Failure of Music Festivals - Literature review Example

Failure of Music Festivals Introduction The music festival industry continues to be one of the most popular sector in the event management aspects of event. This is mainly because of the fun associated with these festivals through attracting large crowds because of the celebrity performances during the festivals. In recent times, however, numerous failures have occurred within the music festival industries and the number of failures continues to rise as time goes by. The number of music festivals that have failed to take place in recent years continues to increase (Carlsen et al. 2010). This has become a worrying trend within an industry that has been perceived as one of the most popular segments in event hosting. There are various reasons which are provided by the organiser regarding he reason for failure, but mainly the public is normally informed of unavoidable circumstances. These factors remains unknown to the fan who wish to attend the festivals and are the most affected individuals by the failure. There are numerous reasons provided in relation to the occurrence of failures of music festivals. The rate of failure has continuously increased in recent times resulting in the need to assess the causes of failure in music festival. This research seeks to review the fundamental factors underlying behind the unavoidable circumstances that result in the different forms of failures associated with music festival events in different global locations. The failures have been a fundamental cause of fans becoming highly frustrated in relation to the failure to attend events for which they have prepared for. The article identifies the reasons which have caused the trend, which have been observed regarding failure of music festivals. Failure of music festivals The failure of music festivals refers to different elements that result in an event failing to meet the stakeholder expectations as a result of changes which occur. The various stakeholders of the event include the organiser, attendants, and other people within the region who might be affected by the occurrence of the festival within the particular location. The impact of the festival upon the different stakeholders is normally utilised in the determination of the success which has been achieved through the occurrence of the festival (Delanty et al. 2011). Regardless of the factors which cause a music festival to be considered to have failed, there are various forms of failures which have become increasingly popular within the music festival sector. The reasons for the events failing to be successful normally determine the type of failure which would be applied within the context of different events. Cancelations Cancelations refer to occurrences when events fail to completely take place as a result of various factors. This is a form of failure that is normally initiated by the organisers of the event before the event occurs. The planning for an event involves various activities that must be conducted before the actual event occurs to ensure the event is undertaken successfully. Financial factors are some of the fundamental causes that lead to the organisers determining to cancel the hosting of an event (Johnston 2013). The decision for cancelation of an event is reached based on the feasibility study of the gains which could be received from the festival. The gains which are utilised in measuring the success of an event include attendance, financial returns and the outcomes of the event to the society. Financial returns – These are referred to the benefits which the organisers of the event would like to achieve from the sale of tickets and other sources of finance within the festival. There are various sources of finance within the festivals including the sale of souvenirs of the festival. Many of the other sources of finance other than the ticket sales, are all dependent on the attendance to the festival (Derrett 2004). It becomes essential to ensure that the attendant of the people is relatively high and this will ensure that there is a relatively high financial return from the festival. Attendance – within the context of many festivals, the attendance remains the most fundamental element which is considered when assessing the success of any music festival. This assessment is normally based on the sale of tickets before the event occurs. The ticketing techniques and valuation of the sales is normally based on the expected income for hosting a festival. This includes ensuring that the pre-event sales are capable of meeting all the expenses involved within the event (Kennelly et al. 2014). These expenses include the payments for the performing artists and other financial obligations like venue hiring which must be met for the event tickets. Outcomes – these refer to the implications of the event upon the environment and other third party stakeholders. An evaluation of the implications upon these factors becomes critical in determining whether to continue with the event or cancel. Within the modern times, a fundamental event concern has been the carbon footprint and many regions require event organisers to make a consideration of these factors. The environmental factors related to the event must be accessed to determine the impact which the event will have on the environment. The growing environmental concerns normally require events to be able to mitigate the environmental impacts emanating from the festival. Failure to meet such environmental obligations can result in event cancellation. Sustainability – this refers to the possibility of the organisations to conduct an event once and be able to repeat it again. This means that the festival should be able to meet the associated obligations in order to ensure continuity of the event into the future. The element of sustainability seeks to ensure that the collapse of the event does not occur as this could have adverse negative effects upon the stakeholders (Raj & Musgrave 2009). Once events have been assessed as lacking the sustainability capacity, many of them are normally cancelled in order to ensure that the impacts upon the stakeholders are eliminated from the event. Postponements When events are cancelled, they can be scheduled for a later date or may not be hosted again based on the implications and factors which caused the cancellation. When they are rescheduled, this becomes a postponement of the event. The element of postponement can be described as the change of the time which the event should have occurred in seeking to ensure that the expectations of the stakeholders are met. The organisers of many events normally postpone events in order to ensure that some of the factors and requirements of the event are achieved. During the planning and organising phases of the events, there are numerous elements which the organisers must consider to ensure the festival meets the expectations of the various stakeholders (Preston 2012). Postponements occur based on the establishment of certain factors which have been met and other which have not been met. Normally the postponement is meant to allow for more time to ensure the presence of the unmet elements of the event Postponement of events occurs in seeking to mitigate the risks which are associated within some unforeseen occurrences which might affect the event being organised. Consideration of the safety of the various stakeholders in relation to other external factors which affect the occurrence of the event can easily result in postponement. Within recent times many events have been postponed as a result of various factors which render the event to be unable to proceed (Gibson et al. 2011). Postponement of festivals is normally associated with natural and man-made factors. Normally, under the circumstances which festivals are hosted, there are certain factors which must be met before the event can proceed. Failure to meet these requirements before the due date of the festival results in postponement. Periodic events also result in postponement of festivals in order to ensure the event is hosted in more suitable time. Natural causes – these are normally events which occurs and are beyond the control of the festival organisers and they are normally unforeseen and unpredictable. Within recent times extreme weather conditions have resulted in the cancellation of various events and festivals. While the event might be in progress, the weather condition might affect the continuity of the event. Most festivals are normally held in open spaces and rain becomes an impediment to the continuity of the event. The occurrence of rain remains an element which cannot result to a complete cancelation of an event therefore, festival might be delayed as a result of rainfall during the day when the event should begin. Once the factors causing the delay have gone the event continues as normal. Other causes – there are many other periodic factors which could result in the cancellation of festivals within the music festival industry. The event necessities like the performing artists and other factors like regulatory requirements must be available for the event to continue. Performing artists sometime delay or become unavailable as a result of other factors, this normally causes events to be postponed until the situation has been assessed and determined to be alright. Event organisations opt to make delays and keep attendees waiting rather than cancelling the entire event. Although the postponement might have significant effects on the outcome of the event, the effects are minimal compared to a complete cancelation of an event. Postponement is therefore preferred rather than cancellation. This seeks to ensure that the individuals who hold tickets do not demand refunds from the event organisers (Arthurs 2013). Complimentary services can be offered to the ticket holders when event s are postpones for inconveniences which the people might have incurred. Financial collapses The fundamental aspects which organisers of any festival are concerned with are mainly the financial returns which the festival can bring to the organisations. Efficient and effective marketing for the event must be conducted when seeking to ensure that the event meets the basic financial obligations of hosting. This remains a difficult element for newly formed festivals since they must be able to raise the money before the event can take place (McDonnell & Moir 2014). Existing festivals normally utilise reserve funds from previous events, making newly formed festivals highly susceptible to financial collapse. This occurs when the festival cannot meet the pre-event financial obligations. Financially, festivals must have sufficient funds up-front in order to meet the budgetary requirements of the event through underwriting the financial implications involved within the event hosting process. This necessitates the need for festival patrons to purchase some supplies early and avoid last minute rush. This financial commitment complicates the release and pricing of tickets which are supposed to raise the capital for the event. The patron seeks to line up popular artists and other activities which would attract the essential numbers of ticket sales to meet the financial obligations and ease the pressure upon the organisers (Stone 2008). An unattractive line-up can easily result in low sales which comes as result of the demand falling down. This presents a knock on effect upon the event when members of the public lack the urgency to purchase tickets in advance. The festival plans are normally based on the capacity to raise money in advance and ensure the commitment of the public towards attending the event (Goldblatt 2013). When the people fail to make financial commitments through early purchases, confidence on the event drops significantly and it becomes relatively difficult to continue marketing the event to other people. The difficulty in marketing creates a fundamental problem in hosting the event as financial crisis begin to affect the financial requirements of the festival. The music promoters who normally undertake the event hosting have also been faced by various financial challenges which in times have resulted in liquidation of the companies. When the organisers face financial problems, the capability to meet the financial obligation in the purchase of festival supplies become difficult. The lack of supplies remains a fundamental reason for many organisers being sued by suppliers and artists and this normally causes the financial collapse of the entire festival. Other than the marketing factors for the event, the financial crisis around the world have had significant effect upon the purchasing power of individuals. This makes the pricing for event products relatively complex as the patrons must ensure they determine the target market for the event (Hede 2007). This has resulted in many festivals searching for strong supporter base from loyal patrons. This kind of funding is relatively difficult to secure as the festivals must be able to fund themselves from the ticket sales (Skinner & Rukavina 2002). The diminishing purchasing power of the people coupled by the financial crisis around the world continue to make it relatively difficult for attendees to make financial commitment through early purchase of tickets. The event organisers must be concerned about the capability to raise funds to host the festival owing to the combination of various factors, regarding funding for the event. Declining ticket sales Much of the financial returns from the festivals comes from the sale of tickets as opposed to other products related to the event. Ticket pricing must be conducted in consideration of the essential elements which determine the costs of the event. The number of festivals which are being hosted in the music industry has continuously increased and the competition for the festivals continued to intensify. The market for the festivals has obviously become crowded as the entertainment industry continues to gain popularity in the number of people participating in the industry (Cochrane 2011). As the number of events increase, the market becomes crowded and ticket sales for festivals are bound to decline as well because of the existing competition (Davidson 2013). Extensive marketing becomes critical towards ensuring the desired volume of ticket sales can be reached. Many organisers commonly have a target number of attendees which they desire in order to define the event as successful. The success of festivals is normally based on the number of people who attend the events as the organisers expect the venues to be full to the capacity to ensure the space has been utilised to the maximum. Poor ticket sales have caused various events to be cancelled and even postponed until such a time when the levels of tickets sold reaches the desired number. Back in the 1990s, there were very few festivals which occurred and they remains extremely popular even without much marketing efforts (Middleton 2009). With the increased number of festivals, different promotional approaches have to be adopted in seeking to enhance the popularity of modern day events. The marketing constraints result in events achieving poor ticket sales and many are cancelled or postponed in seeking to reach the desired ticket sales. Within the music industry, many copycat festivals have occurred and the consumers have become confused regarding the festivals which to attend and the one’s not to attend. Where there are many similar music festivals, other pricing techniques and factors become critical in selling the tickets, and because of the increased competition, the consumers consider some of the events not worth spending their money for. Music has reached extreme levels and despite the festival element presenting realistic entertainment, the festivals still face competition from other non-festival factors (Cochrane 2011). Musical content available from online sources like Spotify and YouTube has adversely affected the sale of festival tickets. References Arthurs, A., 2013. Music festivals are in trouble but the shows must go on. The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/music-festivals-are-in-trouble-but-the-shows-must-go-on-21035# [Accessed January 27, 2015]. Carlsen, J., Andersson, T. D., Ali-Knight, J., Jaeger, K., & Taylor, R., 2010. Festival management innovation and failure. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 1(2), pp.120–131. Cochrane, G., 2011. Music festivals struggling due to “overcrowded” market. Newsbeat. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/14446562#. Davidson, H., 2013. How Not to Promote Concerts & Music Festivals. Concert Promotions Manual. 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