European Festival
REPORT 2015
Optimism is the key theme in this year’s European Festival Report, backed up by the fact that attendance has risen across the board and capacities themselves have increased. But there are pressing concerns, not the least of which is soaring artist fees…
On the surface, the results extrapolated from IQ’s annual survey of the European festivals sector are very encouraging indeed. A small rise in ticket costs in 2015 did not dissuade fans from getting their fix of festival fun, while a hike in capacities across festival sites and venues throughout Europe proved a wise move, as more people attended events compared to 2014. Scratch below the surface, however, and there are some worrying trends – the biggest of which appears to be a massive jump in artist fees. Among the many conversations IQ had with festival promoters this year, one theme that was raised time and again was the spiralling booking fees, which are getting steeper, year-on-year. One promoter based in what might be described as an emerging European market reported that he had been forced to cut his festival bill from 180 acts in 2014 to 120 in 2015, purely because of rising artist fees. The knock-on effect for bands lower down the bill to secure festival slots – and therefore build their fan bases – is potentially devastating, given that’s one-third of the acts from two years ago now effectively priced out of the market. And that may get worse in the year ahead, as other festival promoters are regularly bemoaning the huge increase in fees, with at least one highlighting one act whose festival price has doubled in just
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one year, while agents for other acts are demanding increases of up to 50% on some artists compared to a year ago. However, with demand vastly outstripping supply when it comes to bands that drive ticket sales for festivals, there don’t seem to be any potential solutions to that particular dilemma. Indeed, when it comes to the top concerns of event organisers, artist fees topped the list in both the first and second factors affecting the industry, while in the survey carried out by European festivals association Yourope, artist fees were also the main fear for its members (see page 40). Other big moves in the European festival sector in 2015 included Lollapalooza’s debut on the continent with its first edition targeting Berlin – a traditionally difficult market for events, given the local population’s relative lack of funds. However, not only did the German capital host Lollapalooza in September, but the same site, Tempelhof Airport, also saw the tenth anniversary of the Berlin Festival in May. Elsewhere in Germany, the mainstream press talked of festival wars in 2015, following a legal battle over the ownership of the Rock Am Ring brand between Marek Lieberberg Konzertagentur, Deutsche Entertainment AG and the owners of the Nürburgring race track, which effectively saw rival events going head to head over consecutive weekends. And with Lieberberg moving to
IQ Magazine January 2016
European Festival REPORT
2015
head up Live Nation Germany in January, the fate of next year’s Rock Am Ring could be subject to yet another twist with ticketing powerhouse CTS Eventim now claiming ownership of MLK assets. Meanwhile, FKP Scorpio continued its growth momentum and having celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2015, it is looking toward a portfolio of about 25 events in 2016. One significant strategic move that the company made in the past year – and one IQ expects other organisers to follow – was taking catering in-house. Previously, Scorpio contracted out its catering deal on a fee per visitor basis, but unhappy with the service, it decided to de-centralise that aspect and now does individual deals with catering providers, allowing it to entice restaurants to create pop-ups and reportedly eliminating junk food across its festival roster. Jasper Barendregt, who heads up Scorpio’s festival department, explains, “Our new and improved foodstall concept introduced a broad range of products and over 50 food trucks from all over Europe.” Elsewhere, Live Nation’s grip on the UK market strengthened when the company completed its acquisition of Mama Group, which has ownership stakes in festivals such as Lovebox, Wilderness and The Great Escape. One surprising statistic that came out of our 2015 questionnaire was the rapid rise in the number of professionals working at festivals, with the ratio edging ever closer to the numbers of volunteers that organisers rely on to staff their sites. The events that disclosed their staffing numbers said that volunteers totalled 54,181, or 53% of overall staff, compared to 48,183 professionals (47%). In our 2014 European Festival Report, volunteers accounted for a whopping 63%. That 10% difference is a surprising jump, given that in 2013, volunteer numbers were also at 63%, while in 2012 it was 59%, and 2011, 52%. Hinting at one reason behind using more professionals on-site, Paradise City festival in Belgium says it is looking to take on more pros in 2016 as part of its plans for better cost management. FKP Scorpio’s founder, Folkert Koopmans, notes, “Actually we don’t have a lot of volunteers at our events; they are very much a minority for us. We only use volunteers for things like charity campaigns because we cannot rely on them as untrained staff - that’s why you employ professionals.” Unfortunately, given the November terrorist attacks in Paris, one pressing issue for all major event organisers ahead of the 2016 festival season will be how to improve security. That might inevitably lead to more professional security staff being needed everywhere, while festival management will also be liaising more closely with the appropriate authorities to draw up plans on how to deal with terror incidents if the worst happens. In the meantime, another major trend to mention, which seems to be gaining momentum, is the number of events who are making the decision to announce headliners early. In years gone by, the general marketing strategy for festivals
Average Festival Ticket Prices
2015: €149.55 2014: €146.34
IQ Magazine January 2016
Fantastic
2%
Other
8%
Terrible
0%
Worrying
20%
European Festival Healthy
REPORT 50% 2015
How would you describe the European festival market? Static
20%
was to drip feed line-up announcements over a series of months, leading up to headliner revelations three or four months out from the event. Now, with so many festivals competing for a finite pool of acts that can sell festival tickets – and with cheap airlines meaning fans can easily pick and choose the events they travel to – many promoters are opting to announce headline artists anything up to eight or nine months in advance. Now, without further ado, let’s get into some of the headline results from the 2015 European Festival Report...
FESTIVAL CAPACITY AND ATTENDANCE Europe’s festival organisers continued to increase the size of their events during 2015, with our surveyed respondents reporting that their average attendance had reached 36,970, compared to 34,626 in the previous year. That 6.3% in capacity comes on top of a 3.3% boost in size last year, suggesting that promoters are trying to generate additional revenue by hiking the numbers of people they can accommodate, rather than significantly increasing the price of tickets. The good news for promoters is that despite the perceived risk that raising capacities will make festival sites and campgrounds more crowded, the paying public did not seem to take umbrage, as attendance in relation to capacity reached 81.7% in 2015 – up from 79% in 2014. In terms of sales, a little more that 46% of our participating events enjoyed a sold-out status in 2015 – another improvement on 2014 when the corresponding sell-out figure was 43%. Tapping into Yourope’s annual report, more than 41% of its members sold out their events in 2015, while nearly 53% said they sold more than 80% of their tickets, leaving a little under 6% who reported selling less than 80% of their full capacity (see chart page 42). “It’s good to know that capacities are rising, but Scorpio did not increase any of our capacities anywhere, to be honest,” says Koopmans. “It is true that more people are attending festivals, but our strategy is to concentrate on quality and that might suffer if we increased capacities.”
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European Festival REPORT
2015
Mobile
European Festival
Call Centre
REPORT Box Office 11% 2015
1%
3% Walk Up 3%
Social Media
1%
Online (via Festival Website)
42%
Ticketing by sales outlet
Online (Third-Party Vendor)
39%
TICKETING Despite the fact that the economies of many European countries officially emerged from recession in the last 18 months, the continent’s promoters have resisted the urge to increase the price of festival passes – at least in 2015. Taking out the handful of free events that filled in our survey, the average price for the commercial festivals that participated in this year’s poll was €149.55. The previous year those events had charged an average price of €146.34. That’s a 2.2% price increase, year-on-year, which, although marginal compared to increases in artist fees, is still greater than the rate of inflation in many European markets. When it comes to the variety of passes that festivals sold to their events in 2015, there was a noticeable shift in the proportion of events who decided to offer just one ticket for their entire event. While in 2014, just 12% of our surveyed festivals reported that they only offered one ticket, covering the weekend or entire event, that number increased to 18% (or nearly a fifth of our survey respondents) this year. Interestingly, that move, at the expense of daily tickets, may have backfired, as replies in our sales pattern questions indicate that overall the proportion of daily tickets bought by fans increased from 24.9% in 2014 to 35% in 2015. On the flip side, multi-day tickets, weekend passes and tickets to entire events fell from 75% of overall tickets in 2014 to 65% in 2015, suggesting that fans prefer to have the option to attend certain days rather than the full festival. But the way fans are buying their festival tickets does not seem to be changing too much. Anecdotal evidence that improving economic conditions are leading to healthier levels of disposable income for fans is backed by a drop off in the number of tickets that were sold to walk-up customers at festivals (see pie chart above). Elsewhere, the importance of a strong web presence was underlined by the fact that online ticketing now accounts for 81% of festival sales – up from 75% in 2014. For the first time this year, we asked the festivals how those online sales broke down and our surveyed organisers highlighted the benefits in having the ability to sell passes directly from festival websites, stating that they accounted for 41.7% of sales compared to
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39.3% sold through third-party ticket-seller websites. Box office still has a place, selling more than 11.6% of tickets overall – way ahead of call centres (3.2%) and walk up, which, as previously hinted, was less than 3%, compared to 7% in 2014. Among those events that experienced a decline in ticket sales, there was no clear pattern across Europe as to why fewer people had visited events, with organisers citing a variety of reasons for flagging sales. FKP’s Jasper Barendregt stated that the Chiemsee festival didn’t have the best of years, partly caused by the hangover from 2014’s event when bad weather hit the site. Speaking about the 2015 edition, he adds, “The programme wasn’t appreciated as much as the programme in 2014.” And turning to the so-called festival wars in Germany this year, he suggests the company’s Hurricane Festival – which dropped its capacity from 73,000 to 65,000 – suffered from a billing “that didn’t fulfil all potential buyers. Also, the competition with one specific festival caused decreasing sales.” Other events also noted line-up issues, economic crises (in Spain and Greece), competition from other festivals and date changes as reasons for declining sales. But underlining just what an impact uncontrollable factors can have, Ilosaarirock festival cited competition in booking and “very bad weather in general this summer in Finland” as issues that affected sales for the 17-19 July weekender in the eastern side of the country. However, just a month earlier, the organisers of Provinssi, in the west of Finland, had a much better time, reporting, “This year was our all-time second-best year, according to the total number of visitors.”
ATTENDANCE FROM ABROAD The promise of warm weather and/or less experienced festival experiences has, in recent years, seen fans planning trips to other countries to see their favourite bands, or just to experience music in a different cultural setting. While some festivals enjoy a reputation for attracting fans from all around the world to their sites, growing numbers of fans appear to be
What proportion of your audience is from abroad? 0-5% 6-10% 11-20% 21-40 41+
6%
47%
19%
9% 19%
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European Festival REPORT
2015
becoming ever more adventurous when it comes to travelling to events in other territories. This year’s survey saw a handful of events report that they had no international visitors, but for European Festival those that did, 47% said foreigners accounted for up to 5% of their audience – a marginal increase on last year. At the top end, fewer events (6% compared to 8% a year ago) said visitors from abroad made up more than 20% of their audience, but in the 21-40% of overseas fans bracket, signs were more encouraging with 19% reporting such levels, in contrast to 15% a year ago. But before anyone goes reading too much into these numbers, those events that reported foreign visitors of between 11-20% of overall ticket sales halved from 18% in 2014 to 9% in 2015, perhaps underlining that the variance in this annual analysis may have more to do with the acts on the festival billing attracting fans from far flung corners, rather than any long-term overseas marketing campaigns by the festival promoters.
REPORT 2015
VIP The trend of creating special VIP area and experiences on festival sites around Europe could be on the wane, with just 41% of our survey responders reporting that they sold VIP upgrade packages to their 2015 festivals, in contrast to 45% in our 2014 survey. Although many larger and boutique festivals enjoy significant additional revenues through the sales of VIP packages, the cost of creating these VIP glamping areas and VIP experiences can be prohibitive to smaller events, meaning that many organisers opt to ignore this niche part of the business to concentrate efforts elsewhere. However, among the initiatives that several of our surveyed festivals introduced in 2015 were: various levels of comfort camping; private bars and private toilets for the VIP areas; VIP backstage access; wooden cottages built for well-heeled adults and families; and even a special VIP food court. Taking its luxury packages up a notch, the 14,000-capacity Gibraltar Music Festival said it has a very extensive VIP offering which develops year-on-year. In 2015, its VVIP passes included full catering and an open bar, as well as access to private and corporate boxes, with the festival’s Owen Smith revealing that that a two-starred Michelin chef 8.1%
What percentage of your audience 14.5% took up a VIP or camping upgrade? 0 0-5 6-10 11-20 21+
provided the catering for VVIP ticket holders. In terms of the proportion of the audience that was made up of VIP guests this year, our surveyed festivals reported anything from zero up to 25% in the case of brand new 7,000cap event A Summer’s Tale, held 5-8 August in Luhmühlen, Germany. With an emphasis on cuisine, it’s interesting that the company behind that event, FKP Scorpio, cited rising production costs as a major factor for this boutique gathering. The debut of A Summer’s Tale also highlights a growing trend across Europe for high-end boutique gatherings, aimed at a slightly older, wealthier demographic. In essence, events such as A Summer’s Tale and the UK’s Wilderness festivals take the VIP concept to a full luxury festival vibe, targeting families and older fans who might prefer a more comfortable experience, rather than the traditional rock and pop set-up. In 2015, A Summer’s Tale booked Patti Smith, Damien Rice, Zaz and Calexico as headliners, while Wilderness counted on Björk, George Clinton and Ben Howard to pull in the crowds.
NEW TECHNOLOGY AND RFID Although festival organisers often mention the need to constantly change and develop their events in order to keep them relevant – and, in turn, to make sure they can keep their customers coming back year after year, it would seem that technology did not play much of a part in breaking new ground in 2015, with the vast majority of events telling IQ that
1.6% 35.5%
40.3%
Switzerland’s OpenAir St Gallen Festival
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IQ Magazine January 2016
European Festival REPORT
2015
Festival audiences grew across Europe this summer
European Festival
REPORT 2015
they did not introduce any new tech at this year’s gatherings. Nonetheless, some organisers went to town on new tech. Hellfest introduced cashless, RFID, eBeacons and a smartphone to improve things for their audience, while Sweden Rock mixed some old-school moves (a free festival programme) with state-of the-art communication technology (free Wi-Fi). Also in Scandinavia, Copenhagen Jazz Festival used mobile ticketing for the first time, while Genk On Stage intriguingly reports the introduction of “big data analysis”. When it comes to RFID and cashless systems, more than a quarter of our surveyed festivals now use contactless technology in some shape or form. But those numbers have not significantly changed since last year. Nonetheless, the mood among the service providers remains buoyant. Intellitix, for instance, ramped up its RFID and cashless expertise in 2015, having taken Tomorrowland in Belgium and French events Garorock and Electrobeach Festival fully cashless for the first time. And looking to 2016, the company has partnered with Swisscom Event & Media Solutions to delivering a fully cashless experience at OpenAir St. Gallen, which has a daily capacity of 30,000. Intellitix CEO Serge Grimaux comments, “We have a very established presence across North America, South America, and Europe, and we’ll be delivering our event expertise to help OpenAir St. Gallen’s organisers create an immersive RFID and cashless environment for an enhanced guest experience. Customers can make cashless purchases with a simple doubletap of their festival wristband, allowing them to enjoy the music and festivities without worrying about safety or security of their funds, or long queuing and wait times. It’s the future of all events and we’re proud to service one of Switzerland’s most reputable and established music festivals.” Rival RFID outfit PlayPass recently announced its expansion into the UK market (see page 16) and the opening of a New York office following a breakthrough 2015 that saw it successfully deploy 100% cashless systems at Lollapalooza Berlin, Melt! and splash! in Germany; Spain’s Low Festival and Cruïlla Barcelona; Thailand’s Road to Ultra and Together Festival; and the Clockenflap Festival in Hong Kong. The Belgium-based company already enjoys home-grown success through the use of its RFID access control system at the Rock Werchter and Graspop Metal Meeting events. PlayPass CEO David De Wever says, “It’s been an incredible year, and 2016 is set to be even more exciting as we invest in new markets and expand our international staff.”
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IMPROVEMENTS Despite seemingly shying away from technological solutions, the majority of festivals who took part in this year’s survey revealed various enhancements to their 2015 editions. The likes of Belladrum Tartan Heart, Provinssi, Wilderness, Copenhagen Jazz, Roskilde and Øya festivals added new stages and venues. Elsewhere widespread attention was given to upgrading camping grounds and increasing the number of toilet and shower facilities, and following FKP Scorpio’s example, a handful of other promoters opted to devote resources to bringing in better caterers and food outlets – Bergenfest in Norway and PortAmerica in Portugal to name but two festivals at the opposite ends of Europe, while Shambala’s Chris Johnston says it will focus on food as a theme in 2016, similar to Germany’s Orange Blossom Special which intends
Source: Yourope
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European Festival REPORT
2015
Fans relax at the 2015 Pohoda Festival in Slovakia
European Festival
REPORT 2015
Source: Yourope
TOP INDUSTRY CONCERNS
to provide more variety in regional cuisine. INmusic, meanwhile, made significant site changes. “The festival has spread out over three islands in Jarun Lake in Zagreb, providing an even larger and more equipped campsite with beaches and entertainment throughout the day, and extending the campsite working period to seven days, instead of six, which was the case for the year before,” it states. Looking to 2016, the creative minds behind Europe’s festival scene are already busy planning next year’s extravaganzas. Spain’s Festival Internacional de Benicàssim is working on new stages and activities for its campsites, while Wilderness in the UK has committed to improving its kids’ area, at the same time organising more late-night music to entertain its grown-up patrons. And of course, there are always moves to improve the carbon footprint of events with Holland’s Young Art Festival intimating that it will use more green battery systems instead of diesel generators at its next edition, while staff at Greece’s Ejekt festival will collect plastic cups and bottles for recycling starting in 2016.
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As usual, we round off our annual health check of Europe’s festival business by finding out what increases the blood pressure of the brave souls who risk their finances, not to mention their sanity hosting music festivals each year. As our bar chart on page 43 reveals, artist fees remain the number one factor affecting the festival business, according to promoters, and if reports of hefty price hikes this year are true, we can only expect more people to highlight those exorbitant demands again when we repeat this exercise twelve months from now. Next in line, repeating last year’s industry concern was competition from other festivals. But one significant shift in issues at the forefront of festival organisers’ minds is the economy, which is no longer such a worry for the majority of festivals, as this concern slid down the list of things that are keeping festival organisers awake at night. Last year, it was the third biggest concern for our survey respondents, while in 2015, improving international finances saw that slide down the chart behind the checklist items of a lack of suitable headliners, production costs and the weather, signalling that, financially at least, better days may be on the horizon. Other festivals cited declining sponsorship opportunities and the cost of implementing environmental measures as growing issues, but despite the almost universal complaints over booking fees, the fact that ticket prices are so low in the pecking order hints at the measures that promoters are taking to keep things affordable for the fans. We started on an optimistic note, so let’s also end this year’s round-up in a positive manner. For the second year in a row, nobody who took the time to fill in our survey described the festival market as being ‘in a terrible state’, whereas just one respondent went as far as to say it is in fantastic health. However, optimism abounds with the number of events
IQ Magazine January 2016
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2015
convinced that it is in a healthy state on the up – 50% compared to just 41% of respondents in our 2014 report (see graph, page 35). For the first time, we asked our festivals to disclose whether they had carried out economic impact studies to gauge what benefits their gatherings pass on to the local community. An impressive 35% of our participating festivals disclosed that they have commissioned such reports and the results they uncovered make for some interesting reading. Events such as The Great Escape state that they contribute “in the single-figure millions” while Primavera Sound claims that over the years cumulatively up to 2014 it had generated more than €94.8m for the Catalan economy. With 250,000 attendees over its 10 days, Copenhagen Jazz adds €10m per year to the city’s tourism revenues, and in Finland, Pori Jazz brings in about €20m locally. Portugal’s PortAmerica reports an economic impact of €8m, Øya puts the figure at NOK100m (€11m), and Hellfest’s study delivered impressive sums of €5m direct and €3.5m indirectly to the area around Clisson in France.
Such data can only help the festival community when it comes to getting local authorities and communities on side, so for those events who have still to commission such a study, there are a number of benefits that level of European information and Festival detail can deliver. Now that most of Europe has emerged from recession, there is no better time to underline the contributions that festivals make, not just culturally, but financially to the wellbeing of the continent. And for those nations still in the doldrums, showing the politicians the impact that gathering thousands of music fans can have, is not the worst idea in the world. Hopefully, the overriding optimism among those who participated in this year’s report can be realised in the year ahead, making 2016 a truly momentous festival season in Europe, because despite the obvious concerns over the cost of artists, this year’s report underlines the fact that the demand from fans across the continent is again on the rise.
REPORT 2015
What are the first and second most important factors affecting the festival industry currently?
30 25
First most important Second most important
20 15 10
es
fe L ty ic Le en gi sin sl g at of io n Sa
ck et Pr ic Ti
er th
Ec o Cl nom im i at c e
tio uc
W ea
nC os ts
r he Ot Pr od
Ar
tis tF ee
0
s Co mp ot et he it r F ion es fr t iv om al s A La ck o He f Su ad ita lin bl er e s
5
PARTICIPATING FESTIVALS A Summer´s Tale (DE), Amsterdam Woods Festival (NL), Bad Bonn Kilbi Festival (CH), Belladrum Tartan Heart (UK), Bergenfest (NO), Best Kept Secret (NL), Bloodstock Open Air (UK), Cactusfestival (BE), Chiemsee Summer (DE), Citadel (UK), Colours of Ostrava (CZ), Copenhagen Jazz Festival (DK), Cornbury (UK), Das Fest Karlsruhe (DE), Down The Rabbit Hole (NL), Ejekt (GR), Elbjazz (DE), EXIT (RS), Festival Internacional de Benicàssim (ES), Galapagai (LT), Genk on Stage (BE), Gent Jazz Festival (BE), Gibraltar Music Festival (GI), Haldern Pop Festival (DE), Hellfest (FR), Highfield (DE), Hurricane (DE), Ilosaarirock (FI), Immergut Festival (DE), INmusic (HU), , In-Somni Fest (ES), Jazzopen Stuttgart (DE), Jelling Musikfestival (DK), Lovebox (UK), Lowlands (NL), M´era Luna (DE), Melt! (DE), Metal Hammer Paradise (DE), Misty Fest (PT), NorthSide (DE), NOS Alive (PT), OpenAir St.Gallen (CH), Orange Blossom Special (DE), Ostrava in Flames (CZ), Øya (NO), Paléo (CH), Paradise City (BE), Pinkpop (NL), Pohoda (SK), Pori Jazz (FI), PortAmérica (ES), Primavera Sound (ES), Provinssi (FI), Qstock (FI), Rock Werchter (BE), Rolling Stone Weekender (DE), Roskilde (DK), Ruisrock (FI), Shambala (UK), Festival SOS 4.8 (ES), Southside (DE), SummerDays Festival Arbon (CH), Summerjam (DE), Sweden Rock (SE), Sziget (HU), SZIN (HU), The Great Escape (UK), Tuska Open Air Metal Festival (FI), Umsonst & Draußen Festival (DE), Vestrock (NL), Vinterjazz (DK), Wacken Open Air (DE), Way Out West (SE), Week-end au bord de l’eau (CH), Wilderness (UK), With Full Force (DE), Young Art (NL).
IQ Magazine January 2016
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