Fest Faceoff: Social Media Style
by Kelsey Andrechuk | @kelseyayye
It’s summertime, which means no school, days by the pool, and most importantly: a plethora of festivals and concerts. With so many festivals to choose from, we decided to compare the most recent posts on the Facebook pages of Coachella, Riot Fest, and Vans Warped Tour, and share our theories as to why these posts were so well received.
Coachella was officially founded in October 1999, and is a two weekend long festival in Indio, California. It currently has 1,733,607 likes on Facebook, has hosted numerous artists including Madonna, Kanye West, Jack White, and, of course - the first and only hologram of Tupac built "strictly for Coachella." Its most recent popular post has reached 26k likes, simply stating “Thank you” followed by a video that is a compilation reminiscent of the two weekends from this year’s Coachella. This video gained a significant amount of positive commentary from fans, focusing primarily on the overall celebration of another successful year with Coachella and looking forward to 2017.
Moving eastbound to Riot Fest: This multi-day touring festival was founded in Chicago in 2005, but has expanded to Toronto and Denver. It has previously hosted many popular musicians including Blink 182, The Cure, and Weezer. With 213,470 likes on Facebook, the most popular Riot Fest post announced the reunion of the original Misfits on their Chicago and Denver dates that generated 8,000 likes and 8.1k shares. We can attribute this success due to the Misfits cult-like following and the fact they have not played together with all original members in 33 years. That being said, it’s no surprise the fans of this band would be ecstatic for this next to rare opportunity to see their favorite band reunited.
Lastly, founded in 1994, Vans Warped Tour is a favorite all-ages national tour with a whopping 42 tour dates this year. It currently has 1,949,933 likes on Facebook, and this year alone, will be hosting Knuckle Puck, Whitechapel, Waka Flocka Flame, Reel Big Fish, and many, many more top notch musical acts. On its Facebook, Vans Warped tour utilizes the bands it has playing on its roster by giving Facebook access to the musicians to post photos, videos, live stream, and converse with the fans and get them amped up for the upcoming festival. This method has worked recently with the band Bad Seed Rising, which posted a live video stream of themselves answering fans questions that brought in 1.2k comments and 53k views. By doing this, Warped tour and the musicians establish a connection with the fans, encouraging the likelihood of that fan to purchase tickets and come to their cities show.
Whether you decide to fly to Indio to see Coachella, road trip to Denver for Riot Fest, or wait for Vans Warped Tour to come to your city, there’s no question that social media is a necessity for the continued popularity of these festivals. Through establishing a common connection with their fans by what interests their target group the most - whether it be videos, live stream questionnaires, or reuniting kings of horror punk - these festivals make full use their social media to motivate their audience to get out of the house and make unforgettable memories this summer.