America’s Most Buzzed-About Music Festival Is…

2 minute read
Kanye West at South by Southwest 2014
Kanye West performs onstage at South by Southwest on March 12 in Austin, Texas.Rick Kern—Getty Images for Samsung
By Eric Dodds

A study sponsored by Eventbrite and Mashwork has determined that South by Southwest — held each March in Austin, TX — is America’s most buzzed-about music festival, beating out perennial favorites like Coachella in Indio, Calif., Lollapalooza in Chicago and Governors Ball in New York City. Ranking just behind SXSW in the top five were Las Vegas’ iHeartRadio, Chattahoochee Hills, GA’s TomorrowWorld, Lollapalooza and Coachella.

Despite South by Southwest’s strong showing, Texas didn’t rank amongst the top three states in terms of most chatter — that distinction went to New York, Nevada and California. The study also confirmed what may have already been obvious: music festivals are heavily youth-dominated, with 75% of the conversation generated by those between the ages of 17 and 34.

Eventbrite

A few other interesting tidbits from the report:

  • 54% of the conversation takes place before the event itself, easily besting the 17% that occurs during the festival and the 29% after it.
  • For Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn. and Hangout in Gulf Shores, Ala., it was all about the music — at both festivals, excitement about the full lineup or particular artist accounted for 65% and 63%, respectively, compared with a 47% average for the top 25 festivals overall.
  • People at Coachella spent way more time talking about style than at the average event — fashion discussion made up for 27% of the conversation there, compared with just 10% nationwide.
  • Though the ages of music festival fans closely mirrored the average age of Twitter users, a much wider spread is apparent from music fans’ taste in brands, where Starbucks, McDonalds and, of all places, Walmart proved favorites. Whole Foods, Best Buy and IHOP also scored highly.

    • Check out the full report here.

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