It’s a cliché by this point to talk about the festival market being saturated, which I do unashamedly further down this piece, but that’s because it’s largely rooted in truth. Assuming logistical provisions have been taken care of and an event has at least one unique selling point, there’s still no guarantee it’ll break even without effective promotion. The need for digital marketing is a given, of course, but festivals and suppliers alike often outsource these duties to PR agencies that – naming no names of course – might not be the best fit for the job. In this article…
Author: Michael Baker
Festival de musique émergente – or FME for short – entered its 13th edition this September with close to 70 groups and artists across the programme, most of whom were unsigned and emerging musicians. Festival Insights spoke with Mathieu Joanisse, CEO of FME, to discuss how this year’s festival went, better ways for festivals to support upcoming acts, and the importance of ancillary entertainment. Festival Insights: So how did this year’s festival go? More than great! Mother nature was very good to us. Every show was packed with happy music lovers. The atmosphere was also very festive and the city…
With a pool as its centrepiece and a soundtrack comprising mostly house and disco imports, the inaugural Oasis festival inculcated an ambling and exploratory vibe during the day that filled out and ramped up post-sunset. Woven into the fabric of the three-day event – which attracted over 2000 visitors from 25 countries – was a celebration of Moroccan culture and cuisine, offsetting any preconceived notions that this might be just another commercial festival transplanted into foreign territory as an opportunistic gap-in-the-market filler. Traces of a personal and considered organisational touch were evident throughout, courtesy of the festival’s decidedly hands-on founder…
US: As an ostensible first in the Atlanta food festival scene, Taste of Atlanta will this year utilise Intellitix’s Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for the launch of its cashless payment system. Returning to Midtown at Tech Square from September 25 – 27, the 14th annual Taste of Atlanta is teaming up with Intellitix, the leading provider of RFID technologies for live events, to be the first Atlanta food and drink festival to fully integrate RFID-enabled wristband technology into the entire event experience. The festival will feature RFID access control and cashless payment systems, making it easier and faster for…
Since emerging a decade ago, it’s no secret that The Garden Party has been a champion of predominantly electronic music in Leeds, comprising a core collective of promoters and a number of rotating members on the periphery. As any 10-year-old rightly should, The Garden Party decided to commemorate its longevity with a blowout 2-day festival over the August Bank Holiday Weekend this year, including acts from Little Dragon, Todd Terje and Talib Kweli to Roisin Murphy, Soul II Soul and Kerri Chandler. Festival Insights spoke with Matt Long, one of The Garden Party’s organisers, regarding the festival’s unique appeal, both…
Situated on Budapest’s ‘Island of Freedom’, the seven-day Sziget Festival comprises an expansive and populist music line-up, plus plenty of ancillary entertainment in the form of film, eSports, chess, dance, theatre, sports, chill out areas, yoga, circus acts, fashion, a bar that ascends 50m into the air via crane, a beach, and more. This year’s festival attracted a total of 441,000 revellers, extending its daily capacity to 90,000. Perhaps the most interesting attraction, and one of the most consistently popular, was the luminarium – a sprawling inflatable light sculpture built by the UK-based Architects of Air. Those willing and able…
UK: With the arrival of Apple Music, Apple has rebranded its iTunes Festival the ‘Apple Music Festival’. The festival will feature 10 nights of live shows, including Disclosure, Pharrell Williams, Florence + The Machine, and One Direction, at London’s the Roundhouse this September. All of the footage – both live and on-demand – will be broadcast by Apple, around the world, for free. Beats 1, Apple’s radio station, will broadcast news from backstage. The footage will be available on Apple Music connect. “We wanted to do something really special for music fans this year,” said Apple’s senior vice president of…
UK: The International Festival Forum (IFF) has sold out six weeks in advance of its first edition. The new event, produced by the International Live Music Conference (ILMC), has confirmed that over 300 music festival professionals will attend the London-based event from September 30 – October 1. IFF organisers are now running a reserve list for any cancellations or last minute places. Launched to better connect festival bookers and booking agents, IFF features a series of showcases and Q&As with agents, and morning panels and workshops dedicated to the festival business. Partner agencies on the event include The Agency Group,…
UK: Avolites Titan consoles reigned supreme at Bloodstock Festival, with all stages running Titan for the rock and metal festival that drew more than 15,000 metal heads to Derbyshire this month. Bloodstock’s main ‘Ronnie James Dio’ stage featured metal heavyweights such as headliners Trivium, Within Temptation, and Rob Zombie. LD Ben Coxon controlled using two HSL-supplied flagship Avolites Sapphire Touch consoles, networked together with a TitanNet Processor (TNP). HSL also supplied a dimming solution in the form of two 48-way Avolites ART2000 dimmers for the stage, as well as further Avolites consoles and dimmers across the festival site. “Due to…
FRANCE: The creative team behind Europe’s biggest snow and music festival – Snowbombing – has announced the launch of a brand new ‘sister’ festival: Transition. Taking place 13 – 19 December 2015, with tickets going on sale Thursday August 20, Transition will be taking over the stunning snow-capped resort of Avoriaz in the French Alps with an avalanche of incredible dance acts and artists from the four corners of the globe. The confirmed bill will be headed by the Mercury winning Dizzee Rascal, with a line-up featuring acts from across the dance pantheon including genre-transcending garage duo Bondax; Canadian DJ,…