For Felix Carrasco and his team at Warner Music Experience (WMX), the summer festival season is one of the most hectic times of the year.
“For the European team it's the busiest that they get, because there are about 130 different festivals across all of Europe,” says Carrasco, WMX’s VP Merchandise, Head of Pop, Rock and Label Services. “So you're having to ship into many different locations in a busy period.
“And then for the US it's more just part of the touring logistics for most of the artists. They mostly fit touring around the festivals that they're performing at, so they may have some headline shows in between. So then it becomes a slightly easier lift on the US front.”
With the festival season almost upon us, Carrasco offers some valuable insights into this year’s key festival merchandise trends…
“Oversized T-shirts, boxy T-shirts, heavyweight T-shirts. Those are in for this summer.
“A lot of artists have started to move towards printing on Gildan, Hanes, and if you are happy with a higher price point, LA Apparel. So they're really moving into those more ’90s retro throwback, bulky styles.
“That's definitely going to continue through this summer. And I expect probably next year, the start of it, but then it will start to move on to the next trend.
“Tie dye seems to be on the way out this summer, which is what we had seen the last few years.”
“[At a festival] you're trying to reach someone who has just seen you for the first time, may have not heard your music. So you are not going to your core superfan.
“So [choose] really accessible designs. Look at what has sold best for you historically, and really put those as the designs that you're shipping.
“And also, [use a design] that carries the artist’s name across the front. It’s not going for a lyric T-shirt and a small pocket print – you’ve got to think the fan is standing 15 feet away from a very large board. And you need to be able to stand out very easily. So a large font with the artist’s name, and then a design that goes with it that people will happily buy into and see and understand.
“This is very much [aimed at] the casual fan that's going to see 40 artists that weekend and wants to maybe buy a piece of merchandise on the way out that isn’t the festival T-shirt.”
"Don't put inventory into something that you're not going to be able to sell after the weekend.”
“If you are near the top of the billing, make festival specific merchandise. If you're anywhere off the top, just carry in what you have.
“If you are a headliner or one down from the headliner, there are going to be a lot of people that are going to that festival to see you. So they will happily buy your event specific celebration of the festival. [But] most of the fans there will likely buy the festival T-shirt to encompass all the artists and the experience.
“If you are playing lower down on the billing, it's going to the casual fan that's coming to check you out. And so don't put inventory into something that you're not going to be able to sell after the weekend.”
“Skip the smaller festivals, or the ones that are impossible to ship to. And that traditionally is because the sales at a smaller festival are not going to be to the level they are at the larger ones just because of the volume of people.
“So you end up actually losing money at a lot of the European festivals by having your merchandise there.
“Shipping is expensive, especially as you're looking at the European cross borders and shipping in ahead of time and then shipping back out. The shipping out is really what kills you – when you’re having to get the inventory back from a Swedish festival, you're spending a lot of money to get that back out.
“Also, the festivals will charge you a fee to sell your shirts – it can be anywhere from 20 to 30%. So you're paying 30% to them, you're paying the shipping rate in and out of the festival. Sometimes there's import duties as well. So if you're playing at a smaller festival, or one that's really tough to ship in and out of, just be comfortable with them carrying your name on [the festival merchandise] and skip it.”
"The temperature plummeted. And everyone was dressed inappropriately for a freezing cold Coachella evening. And suddenly the sales started to come in on this hoodie."
“This one is very specific to any of the festivals in the desert. Be weather prepared with your merch. The temperature can drop very heavily at night. We have seen artists very low down on the bill sell out of all of their hoodies, because they happen to have the hoodies at the festival and no one else did.
“I had an artist that was one of the first on the bill at Coachella back in 2013, I think it was. And all that they had left inventory wise was this hoodie that had heavily underperformed their entire tour. They'd ordered a couple of hundred units to start with. And they had a couple of hundred units still on the last show at the festival.
“And so they just counted it in, and they thought, we're going to sell one or two. And the temperature plummeted. And everyone was dressed inappropriately for a freezing cold Coachella evening. And suddenly the sales started to come in on this hoodie. And they sold through every single unit that they had struggled to sell on their headline tour leading into it.”
Visit WMX here. Follow Felix on LinkedIn here.
