Merging Technology and Innovation are the future for Music Festivals.

The use of technology in the music festival industry has been advancing more rapidly over recent years with the aim of making events more efficient. As festival-goers become more technology hungry and music festivals more competitive how is the merging of technology and innovation impacting on the modern-day music festival.  

Using technology and keeping up to date on the latest innovations can help make a music festival more attractive to festival-goers and at the same time make the organisation's logistics and operations more efficient. 

Payments.
Electronic ticketing using QR codes has been the norm for most festivals for some time making the festival entry process faster and more efficient with paper tickets a distant memory. Most festivals have also adopted cashless events with festival goers using RFID wristbands to store currency and make payments for food and beverages or merch for example. Tomorrowland festival have even gone as far as introducing their very own currency specifically for the festival. The biggest change in payments technology in 2022 is likely to be the use of contactless ordering using mobile apps to place orders negating the need for queuing.

Supporting Technology. 
The use of mobile apps custom built for music festivals are also becoming more common place and are used by festival-goers to find their way around a large festival site. Mobile apps also provide additional branding and sales opportunities for commercial sponsors too. Most remote music festival sites now provide comprehensive Wi-Fi services which are managed by telecoms contractors who can install temporary signal booster towers.

Immersive Experiences. 
The music festival site appearance is starting to change with more artistic installations throughout the entire festival site. This is usually an extension of a festival theme that flows through the whole site with Tomorrowland and Coachella being good examples of site wide themes. Other innovations on the horizon are more use of holographic and VR technology for festival-goers to immerse themselves in the festival experience. More technology companies can be seen sponsoring music festivals as they see the tech hungry festival-goers as their prime audience for future hardware and software products and services.

Sound and Vision.
The presentation of stage shows and use of ever advancing technology by performance artists and implementation by artistic directors has seen great progress in how sound and vision is presented to audiences. The sound quality and amplification is improving making the listening experience better. Technology is also providing ever more extravagant light shows that add to the visual impact.

Whilst some festival organisers are restricted by budgets making it harder to use new technology, they should at least keep up to date on innovation taking place in the industry. As time goes by the cost of technology will usually drop making implementation more affordable. Use of RFID wristbands and having Wi-Fi used to only be available at a select few festivals but is now common place. 

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Wendy Wei from Pexels

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