Marketing festivals

Hyping, or to put it more politely, promoting festivals can double their budget. And in the end, does it really (1) ________ the trick? Those without the major councils’ huge spending (2) ________ are not convinced. “There will always be an audience that follows the big campaigns,” says Andrea Klein, of the National Events Institute, “but there is another which doesn’t (3) ________ to four-page colour programmes.” For this audience, reviews are all-important. Organiser Jonathan Rutter concurs: “Most of our festivals can be killed (4) ________ dead by bad reviews,” he says. Although he is not (5) ________ to the odd gimmick, he warns against too much hype: “I get put off events which are over-marketed,” he says. “People don’t like to be spoon-fed, they prefer to make up their own minds.” For metropolitan festivals, (6) ________ people to make up their own minds is not a viable marketing strategy. Events on this scale are caught up in a (7) ________ circle. To (8) ________ inflated organisation costs a large audience must be found, and to find that audience takes a giant publicity budget.