The Openair Frauenfeld halves number of influencers
Influencers have become an important advertising factor, but they are not welcome everywhere. How do the largest Swiss festivals regulate their behavior?
Music threatens to become an afterthought: Visitors to this year's Coachella festival in California.
Photo: Getty Images
Who comes to shoot and publish, and who comes to play music?
Tickets for Coachella, California’s outdoor festival that kicks off the world’s outdoor season in May, have been selling remarkably slowly this year. A possible explanation: The festival has become too commercial for many people.
It features sponsors who invite hundreds of influencers. They offer themselves products from the brands that give them tickets, share photos of their outfits, but rarely care about the concerts. Much to the frustration of music fans – from “affective fatigue” It was the talk.
Minimum to reach 20,000 followers
There will be no shortage of influencers in the Swiss festival season. The largest local festivals carefully check how many influencers they allow into their venues and who they are – even if social media visibility is important to all organizers. This is demonstrated by open-air surveys in Frauenfeld, St. Gallen and Zurich, the Paleo Festival, the Gurten Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Social media and concerts have always been linked together: the fans at Open Air Frauenfeld.
Image: Keystone
Social media personalities can be pre-approved at all required festivals. They are invited if they are “fit for the occasion”. This means: you are from the area where the festival is taking place or have a clear connection to music.
Of course, access is desirable. The only more accurate name for this is Open Air Frauenfeld. Anyone who wants to be on the guest list at Europe’s biggest rap festival must “reach at least 20,000 channel followers.”
Influencers are not paid, they just get free posts. In return, they are not given any guidelines on what to post and how often, which is a win-win situation, as they say at the Palio Festival in Nyon. The range is wide: from festival-themed selfies to concert recordings to elaborate activities. And so is the social media chef. Noah Bachofen At Openair St. Gallen 2023 on the land of music lovers.
50 guests in Frauenfeld, 3 in St. Gallen
The organizer in Frauenfeld comes to a positive conclusion compared to the previous year, saying that they had a great spread and were able to address different target groups. However, the selection will be more stringent this year after there was a large-scale influencer campaign in 2023. “Last year we invited 100 creatives with accompaniment. This year we are looking forward to welcoming around 50 people,” says Frauenfeld. This probably makes it the most influential festival in Switzerland.
The process is comparable in Zurich, St. Gallen and Montreux. Applications from social media personalities will be reviewed before the festival. The number of invitees varies. At Openair St. Gallen this year, there were only three influencers who registered live through the festival – with 110,000 visitors over the entire weekend.
The festivals' social media teams are also important. In Sittertopel, 20 people were deployed to fill the Openair St. Gallen channels with videos and photos, as well as 15 photographers.
Influencer Jesina Amweg from Bern was invited to the Gurten Festival last year. She also makes music. She has 764,000 followers on TikTok and 87,000 on Instagram.
Photo: Raphael Moser
In the Gorton Festival I put in more effort. Influencers are recruited directly by the festival officials, in collaboration with agencies specializing in social media marketing.
“It’s definitely an effort, but it’s worth it. The way we want to organize the program, the stages, the whole experience of the festival is part of it,” says Lena Fischer of the festival’s management. The guest list shouldn’t be too long and will be checked every year. “It shouldn’t always be the same people,” says Fischer.
Only if there are free spots.
At the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival, they set aside time for content creators. Potential applications and top hashtags are discussed in advance, and invitees are given a guided tour of the venue.
The truth is that social media stars compete for space with their fans, just as they do with… European Football Championship It is currently being criticised, but there is no need to be afraid of it. “We want quality, not quantity,” says Eduardo Mendes, a Montreux spokesman. The number of people accepted depends on whether places are available or not. This also applies to the famous Paléo festival, which sold out in Nyon.
Beautiful background makes good content: View of the main stage of the Zurich Openair 2023.
Photo: Julian Kirmier
Influencers are only pampered to a limited extent. At all required festivals, you will get admission with access to VIP areas, but no other discounts. They have to pay for their own consumption. Only Openair Frauenfeld is a little more generous, issuing a limited number of vouchers – but with a young audience, social media stars are also more important for open-air hip-hop than at other festivals.
Their status is reflected in the fact that the influential people in Frauenfeld sometimes have access to the backstage. “Some need places to retreat, just like the acts performing on stage.”
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