Why do participants pay so much to attend an African music festival in Portugal?

Establishing a world-class stage directly on a Portuguese beach poses enormous logistical challenges, but that did not prevent tens of thousands of fans from flying in from more than 180 countries and paying high prices to be present at the Afro Nation music festival in Portugal. Adefemi Akinsanya explains in the Africa Inc series.

How the demand for live performances of African music has transcended the continent's borders and reached the entire world. Depending on the date of purchase and the category visitors choose, three-day tickets range in price from $325 to over $1,000, and sell out quickly.

Malachite Group chief executive Natasha Manley said people from more than 180 countries attend the festival. She added: “We often put tickets on sale in what we call a 'blind pre-sale', that is, without announcing any artists at all.

Not many brands can do that,” Manley explained. “We monitor who is buying and how they are buying.

We also follow their behavior throughout the customer journey during the purchase, starting from when they enter the site in the pre-sale stage, through how they move through the site, where they stop and leave, what turns them off, attracts their interest, pushes them to move to the shopping cart and finally complete the payment, and who does not pay and why.”