New survey says 82% of festival goers are comfortable returning to music events

Festicket has published a new survey examining the impact of coronavirus on music events and the thoughts of attendees.

More than 110,000 people who have attended festivals in the past were surveyed, and 82 per cent said they would be comfortable to return to a festival within one to six months of lockdown ending.

66 per cent said they would be comfortable to do so after one to three months, and 30 per cent said they would happily go to a festival immediately after lockdown is lifted.

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Close to 70 per cent said they would be up for attending a weekend-long festival, and 59.5 per cent said they would happily attend events both domestically and abroad. Shorter day festivals which may not require much travelling or an overnight stay away from home were the events punters would feel most ready to return to.

Confidence about the likelihood of 2021’s festival season going ahead appears to be high, with more than 75 per cent of people indicating they would be confident to buy a ticket for an event next year within the next two months.

People also seem willing to loosen their pursestrings following this break from events. 34 per cent said they would spend between €250 to €500 on a festival trip, and 24 per cent said they would go higher than €500.

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The potential cancellation of events remains a key concern however, and more than 82 per cent of people said the ability to cancel a ticket for a refund during a certain period - a “FlexTicket” - would be an important consideration when purchasing a ticket.

Festicket’s Marketing Director Luis Sousa said: “Despite all the current uncertainty, it’s reassuring to see a high percentage of festival-goers have a positive outlook for the live events industry, backed up by over 75 per cent saying they’d feel comfortable booking events for 2021.

“Unsurprisingly, we are of course entering the beginning of a ‘new normal’ for events where festival-goers – in the short term at least – will expect promoters and venues to adapt their offering to ease anxieties. We’ve already seen this in some venues that have begun opening their doors again, with measures such as reduced capacity and compulsory table service being part of the deal of reopening.”

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Features Editor, follow him on Twitter

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