Concessions are a major driver of revenue at large music festivals. For event organizers, it’s extremely important to maximize the sale of concessions, as the profit margins on food and drinks are often quite high. Here are four of the best strategies organizers can use to upsell concessions and generate more revenue at their music festivals.
Put Concessions in Multiple Locations
If you want people to buy more food and drinks from concession stands, it’s absolutely critical that those stands be widely available. Place concession locations in convenient spots throughout the festival space so that people can easily find a stand when they need something to eat or drink. Placing stands in high-traffic areas will also increase the chances that festival patrons will buy on impulse.
Have Vendors Circulate Through the Crowd
One of the oldest and most proven ways of increasing concession sales at large events is to have vendors go out into the crowd to sell directly to audience members. Beer, hot dogs, hamburgers, bottled water and other simple products do well in this context. Though hiring people to sell in the crowd will increase your labor costs, the return on investment can be substantial.
Use P2P Texting
A more modern and innovative way to drive concession sales is to leverage P2P texting platforms to inform patrons of their concession options. Let them know what’s for sale and what the prices are, or text out special offers they can access throughout the day. Much like the idea of spreading concession stands throughout the festival, this will keep the options in front of your patrons and make them more likely to buy.
Get People to Stands with Special Offers
One of the best ways to increase your concession revenues is to get people to concession stands with special offers. For example, you might include a discounted food item with the price of an admission ticket. Once at the stand, patrons are likely to buy more than just the one product they’re getting a special price on. The more people you can get to actually visit concession stands, the more money those stands will ultimately be able to bring in.
Using these four simple tactics, you can sell more concessions at your music festival and increase the amount of money you earn from each audience member. These revenues can make the festival as a whole more profitable and allow you to reinvest to put on future festivals.