YouGov’s annual music festivals report reveals that festival goers are becoming choosier and more demanding about certain elements of the festival experience.
For instance, the number of people who say they would “blind book” a festival without knowing the full line-up has declined from 27% in 2012 to 22% this year. Furthermore, last year 31% said that blind booking was “unfair”, which has risen to 37% in 2013. However, just under a quarter (22%) say that whether they would blind book depends on the reputation of the festival, down from 25% who said this last year.
Lack of comfort and hygiene is the biggest turn-off for festival goers, with 63% of those who say they attended once but would not go again citing lack of comfort/ hygiene as the reason. In choosing which festival to attend the line-up is still the most significant factor (81%). However, a slew of other factors have become significantly more important to festival goers over the last year.
- Safety/security has risen in importance by 5 percentage points since 2012 to 76%
- Parking facilities have risen in importance by 6 percentage points since 2012 to 53%
- Distance to travel has risen by 11 percentage points since 2012 to 51%
- A quiet area has risen in importance by 7 percentage points to 47%
- Being eco-friendly has risen in importance by 6 percentage points to 37%
Despite concerns about hygiene, the report does show an improvement in how festival goers feel about the toilet facilities. The 2013 report shows that 41% “love festivals but hate the toilets” – down 9 percentage points since 2011.
Commenting on the report, YouGov’s Kyle Skeates said, “Since we’ve been doing this annual report on music festivals we have seen the emergence of a more frugal and discerning festival goer. Whereas before consumers were more willing to blind-book, attend more than one festival a year and spend lots whilst there, the recession-era festival goer is an occasional one who has high expectations for everything from cleanliness to parking facilities. The bottom line for festival organisers is that they have to work harder to make it a great experience if they want people to come back the following year.”
