Riverside Festival: Attracting a Global Audience to a Glaswegian Event
Taking place on the grounds of the Riverside Museum on the banks of the Clyde, Scotland’s biggest electronic music festival – Riverside Festival – is a go-to event for the “Glaswegian faithful” and for a global audience beyond the city, too.
For the 7th year running, the festival promises a stellar line-up of scene-leading and underground artists and DJs in a location that is both unique and iconic. We spoke to Riverside Festival about how it all got started, how they maintain such success and what the future holds for this cutting edge event.
How did the festival get started?
Scotland has always thrived on pushing the boundaries with its eclectic music scene and Glasgow (UNESCO’s City of Music) is at the epicentre of it. The festival was born from the music and passion of SLAM and co-promoter Electric Frog and their combined desire to deliver something that was missing in Scotland back in 2012.
What kind of artists/acts do you host?
First and foremost, we love electronic music and we are fans of each act we book. The Riverside festival is known for covering a wide spectrum of electronic music: from pioneers to exciting fresh talents across the board and including Leftfield, Jeff Mills, Ricardo Villalobos, Bicep, Jon Hopkins, Jamie xx and many more underground artists alongside some great local talent, many who are big on the global stage.
How has it grown over the years?
The first year was a one day event with around 3,000 people in attendance using very little of the available space. This year, we hope to welcome 14,000 people across two days. We are in the same location and using more of the available space on the grounds of the iconic Riverside Museum, on the banks of the Clyde.
What are your main go-to marketing/promotion tactics?
The marketing strategy has had a huge transformation from our first edition. Now, our marketing strategy has moved to a split of 80% (online) / 20% (physical), with social media platforms becoming pillars of our annual campaign. That said, we strongly believe in the old school word-of-mouth approach too; we go on sale earlier each year and start confirming talent and announcing artist lineups more than 6 months in advance.
How would you describe your festival’s brand? How do you think you are perceived?
The Riverside Festival has become an international electronic festival that is housed in Glasgow. People travel from all over the UK and Europe to attend with thousands coming from all over Scotland too. We have developed a reputation for delivering lineups with scene leaders along with cutting edge talent and an underground edginess.
Every year we strive to improve what we offer. We tend to spend almost a full year engaged with preparation and planning and we are constantly aiming to improve our infrastructure and site layouts in order to deliver an excellent festival. I would like to think we’re now firmly on the musical map!
Can you tell us a little about your festival goers?
At the Riverside festival, you can find folk from 18 years old to those in their mid 40s – it really engages fans across the full age spectrum. The festival goers range from clubbers and electronic and dance music enthusiasts to many students.
Why did you choose to move your ticketing over to Eventbrite?
With its incredible and deeply online integration, Eventbrite was a natural step for us.
What is your favourite feature or part of our product? Why?
The Facebook integration was (and it is) a game changer. The fact that fans can buy tickets directly and without leaving Facebook has proven to be a superb feature. Also, I’m a big fan of the Spotify integration (via Songkick). Our fans are firstly music lovers and it’s great for them to have the opportunity to be notified on the platform and be able to buy tickets directly on the current leading streaming service.
What’s most important to you in a ticketing partnership?
How integrated and easy it is to use the platform across multiple devices and operational systems. Also, the deep analytics – the more you’re understanding your fans, the easier it is to discover and scout lookalike ones.
Can you share any metrics/KPIs that show the success you have enjoyed with our service?
With the help of Eventbrite and its integrations, we have discovered and reached a wider audience, see below:
What are your future plans for Riverside? (and how might Eventbrite help you achieve them?)
We’re planning to expand and improve the layout of the site in 2019. As well as that, we’re heavily investing in Facebook messenger as we’ve created a bot to help our fans with any info they might be looking for. And, we’re currently working on a deep integration between Eventbrite and Facebook messenger
Check out this video for a sneak peek into Riverside Festivals of the past, and really feel the energy of this much-loved event and the attendees who keep returning, year after year.
View our demo to find out more about our ticketing platform – maybe we can help your event reach a wider audience too!