News Copy - By Emma Elsworthy
Festival-goers will shell out a whopping £1.2billion this summer on food, clothes and merchandise.
Researchers who polled 2,000 adults found 36 per cent plan to go to some sort of live entertainment event this year.
And the stats show the average adult will part with £67 a day, as they browse stalls and enjoy games, rides and other festival experiences.
Food is the biggest daily spend at a festival, with the average music fan forking out £46.
However, the study commissioned by Barclaycard to celebrate its entertainment partnership with Live Nation and AEG at eight music festivals across the UK found food preferences have changed - and the days of beers and burgers are long gone.
Festival-goers are now tucking into Thali (16 per cent), fish curry (15 per cent) and kimchee (14 per cent).
Six per cent will even try insects while on-site.
It also emerged eight in 10 festival-lovers will splash out on unique products which can’t be found elsewhere.
Four in 10 even prefer to shop at live entertainment events than online, or on the high street – with a third considering these event better places to uncover new trends.
And just under half of those polled prefer the unusual product offering laid out on stalls, and 41 per cent feel more connected to the products they buy at a live event.
Making memories is also increasingly important to Brits when deciding how to spend their money, with many keen to take away something extra from their festival experience.
Four in ten (41 per cent) also said they feel more connected to the products they buy at a live event, over those made on the high street or online.
Barclaycard also polled 200 merchants and discovered festivals are seen as fertile ground to trial new products and ideas, with half testing products which they’ll then later roll out online or in store.
Of those who have used festivals as a testing ground, four in five merchants do so because they consider attendees to be fairly open-minded, and 83 per cent like the idea of receiving direct feedback.
With purchasing decisions driven by a desire for unique products that can’t be found elsewhere (80 per cent), heightened emotions (73 per cent), and open-mindedness (19 per cent), merchants anticipate their sales will continue to rise.
In fact, those present at live events expect their revenue to increase 12 per cent over the next five years.
With the festival industry currently worth over £2.46bn and 36 per cent of Brits planning to attend a festival this summer, live events pose an increasingly lucrative opportunity for new and established brands.
Daniel Mathieson, head of sponsorship at Barclaycard, which commissioned the study to celebrate its entertainment partnership with Live Nation and AEG at eight music festivals across the UK said: “Pop-up commerce is thriving across the UK festival scene, as brands compete to provide the ultimate fan experience.
''With more ways to engage audiences alongside demand for a deeper connection to the products they try and buy, festivals are becoming a fertile ground for all kinds of businesses to grow.
“In recent years we’ve also seen festivals start to offer dedicated event spaces to brands while providing activations on-site has also become increasingly popular.
''As festival spending looks set to rise, my advice to UK businesses is to explore the sales and marketing opportunities the UK live entertainment scene presents, or risk losing out to more savvy competitors.”
* To help people discover even more from their festival experience, Barclaycard has created a ‘Sensorium’ – an immersive structure that will take festival-goers at Latitude and Barclaycard presents British Summer Time in Hyde Park (5-14 July) on a multisensory journey designed to open the mind and prime music fans for discovery.
Barclaycard’s Entertainment partnership with Live Nation and AEG Presents sees sponsorship of eight music festivals across the UK and includes benefits such as festival pre-sales and five per cent back at the checkout buying through Barclaycard Entertainment.
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