Beyond the scroll: how festival partnerships offer Gen Z the connection their feeds can't

By Renee Picciani, Partnerships Manager at Untitled Group

Eighty-one per cent of Gen Z say they wish they could disconnect from digital devices more easily. And yet, the majority still spend more than five hours a day on social media (The Harris Poll, 2025). 

At the same time, 55% of young Australians have mixed or unsure feelings about the future (UNICEF, 2025). 

The two biggest concerns were financial security and housing. And yet, Australian music festival attendance among 18- to 24-year-olds is growing. 

This is a cohort caught between a screen they cannot put down and a future that feels uncertain. 

What is striking is not that they are struggling; it is what they are doing about it. Australian music festival attendance among 18- to 24-year-olds is growing, with entertainment and leisure spending rising alongside it (Creative Australia, 2025). 

Our own Beyond The Valley audience reflects this shift, with the 2025 iteration selling out in under an hour.

 When money is tight, spending becomes deliberate. Music festivals are the antidote to the digital life they are quietly exhausted by. Festivals offer what no subscription, no scroll, and no algorithm can: the feeling of being somewhere that is happening right now, with people who chose to be there too. 

The cost-of-living crisis has not switched off an entire generation's desire to live well. Instead, it has forced a different kind of decision-making. Whilst there's certainly financial anxiety among Gen Z, the cost-of-living crisis is not suppressing their desire for meaningful experiences. 

Experiences are no longer impulsive purchases; they are carefully justified investments into creating core memories, because when you cannot spend freely, you spend carefully. That is why music festivals continue to resonate so deeply. They offer an emotional and social payoff in a way that feels increasingly valuable to a generation learning to balance aspiration with financial reality.

So what's happening here? 

This is a generation that has grown up entirely online, building identity, community, and culture through screens.

They are fluent in digital in a way no previous generation has been. But fluency is not the same as fulfilment, and somewhere along the way, the craving for something physical and present has become one of the defining tensions of their lives. 

Festivals sit directly at the intersection of those two worlds. 

The anticipation is built online through group chats, creator content, countdown playlists, and outfit planning, which becomes its own content cycle. 

But what all of that digital behaviour is ultimately building toward is cultural participation - the feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself, at the same time as everyone else. 

That is not just a consumer behaviour. It is a cultural need, and it creates a genuinely rare opportunity for brands willing to meet it properly. 

At Beyond The Valley, brand recall for on-ground activations grew from 8% to 37% in a single year, and 64% of attendees said they were motivated to purchase from a brand that had an activation. 

At Wildlands, appetite for brand experiences grew 10% year on year. These numbers are not about reach; they are about resonance. 

For brands struggling with fragmented social feeds and chronic digital ad blocking, this is the ultimate high-attention environment. Because a festival ticket is a highly deliberate, carefully justified investment for this audience, their mindset upon arrival is hyper-engaged. Their walls are down, their attention is real because the connection is genuine, and they are actively looking to reward brands that enhance their experience rather than interrupt it. 

The brands getting this right are the ones that understand what the audience is actually there for, and build something that adds to that rather than interrupting it. 

Salomon ANZ Head of Marketing Briony Kent put it better than most when reflecting on the brand's viral Beyond The Valley Run Club partnership: "Our partnership with Beyond The Valley was about meeting the next generation where they're at - prioritising movement, connection and wellbeing without losing the magic of festival culture. 

"Gen Z are redefining what these experiences look like, and the Salomon x BTV run clubs flipped the traditional brand activation on its head, creating a moment of balance, community and digital detox before the music started. It's a powerful example of how brands can show up authentically and add genuine value to cultural moments - all while causing a wider conversation at the same time." 

What Salomon tapped into is the 'physical-to-digital loop' - the holy grail for modern marketing. 

The run club did not stay at the festival; it travelled back into the feeds, the group chats and the content cycles that built the anticipation in the first place - extending the moment well beyond the grounds it started in. When the physical and digital loop back on itself like that, the brand is no longer a sponsor. It is part of the culture.

 What's next? 

The data points to a generation that has not given up. They are optimising, not retreating. They are making real choices about what is worth spending on, and live experiences are consistently making the cut, even as other categories get trimmed. 

This is why brands like Accor, Bunnings, Casamigos Tequila, Gage Roads, Jack Daniel's, Red Bull, Smirnoff, The Daily Aus and Salomon continue to return as long-term partners, and tech brand Cygnett are joining us for the first time. 

They aren't just buying logo placement; they are investing in high-resonance cultural real estate. As cost of living pressures continue to shape how young Australians make decisions, the festivals and brands that truly understand this audience, not just as consumers, but as people seeking connection, identity and meaningful experiences, will be the ones that continue to resonate.