As a music festival organiser, you already know that some fans drive more revenue than others. Whether they’re VIP buyers or repeat attendees, these hardcore festival fans may be the 20% of your customers who drive the lion’s share of your business. How can you identify and target this audience to focus your efforts and sell more tickets?
To find out, we worked with independent research company MusicWatch, Inc. to survey over 2,000 18-49 year-olds across the USA, UK and Australia — all of whom attended at least one music festival in the past year. In the process, we discovered one type of fan driving more industry growth than all the rest.
View the full report: What Drives the Most Valuable Festival-Goers to Spend and Attend More
Meet the “hardcore festival-goer.” This fan attends an average of four music festivals a year and outranks all other festival-goers in VIP purchasing, social influence, and virtually every other aspect of spending, attendance, and engagement.
Here are five statistics that prove why the hardcore festival fan is more valuable to your festival than other festival-goers:
1. Hardcore festival-goers spend $600 more a year on music festival tickets
Hardcore festival fans not only attend more festivals overall, they’re also more valuable to each one: they spend 26% more on a typical festival ticket than the casual fan (who attends just one festival a year). In fact, more than half said that one of the reasons they attend more festivals now than before is because they have more money to spend.
2. Hardcore festival-goers love live experiences of all kinds
Hardcore festival-goers are more than just diehard music fans — they love live experiences. They are helping to drive a growing trend of Aussies preferring live experiences over material possessions, choosing to spend their money on creating lifelong memories instead of accumulating ‘stuff’.
This socially active group is more likely to attend other events around town and is happy to spend hard-earned cash on great live experiences. In Australia, 45% of hardcore festival fans frequently attend beer & wine events, compared to just 17% of casual fans and 32% frequent fitness events, compared to just 13% of casual festival-goers.
3. Hardcore festival-goers are more likely to upgrade to VIP
This group is more willing to throw down on an upgraded experience — one in four typically purchase VIP festival tickets, and nearly half have opted for VIP at least once before. This audience is more than two times more likely than casual fans to splurge.
4. Hardcore festival fans watch live streams of festivals they want to attend
61% of hardcore festival fans have watched a live stream of a music festival in the past 12 months, compared to 35% of casual festival fans. Watching live streams is a powerful motivator: 30% of fans who live stream an event attend in person the following year, so attracting these fans online this year could drive a spike in ticket sales for future events. Evidence of this can be seen with Coachella (broadcast on YouTube every year) making the top 10 list of festivals that Aussie hardcore festival fans attend, despite being on the other side of the world!
5. Hardcore festival-goers are less price sensitive
Only 6% of hardcore festival fans consider cost first when deciding to attend a festival (compared to 22% of casual festival fans). They’re not afraid to splurge either. The hardcore festival fan has spent an average of around $358 on their most expensive festival ticket.
Australian Music Fans Report
To read the full results of our 2016 survey on hardcore festival fans, check out the report here.
For the low-down on Australian music fans, including how they are discovering and interacting at live shows and festivals, check out the 2019 report here.
