Research: The festival Market

The brand I wish to launch is primarily concerned with the festival market therefore I felt it was necessary to conduct research into the strength of this market.
I have documented the key points from this market:

* Since 2000 the festival market has been increasing in size at a rapid pace. The online site www.efestivals.com has increased it’s featured festivals from 12 in 2000 to over 530 in 2008. Researched conducted my Mintel a (2008) suggests that much of this growth is due to the rise in boutique-style festivals that are vying for as much consumer attention as the larger commercial festivals.

*Festivals fall into the UK tourism sector which the British Government is further trying to strengthen using campaigns with the objective of attracting more international tourists and increasing domestic Uk tourism. Researched undertaken by VisitBritain found 19% of British people stated they preferred event holidays, including musicals and festivals as their preferred holiday type. (Euromonitor, )

* teenagers and young adults are the fastest growing demographic group in the travel and tourism sector. Euromonitor concludes this generation ‘are keen to embrace fun before taking on the issues of home ownership, marriage or children in later life. This has significant implications on their consumption habits with regards to travel and tourism.’ This is supported by Mintel’s findings of the age profile of the festival-goer biased towards consumers aged 16-34 years and is classified as ABC1.

*The uncertain economic climate is predicted to effect the tourism industry as consumers suffer from lower disposable income, redundancies and a lack of available credit. However Russell Luckock of A.E Harris & Co comments:
‘the fact that with the pound having slid by such an enormous amount over the last few months against a basket of currencies, we may well have a record number of visitors from overseas, particularly the eurozone, the USA and Canada.
By the same token, it is highly probable that holidays abroad will be deemed to be expensive.’ (Sky News, 2008)
Therefore even in the economic downturn the UK tourist industry has the opportunity to with stand the pressures exerted upon it. Highly publicised festival Glastonbury seems to have conformed to this with all 137, 500 advance tickets for the June 2009 festival sold out.
Mintel suggests that as consumers experience budget tightening the caution with spending will increase. In terms of live music spending consumers will take less risks on seeing artists they are not familiar with being more selective with events. In general the artist line up at festivals is large and therefore disburses this risk.

Market summary:
Festivals are in great competition for consumers money when it comes to leisure spending and even more so during the tough economic times. However the usp of live music gives this leisure activity unique properties. The competition for tickets, the social currency of being part of an audience to witness the performing artist and the increase in availability of live music genres this leisure experience is in a strong position.
The growth in audience sizes and demand for tickets give an optimistic outlook for this market.

Research summary:
The above research has given me a good starting with regards to market research for my tent. It is apparent that festivals on the whole appeal to a certain consumer and therefor I need to target my product towards this consumer which will form the next part of my research.