All the International Event Trends You Need to Know

Many people mistakenly think that to be a successful entrepreneur — in any industry — you need to find a wild new idea that nobody else has ever thought of.

In reality, most successful entrepreneurs — and event organisers — recognise existing trends and popular ideas, and then add their own original take. This produces a new event that’s successful because it taps into already-existing tastes and behaviours.

In fact, some of the most successful event ideas are imported from other countries, and they’re probably just begging to be run in your country, too.

So whether you’re an aspiring event entrepreneur, or just like to be up-to-date on the latest local trends, you’ll find all of the international event trends you need to know — straight from Eventbrite’s local teams.

Argentina

Trend #1: Drones get into marathons…

“Having a drone in an event makes it more attractive for the attendees, and makes people feel different emotions, because normally as humans we don’t get the chance to enjoy a bird’s eye view. Using this technology will make the event more effective, and provide better marketing for the brand in social media content before and after the event.” Jonathan Hoxmark, CEO de CopterOne.

Trend #2: Congresses are embracing the potential of technology

“I think apps, and sustainability, are coming soon as hot trends for congresses in Argentina and Latin America. Mobile phones and tablets are the future of the event industry. Using mobile scanning solutions for attendee check-in, instead of printing tickets, is an example.” Silvana Biagotti, Congresses professional event organiser

Trend #3: Festival are utilising technology to make people part of the show

“In Argentina, people want unique and incredible live experiences; connecting them with other like-minded people, and producing lots of great emotions. Festival and show producers use innovative tech solutions to make this happen. Take for example Xylobands, the LED bracelets, which are being used really creatively to make attendees an integral part of the experience and a really important part of the show. With this kind of participation they are becoming part of the show and they love it.” Mabel Gomez Romeo, Director — Brightness eventos.

Australia

Trend #1: High end, popular restaurants popping up at events

Food trends are always a hot topic in Australia, and the current trend is for high end or ultra-popular restaurants to make pop-up appearances at events to add a culinary focus to any event, not just food festivals. In some instances, food offerings are being announced like a rockstar lineup. Here are some of examples:

The Australian Open created a ‘foodie destination’ featuring a roster of pop-up restaurants in a free festival outside the main arenas in Melbourne.

At the Royal Croquet Club, you can come to this event to play croquet, but the main drawcard is food and drink.

In 2016 Sugar Mountain Festival launched ‘Sensory’ in 2016, an “immersive dining experiment” to explore the relationship of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch.

Trend #2: Light Projection Festivals

A current trend drawing huge crowds to city streets across Australia is the projection festival. Art is projected across iconic buildings to create a spectacular and creative light show. The City of Melbourne has also started doing this over Christmas to turn the Town Hall building into a giant Christmas present that performs a light show nightly.

Some more examples include:

Vivid Sydney
White Night Melbourne
Melbourne Christmas Projections
Gertrude Street Projection Festival
Acland Street Projection Festival

Trend #3: Winter Festivals

Snowfall only reaches mountain regions in Australia, so most Aussies need to travel to a handful of ski fields during select periods in winter to see snow. A current trend is bringing the snow to the city, with winter festivals setting up ice skating rinks, snow machines, and toboggan rides in inner city hubs. These festivals are family oriented with most activities designed for kids (most of whom will have never seen snow).

Examples include:

Winter Festival — Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Fremantle
The Big Freeze Festival — Melbourne
River Rink Melbourne

Germany

Trend #1: A rise in ‘unconferences’ with no planned agenda

“Barcamps are interactive conferences without specified speakers. There is no agenda, only the overall main topic of the barcamp is set but everything else, the panels, discussions, presentations and workshops are brought together spontaneously at the event.

“This way the conferences is very interactive, diverse, sustainable and a lot of fun! Today there are around 150 public Barcamps listed on www.barcamp-liste.de.”  Jan Theofel, Barcamp-Veranstalter und -Moderator

Trend #2: Confronting failure at ‘F*!k Up Nights’

“Failure is a normal part of setting up a company. At Fuckup Nights, founders and entrepreneurs tell their stories of failure and the small and big disasters while getting their business started.

“They also talk about the important things they learned during that time. With those stories, interested “to-be-founders” will hopefully lose a bit of their fear of failure and will be encouraged to start their company anyway.” Kathleen Fritzsche, Organiser of Fuckup Nights Stuttgart

Trend #3: Mud Runs

“XLETIX is not only a hurdle race for sports enthusiasts but the biggest outdoor extreme hurdle race community in the German-speaking area right now. The races are all about power, endurance, courage, willpower and especially about team spirit.” Josephine Wick, Editor, Eventbrite DE (de.xletix.com)

Ireland

Trend #1: Indoor Winter Festivals

Though it’s nearly 10,000 miles away, the belief that festivals are limited to the summer months is starting to be challenged in Ireland as well as Australia. In fact indoor Winter Festivals are a great fit for a country like Ireland that has very unpredictable weather, and Metropolis pioneered it last year, receiving a terrific reception.

Trend #2: Food focussed festivals

This is not to be confused with a festival that has food as a support at to music and arts. These newer type of festivals have food at the absolute centre. A good example of that is the Food on the Edge Festival in Galway, which describes itself as a food symposium allowing chefs to come together to discuss the future of food. There also is Ballymaloe’s hugely successful Litfest which celebrates food and wine writing.

Trend #3: The rise of community-based festivals

In a lot of ways it’s a trend about going back to our roots. Modern living makes getting to know your neighbours that bit more challenging and the tight knit bonds that once were there are becoming looser. It’s no surprise then that there has been a steady rise of well organised diverse community festivals across the country like Liberties Festival. It’s an obvious desire to support local and engage on a meaningful leave with your neighbours.

Netherlands

Trend #1: The rise and rise of niche food and drink festivals

This is a trend that started a couple of years ago but has evolved and expanded. As consumers become ever more discerning, there are now various niche festivals that focus on specific target groups (e.g. sushi, veggie). Take for example these popular events:

Amsterdam Coffee Festival
Rrrollend Food Truck Festival
TREK Food Truck Festival

Trend #2: Startups and entrepreneurs are driving demand for events

Amsterdam has been named in the Top 3 of Startup Capitals in Europe in 2016, and overall the Netherlands is attracting more and more startup and tech companies. The ecosystem here appears to be very powerful.

One indicator of the increasing interest in entrepreneurship are the events that are targeted at startups and entrepreneurs. It’s a perfect way to bring people, ideas and capital together. Here’s just a few of the leading events in this space.

Startup Fest Europe
Amsterdam Capital Week
TNW Conference Europe

Trend #3: People are happy to sweat for the causes they care about

There’s been a marked rise in endurance events, which also seem to be an amazing way to raise funds for a good cause. In general, outdoor individual physical activities have gained massive popularity these last few years. As fundraising events, they also capitalise on a society that is becoming more health conscious and keen to give back.  Here are 3 events that epitomise this trend:

Alpe d’Huzes
Roparun
Samenloop voor Hoop

United Kingdom

Trend #1:  Mothers ruin inspiring a revolution in tasting events

Despite what you might hear, the British have long been a foodie nation, but often tasting events were traditional and stuffy, or only for those already in the know. The explosive rise — and success — of gin festivals and tastings has completely blown the lid off this and opened up a whole new market of the ‘casual epicurious’ and younger generations, spurred on by social media sharing.

Here are a few examples:

Gin Festival
Junipalooza
Times Like These Festivals

Trend #2: Pop-ups are poppin’

‘Pop-up’ events have risen in popularity at a dizzying speed, and of course savvy brands, chefs and amateurs are all taking advantage of our enthusiasm for short-lived, speciality experiences. Much like there’s a magazine for everything (really, there is!) we’re quite sure 2016/17 is trending towards there being a pop-up for everything too.

Examples include:

Etch Oxford Pop-Up
Pop Up Pickle: Kimchi Time
Cadbury’s Creme de la Creme Egg Cafe

Trend #3: People can’t get enough of watching films al fresco

Despite the UK’s famously unreliable weather (particularly during those months officially deemed ‘summer’), we just cannot get enough of watching popular classics under the mercy of the sky. We can only see this trend continuing to rise and rise.

Check out some of these top events that epitomise this trend:

The Nomad Cinema
Rooftop Film Club
Hot Tub Cinema

United States

Trend #1: Adults are recapturing their childhoods with adult summer camps

For adults in the US, summer camp is back…and it just got a lot better! A nostalgic rendition of childhood summers, but this time with spiked juice boxes, no curfew, and zero wifi.

Here are some of the camps sparking this fast-growing trend:

Camp No Counselors
Camp Grounded
Camp Bonfire

Trend #2: Swapping hangovers for mind makeovers

With the rise of meditation, mindfulness and other mind-expanding movements, we’ve seen a shift toward more holistic lifestyle events that leave you feeling refreshed instead of burnt-out.

Expect 2016/17 to be filled with a combination of fun and challenging yoga retreats, wellness weekenders, fitness festivals, and farm-to-table feasts of epic proportions such as:

Fork + Meadow
Maine YogaFest 2016
FitFest

Trend #3: Things are getting meta as we see ‘events within events’ appearing

People are multi-dimensional and crave a multi-sensory experience. In 2015 music festivals like Coachella and SXSW started offering smaller health and wellness events; food festivals like Chicago Gourmet added morning yoga; and the Gilroy Garlic festival tested a “crafts alley”, letting local artisans sell their wares. Expect more event hybridisation in 2016.

Gilroy Garlic Festival
Chicago Gourmet
Lovin’ Skate Jam @ Essence Festival

What up-and-coming event trends have you spotted near you? Let us know in the comments below!