Merch With Meaning at Folk Festivals: Songbooks, Tunebooks, and Local Crafts
Folk festivals aren’t just about the performances on stage; they’re cultural gatherings where learning and community are at the heart of the experience. A veteran festival producer knows that what attendees take home can be as important as what they experience on site. Merchandise with meaning – from songbooks and tunebooks to locally made crafts – can extend the festival’s spirit beyond the closing act. This guide offers practical, battle-tested advice on curating merch that educates and engages, all while treating your partners (artisans, vendors, and artists) fairly. Whether you’re running an intimate folk weekend or a massive international folk music expo, these tips will help you turn your merchandise booth into an extension of your festival’s mission.
Curate Merchandise That Extends Learning at Home
Extend the Experience: The goal of “merch with meaning” is to help festival-goers continue exploring folk music and culture after the event. Instead of just selling generic souvenirs, curate items that extend learning at home. For example, consider offering songbooks and tunebooks filled with the songs or tunes featured at your festival. Folk audiences are often active participants – they sing, play instruments, and dance. Providing them with a festival songbook or tunebook means they can learn those fiddle tunes or sing those ballads long after the festival.
Case in Point – Festival Songbooks: Some festivals have created their own song collections as merchandise. In Scotland, the Niel Gow Festival launched a tunebook featuring new compositions by artists involved with the festival over the years (www.nielgowfestival.co.uk). These tunes are connected to the festival’s heritage and region, giving fans a chance to take home a piece of the festival’s musical legacy. By purchasing the Niel Gow Festival Tunebook, an attendee can literally bring the music of the festival into their living room and continue practising and jamming with friends. This not only reinforces the festival’s brand and mission (celebrating traditional music), but also keeps attendees engaged year-round.
Workshops to Worksheets: If your folk festival includes workshops (as many do – from instrument lessons to folk dance sessions), think about merchandise that complements them. For a singing workshop, a printed booklet of folk song lyrics or vocal techniques can be a hit. For an instrument workshop (say, beginner ukulele or fiddle), you might sell an instructional DVD or a beginner’s sheet music book. Some festivals even partner with instructors to produce small “how-to” books or videos that can be sold on-site. These items empower attendees to continue the learning that began at your festival.
Practical Tip: Not everyone will want to carry a heavy book around the festival, so consider offering digital downloads as well. You can sell a download code for a PDF tunebook or a link to instructional videos. (In fact, the Niel Gow Festival made their tunebook available as a digital download for convenience (www.nielgowfestival.co.uk).) This is a great option for international attendees who travel light, and it shows that your festival is tech-savvy and inclusive of all preferences.
Mind the Content: Curate the material in songbooks and tunebooks carefully. Include a mix of well-known traditional numbers played at the festival and new material introduced by performers. Where possible, get the artists’ input or include a foreword by a featured musician about the significance of the tunes. This personal touch can make the songbook itself a keepsake. For example, if a renowned fiddler played at your festival, a short note from them in the tunebook about their favourite tune creates a connection between the fan and the artist.
Celebrate Local Crafts and Artisans
Authentic Local Goods: Folk festivals often celebrate local culture, so use your merchandise area to highlight local crafts and handmade items. These could be traditional handicrafts, locally made instruments (like hand-made drums or fiddles), artisan jewellery, textiles, or even folk art. Curating local crafts does two important things: it gives attendees a unique memento of the region’s culture, and it supports the community’s artisans. The Winnipeg Folk Festival in Canada, for instance, has a famous Hand-Made Village that “celebrates the long-standing history that arts and crafts share with folk music festivals” (www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca). Artisans from all over bring hand-crafted clothing, homewares, jewellery, and toys, turning the festival grounds into a treasure trove of local creativity (www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca). Seeing festival-goers (“folkies”) walking around with these hand-made creations not only boosts sales, it visibly ties the festival to its cultural roots.
Community Engagement: Featuring local makers also deepens community engagement. At the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in British Columbia, the organisers created an Artisan Market & Community Village – a curated shopping area filled with items crafted by local artisans (thefestival.bc.ca). Alongside the crafts, they even invited local non-profits to set up information booths (thefestival.bc.ca), turning the merch area into a community hub, not just a marketplace. Festival attendees could buy a handmade soap or a piece of pottery and at the next stall learn about a local cultural initiative. This approach feeds the ego of both artisans and community groups by showcasing their work and gives your festival a reputational boost as a supporter of local culture. Attendees feel their purchase has a purpose, which can encourage them to spend more freely than they would on mass-produced trinkets.
Curation and Quality: When incorporating a craft market, curate it as carefully as you do your lineup. Aim for a diversity of crafts that reflect your festival’s theme or the cultural traditions represented. For a folk festival, you might include stalls of traditional instruments (a luthier selling guitars or fiddles), folk art prints, handmade leather goods, or regional folk costumes. Make sure the crafts are high-quality and authentic – festival-goers will notice if items are just imported novelties with no real connection to the folk theme. Many top folk festivals (from the Philadelphia Folk Festival in the US to Sidmouth Folk Festival in the UK) have long-standing craft marketplaces, often juried, to ensure quality and relevance. A well-curated craft selection becomes a point of pride for a festival – it’s not just merch, it’s a cultural showcase.
Fair Pricing and Transparency with Makers
Price Fairly: One of the lessons learned by experienced festival organisers is that short-term profit should not come at the expense of fairness or reputation. Price merchandise fairly so that attendees feel they get value for money and so that creators receive proper compensation. Folk festival audiences, in particular, appreciate authenticity and integrity – if they suspect a product is overpriced or that artisans are being exploited, it can leave a bad taste and harm your festival’s image. Always factor in the craftsmanship and cultural value of an item when pricing, not just the potential mark-up.
Disclose Maker Pay: A powerful practice is to be transparent about who benefits from each sale. If you’ve partnered with local artisans, consider small signs or tags that tell the story of the maker and even how much of the price goes back to them. For example, if a cooperative of weavers is selling handwoven scarves at your festival, a tag might read: “Handmade by the Mountain Weavers Co-op – 80% of proceeds go directly to the artisans.” This kind of transparency builds trust. As a case in point, the Ethical Fashion Festival in Oregon (while not a music festival, it’s a relevant example) explicitly states that “all sales of makers’ products go directly to the artisans” (www.ethicalfashionfestival.com). They even mention that a portion of event proceeds supports a local orphanage (www.ethicalfashionfestival.com). Such clear communication tells customers their money is making a difference. While your folk festival may not be a charity event, adopting a similar ethos of honesty will endear you to attendees and makers alike.
Balancing Margins: Naturally, your festival might take a commission or profit on merchandise to help your bottom line – that’s fine, as long as it’s reasonable and communicated. Many festivals charge artisans a vendor fee or a percentage of sales for a booth. If you do, ensure the artisans can still earn a healthy amount. Happy vendors are more likely to return (which saves you recruiting time for next year) and will speak highly of your event. Some events choose to absorb costs in other areas so they can keep craft booth fees low, knowing that the cultural value and goodwill generated are worth it.
Case Example – Fair Trade and Causes: Look to festivals or events that integrate fair trade principles. At the Vancouver Folk Music Festival’s Artisan Market, one vendor listing is for African Fair Trade products, noting that proceeds help women and children in West Africa (thefestival.bc.ca). By giving space to such vendors (and highlighting the cause), the festival aligns itself with positive social impact. When festival-goers read that sign while browsing, they understand that buying that item has a real-world benefit beyond the festival. This can actually increase sales – people might choose a slightly pricier handmade item over a cheap import if they know its backstory and impact.
Strategic Merchandising: Location and Booth Setup
Placement Matters: Where you place your merchandise and craft vendors on-site can make or break your sales (and also affect crowd flow). A golden rule from seasoned producers: position merchandise areas near exits or natural gathering points, and avoid chokepoints. Why near exits? Attendees often don’t want to lug merchandise around all day – by the end of the event or as they exit, they’re more inclined to buy souvenirs on their way out. Placing the official merch booth or craft marketplace near the festival exit (or main gate) means customers can conveniently shop as they are winding down. For instance, some large festivals place an official merch tent by the main entrance/exit so it’s highly visible when people are arriving and departing (EXIT Festival in Serbia, though not folk-focused, famously situates merch stands by main gates and food areas for maximum foot traffic (www.clubbing.rs)). This captures last-minute impulse buys without creating congestion in front of stages.
On the other hand, if a merch tent is placed in a narrow walkway or too close to a stage entrance, it can create a bottleneck that frustrates attendees. Imagine a crowd trying to catch a headline act while others are queuing to buy t-shirts in the same spot – not a good scenario. Take a lesson from festivals that learned it the hard way: one folk festival discovered that a merch table set up right beside a workshop tent caused traffic jams and even deterred people from browsing (nobody wants to block others from getting to a show). The next year, they relocated merchandise to a more open area near the exit and saw both happier crowds and higher sales, since people had space and time to shop comfortably.
Layout and Accessibility: Design the merch area like you would a good market stall – with inviting displays and easy navigation. Use signage to point people to the “Festival Shop” or “Craft Village” so it’s part of the attendee’s mental map of the event. For larger folk festivals with tens of thousands of attendees, consider multiple merch points: perhaps one at the main exit and smaller pop-up stands at secondary spots (like near a quiet food court or near a workshop area, but again, out of main traffic lanes). At nighttime, ensure these areas are well-lit and safe, so people feel comfortable browsing after the evening concerts.
Small vs Large Festival Approaches: For a smaller folk festival (say a local one-day event at a community center), your merch “area” might just be a table by the door staffed by volunteers. In this case, placing it by the exit door is ideal – as people leave the hall, they can easily stop and pick up that CD or craft item. Just avoid blocking the doorway itself; a side alcove near the exit works well. In contrast, a large multi-day festival in a park can support a whole merch compound or marketplace. Here, you might create a dedicated lane or loop for shopping so that those not interested can bypass it.
No matter the size, think like a festival-goer when planning location: Where are they relaxed and likely to spend time? Usually after they’ve enjoyed the show, not when they’re rushing to the next stage. By positioning merch in a relaxed, spacious spot (like near exits, campsite entrances, or food areas, rather than in a busy narrow path), you invite attendees to browse without stress.
Bundle Merchandise with Tickets and Workshops
Added Value for Attendees: One smart strategy to boost merch sales and provide value is to offer bundles – package together tickets, merchandise, or even workshop admissions at a special price. Bundling can start long before the festival gates open. For example, during ticket sales, you can present an option: “Festival Ticket + T-shirt Bundle” or “Family Pack: 4 tickets + 2 souvenir songbooks”. Many people will grab a bundle if it feels like a deal and enhances their experience.
Real-world example: the Manor Farm Festival in the UK experimented with ticket bundles, such as a “Ticket + T-shirt + Free Drink” package for £30 (manorfarmfestival.co.uk). This kind of bundle not only encouraged more merchandise uptake (because attendees got a festival T-shirt with their entry), but also created a sense of event identity – suddenly more people on site were wearing the festival logo, which in turn can boost event spirit and marketing visibility. For the festival, it guaranteed merch sales in advance and helped with sizing forecasts for shirts.
Workshop Bundles: Folk festivals often have loyal attendees who come not just for concerts but for the workshops and participatory experiences. Consider bundling workshops with relevant merchandise. For instance, if you have a fiddle workshop for beginners, you might sell a bundle that includes the workshop ticket plus a beginner fiddle tune book (perhaps even a fiddle rental or discount from a music store partner). A singing workshop bundle could include a songbook or a vocal exercise CD. Not only does this sell more merch, but it also increases workshop participation by highlighting the extra value. Attendees feel they are getting a mini “starter kit” for their new skills.
Partner with Artists and Vendors: Bundling is also an opportunity to collaborate with your artists or vendors. Perhaps one of your performing bands has a new album – you could offer a limited bundle of a festival ticket plus that album download or CD. Or partner with a local craftsperson for a special “VIP package” – e.g., a VIP festival pass that comes with a hand-crafted leather festival badge or a custom tote bag made by a local artisan. These unique bundles can be sold at a premium, adding both revenue and a special touch for hardcore fans.
Implementing Bundles: Logistically, bundling is easier than ever with modern ticketing platforms. Some ticketing systems (like Ticket Fairy’s platform) allow you to integrate merchandise upsells directly into the ticket purchase process (www.ticketfairy.com). This means when someone is buying a ticket online, they get a prompt like “Add the official festival songbook to your order”. According to Ticket Fairy, organisers can upload product catalogues and set up automatic upselling in the checkout flow (www.ticketfairy.com), resulting in a significant portion of buyers adding merch to their cart. The stats back it up – many events see a high uptake on these add-ons because it’s convenient for fans to get everything in one go. If your festival’s ticketing platform supports it, take advantage of this feature. It’s a win-win: fans arrive at the festival already equipped with merch (less stock to bring to the venue), and you secure merch revenue in advance.
Don’t Overdo It: One word of caution from experience – bundle smartly, but don’t bundle everything. Offer maybe one or two bundle options that are clearly targeted. If you present too many complicated bundles, customers can get decision paralysis. For example, an “All-In Mega Bundle” with too many items might seem expensive or excessive and deter someone who just wanted a simple ticket. Instead, tailor bundles: one for first-timers (ticket + program + songbook, perhaps), one for families (group tickets + some souvenirs), or one for enthusiasts (VIP ticket + merch pack). Keep the offerings clear, and make sure the discount or extra value is obvious. People should instantly see that they are getting a deal or something exclusive.
Track Sales and Strengthen Vendor Relationships
Why Track Sales: After the festival, it’s crucial to review how your merchandise and vendors performed. Not just how much revenue you made, but which items sold well and which didn’t, and how each artisan vendor fared. This information is gold for planning future festivals. By tracking sales, you can identify trends: maybe those songbooks sold out by Day 2 (time to print more next year!), or perhaps the new design of t-shirts didn’t move at all. Maybe one craft vendor’s products were a huge hit with your audience, while another’s didn’t connect.
Rebook the Winners (and Help the Others Improve): Use sales data to rebook makers who were successful. If a particular instrument maker or craft artisan completely sold their stock and had crowds around their booth all weekend, that’s someone you likely want back next year – and you might even expand their presence or location. On the flip side, if a vendor had very low sales, investigate why. Was it a product mismatch for your crowd, a poor location, or were their prices too high? Sometimes a gentle conversation and feedback can help an artisan come back stronger with different products or better booth presentation. As a festival organiser, part of your role is curator: over the years, you build a roster of trusted vendors who consistently provide quality and appeal to your attendees.
Share the Data with Vendors: Don’t keep the sales figures a secret. Especially if you handle centralized sales (for example, selling artists’ CDs and books at a festival-operated shop, or if you issued electronic point-of-sale systems to craft vendors), share a sales report with the vendors after the event. They’ll appreciate the transparency and it helps them understand their own performance. For instance, if an artisan sold 300 units of an item, that’s great news to report – they might plan to bring more next time. If another sold only 20, they’ll want to rethink their strategy or product selection. Providing these numbers and any attendee feedback you gathered shows that you treat vendors as partners. It builds trust and many vendors will be eager to sign up for your next edition early, knowing that you care about their success.
Adjust and Innovate: Use what you learn to refine your merchandise strategy each year. Perhaps you discovered that songbooks were more popular than anticipated – next year, you could expand that category (maybe add a tunebook for another instrument, or a volume 2). If local handmade crafts outperformed imported souvenirs, you might decide to exclusively focus on artisan goods moving forward. Conversely, if some “merch with meaning” didn’t resonate – suppose you printed an elaborate folk dance manual but it barely sold – that might indicate your audience prefers music-related merch over dance, or simply that the manual needs better marketing. Failure is a great teacher: seasoned producers have their share of “oops” stories, like ordering a thousand commemorative festival keychains only to realize folk fans weren’t particularly interested in keychains. Those missteps are okay – they help you pivot to the products your audience truly values.
Recognise Your Vendors and Makers: Another part of strengthening relationships is giving credit. In your post-festival communications (newsletters, social media, thank-you emails), include a shoutout to the popular vendors or a general thanks to all the artisans and authors who contributed to the merch offerings. Many festivals also publish vendor lists and links on their website year-round. This recognition costs you nothing but means a lot to those small businesses. It also gives your audience a chance to follow up and perhaps purchase more from those makers later (which, in turn, encourages those makers to return because they clearly made a connection with your attendees).
Consider even doing a brief “vendor spotlight” in your festival blog or program – a short article about the local craft brewer who designed your festival ale tankards, or the luthier who brought handmade mandolins to the craft tent. It feeds their ego (in a good way!) and reinforces the meaning behind the merch – these are not just items, they are stories.
Key Takeaways
- Think Beyond Souvenirs: Curate festival merchandise that educates or engages – e.g. songbooks, tunebooks, or craft kits – so attendees can continue their folk music journey at home.
- Support Local Artisans: Invite local craftspeople and offer authentic handmade goods. This adds cultural value and supports the community, enhancing your festival’s reputation.
- Fair Pricing & Transparency: Price merch fairly. Be transparent about how much goes to artisans or causes. Ethical practices build trust with your audience and vendors.
- Smart Merch Placement: Locate merchandise booths where people naturally pass (exits, main thoroughfares) but away from crowded bottlenecks. A comfortable shopping experience boosts sales.
- Use Bundles Strategically: Offer ticket bundles or workshop packages that include merchandise. Bundling can increase merchandise uptake and provide extra value to attendees (for example, a ticket + T-shirt deal or a workshop + songbook package).
- Leverage Ticketing Tools: Use a ticketing platform (like Ticket Fairy) that allows integrated merchandise sales and upsells during ticket checkout to maximize pre-festival merch sales.
- Learn from Sales Data: Track what sells and what doesn’t. Re-invite top-selling vendors and popular product lines. Adjust your merchandise offerings each year based on real feedback and sales figures.
- Build Relationships: Treat your merch vendors and artisans as partners. Share sales info, give them shoutouts for their success, and work together to create even better offerings in the future.
- Match Merch to Your Audience: Always tailor your merchandise to the interests of your crowd. Folk festival attendees might prefer a hand-carved flute over a plastic glow stick – know what makes your community unique and cater to that.
- Stay True to Your Festival’s Spirit: Above all, ensure your merchandise aligns with the spirit of your folk festival. When merch carries meaning, it’s not just an extra revenue stream – it’s part of the storytelling and legacy of your event.