Use Twitter to plug into music festivals and reach their audiences

Some people want to roll around in the mud, others want to stump up £1000 for a yurt with its own kitchen, shower, and toilet. 

At the same time, everyone wants great music.  

So whatever your taste there is a festival for everyone. And just about everyone will be following their favourite festivals on Twitter. 

Below we look at engagement on Twitter around festivals using its own internal research. This covers the duration of the event and seven days either side of it.

Music is huge on Twitter

There is a great range of festivals out there for people who want live music. On the one hand you have the Reading/ Leeds Festival (@OfficialRandL) for younger or first-time festival goers. 

On the other there is @Bestival, which is geared towards families. Then there is @LatitudeFest, which falls somewhere between the previous two. 

And no, you wouldn’t take your mum to @Creamfields. Not unless she was dancing through to the early hours. 

A festival for everybody

In short, each festival has its own identity and kudos and among the many types of people who have bought a ticket this year. 

According to the Festival Insights ‘UK Festival Market Report 2017’, festivals are popular across adult age-groups with even 51-60 year-olds making up 10% of the market.

However, the two biggest groups are 21-to-25 and 41-to-50 year-olds. 60% are women and around 35% have children. 

Twitter connecting people through festivals 

Twitter has a place near the front of the stage at most festivals. This includes backstage coverage and exclusive partnerships with publishers. 

The popularity of festivals something brands have been quick to understand. Many have targeted marketing around relevant events. 

And the potential has been borne out by the size of the conversation across the festival period. 

For example, there were nearly 1.3 million tweets from over 760,000 users around last year's @GlastoFest.  While Glastonbury is going fallow in 2017 there are many other events going on. 

Below we take a look at Twitter engagement across some of the other big festivals. 

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is one of the oldest festivals around. Yet it has an eclectic line-up including @DepecheMode, @KasabianHQ, and @TheKillers.  

In terms of conversation, nearly 26,000 related tweets were sent about the event. This spanned the festival itself and the two weeks surrounding it. 

It also encompasses a wide demographic. Women aged 18-to-24 were the most likely to engage, followed by men aged 25-to-34. 

There is the chance to sponsor official videos from the festival, including key highlights and behind-the-scenes. 

Verdict: One for all ages.

Creamfields

This dance festival has been going since 1998. This year it is featuring sets from the likes of @ArminvanBuuren and @Leftfield. 

Last year Twitter played a big part in terms of conversation at @Creamfields. 135,000 Creamfields-related tweets went out throughout and around the festival. 

These were generated from 95,000 users with the vast majority coming from the 18-25 age group. Clubs may not be as popular as they once were but this event is still going strong.  

Verdict: Definitely one for the under-25s. 

Wireless Festival

@WirelessFest is a very different type of festival with more youth-orientated acts likes Stormzy and @FrencHMonTanA in the line up . 

This demographic is reflected in the type of user who Tweets during and around the three-day event. 

In 2017, around 40,000 tweets were generated by 28,000 users. The biggest user group was men aged 18-to-24, with women in the same age group coming second. 

Verdict: A great way to reach out to 18-24s. 

Conclusion: In marketing terms festivals provide a great opportunity to reach out to specific groups of consumers. 

A great example of this is @GlamourMagUK, which is offering the chance to sponsor videos on how to get ‘festival ready’.

So if you are the kind of person who wants to jump into the mud, makes sure you give someone your phone so you can post it on Twitter. 

And then find someone with a shower and a yurt. 

*Twitter internal research