Festivals are no longer the domain of grungy campers who are happy to pitch a tent and grab their meals from a cooler or a hot dog from a makeshift concession stand. A ticket to a sporting event is not just divided between the 50-yard-line and the nosebleed seats anymore. Learning a lesson from their music-touring counterparts, who figured out long ago that there are plenty of punters willing and able to buy and afford the premium experience, festivals and sports have evolved.
A high-end range of possibilities for enhanced festival experiences has appeared, with many circling 2016’s Desert Trip as the new gold standard in VIP festival experiences.
Dan Berkowitz, founder and CEO of CID, said that he was positively awestruck by the unique, one-off experience that was Desert Trip, which featured a once-in-a-lifetime iconic boomer-centric line-up with Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Neil Young and Roger Waters playing two consecutive weekends before 80,000 people. Many tickets were paired with VIP experiences that ran a vast gamut.
At Desert Trip, Berkowitz’s CID was responsible for “taking care of anyone who bought anything more than a ticket.” Which meant everything from travel packages and shuttles to luxury seats in suites and verandas to on-site safari tents and yurt accommodations. “It went remarkably well, and it’s something I will never ever forget,” he says of the Goldenvoice-promoted festival.
Memorable experiences is what the enhanced VIP market is all about, and increasingly, it’s something fans are clamoring for. According to a study by Eventbrite, “festies,” i.e. hardcore festivalgoers who attend between five to six festivals a year, represent 20 percent of all festival goers.
That demographic spends 78 percent more on a typical festival ticket than casual festivalgoers. And nearly three-quarters of them have purchased VIP tickets in the past and a third typically shell out for VIP tickets. Of those who have purchased VIP tickets, about half say they are willing to pay twice as much as general admission tickets, with perks that include access to artist lounges, better viewing areas and free drinks.
Festival add-ons come in all shapes and sizes, explained Eventbrite’s Biasha Mitchell, head of music business strategy and solutions. At this year’s BottleRock festival in Napa Valley, Calif., which included sets by Maroon 5, Foo Fighters, Tom Petty and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Those who purchased a Platinum VIP package “had their own wine sommeliers, who did pairings and tastings with high-end wine and gourmet food experiences while watching the music,” Mitchell said. She also mentioned things like jet skis and private beach access or VIPs at the Hang Out Festival in Gulf Shores, Ala.
“Every ticket is VIP,” said Berkowtiz, about the luxury festival it produces in Mexico. The events are offered as a travel package and are inclusive of travel, food, private waiters, transport and accommodation at Barceló Resort on the Mexican Riviera Maya. “When you buy that travel package you are getting a full VIP experience,” he said. “That’s really the pinnacle of what we do.”
One trend on the rise in the VIP package at festivals is the general elevation of experiences at all strata. “Across the board, what we’re starting to see is an elevated demand for enhanced experiences period,” said Greg Patterson, Eventbrite’s director of music and live events. “You have a lot of saturation of the festival market. What used to pass for a standard VIP at a festival say five years ago has become much more of a general admission (GA) experience. Festivals are now investing in the infrastructure so that the GA attendee is experiencing an elevated version of that festival.”
This means, for example, that many festivalgoers no longer have to use a port-o-potty, have access to better food options and may be able to purchase an RIFD wristband allowing them to have seamless purchasing options.
Patterson mentioned three smaller niche music festivals in which the remote locales, quality of bookings and amenities make it seem like everyone’s a VIP. These include FORM: Arcosanti in the desert of Arizona, Justin Vernon’s (aka Bon Iver’s) Eau Claire Festival in rural Wisconsin and Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival at MASS MOCA in the Berkshires.
“All of these are elevated experiences,” Patterson said. “They’re curated and elevated in a different way, and you’re seeing a lot more growth happen on that side. There’s more and more of these events and there’s a demand for it.”
This has also meant that VIP experience providers have had to raise their game beyond better bathrooms, food options and an elevated viewing deck. “Maybe there’s a stage in back that some of the artists who are playing the main festival go back and play,” said Patterson. “Perhaps there are cabanas or chefs or some kind of enhanced experience that you can only experience back there. That’s what we’re starting to see more of.”
One of the templates for all high-end luxury VIP offerings is CID’s “Roll Like a Rock Star” offered at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tenn. “They range between $40,000 and $50,000, depending on the type of tour bus you get,” said Berkowitz. Buses are typically built for eight people. “You get golf cart transportation through- out the festival site, breakfast, lunch and dinner from the headliners’ caterer; you get the equivalent of an all-access pass; you get viewing areas at all five main stages; you get a personal concierge that’s assigned to your bus and it’s a really high-end experience.”
But it’s not just music festivals that are creating tiers and enhanced experiences. “SLO has worked with everyone from Madonna to the Pope to the Dalai Lama,” said Shelly Lazar, a pioneer in the VIP packages market who worked for Bill Graham Presents before going out on her own in 2002.
“Last year America’s Cup was in San Francisco,” said Lazar, a Bay Area resident. “So we were involved with a lot of VIP packages. You had prime viewing and secondary viewing and we did packages for each of the quarter finals, each of the semi-finals and then the final race."
Lazar noted that because a sailing audience is “more of a moneyed crowd than people going to some music festival in the middle of nowhere,” they were looking for high-end treatment. Lazar offered VIPers very high-end food, high-end liquor and champagne.
In addition to high-end food, SLO produced exclusive merchandise items, much as she does for her music VIPs, which includes bespoke designed shirts or commemorative tickets, none of which are available to non-VIPs.
And it's not just sailing that’s begun to monetize VIP experiences, it’s every type of sport there is. “Our partnerships include the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Professional Golfers Association (PGA), National Football League (NFL) teams, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), major tennis tournaments and professional bull riding,” said Zack Hall, chief marketing officer for Primesports.
Much like music, sports can enhance fan experience by giving them great access. “We can bring people closer to the action,” Hall explained.” For an NFL game it would mean field passes, for the NCAA Final Four it’s our hospitality area that’s beyond the security perimeter and, in the case of PGA, we have their professionals escort our fans through a different part of the golf operation.”
There are also experiential aspects to be had with sporting VIP packages, which can include things like getting a ride in a pace car, kissing the bricks at the Indianapolis 500 or touring the paddocks at the Kentucky Derby, Hall noted.
There is, however, one problem with sports VIP packages, which is far beyond Hall’s control and may just be in the hands of a much higher power. “You could take care of every single detail and it could be the best value, and the best package in the world but if your team loses by three touchdowns and you’re walking out of that building, you’re going to have a bad taste in your mouth.”
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