The UK festival market is being driven by a core group of “super fans”, according to new research.
Of those surveyed by self-service ticketing platform Eventbrite, one out of every four spends more on tickets in a year than the other three combined. Though “super fans” comprise just 28% of attendees, they collectively account for 56% of total ticket spend. They attend more festivals; spend more on individual tickets and act as tastemakers to their friends.
“UK festivals have flourished to the point of saturation, so it’s never been more important for promoters to know their customers,” said Eventbrite head of marketing, UK & Ireland, Marino Fresch. “Our research indicates that a group of loyal super fans drive revenues, attendances and power the market. Festival promoters would do well to nurture the super fans of tomorrow.”
Super fans attend an average of four festivals a year at £149 per ticket. Casual festival-goers, who account for 38% of attendees, spend £45 less per ticket, forking out only £104 on just one festival a year.
Forty three per cent of super fans attended more festivals in the past 12 months than the year before, and 53% plan to attend even more this season, helping drive the music festivals market. Headlining artists are cited as the No.1 reason they go to a music festival, twice as many as the next most popular response of “my friends are going”.
The average UK festival super fan is aged 32, with an income of £45,000+ and skews male (59% vs. 41% female). Sixty eight per cent get a sense of community from attending music festivals and nearly half (46%) think they are too corporate.
Eventbrite partnered with independent research firm Music Watch for the report, which surveyed 504 UK-based 18-49 year olds who attended at least one UK music festival in the past 12 months to the end of May.
The research also revealed that TV and radio are the most common platforms through which music fans learn about festivals. Forty per cent of respondents claimed that TV and radio were their main sources of information when it came to learning about festivals, while 38% cited social media, artists’ websites and social media as their No. 1 source of festival information.
