Festival Trends Report 2023: Beyond the Music
sponsored by Minnesota State Fair
Panelists:
Wade Asher, Chippewa Valley Music Festivals
Kim Blevins, Country Thunder Music Festivals
Lindsay Bertelli, REACH, LLC
Cari Dixon, Washington State Fair
PJ Loughran, Loughran & Co
Del Williams, DWP
Moderated by:
Bob Babisch, Summerfest
Festival Branding
Moderator Bob Babisch opened the conversation by asking Del Williams, “What's the common thread through all of your festivals? How does somebody know they're at a Danny Wimmer Presents event?”
Williams responded, “We approach the festival experience from a fan's perspective. It's about staying close to the fans and having real-time interaction with them. Ideally, the lineup is almost secondary. They want to go to the festival because the experience is so great. That's our mentality.’’ When asked about launching a new festival and using DWP mailing lists to introduce the new event, Williams added, “The intention really starts with building a community. We want all of our fans to go to all of our festivals. And a lot of them do. It started with Rock on the Range. We felt there was a big audience that had similar interests and we could band them together. It worked. We piggybacked what worked at Rock on the Range – what we called the “Community Rangers” – and used that approach for every one of our festivals. Fans know the experience is going to be great. We built credibility. And it builds organically alongside your marketing campaign.”
When asked about trends, PJ Loughran replied, “There are a ton of trends. We look for those trends but, more importantly, we look for saturation – where there's too much of the same thing happening in one space. A lot of what we provide for our clients is objectivity. And that includes our own objectivity – dismissing what we think we know and really doing the homework to see where the opportunities are, where the saturations are, where the trends are making everything look the same. We're looking to help our clients differentiate. I find I'm terrible at branding myself or my own businesses. It's very, very hard because it's just so subjective. You have a particular sense of yourself. I think with festivals, particularly given the number of festivals that exist now, it's really hard to see outside of that. There are a lot of trends and a lot of what we are doing is trying to avoid them. When we take on a rebrand or a brand transition, we want to see if there are aesthetics and ideas that haven't made their way into the festival space yet. And play around with those. We do a lot of iterating to see what feels right. I almost don't even want to talk about trends because we're working very hard to try to stay away from those to help whoever we work with really carve a new path.”
Babisch asked Kim Blevins, “What keeps Country Thunder successful as a brand?” She answered, “We're continually trying to build our brand because it's the one we've got. With each of our festivals and every location that we go into, we take on the personality of that community. You must remember where you are and honor that. We did a show this past weekend in Bristol, Tennessee, and just learned a lot of things about that particular event. Bristol itself is a very small community. You’d think with the speedway and NASCAR that you're coming into a metropolitan area. But it's not. It's a very small town. A big part of our brand is our charitable support and understanding how important giving something to the Little League or Friday night high school football is in some of these smaller communities. When you pull something from the fabric of each community, that helps to make you a little more successful. We've got seven locations across North America with Country Thunders and Big Valley Jamboree. Every time we go into a new community, we're talking to people about what's important to them. It's important to get that community support. Our marketing people will actually go to the front gate and help wristband just to meet and talk with our fans. We think that's important and really builds brand awareness as well.”
Babisch agreed and noted, “All employees and all people involved, even senior staff, should go to the front gate, meet your fans and say hello, and walk the grounds. Don't get in a golf cart – walk! See your fans, see what they're enjoying, see what they're listening to.”
Wade Asher added, “The community is number one. If you support your community, your community will support you. But you have to do it first. Whatever is important to that community is number one with your brand. And on the next level, you have to integrate into the organizations & nonprofits. You're saying ‘I love what you guys have and I'm here to support. I can be your loudspeaker.’”
When asked what sets his festivals apart, Asher said, “Our infrastructure. We put all of our profits back into our infrastructure. The fans want to come back and see that their hard-earned dollars are put back into their experience. We have 26.3 miles of gravel roads. We have five permanent stages. We have a five-year plan on infrastructure changes. Nothing matters but the fan. They are the most important element in the festival industry. Fans want to see something that they wouldn't expect at a festival, and we try to curate something that nobody else is doing. It’s the best feeling in the world to sit back and watch fans having the best time in their lives. And that's what makes me work so much harder to give them more and more and more. We do a ton of surveys and get a ton of feedback. If a fan says something about the festivals, we hear it. We get constructive criticism, of course. Those are some of the hardest things to read. But it's the best thing – it gives you the recipe for your festival.”
Babisch posed this question to PJ Loughran: “When it comes to creating a brand from scratch, what are your first steps? And what is the process in general?”
“It's homework. It's learning,” Loughran said. “It's studying a genre or a particular region or market and just getting to know everything that's happening in that space. Once you start mapping out various brands and saturation areas, there's always this spot that nobody's touching. I think that's a mistake a lot of events and brand developments do – they just jump in and start designing things. I don't know how you start designing for something unless you're really informed, unless you digest all that before you start putting things out. Following that step, we do a lot of iterations. I'm a big believer that you know it when you see it. And the reality is you have to try different things – both to find the solution, but more importantly, to see what you don't want. I think many branding companies will do three iterations. We'll do seven to ten. And we may do twelve or thirteen and not show all of those, but we want to cover a lot of bases. Creating Bourbon & Beyond is a great example. There's this one thing at the event that I love – on the side of one of the stages, it says all the pronunciations of Louisville. And it's a stopping point for everybody who goes to that festival. It's a nod to ‘this is local,’ and this is true to form. We're looking for all that stuff. How do you plug those little bits? A tip of the cap to the locals. That's the world we're in now. It's very unlikely you're gonna see a mega festival like Coachella or Bonnaroo pop up again where people are gonna travel many, many miles to go to that thing. Now, it's about how do you find those local opportunities that fulfill a unique niche for that audience. It doesn't have to be a musical niche. It just has to stand for something independent and true to that locality.”
Babisch followed up, “What came first for Louisville and Bourbon & Beyond? The bourbon, the brand, or the city? What got you to Louisville?” Williams answered, “Bourbon is to Louisville what wine is to Napa Valley. To answer your question, the city came first. We learned that from Aftershock in Sacramento. I thought it was a brilliant move to really go to the city and be able to forge a great relationship with the city government and the tastemakers in that city and also with commerce. And talk about what our vision is to put this festival together, what it's gonna do for the community, the economic benefits. There are cities that are doing it right. They have committees and their job is to bring people into the area, bring business to the area, bring more people in and be able to manage it, and make the city cool and make it more cosmopolitan. So our plan was to be part of that vision. Once we established that, then it was a partnership with the city to help us build the festival. We had the city’s passion and authenticity. So yeah, I would say it started with the city.”
Babisch noted, “Summerfest has been around for 55 years, so we're really a part of the fabric of the community. People think of it as ‘our festival.’ I find it fascinating how you go into a city like Louisville, and you convince the city that this is a very good idea. I'm sure you have people there that believe in you, but there's also going to be that percentage of naysayers that you fight your way through.”
Williams added, “Louisville happened after the success we were having in Sacramento. The head of Visit Sacramento was really good friends with the Mayor of Louisville. He said ‘You really should talk to these people from DWP.’ We went to Louisville and visited with them and started to forge the same kind of relationship and same strategy. That's how Louder Than Life came about, and it's been a great marriage. Maybe even more so than Sacramento just because there's so much character in Louisville.”
Babisch asked Blevins about branching into different genres, different styles of festivals. She answered, “It's kind of hard to get away from country when your name is Country Thunder. But we've done some different things over the past several years. We set up this huge circus tent and do an after-show party that's EDM. But there's a country flair to it. We're looking at putting some rock acts onto some of our shows in 2024 because we know there's crossover. We're always looking at doing different things and adding some new elements because you have to keep things fresh. And frankly, in the country world there are only so many headliner acts.”
Babisch followed up, “Country Thunder has created some massive, massive entertainers. It seems you are losing a lot of them to the stadiums more and more every year. So, you have to create ways to stay fresh.” Blevins agreed, “We've been very fortunate to hit those trends early. We had Eric Church at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We had Jason Aldean early in his career. Bailey Zimmerman opened the show for us on the Saturday last year in Wisconsin, and now he's just exploded. That's satisfying – seeing those younger acts blow up. And we continue to try and find that act. We rely a lot on our younger audience to direct some of what we're doing. And we've been very fortunate to hit some trends as they're happening.”
Asher added, “Who would have thought a Hardy or a Jelly Roll can play at a country music festival and then also play at a rock music festival and be headliners at both? We had Ice Cube open up for Pantera last year, which was really cool. There’s lots of stuff on the horizon to be excited about.”
Experiential Marketing
Babisch moved the conversation to brand activation and asked Bertelli, “What are the key elements of a successful brand activation?”
“Authenticity – which I know is overused – but it's really the biggest point,” Bertelli said. “A lot of our clients are very forward thinking. We're doing everything from X Games to Stagecoach to New York Food & Wine. Everything depends on where you are and what that demo wants. It's about understanding the consumer at that festival and how you can up the game and provide experiences that those consumers want. There are a lot of brands that love to pop up an activation that is pretty sterile and very corporate and that doesn't resonate in the festival space. So, we like to work with brands that really have a vision for, and understanding of, the consumer – meeting them where they are, giving them something they desire. Obviously, lead generation is a big piece. And brand awareness, but that can't be what you lead with. You need to lead with really cool, kick-ass elements that people are rushing to your footprint to get. Lollapalooza is a big example for us. We've been at Lolla with Toyota for 14 years. It's something as simple as giving away bandanas every single year. A guy came this year who's made an entire blanket out of the bandanas that he's gotten from Lollapalooza. So, you become a destination where they want to stop. The music, the environment, the aesthetic of the festival leads. But we have to be an element where attendees want to visit.”
Babisch asked Bertelli, “When you get a new client, whether it's a festival or a brand, how do you decide what brand is right for that event? When it's a new client, what do you do?” Bertelli replied, “I think first you're doing a deep dive to really understand the brand, the consumers, what their goals are, what they hope to achieve. Where do they need to be and how do we bring that to life? It's just digging in on their goals and their strategy. We do a big activation for Busch Light at CMA Fest. Honestly, everybody knows what Busch Light is. We're not changing the narrative. They want you to buy the beer, but they want you to hang out in their footprint at CMA Fest. They want you to spend the majority of your time there. So, we have to entice you to hang out there. How can we make it comfortable? Can we give you a popsicle? Can we give you a beer? Can we let you hang out in Adirondack chairs that are cooled? Great sightline to the stage? What experience can we give you? All these things that give fans a reason to dwell there and continue to buy Busch Light.”
Babisch asked Loughran, “When you get a new client, how do you know what brand goes with that client?” Loughran replied, “In talking about experiential, we've always tried to answer this: if a brand is going to activate at an event, how are they going to make the event better? That is always looked at it, right? We did an activation at Bonnaroo with Garnier where you can get your hair washed at the festival. And who doesn't need to get cleaned up a little bit at Bonnaroo? That’s what we were trying to infuse. It could be as simple as a comfortable place to sit or some shade. We did an activation for Jeep once where there was a lot of shade, but we built a waterfall in the middle of the activation. The waterfall was a mister, essentially. So the water would splash on the bottom, and it would create this mist that would attract people. It was also wayfinding – it helped you know where you were on a giant property. It's about local. And speaking to the community implicitly in a way that there's that nod that's like “We are here for you. We know you. We want to make you happy while you’re here.’ If you can get those elements right, it's just understood when someone comes on site.”
Festival Improvements
Babisch asked his panelists, “How do you decide what to improve every year? Of course, you're going to get a great lineup, but how do you decide what you want to improve?”
Williams responded, “We're very proactive in that all department heads and their soldiers in the field are all constantly meeting about what we can improve. It starts with your leadership. Danny Wimmer will analyze every aspect: the fencing, the scrim, every blade of grass, where things need to be watered. Everything! And he demands that from the team. So, I think it's really good to have people who are meticulous and really care about all of those details. You have to be creative all the time. I think the biggest mistake is you get so busy and fall into a rut where you're not learning new things. Or you're not open to new ideas because you are old school and it just seems foreign to you. You gotta get out of your comfort zone to really improve, perfect, and evolve the brand. That's something that we really try to do – welcome those ideas.”
“The thing that will kill an event is saying ‘We've always done it this way,” added Blevins. “You hear that a lot. Especially when you have an established event. You have people who have been doing this for a very long time. But I think you never say ‘We've always done it this way.’”
Asher added, “Listen to the fans. Make sure you have that extra port-a-potty. Make sure you're adjusting so the experience is better every single year. Curate some infrastructure that makes the fans go ‘Oh wow, I've never seen that before. I can't wait to see what next year's going to be.’”