By George Pirounakis
One of the most misunderstood concepts in merchandise is per-head sales, especially when bands move from club shows into festivals.
Many bands look at a festival attendance figure and immediately start calculating potential sales based on the total number of people on site. Unfortunately, that’s not how festival merchandising works.
At your own headline show, every ticket holder is there because of you. They already know the songs, they already have an emotional connection to the band, and they’re far more likely to spend money at the merch stand. Your per-head numbers are naturally higher.
Festivals are different. The audience is divided between multiple bands, multiple stages, food vendors, bars, travel expenses, camping costs, and dozens of other opportunities to spend money. Every euro in a visitor’s pocket is being fought over by someone.
That doesn’t mean festivals are bad for merch, but it means that you need realistic expectations.
The way to improve your sales is by creating better products.
A customer who doesn’t want your shirt isn’t suddenly going to buy because you brought many different designs. What usually increases sales is improving the quality of what you’re offering. Better artwork. Better blanks. Better fit. Better printing. Better presentation. Better storytelling around the product.
The bands that consistently outperform expectations aren’t always the biggest bands. They’re often the bands that understand their audience and invest in making products people genuinely want to wear long after the show is over.
Every festival is essentially a competition for attention. You’re competing with other bands, other merch stands, food, beer, and everything else happening around the site. The solution isn’t quantity, but value.
If you want to increase your per-head sales, focus less on how many products you’re bringing and more on why somebody should choose yours over everything else available that day.
Better product beats bigger inventory almost every time.
And if you’re wondering how to improve your merch line, from choosing the right blanks to developing stronger designs and building products that actually sell, feel free to reach out. This is what I do for a living.
- © George Pirounakis.
- George Pirounakis is a veteran roadie, merch and tour manager. He is the author of ‘So, What the Actual F*ck Am I Doing Here? Notes From The Road, The Table And Everything Underneath‘ and ‘The Merch Field Manual : How Tour Merchandise Actually Works‘, and the founder of OneTwoSix Hardcore Clothing.