Developing a Scale Measuring Perceptions of “Liveness” During ICT Augmented Performances Designed to Increase Accessibility on Site at Music Festivals

The Queensland Government's Tackling Alcohol-Fuelled Violence (TAFV) Policy was met with concern from live music venue owners who feared decreased patronage and associated revenue. This study investigates the impact of the TAFV Policy on live music venues and performances in Fortitude Valley, an inner-city suburb of Brisbane, Australia recognised as a hub of live music performances. Data relating to live music venues and performances in Fortitude Valley for the 2000-2018 financial years were obtained from the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA AMCOS), who maintains an online data portal allowing artists to enter performance details to collect royalty payments. These data were supplemented with six precinct mapping audits of live music venues operating in the Fortitude Valley Safe Night Precinct between July 2016 and September 2019. APRA AMCOS data show increases in the number of reported live music performances and venues in Fortitude Valley between 2000 and 2019. Precinct mapping audits show minimal changes in the operation of live music venues in Fortitude Valley between 2016 and 2019. As the first study to independently document the impact of licenced venue trading hour changes on live music, this study shows the number of live performances reported to APRA AMCOS and original live music venues trading in the Fortitude Valley Safe Night Precinct were unchanged by the introduction of the TAFV. The study highlights the value of using performance returns and venue audits to track live music in a contested policy space.

PurposeThis paper responds to a range of theory and industry reporting, to provide an informed narrative which explores the current state of accessibility at UK festivals for people who are Deaf or disabled and the potential implications of developments in ICT for enhancing design, marketing, operations and performances across all phases of festival delivery, in order to improve inclusivity and accessibility. To this end, the paper addresses the following question: What do representatives of the UK live music industry perceive as barriers to accessibility and exemplars of current best practice for music festival attendees who are Deaf or disabled? What do representatives of the UK live music industry consider as the role of ICT to increase accessibility for music festival attendees who are Deaf or disabled?Design/methodology/approachPrimary research focused on supply-side considerations with a sample group of 10 UK live music industry professionals. The scope of the research was limited geographically to England and by artform to open-air music festivals, venues which host some music festival provision and a Sector Support Organisation. Open questions elucidated qualitative information around; awareness of accessibility and inclusivity initiatives; potential for co-creation; non-digital improvements; current technological influences; and potential digital futures for accessible “live” experiences. A conceptual framework was constructed and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were carried out with six respondents, and four respondents completed a structured, self-administered e-mail questionnaire.FindingsFindings include: ICT can facilitate enhanced dialogue with existing and potential audience members who are Deaf or disabled to both; reduce existing social exclusion (Duffy et al., 2019) and improve the visitor experience for all attendees. All respondents agreed that physical enhancements are important and some mentioned communications and customer care. Respondents reported increasingly ambitious usages of ICT at music festivals, which may support suggestions of a virtual experience trend (Robertson et al., 2015). Online ticketing systems have potential to grant equal functionality to people who are Deaf or disabled, as recommended by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (2015). Respondents broadly welcomed the potential for positive impacts of ICT on increasingly accessible live experiences at music festivals which retained a sense of authenticity and “liveness”. Challenges around “as live” ICT-derived experiences were identified including risks of creating second-class experiences for Deaf and disabled attendees.Research limitations/implicationsThe limitations of this case study include the small sample size and limited scope.Practical implicationsPromoters should: consider further developing the co-creation of accessibility initiatives, utilising ICT to both deliver improvements and engage with potential audience members who are Deaf or disabled. Seek to pro-actively recruit staff members who are Deaf or disabled and significantly increase their programming of performers who are Deaf or disabled. Consider reviewing their ticketing processes for music festivals, to identify accessibility challenges for audience members and implement appropriate ICT-based solutions. Consider maximising accessibility benefits for audience members who are Deaf or disabled from existing ICT provision on site and explore additional bespoke ICT solutions at music festivals.Social implicationsAdopting the best practices described across the festival sector may improve inclusivity for disabled people at music festivals and other events. Event management educators should consider reviewing provision to ensure that best practice is embedded around accessibility for audience members who are Deaf or disabled. Additional public funding should be provided to drive ICT-derived improvements to accessibility for audience members who are Deaf or disabled at smaller-scale music festivals. Further research should be considered around inclusive approaches to digital experiences within a music festival environment for audience members who are Deaf or disabled and tensions between accessibility and notions of “liveness”.Originality/valueThe “snapshot” of digital aspects of accessibility at UK festivals within this research is of particular value due to paucity of other research in this area, and it's narrative from varied industry professionals. The paper makes recommendations to promoters, academics and public funders, to attempt to advance inclusion (or at least to mitigate current exclusion) and identify directions for future research into accessible digital experiences at music festivals for people who are Deaf or disabled.

Music as Magic

Through an in-depth SWOT analysis of the Strawberry Music Festival, one of the most influential music festival brands in China, the typical characteristics of the main players in the domestic music festival market and the market environment faced by these market players are revealed. The diversity of music styles, the preferences of young consumers and the multi-regional coverage of music festivals are identified as the typical competitiveness of music festival brands, while the further application of electronic technology in live performances and the growing influence of overseas singers are new trends and opportunities in the music festival market. On the other hand, the analysis points out that the ability to control weather risks, the ability to control quality in different regions and the ability to control operating costs are shortcomings of Strawberry Music Festival, which deserves the attention of other market participants. At the same time, the growing concerns about personal and property safety in society and the participation of more competitors are becoming major market threats. While giving more support to the cultural industry, national policies have also put forward higher requirements for the approval, ticketing and on-site control of music performances, which promotes further competition in the market. Due to the singleness of the research object, future research should supplement the research on different types of music festival brands to obtain a more comprehensive insight into the Chinese music festival market.

Music festivals are increasingly utilizing ICT to augment live music performances. This research project proposes and trials three liveness scales to measure attendee’s perceptions of authenticity regarding liveness across a broad spectrum of formats for, and viewpoints of, live performances at, or emanating from, music festivals. The research addresses the thesis that: It may be possible to develop liveness scales to measure attendee perceptions of liveness regarding ICT-enhanced performances at music festivals. Following item development processes, pretest liveness Likert scales were developed, and two iterations of primary research were carried out to collect and interpret empirical evidence from 164 respondents. Formats and viewpoints generating the greatest acceptance or resistance were identified. Significant differentiation in responses was tested for by gender regarding audience viewpoints and by occupation regarding audience size. Potential to further develop/simplify the liveness scales, and for future research into ICT-enhanced experiences at music festivals, was ascertained.

As time and technology advances, visualization in music becomes an important role to support the music performance. Good Faith Forever is a live music performance released in 2021, created and performed by Hugo Pierre Leclercq, and is one of the examples of a unique live music performance, by making a narrative with a different perspective from the lyrics itself by blending the music and visuals together, making it an interesting subject to analyze. The objective of this research is to uncover the relationship between the lyrics and visuals of a live music performance of Good Faith Forever in 2023 as a study case. This research uses an interpretative qualitative approach using Roland Barthes' Semiotics Theory and Geoffrey Leech's Semantics Theory to analyze the visuals and lyrics. From the 2023 live performance of Good Faith Forever "The Prince” and "Neo Finale”, it is found that the lyrics and the performance tell the same stories but with different focuses, the lyrics itself focuses on the message of story, while the performance focuses on the narrative and characters living in the message of the lyrics. This implies the existence of creative freedom in interpreting the lyrics to form a similar story for the live performance. Keywords: good faith forever; live music performance; lyrics; music visualization; narratives

Entertainment such as live music performances (live performances) and events are often held in urban centers for reasons such as transportation accessibility and venue size, resulting in regional disparities in entertainment. On the other hand, recent years have seen the emergence of virtual reality (VR)-based live performances, which could solve regional disparities in entertainment. VR live performances can provide many opportunities for people who are unable to attend live performances due to location and time constraints.However, the quality of the experience is expected to deteriorate due to the sense of realism and other sensations that are difficult to reproduce in Reality live performances. However, few studies have compared real-life live performances with VR live performances and examined the effects of factors such as the sense of presence on the audience. In this study, an experiment was conducted with the aim of constructing a system to support the improvement of the sense of presence in VR live music performances. In the experiment, we experienced an on-demand VR live performance and investigated the degree of realism and the differences from a real live performance. From the results, we analyzed the factors that are important for improving the realism of VR live performances. The system is then constructed and evaluated.Ten male participants (23.6±1.8 years old) who had participated in a live concert in the past and remembered the sensation were asked to experience a VR music concert in a standing position for 5 minutes, and a post-experience questionnaire was administered to compare the realism of the actual concert and the VR concert.The post-experience questionnaire consisted of a subjective questionnaire and open-ended questions regarding the sense of presence and the five senses. The subjective questionnaire used a 5-point Likert scale. The items related to the sense of presence consisted of 13 items, which were added by the researcher based on previous studies that have analyzed the sense of presence. 3 was used as the standard for the 5-point scale, based on the comparison with previous real-live experiences. The higher the value, the higher the evaluation of each element in the VR experience.According to the results of the post-experience questionnaire, the vibration and communication elements were rated low. The VR live experience and its components in this experiment did not reproduce the vibrations from the large speakers and communication with other people, such as the performers and the surrounding audience, that are felt in a real live performance. Therefore, the experience tended to feel like a one-way live performance, and the quality of the experience was considered to be compromised. In addition, factor analysis of the questionnaire results showed that among the body perception factors with the highest contribution rate, the values of dynamism, vibration, and sense of self-presence were the most significant, and thus had a large impact on the sense of presence in the live performance.

With the change of music industry, the traditional recording industry began to decline, and diversified music forms were accepted by people. Outdoor music festival is one of the representatives, it is gradually gaining more and more attention due to high participation and immersive on-site experience and occupying more share in entertainment market. Compared with other forms of music performance, music festival is not only a platform to show a variety of styles and types of music performance, but also can be integrated with tourism and other forms of business, forming a comprehensive entertainment industry model. Even in the post-pandemic world, music festivals still show a astonishingly development trend. In the face of fierce competition in the music market, how to play the role of branding and establish a new normal for event promoting should be considered by music festival organizersThe study took outdoor music festival as the research object, case on China Strawberry Music Festival to elaborate the development status of China's outdoor music festival and the problems existing in the branding process, discussed the developing pattern of strawberry Music Festival branding from two aspects of positioning and strategy.The study investigated the promotion effect of exact branding strategies on the development of music festivals, and proposed a practical path for the branding music festivals using brand marketing theory and literature research. The study puts forward the strategy of outdoor music festival branding in brand positioning, brand communication, brand management and other aspects, and concludes the importance of combining the analysis of music festival and city.

Review essay: Between the Material and the Ephemeral

Purpose and objective: The purpose of this research is to determine what managers regard as important critical success factors in ensuring a memorable visitor experience at a live music performance.Problem investigated: When organising a live music performance, it is evident that the various characteristics that form part of the visitor experience have to be considered. The critical success factors of live music performances from the supply side are fundamental, since the costs of organising live music performances are high, the needs of the visitors are constantly changing and competition plays a major role in the success of such events. Management furthermore constantly needs to be aware of the ever-changing external environment by determining what factors visitors consider to be vital for a rewarding experience at a major music event. This is extremely important since the concept of experience has become more pervasive, mainly given that the event sector, such as live music performances, has adopted experience as a tool to make individual businesses more competitive, as the organisations operating within this sector exist to provide consumers with an experience.Design and/or methodology and/or approach: A qualitative research method, by means of interviews, was used to obtain the relevant information from the selected participants. All the data collected in the process were transcribed into text and presented in narrative form. The six steps of data analysis and interpretation were applied to analyse the data.Findings and impications: The following four major themes emerged from the analysis; each theme was differentiated in terms of various categories and subcategories. Theme 1:The most important aspects for a memorable visitor experience; Theme 2:Main purpose when organising a live music performance; Theme 3:Important aspects regarding the management of a live music performance; Theme 4:Timing of event management. Based on the research conducted on the critical success factors from a supply side, the following findings emerged. Firstly, it is evident that the critical success factors differ significantly from one tourism sector to another. Therefore, more qualitative research should be applied with regard to critical success factors in other tourism operations. Secondly, comparing the results of the qualitative research reveals significantly more in-depth information than those of the various quantitative research studies conducted on critical success factors. Thirdly, it is evident that the pre-event, during-event and post-event planning phases differ from event to event. Lastly, it is evident that there is no common guideline with regard to creating a memorable visitor experience.Conclusion: Determining the critical success factors for memorable live music performances (from the supply side) in South Africa enables management to improve the current management plans in order to ensure an outstanding memorable visitor experience whilst also improving the overall success rate.

Live music performance takes a narrative form where experiences are narrated collectively by a “live band” both in song and performance. In such a performance, one band member often becomes a social representation of “good performance” for the audience. This paper seeks to contribute to this debate on “liveness” by exploring how “Awilo” Mike Otieno, one of the lead singers of Ja-Mnazi Africa Band in Eldoret-Kenya, uses verbal interjections — in between speech narrations during live music performance — to endear himself to the audience. This paper is based on data collected using unstructured interviews with “Awilo” Mike Otieno and purposively selected Band members for a period of six months. Augmentative data was obtained by participant observation and informal discussion with regular members of the audience. Based on Critical Discourse Analysis, the paper argues that verbal interjections in live music performance are not mere discourses. Instead, they are sites and means for the musician to exercise his/her power over the audience. By exercising this power, the musician is able to shape, (re)define (re)negotiate and contest (pre)existing subjectivities among the audience, and that of the audience towards him/her due to their diverse social positions in society. This subsequently aligns their physical and emotional realities. In addition, verbal interjection enables the musician to create new meanings on the narrated experiences to that which the audience can identify and relate with in their everyday lives, despite both being decontextualized. The ability to create congruity using verbal interjections proves the effectiveness of an artiste's performance and accounts for his or her popular acceptance.

The modern music festival is a site of interaction between up to hundreds of thousands of people, artists, vendors, musicians and technologies. Audiences travel thousands of miles and invest huge amounts of time, energy and money to attend them. Despite the increasing commercial demand for music festivals and the budding recognition of their social value to festivalgoers, humancentered design methods have not been applied to explore ways to increase the value of music festival experiences for audiences. The purpose of this project was twofold. First, I planned to develop a nuanced human-centered understanding of music festival audience experience. Based on that understanding, I then planned to design a solution that enhances meaningful, positive experiences for festivalgoers, especially during the periods of anticipation before and reflection after events. By combining insights pulled from research in music psychology, positive psychology and current neuroscience on happiness with qualitative data gathered from my own human-centered design research methods, I developed several robust conceptual models for the complex realities of audience experience at music festivals. Based those models, I then developed a web-based platform called Neverfade that acts both as a music festival history archive and a virtual space where individuals can curate, save and share their own music festival experiences.

PurposeThis investigation aims to critically assess accessibility for persons with disabilities (PWDs) at music festivals in the UK.Design/methodology/approachA systematic review of the literature was conducted, followed by a case study focused on analysing accessible facilities and services offered at Glastonbury, Creamfields, Latitudes and Bestival Festivals. These two research strategies made use of secondary data only.FindingsBased on the analysis of the needs of PWDs when attending a music festival and the facilities and services currently offered at the four UK music festivals studied in this research, three themes emerged: (1) insufficient attention is given to venue and site design characteristics, (2) current access booking tools appear to be confusing and bureaucratic and (3) staff awareness is of great concern among PWDs because employees do not have sufficient knowledge about the different types of disabilities and their individual needs.Practical implicationsBy identifying current barriers affecting the experience of PWDs while attending music festivals in the UK, this research guides festival managers to deliver a more accessible music festival experience by suggesting the implementation of new approaches in terms of services and physical spaces provided.Originality/valueThis paper provides festival managers and future researchers with an essential foundation for creating more inclusive music festivals since it mentions critical factors that are currently missing and that can ensure success when responding to PWDs' needs and desires. The information in this investigation can be taken as an initial point to develop a theoretical framework through primary research focused on accessible festival design.

A popular turn to online live music in response to the COVID-19 pandemic included the staging of so-called virtual music festivals, including Splendour XR, an ‘extended reality’ version of Australia’s largest ticketed music festival in 2021. Where the ‘liveness’ of online performance is now broadly accepted, a virtual music festival necessarily makes a more ambitious claim, as popular music festivals are valued for their construction of certain types of place affording particular kinds of experience. This article considers this claim in light of the history and meaning of popular music festivals, including the role of mediating technologies, before presenting a case study of Splendour XR drawing on primary research at the event. The article explores key issues for the online delivery of popular music festivals including the negotiation of liveness, the construction of place and the music festival experience.

This research will explore about the product-mix pricing as one of pricing strategies on event industry, music festival specifically. The research will use generation Z in Jakarta as its main focus. This research was conducted in order to provide recommendations for event managers to apply the pricing strategies which would maximize their financial return, this will be achieved by completing the aim and objectives of this research. The aim of this research was to explore generation Z perception on product-mix pricing in music festivals which would be achieved by doing the secondary research and primary research before providing recommendations. The secondary research will be conducted by critically reviewing literatures on marketing, pricing, event industry, generation Z, and Jakarta. Before moving into the primary research which will be conducted using quantitative method. The findings will talk product-mix pricing on events, about generation Z in Jakarta behaviour, preferences, and perception on music festivals in general and event situation in Jakarta. This research may benefit event managers and researchers alike, as it provides recommendation on pricing a music festival and provide some recommendation on further researches.