La gestión de las relaciones con los públicos en los festivales de música durante la pandemia. El caso de Bilbao BBK Live / The management of the relationships with music festivals publics during the pandemic. The case of Bilbao BBK Live

Resumen

La crisis sanitaria y económica provocada por el coronavirus ha afectado a la totalidad de la población y de las empresas e instituciones, siendo la cultura uno de los sectores en los que esta pandemia está teniendo más impacto, en especial en las artes escénicas y en la música, sobre todo, en directo. En este artículo se ofrece un análisis de cómo la gestión de las relaciones con los públicos puede mejorar la reputación y las perspectivas de supervivencia del Bilbao BBK Live, un festival de música moderna que ha visto cómo su actividad empresarial ha quedado casi totalmente paralizada. A través de un estudio de caso, pretendemos ofrecer un análisis de las principales acciones de relaciones públicas desarrolladas en 2020 y aportar algunas propuestas para el resto del sector de los festivales en el que la actual pandemia ha tenido tanto impacto. Para ello, se ha realizado una entrevista en profundidad con la directora de comunicación de la promotora del evento, Last Tour, y se han estudiado las publicaciones en Instagram de las iniciativas puestas en marcha, a través de un análisis de contenido. Los resultados obtenidos certifican la importancia de la gestión de las relaciones con los públicos como herramienta esencial en la estrategia empresarial, incluso, en época de pandemia y con la actividad casi paralizada.

Palabras claves: festivales de música, relaciones con los públicos, comunicación, Covid-19, Instagram, España

Abstract

The health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic has affected the totality of the population, companies and institutions. One of the most affected sectors by this crisis is Culture, especially in the performing arts and, above all, in the live music sub-sector, where it is having the greatest impact. During these months of health emergency, restrictions on venues and mobility have caused live music to almost paralyse all its activity completely. Particularly significant, due to the great repercussions of the pandemic, is the music festival sub-sector, mainly large-scale festivals, which have had to postpone their editions to future years. Thus, 17% of the promoters of this type of event cancelled their edition, 56% postponed it, 21% were held on their dates and 6% took place, but the dates were modified, although they did not take place in the traditional way, neither in terms of programming nor in terms of capacity (BIME, 2020).

But, despite this situation, the big Spanish festivals - and the smaller ones - have managed to keep some activity, either by organising smaller events, adjusted to health conditions, or through initiatives that are more distant from the live music activity itself. This article, through a case study, offers an analysis of how the management of public relations can enhance the reputation and survival prospects of music festivals. For this reason, we have focused on Bilbao BBK Live, a modern music festival which has seen its business activity almost completely paralysed. In this way, we aim to offer an analysis of the main public relations actions developed in 2020 and provide some proposals for the other festival sector on which the current pandemic has had such an impact. To do so, we conducted an in-depth interview with the communications manager of the promoter of the event, Last Tour, and studied the Instagram posts published and news from the website by the initiatives launched, through a content analysis. These activities have been targeting different audiences, from all kinds of suppliers to general attendees and sponsors.

The results confirm the importance of public relations management as an essential tool in business strategy, even in times of pandemic and with business almost at a standstill. Thus, the different campaigns developed during the pandemic have managed to keep and strengthen the relationships with the different stakeholders of the event: attendees, sponsors, city of Bilbao public administrations and the mass media, although it has also focused special attention on suppliers and collaborators, vulnerable communities in its environment and other bodies in the sector that, for the last few months, have been joining forces to exert pressure on the authorities to demand a return to activity.

In the same way, and thanks to the work developed by the communication departments of the festival and its promoter, Last Tour, Instagram has become a key tool in the work of marketing these activities, as well as to improve the engagement of its audience, according with the results obtained in previous research (Klara, 2019; Castro-Martínez, Pérez-Ordoñez, y Torres-Martín, 2020).

Keywords: music festivals, public relations, communication, Covid-19, Instagram, Spain