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There are thousands of festivals that happen around the world each year. 42,000 of them are held in the Philippines, and approximately the same number of fiestas happen in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. In the United States, 800 music festivals rock the lives of teens and tweens each year, while the United Kingdom enjoys 241 of them. Although times have changed and festivals might not be able to host as many people as they did in previous years, the events industry predicts that the future is bright.
A Difference Of Opinion
The events industry is reportedly hopeful that festivals around the world will be back on their feet soon enough, and they are basing this on the fact that a good 75% of millennials value experiences more than buying new things. They add that these experiences include festivals of any kind. Salzburg Global Seminar, a non-profit organization that focuses on sustainable policies, disagrees, and noted in a 2020 report that festivals and the cultural institutions that are tied to them are experiencing a crisis. Experts from the Austrian organization say, however, that the current situation will pave the way for live streaming and better connectivity.
An Expression Of Culture
Festivals come in a range of categories – from traditional religious fiestas to those that celebrate food, music, art, literature, and film. But no matter how diverse they are, they all have one thing in common – the celebration of a culture. Culture includes all the intricacies of society as a whole, or a group and its customs, art, food, knowledge, language, social institutions, and way of life. It also includes fashion as an expression of a particular lifestyle, and this is seen clearly in festival culture, with styles growing up to suit the festival-goer lifestyle (think layered clothing and styled dust masks).
Like festivals, however, all sectors involved in the events industry are feeling the crunch. Manufacturers of streetwear, tribal fashion, alternative clothes, and indie clothing lost money in 2020, and it is predicted that this trend will continue into this year. The good news is that designers and clothes makers can still sell their clothes online, but industry experts are not sure if this will keep small players afloat. Caterers and concessionaires are on the same boat, and since the beginning of 2020, many have been operating on their savings. It is noted that very little of their savings are now left. The same story can be seen across all sectors involved in the events industry. This includes lights and sounds providers, tent providers, and vendors who sell everything from earrings to caps to pocket belts, and other festival gear.
What The Future Might Bring
The CEO of one of Singapore’s largest arts centers, Yvonne Tham, told CNBC news that festivals of the future will be a mishmash of streamed performances and in-person ones. Tham added that festivals will no longer be limited in terms of time and space. This will effectively give event organizers a broader market because anyone from anywhere in the world will be able to join the festivities. Making a profit out of them is still a question that remains to be answered. Another solution is to turn big festivals into smaller ones just so the industry survives. The good news is that the industry is very adaptable given the nature of the events that it organizes.
Whether festivals of the future will be purely online or everything goes back to the old normal, those who organize these events are optimistic that this year will turn out to be better than 2020. In the meantime, the general sentiment among festival organizers is for them to find ways to continue doing what they love.
