Escalating prices, lower attendances and falling capacities wouldn’t appear to be factors of a healthy marketplace, but those are some of the takeaways from this year’s survey of European festivals… “Cautious” would be a suitable description of Europe’s collective festival community when it comes to reviewing the 2019 season, with the optimism of many promoting teams perhaps belying the reality of a marketplace that faced – and is continuing to face – challenges on multiple fronts. Addressing delegates at the International Festival Forum during his keynote interview in September, veteran promoter Herman Schueremans suggested that some of his festival colleagues and peers were maybe being economical with the truth when it comes to the health of the business, ticket sales and event profitability. Expanding upon those remarks, Schueremans tells IQ, “People very reluctantly might admit that they are suffering, but I think it’s maybe time that they start to face reality. I liken it to a parent who will do anything for their children – give them the food out of their mouth – and that’s also how people can be with their festivals. “In the end, though, things like this happen every decade: more festivals are launched and the competition becomes really fierce before natural selection kills off some of the events and the business goes into a new cycle. In recent times, there have been a lot of people who do not have our festival DNA launching events because they see this as the new Eldorado. But the bottom line is that festivals are about tradition. Maybe it’s about brands in the USA, but in Europe it’s more about cultural heritage, and in the end it’s those events with history and heritage that invest in safety and the service they give to the audience, that will survive.” It’s a point of view that finds some sympathy with others. Indeed, while more than 100 festivals took part in the survey that forms the basis of this report, that number was down on our 2018 questionnaire (130 festivals), while a number of respondents simply declined to answer certain survey questions, perhaps masking some of the problems that Schueremans highlights.
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Market Description While one event described the current festival market as “fantastic,” more than half of those who took part in our 2019 survey described the business overall as “healthy.” But not every festival enjoyed such a positive year, with 16% describing the marketplace as “static” and 15% revealing that their 2019 results were “worrying.” Interestingly, nearly 13% of this year’s surveyed event organisers opted for the “other” category to describe the current state of the market. Expanding upon that, they also used terms such as “overhyped,” “something between healthy and worrying,” and “unprofitable.” While one suggested that, “our very existence means it’s OK.” While one promoter observed that major corporate takeovers of events throughout Europe made crystal-ball gazing somewhat futile, FKP Scorpio’s Jasper Barendregt comments, “A lot is happening in the market. One is under the impression that the market is saturated, but then suddenly a new festival arises out of the blue and attracts a significant amount of guests. There is a great need for existing festivals to stay in sync with their audience and the demands that they have. Failing to do so is a risk and can result in declining spectator numbers.”
Average ticket price 2019: €203.61 2018: €196.46
IQ Magazine January 2020