Ageing Ravers Impact on EDM Music Festivals.

A growing trend at Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festivals is the shifting demographics of festival-goers. The EDM genre is suffering from an ageing audience as the ‘rave scene’ fades into memory and younger festival-goers gravitate to more mainstream pop music. This presents both opportunities and challenges for EDM festival organisers.

Organisers of EDM festivals are taking advantage of their ageing audience by changing their offerings to festival-goers to cater for the older generations. This is likely to be a gradual shift over time rather than a passing trend and it’s key that festival organisers recognise this and change their businesses models to meet changing demographics. What are EDM festival organisers doing to adapt their events to cater for the ageing raver. 

Origins. 
The underground rave scene has its origins in the late 1980’s as the EDM genre grew in popularity manifesting itself as the illegal rave party. With links to popular narcotics like ecstasy the illegal raves became known as Acid House parties, usually taking place in abandoned warehouses or remote farmer’s fields. Attendance was by word of mouth and shady organisers and ravers had constant battles with the police to avoid being closed down. As the illegal raves declined a more organiserd and commercial EDM rave scene emerged in the mid 1990s with clubs like Ministry of Sound which has its roots from the early rave and house scene. Today's major EDM festivals, Electric Daisy Carnival, Creamfields and Tomorrowland, are the direct descendants of the underground raves, but they have evolved into multi-million dollar, highly organised events that are a central part of the global music industry. 

Shifting Demographics. 
The early ravers who were in their 20s or 30s in the 1980s and 1990s are potentially already in their 60s or even early 70s. Pioneering EDM DJ Danny Rampling is 64 which reflects perfectly the ageing raver generation. Despite the current age of these early ravers many still identify with the rave scene and its music. This older age group have greater disposable income with differing priorities compared to younger generations when considering attending an EDM music festival. The ageing raver is increasingly being attracted to EDM festivals as they have more free time and a desire to explore what the current EDM festival has to offer. Younger festival-goers still make up the majority of attendees but with an ethos of diversity and inclusiveness the EDM festival is spanning across all age groups. 

Music Curation. 
Although early EDM had a focus on the house and trance genres current festivals offer a huge variety of sub-genres with some even having their own unique events. Organisers are curating a mixture of established artists and new talent and a line-up that features nostalgic DJs (Carl Cox, Sasha and Paul Oakenfold) from the early EDM days is increasingly appealing to the ageing raver. The EDM festival is now more likely to have a very diverse line-up which exposes older music to younger generations and equally the ageing raver gets to experience the latest offerings from new talent. 

Festival Offerings. 
EDM festival organisers are adapting and changing what they offer to cater for the shift in demographics of their festival-goers. The older EDM festival-goer is more likely to want the comforts of home when spending a long weekend on a festival site. With a higher disposable income, they will be more likely to pay for VIP or premium packages with up market glamping, private bathrooms and comfortable chill out zones for example. The older festival-goer will probably spend more whilst on a festival site especially on nostalgic EDM merchandise and up market food and beverages. The older festival-goer demographic profile also helps organisers attract a more diverse range of sponsors who specifically want to target this group. Premium and up market brands are looking to connect with those who have high disposable incomes and traditionally the typical festival-goer did not match this audience. The ageing raver attending an EDM festival is changing this perception making these brands more open to sponsorship deals. 

For festival organisers planning their next event 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, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by StockSnap via Pixabay

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