You cannot out-market a bad audience fit.

principle — attributed to Laurie Kirby

The most expensive mistake in the festival business is mis-defining who is in the room. The audience determines the artists who will play, the sponsors who will pay, and the press who will write. Get the audience question right first, or every other decision compounds the wrong answer. Bigger ad budgets do not fix a wrong audience; they accelerate the cost of finding out. The question who is in the audience is the only question that has to be answered before any other one is asked.

For festival founders and CMOs deciding where to spend the next dollar.

audience, marketing, fundamentals, fit