Music festivals are singing the changes with popularity and profitability.
Music festivals are no longer restricted to decibels, dancing and debauchery. Festival organizers are making sure they benefit from this immense approval of the various genres by people from all across the globe. In a span of 25 years, music festivals have developed from a fly speck to a colossal industry. Initially, festivals were all about peace and love, but presently, itβs evolving into a dandier affair.
The Sherp has picked five music festivals that have been growing exponentially over the years:
1. Ultra Music Festival
This outdoor dance music festival is no longer synonymous with Miami. Ultra has crossed borders and gone to cities like Ibiza, Buenos Aires, Seoul and many more. Till last year, UMF Miami was a 3-day event. In 2013, the festival took place over two weekends in the month of March. Evidently, one weekend wasnβt enough to make room for over one lakh people! The promoters recently announced Australia as an addition to the Ultra family, which will take place in 2014.
2. Electric Daisy Carnival
EDC fuses the worldβs most eminent dance music talent with state-of-the-art production, creating an unmatched experience of sight and sound. In 2012, EDC Las Vegas entertained more than 300,000 fans! Apart from Las Vegas, the festival has been hosted by major cities like New York, Orlando, Dallas, and more recently, London and Chicago. Originally started as a one-day event in Southern California, EDC has now evolved into a 3-day event with multiple venues and multiple stages.
3. Creamfields
Started as an offshoot from Liverpoolβs Cream nightclub, this music festival takes place annually in Cheshire, England every August. Other Creamfields festivals have been held in Abu Dhabi, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Mexico City, Moscow, Prague and even major cities throughout Australia, among many others! In 2013, they have announced they will be spending 500,000 pounds (thatβs more than Rs. 45,000,000! Phew!) on major site developments with a revised contingency plan in place in the event of bad weather.
4. Glastonbury Festival
One of the largest music and performing arts festival in the world, Glastonbury has transformed into a template for festivals that have sprung after it. The festival is held in a marvelous location of 900 acres in the Vale of Avalon in England. Born way back in 1970, the festival has augmented in size ever since with the amount of attendees frequently being swollen by gate-crashers. Glastonbury has given rise to several films and albums. Held over three to four days, the festival is now attended by over 150,000 people requiring large-scale infrastructure in terms of security, transport, water and electric supply.
5. Future Music Festival
FMF has recently acquired enormous popularity among Asians. Held in the major cities of Australia β Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, the annual music festival expanded out to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in 2012. This festival is not just about electronic music. It also promotes indie rock and other genres of music. With a combination of local and international artists, the Asian leg of the festival is very much alike the one in Australia. Started in 2006, this one is undeniably the future of festivals, as the name suggests!
In India itself, we have seen an extensive growth in festivals like Sunburn and NH7 Weekender. Both play host to thousands of fans from all over the country and even from across the borders. Recently, Sunburn even successfully went far and wide to Dubai and Sri Lanka! The music festival industry is on its way to becoming a booming recession-proof one!