Are European festivals out of touch with younger audiences?

Joining the Event Industry News podcast this week is Dr Chris Kemp, who specialises in human movement and has a PhD in cognitive psychology. Back in January, Chris organised a focus group comprising 43 European Festivals and a group of 14-16 year old festival goers who got together to identify how in-touch the events were with their younger customers. The session highlighted an alarming number of areas where the festivals were described by Chris as being ‘on a different planet’ when it came to providing and understanding their customer needs. In the podcast we ask whether organisers really know the best way to communicate with their younger audience members, and should they be seeking more guidance from their audiences in order to shape their operations? In the episode, Chris highlights some of the key concerns raised by the young people during the focus group, and what he thinks organisers could and should be doing to improve the festival experience for younger audience members.