With 2012 being such an epic year the events industry and Onion Audio only just getting back to work after a very hectic December, I have begun to look at what 2013 is going to bring. Particularly the summer season of festivals and just how they hope to develop this year. Personally I know exactly what I would like to see more of them do.

The number of festivals in the UK is growing. Despite a washout start to the season (Beat-hearder being the one that nearly made me cry by the Monday!) and various reports showing a possible down turn in the number attending festivals, you can’t deny the choice available has sky rocketed over the past few years. As a result, competition between festivals is getting greater each year. With lots of talk of festivals struggling to sell tickets, what can they do to counter that?

As competition rises within an industry, so does the quality of the service. At least from the better festivals. It is a simple lesson I learnt from Tim Harford in ‘The Under Cover Economist’. The festival goers will eventually gravitate to festivals that represent better value for them. Those that provide a better overall experience per pound spent on a ticket represent better value for the customer. If I spend £100 on a ticket and see five acts that I rate as grade A, I am more likely to return to that festival than a festival where I spent £110 and saw four grade A acts. Eventually those festivals representing the least value to the festival goers will go out of business or be forced to up there game (or drop the price!).

Competition has got so fierce within the festival market that its not possible to just book more and more ‘grade A’ acts for your audience to go and see. After all, there are only so many hours in the day that you can watch these acts and only so much energy you can expel doing so. The festivals that are selling tickets now are the ones that are providing festival goers with added extras. Extras that add value for them. Think of things like Arcadia, its the same acts but because they are playing on a stage that is breathing fire the experience for the festival goer is increased, which represents better value. An extreme example of this is Boom Town Fair, they create a whole world for their audience to discover. They focus on decor, secret areas, cool lighting effects and crazy moving stages. These added extra are so much a part of Boom Town Fair, a festival that traditionally hasn’t had many huge (“grade “A) acts, that they represent most of the value for festival goers.

So we are at a stage where the value of a festival is determined not just by the quality of its acts on the bill, but all the extra things that happen and effects the overall experience of the festival goer. The que and price for a beer, the walk from one stage to another (the distance and all the mental things that they could see along the way), the extra activities that wern’t on the website and you had no idea you would be doing at 3am. All of these things add value.

One quite extraordinary thing about Glastonbury Festival is that over 100k tickets get sold before the line up has even been announced. Thousands of people buy a ticket to what is primarily a music festival (Ok, thats an argument in itself) without knowing what music will be played. They buy for the experience, they buy because they trust the festival to provide them with a good line-up but also because they trust the overall experience of the festival will be amazing, no matter what the music is.

If a festival wants to sell tickets before the line-up is announced, it needs to have built up a reputation to provide a great all round experience. You have to know that regardless of the line-up, the experience will be a positive one. No longer can you put a gig on in a field with a few big bands and call yourself a festival. The benefit for you as a punter is that if festivals want your money, the added extras, such as decor, secret areas, extra activities, fire breathing stages, secret sets and more have to become a standard. As a punters, this is great news!

Big Chill was taken over by Festival Republic, who don’t have the best reputation of putting on added extras at their festivals (think Leeds & Reading festival). They had to cancel the festival last year after selling next to no tickets. The founders of the festival (who sold to Festival Republic) put on a new festival selling out early bird tickets for ‘Nova Festival’ which must have been based on their reputation to provide an excellent experience.

If we think of the panic surrounding the music festival industry & ticket sales, I can see clearly that there is a demand for festivals & the punters will ultimately decide with their hard earned cash which festivals will survive. The punters will go to the festivals providing them with the best value for money. If you look at it this way, I think the sellout success of lots of smaller festivals that focus on the overall experience and the demise of Leeds, Reading and other huge festivals that lack in this area, its clear to see what festivals goers desire and its certainly not just huge line-ups and a marquee in a field.

Do you think the increased competition within the festival scene is a good thing for festival goers in the long term?