. 

1. 45% the artists (28% headliners, 9% Supporting Artists) 
2. Friends Attending
3. The Experience: 2X more likely to name “the experience” as the top decision factor than casual fans.

56% agree they'd rather attend a smaller, niche festival than a mainstream festival.  What does a unique experience mean to these fans? 35% considered the availability of VIP access in their decision, 30% considered camping, and 23% considered non-music programming like talks, workshops, food/culinary experiences, and art installations.

Understanding how a "hardcore festie" decides on which festivals to attend, makes targeting them much easier, and very few festivals are going after them in their marketing. The initial content puts the music festival's experience directly in front of their eyes, and then short, concise follow-up ads highlight the features that influence their decisions.  

On social media, people want to share their new discoveries with friends. One of the top influences driving ticket sales is "friends attending".  This creates what's called a “flywheel” of event discovery. Once the wheel is set in motion, it will spin faster and faster on its own momentum — growing a festival's following and attendance without taking up more of the marketing team’s time.