It costs just $100 to mint and sell an average NFT, yet the benefits it could bring your festival are numerous. Let's dive in and take a look at a few recent festivals that have relied on this technology. Coachella, Tomorrowland, the Montreux Jazz Festival, and The Grass is Green (in Australia) have all relied on NFTs for a wide variety of purposes. NFTs—non-fungible tokens that essentially allow you to buy into a code stored on the blockchain—are quick and easy to mint, but the fact that they are blockchain-backed adds a high level of safety—which is vital for large event organizers. In what ways can you make the most of NFTS for your own festivals?
Avoiding Ticket Resales
One thing all event organizers wish to avoid is tickets being resold for outlandish prices. NFT tickets allow you to completely eliminate the gray market, and/or make a percentage every time the ticket is resold. In effect, you can make your resale percentage so high that buyers are reluctant to resell their item. You can create your own rules for tickets transfers and keep prices fair for all attendees. NFT tickets can serve as memorabilia and lifetime passes.
Generating Excitement About Your Event
Imagine offering NFT collectibles that also serve as an access pass for a festival—this is exactly what Afterparty did, providing NFT holders with entry to their two-day festival. They created 1,500 NFT collectibles in total, that attendees were excited to call their own. Afterparty has also created 10,000 NFTS that allow lifetime priority access to purchase a VIP entrance for their festival in Los Angeles. The NFT holders are treat to a live minting party at a secret Hollywood Hills location and once-in-a-lifetime experiences such as unplugged shows and celebrity collaborations. Way Out West, meanwhile, auctioned off three lifetime tickets in the form of NFTs. Way Out West's crowdfunding platform, Corite, offered festival goers the chance to mint their own amazing festival moments and memorabilia, without festival pass mechanics.
Inviting Fans to Trade
Fans who belong to the gaming-obsessed generations enjoy creating digital collections, building up their list of prizes, and trading and earning money alongside other users. You can create NFTs that grant loyalty prizes to ticket buyers. You can create dedicated NFTs (for instance, exclusive videos of performers, art created by the performers, or artist-inspired art) and reward them to a specific group of fans—for instance, VIP ticket buyers. You can allow fans to trade items and earn cash, and include a percentage for yourself every time a sale is made.
Who Should You Align With?
When creating NFTs for a festival, it is a good idea to seek out trusted collaborators to work with. Just a few you may need to rely on include crowdfunding platforms, graphic designers, photographers, and video directors. Your specific needs will vary according to the type of NFT you create. Just a few features to watch out for when selecting your team or partners include companies that pass your due diligence checks, businesses whose values are broadly aligned with your own, and those that are up-to-date with industry trends.
Delving into Artistic Pursuits
If your festival is centered around art, then NFTs can play a big role in taking your event to the next level. Follow the lead of Coindesk, which recently partnered with Brooklyn-based artist, Fahad Karim, to create 1,000 stunning pieces of regenerative art. These NFTs serve as a pass that entitles the holder to three years' access Coindesk's Consensus crypto summit. Think about artists that align with the values of your festival, and consider how your NFTs can do more than appeal to users visually. They can also promote your festival's value—whether they are centered on sustainability, diversity and inclusion, or independence. You can also create different tiers for your NFTs, entitling holders to different reward levels or experiences.
NFTs are playing a vital role at some of the world's most important festivals. Ticketing is arguably the most important area they can help organizers with, as NFTs and their resales can be controlled by the smart contract that manages how they are used. These tokens are an excellent way to reward clients but also to display your company's value and its commitment to the industries your festival is supporting.
