Author | Ding Qianwen Edit | Fan Zhihui
Force majeure is becoming a "shield" in the music festival market.
On April 17, the organizer of the Australian Station of the Oceania Music Festival, which the Rejuvenation Dan Band was scheduled to participate in, issued a temporary announcement, saying that the core guest Rejuvenation Dan Band could not participate due to "force majeure" factors, so it postponed its performances at two music festivals in Melbourne and Sydney, and gave fans a refund of tickets.
It is worth noting that this is also the first overseas Chinese music festival affected by the recent "force majeure" hurricane of mainland music festivals.
Since the full recovery of the performance market, mainland music festivals have long been one step ahead and plunged into the vicious circle of "force majeure".
On the evening of April 10 alone, Shanxi Panshan Music Festival and Chao CHAO Music Carnival Shanghai Station successively issued postponement announcements, saying that they decided to postpone the event due to "force majeure" factors. Before that, dozens of brands such as Qingdao Lane Music Festival and Texas Sunflower Music Festival have successively announced postponement or cancellation, almost all due to "force majeure factors".
Similarly, many bands and artists have also mentioned the postponement or cancellation of "force majeure", such as disturbing the Nanchang station of the "Black Romance 2023 Spring/Summer Tour" originally scheduled to start on April 21, and the Livehouse performance scheduled for April 15 by the boy group "Yi'an Middle School", which is backed by the fan economy, both announced the postponement and refund on the same day on April 12.
It is not difficult to see that the reasons for the postponement or cancellation of performances, which are mainly spread by music festivals, are fixed in the so-called "force majeure". In the context of the normalization of the performance market, the incentive of "force majeure" seems to have become somewhat mysterious.
Unveiling the "fig leaf" of force majeure
In the past three years, the so-called force majeure may have become more common, while the current so-called "force majeure" reasons have more or less changed.
For example, the Fuzhou Moyin Car Music Festival, which claimed that "due to weather experts' analysis and judgment that the weather in Fuzhou will continue to rain in the next ten days, and it is impossible to completely eliminate potential safety hazards", it was also pointed out by local music fans that this "force majeure" is really nonsense. Some netizens said that the weather forecast on the day of the performance was sunny, bluntly saying that "the tickets are expensive, the lineup is crotch-pulling, the place is far away, the tickets are not sold well, and you blame the rain."
The Qingdao Lane Music Festival, composed of Xie Tianxiao, Escape Plan, Hao Yun, Fine Orchestra, etc., was also questioned as an Internet celebrity band that lacked tickets, the lineup was not as good as the expectations of fans, and the single-day pre-sale tickets were 218 yuan, the differentiation advantage was not obvious, and it was difficult to attract tickets.
In the case of ticket sales failing to meet expectations, continuing to hold the festival will inevitably lead to the organizer being unable to recover the cost, and the postponement or cancellation under force majeure has become the best "fig leaf".
On the other hand, the temporary "blocking" of artists in the performance lineup, sudden venue suddenness, reporting, etc. are also "force majeure" reasons at another level. For example, about ten days before the start of the performance, the Guangzhou Station of the National Chao Music Carnival claimed that the event venue was suddenly upgraded and managed, and the existing venue would be renovated as a whole to ensure the viewing experience, so it was postponed, but there has been no follow-up until now.
And all kinds of "force majeure" that are not force majeure also subtly affect the normal operation of the music festival market.
Ni Bing, chief agent of the Greater China region of the United States' onePRM Music Group, pointed out that this is a process of accelerating the "death" of the music industry. Behind the real and false "force majeure" cancellation or postponement, it is actually hitting the enthusiasm of ticket-buying fans. He also mentioned that such an approach is tantamount to "playing" consumers, "people will have serious doubts about the three words of music festival, and there will be an extreme distrust of the entire industry." ”
But at the end of the day, it's all just one sentence – some music festivals that follow suit the trend really don't sell.
Since the recovery of the performance market, whether it is a small-scale Livehouse or a large-scale concert of a leading artist, it has ushered in a wave of considerable retaliatory consumption with a certain fan economy and fan economy. However, looking at the music festival market, there are many ups and downs, not only there are many chaos such as letting off cold flames, sprinkling colored powder, rushing fences, etc., but even a large number of fraudulent music festivals, serious homogeneity of lineups, and uneven performance levels.
After retaliatory consumption, in the face of the performance market with oversupply, the market will inevitably present the status quo of aesthetic fatigue, consumption tightening, and merit-based performances. This also means that many unprofessional music festivals are facing the fate of being eliminated, and Ni Bing bluntly said, "The worst results have not yet appeared, and I think that after June and July, I may die faster."
When the music festival has the extreme similarity of the head artists, there is only one possibility to test the music festival, "the spending power of local young people, which is also an economic problem." "After all, from a consumer perspective, measuring whether a festival is worth a ticket price is also related to ticket prices and lineups, even if fans are only coming for a certain traffic idol.
In addition to the cost of buying tickets, the cost of alcohol and leave behind participating in a music festival are all sunk costs that fans are forced to bear due to the temporary cancellation of the music festival.
Miss Wang, a music fan, said that due to the sudden cancellation of the Chao CHAO Music Carnival Shanghai Station, she could not fully refund the air ticket and hotel fees, and the ticket sales of the music festival did not support refunds and exchanges, "On April 7, the official announcement of the lineup and ticketing, but also fixed the accommodation and round-trip tickets for April 15 and 16, as a result, the stage construction was revealed on the afternoon of April 10, and an announcement was issued in the evening to cancel, and many music fans suffered losses that cannot be estimated." ”
At the same time, the frequent postponement or cancellation of music festivals will also make fans more cautious about choosing to watch performances, or even stop spending for them. For example, even if Chao CHAO Music Carnival, as a music festival brand under Maoyan Cultural Tourism, has a platform endorsement that is enough to gain the trust of the audience, it will inevitably be pulled into the lightning protection list of music fans. The "Blue V Authentication" of its official account was also accused of being removed on April 11, causing many fans to worry that it would also "run away".
The scalpers, which revived blood in the early days of the recovery of the performance market, are now also facing the embarrassing situation of not being sure of the audience's consumption preferences, resulting in difficult ticket sales. For example, the Nanchang Strawberry Music Festival held on April 1 and 2 by gathering universal youth hostel, Jiulian real people, Ma Wei, etc., attracted many scalpers to stock up on tickets because of their considerable lineup, but they generally ushered in the dilemma of difficult tickets due to high prices.
According to the on-site music fans, the scalper ticket dropped directly from 1,000 yuan to about 180 yuan that day, far lower than the official single-day full-price ticket of 480 yuan, and there was no lack of music fans on social platforms who collected tickets at a price of about 100 yuan on the same day. Ni Bing pointed out that this also proves that the spending power of music fans is declining, and music fans may no longer overinvest in the loose money of the music festival.
We have also noticed that compared with the previous one- to two-month pre-sale cycle, the current three- or four-month ticket sales cycle of music festivals has also made fans feel strong distrust in the "force majeure" again and again, and they will not choose to buy tickets.
Ni Bing said that the longer the cycle, the longer the income, this is a positive proportion." Now everyone has little confidence in recycling funds, so they definitely want the timeline to be extended. However, he also believes that this is a lack of confidence in the performance market by the industry as a whole.
It seems that "force majeure" may remain a choice that festivals cannot escape for a long time.
Don't let the festival "collapse"
In the past three months, music festivals have shown a clear blowout, with an average of more than 30 performances per month becoming a common phenomenon, and more than 100 large and small music festivals officially announced, and even Xinjiang, Tibet and other provinces and cities that have rarely landed in the past have ushered in the commercialization of music festivals.
At the same time, many new consumer brands announced their entry into the market and became new players in the music festival market, such as Sumidagawa Coffee and Moyin Automobile, etc. have invested in the development of music festival derivative IP development.
In the process of accelerating the blossoming of music festivals, the poor live experience of many music festivals has also made many new music festivals spit on by music fans as "real estate platter commercial performance" and "star concert".
At the Wuhan Wheat Field Music Festival on March 18, the Crispberry Band was dissatisfied with fans because they were about half an hour late and their voices were not heard, while the Silent Orange Band in the same show also had to delay the start of the show for 20 minutes due to equipment soaking and sound tuning problems caused by rain. Coincidentally, Guangzhou Haichao Universe Music Festival and Manghe Music Festival have also been complained by music fans for sound problems, small stages, late performances and other issues.
When these detailed problems are concentrated, they are actually systemic problems that have accumulated for a long time.
As Ni Bing said, "When the entire industry is unprofessional, the production team, including the stage team, the tuning team, you can't be 100% professional, all these mistakes and poor communication are actually caused by the combination of unprofessional details." ”
The "reduction" of venues and equipment is actually related to the slump in the performance industry, which directly leads to the compression of production costs and the loss of the viewing experience. Ni Bing gave an example, "For example, a music festival ticket is expected to be 8 million yuan, but the actual recovery is only 5 million yuan, then imported speakers are changed to domestic, two LED screens become one, the stage will change from large to small, and even the most terrible thing is to save money in terms of security fences, and there may be safety accidents." ”
The impression of the "collapse" of the reputation of many music festivals is largely due to the unprofessionalism of the organizers. For example, some music festivals can't wait to carry out ticket pre-sales before they get approval, or announce the lineup in the form of opening blind boxes, transferring the risk of the festival's capital chain to fans. These "empty promise" music festivals have actually evolved into bad incidents such as fraud and illegal fundraising, and "the professional quality and legal views of some practitioners have become terrifyingly indifferent."
At present, the difficulty of refund for music festivals has become widespread, such as the Grapefruit SEEU Music Festival, the Ear Wave Music Festival, and the Endless Starry Sky Chinese New Year's Eve Music Festival. It is reported that the grapefruit SEEU music festival promised to refund on March 10 after the music fans called the police, but it has not yet been processed, and the music fan Miss Zhao said, "The ticket price of grapefruit ranges from 388 yuan to 1,000 yuan, at least more than 100,000 yuan has not been refunded." ”
It is worth noting that many music festivals such as the Grapefruit SEEU Music Festival, which are difficult to refund tickets, do not sell tickets through mainstream ticketing platforms such as Damai and Xiudong, but more through their own mini programs, on the one hand, to avoid excessive third-party sharing, and to attribute the revenue to themselves as much as possible; On the other hand, it is also difficult for music fans to obtain a refund and change process with a protection mechanism through a third-party trading platform in the future.
The organizer also engaged in hunger marketing represented by VIP tickets, that is, without disclosing the total number of VIP tickets, VIP tickets were sold out when they were issued, forcing some music fans to buy general tickets, and then release a certain amount of VIP tickets, so repeatedly and continuously adding votes, which also caused a large number of music fan organizations to complain and report to the local authorities.
Ni Bing said that this is a problem of sales strategy, "Ticketing is the most important part of music festival management, but from a legal point of view, it is not strictly defined that hunger marketing is illegal, but from the look and feel, it is a little ugly, and the legislation of the entire industry is not so sound." He also pointed out that hunger marketing overestimates the spending power of young people and can also disappoint fans with the festival brand.
It should be understood that even if fans and fans "leeks become fine" and are willing to pay for high-priced tickets, they will also rebel when they are extremely oppressed. At present, many performances have come to an abrupt end due to the so-called "force majeure", and to some extent, it is also a collective boycott of consumers after the deterioration of the music festival. Ni Bing also believes that perfunctory music festivals ultimately rely on the market to screen, "let the market decide to survive, this is the best way." ”
However, there is no shortage of "Clear Stream" music festivals that are popular with music fans. For example, the Chengdu local music festival IP "Spring Tour Music Festival" is loved by fans because the ticket price is proportional to the performance, even if the ticket price has increased and the lineup announcement is delayed, its high reputation for cherishing feathers has made fans willing to pay for it.
Similarly, since Zhang Fan, the principal of Midi School, publicly criticized the music festival's sky-high ticket prices and wanted to hold a "music festival that young people can afford", the Midi Music Festival has become an "alternative" in the price war. For example, the 2023 Huangbohai Midi Music Festival that gathers nearly 80 musicians such as Cui Jian, Jiulian Real People, Trojan Horse Band, Hedgehog Band, etc., has a single-day ticket price of only 169 yuan, a three-day pass of only 399 yuan, and even 1993 stupid bird tickets of 30 yuan.
It is no wonder that netizens jokingly said, "Midi is using actions to show that music fans can come the most important", "Only Midi and wages have not risen for so many years".
In the final analysis, whether the festival is to "cut a wave of leeks and withdraw" or build it as a long-term IP, the competition is the team's professionalism and execution ability. When more and more unprofessional organizers flood into the market, it will undoubtedly dampen the enthusiasm of the market and stigmatize the festival itself.
epilogue
At the beginning of the recovery, we were looking forward to the recovery of the performance market, but it is clear that the real recovery is destined to go through some ups and downs.
Ni Bing pointed out that the above phenomenon should also force the introduction of legal management rules for the entire music performance market, "From the perspective of the organizer, as long as you can make more money and do not violate the law, everything is reasonable, and these must be solved from the legislative level." ”
At the same time, the approval process for cultural performances also needs to be optimized, "all domestic music festivals can only apply for approval at most twice, and millions of yuan are in hand as soon as they are started, and the lineup is announced at one time, so the risk for mainland music festival organizers is greater than that of foreign music festivals." Because I can't book two bands and start selling tickets right away, I can't hold 12 rounds like the Clockenflap music festival, and each round announces a targeted lineup to sell tickets to a more precise group, which is ultimately a matter of cultural management and economic operation. ”
In the eyes of most music fans, offline performances are like spiritual utopia, providing emotional values and life experiences that are completely different from real social life, but when music festivals, livehouses and other performances bring only negative experiences, they are also destined to make a large number of audiences leave.
But in fact, as Ni Bing said, the economic environment may become the reason for affecting the audience's consumption, but to a large extent, people have a greater dependence on music and culture during the economic downturn, "If such emotions are betrayed and easily trampled on by (music festivals), it is a very terrible thing." ”
However, with the liberalization of overseas musicians, the "unsellable" of mainland music festivals may also usher in a new turnaround. This may reduce the budget for the cost of the show, "put more ideas on some international quality musicians to make a difference, one to save money, and the other to maybe better box office." ”
All in all, music festivals are irreplaceable as an important component of the performance market, but if they are allowed to derail and chaos frequently, such a short spring is also destined to become a "cold spring" in the hot summer, which is destined to be unsustainable.
Typesetting | vision
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