In the recent years, music festivals have gained a surge in popularity, especially with their coverage in social media. Snapchat even cashed in our music festivals as they created a “flower crown” filter that reflects the popular Coachella headwear.

Social media has made it possible for music festivals to self-promote themselves as a marketing tactic. Cross device marketing is proving to be the key to reaching festivals by using smartphones to share what’s happening or what’s available at concerts.

Music festivals and PR work together to create a huge buzz around the event to ensure that the public will enjoy the festival. Here are some ideas in how PR is capitalizing how the rise of music festivals in recent years.

1)Strategic Promotion for the event and/or artists

News releases about any tours or festivals are provided to the public through the media. Posters, flyers, social media posts, and even Snapchat Geofilters all promote music festivals to generate buzz with the public. PR professionals send our albums to music reviewers usually a week early to generate hype around an album release. In the music industry, PR is known as the publicity or promotions department.

2)Focus on the target audience

With music festivals, PR professionals find a target audience and cater to them. In this generation, the target audience is usually reached through the social web. Social media attracts a wider audience. Many fans flood social media feed with photos and videos of their highlights of the festival and many of the top performances. Conversation on social media doesn’t just begin on the day of the festival, but on months before the festival when they announce the musical lineups, ticket sales, discounts, and contests.

3)Major revenue coming in from the music festivals

According to Billboard, about 32 million people attend a music festival at least once every year. Out of those 32 million people, 14.7 million are millennials. PR is able to capitalize on generating revenue because they are able to promote the events throughout the social web, reaching the millennial audience. Tickets sell out usually within hours of going on sale online for major music festivals, with many dishing out a hefty amount of money to experience a music festival.

4)It’s important to take notice of the Millennial generation

As stated above, the millennials bring in a lot of money to music festivals. It is crucial to appeal to the millennials because their social media is huge. They are able to promote any event through their social feed, which spreads through word of mouth. Any good music event is able to hype themselves through word of mouth, with any type of bad reviews scattering like wildfire. Many bands and artists prefer to perform at festivals because the atmosphere is more intimate than an arena tour performance. Many unknown bands are able to capture new audiences, as many music festivals offer an eclectic taste of music, mixing known performers with underground artists.

5)PR is essential to the music industry

Sponsors will pay millions to brand music festivals. Music publicists and PR agencies are experts in influencing marketing. Through promotions, news releases, promotional campaigns, having a budget, focusing on an audience, and having good communication between the PR agency and the music festival organizers can help prevent any mishaps that may occur from the event.

The Ill-fated Fyre Festival

If the organizers of the ill-fated Fyre Festival followed any of these tips, then they would be able to have created a successful music festival. Communication between their PR department and any vendors, sponsors, and organizers of the event could have prevented this PR nightmare.

The Fyre Festival has become the laughing stock of the year, so far, and some even labeled it as a scam. The festival was not prepared to host any crowd or performers. What they planned as a “elite” musical festival experience turned into a big disaster as nothing was prepared for the opening April weekend.

The Fyre Festival is currently the subject of two lawsuits, with one worth $100 million, with allegations of fraud, breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and negligent misrepresentation.