Almost at the same time, tickets for three major music festivals are almost sold out. What's odd is that one of the festivals is offering single-day pass after the 3-day passes are nearly gone. Here's a quick look at what appears to be counter-intuitive music festival ticket strategies.
Logic dictates that when tickets go on sale for a music festival, the 3-Day passes are available right along side the single-day passes - right?
Well, that actually isn't the case at one major music fest in Alabama. It seems that only after all the 3-day passes are nearly gone, only then are single-day passes being made available. Ticket stock release error or shrewd ticket strategy? From the Pensacola News Journal, Julio Diaz explains:
Want to go to the Hangout Music Fest for just one day? No problem. For the first time since the festival’s inaugural year, single-day tickets will be offered for the giant music festival in Gulf Shores, Ala., which is scheduled for May 17-19 on the public beach.
Per the official website, 3-day general admission passes have gone through two pre-sales (sold out) and are in their final home stretch. Today Hangout Fest made an announcement that they are going to"offer a limited amount of single day tickets starting tomorrow. This is a cool deal and another way for you to join 30,000 friends on the beach for a day of great music."
Great for the fans, but why now? Because Hangout has held the block of one-day passes back and made them a branded promotion for one of their event sponsors. The fan-friendly "down market" price let's those who could not afford 3-day passes attend at least some of the festivities. Smart.
The Firefly Music Festival is being just as savvy with its ticket strategies but in a slightly different way. Firefly has waited until the last minute to announce additional tiered camping sites for festival-goers. 3-day passes were initially offered with the option of only one type of camping, but that has now been expanded.
Fans [could choose] from basic tent campsites at $148; premium tent sites, closer to the entrance and allowing check-in the day before the show starts, for $198. The “glamping,” or glamorous camping, option cost $1,498 and provided concertgoers with air-cooled safari tents with all the amenities of a luxury hotel.
The "glamping", premium access closest to the festival grounds being sold for a higher price is genius. Last minute additions to camping sites, after the event is nearly sold-out are a way to increase patron affinity, like Hangout's strategy. The order may seem backwards, but the long-term success of the event is most definitely headed in the right direction.
Marketing genius isn't the exclusive domain of Hangout and FireFly. The CMA Fan Fest scheduled for this June (video above) has just now sold out of all tickets for its main stage performances. However, just after selling out, additional performances at ancillary stages were announced.
Tickets to LP Field sold faster than ever, but the good news for our fans is if you didn’t get a ticket for LP Field there are nine other entertainment and music stages, plus special events, and activities throughout downtown Nashville to enjoy.
Wait-and-see post sell out music festival ticket strategies are risky, and holding too much back can leave a promoter with a glut of ticket stock for which there is no demand. But thankfully the three festivals above timed it just right and even the fans who missed on the primary sales can still attend (or go "glamping") via the late additions.
No mater what size of event you have, the savvy strategies above can be applied to best serve your business needs - but only if you have the right ticket software
The ThunderTix plan for music festivals has the tools to run multiple pre-sales, each with tiered ticketing types, and if need be adding new allotments at the very last minute. We'd love to show you how you too can offer tiered camping positions, including the lucrative "glamping" reservation :D