Festival Experience Research Articles

Festive nostalgia in COVID-19: an empirical investigation

ABSTRACT The COVID−19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of positive memories. Therefore, our study develops a measurement instrument for festive nostalgia, composed of seven dimensions and measured through 28 items. A rigorous scale development process was adopted and validated through two main studies. While a convenience sample (303 participants) was used to assess the initial validity through exploratory factor analysis, a final sample of 412 respondents was used to assess the second-order factor structure of festive nostalgia through CFA and structural equation modelling. Findings suggest festive nostalgia can significantly predict intention to recommend and revisit intentions. Also, the study suggested that festive nostalgia is manifested through festivals, festive experience, festive environment, festive socialization, festive identity, cultural identity and festive activity involvement. Based on the findings, managers of festive destinations can formulate strategies to draw tourists willing to participate in festivals and develop the attractiveness of such destinations.

Perceived Intense Emotions and Their Influence on Cultural Identification Processes: A Mixed-Method Study of a Classical Music Festival

Music festivals are meant to create a unique experience for those who attend them, and this occurs through multiple phenomena. Among these phenomena are various cultural identification processes, which may be directly connected to festivalgoers’ emotions. In this scope, the main aim of this research is to understand how music festivals trigger, shape, reinforce and influence cultural identification processes and how these processes relate to the emotions felt by festivalgoers. In order to attain this aim, we present the academic state of the art in terms of models for evaluating intangible impacts and emotions in different settings. We then propose a model and a mixed-method approach for analysing such impacts on music festival experiences. This model is based on attendees’ perception of cultural impacts and music emotions during these experiences. Finally, we apply these different methodological approaches to the study of a classical music festival experience. We then draw conclusions about the relationship between festivalgoers’ emotions and identification processes. Specifically, there is a clear relationship between intense positive emotions and regional identification processes, cultural skills development and growth in music listening, where the festival experience encourages attendees to add new music to their musical preferences.

The moderator role of COVID-19 risk perception in the impact of festival experience quality on life satisfaction

PurposeCultural festivals have started to be held face-to-face with masks and distance measures after the gradual lifting of restrictions following the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, the risk of COVID-19 transmission continues. This study aimed to test the relationship between participants' experience quality and life satisfaction and the moderator role of the COVID-19 risk perception in this relationship within the scope of the Festival on Wheels (Gezici Festival) as a cultural festival.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected by face-to-face and online survey techniques in Ankara, Sinop and Kastamonu cities in the context of the 26th Festival on Wheels. A total of 130 questionnaires were collected, and structural equation modelling was applied to the data analysis.FindingsAccording to the findings, the experience quality with the dimensions of entertainment and escape has a significant effect on life satisfaction. On the other hand, the perceived risk of COVID-19 does not have a statistically significant effect on this relationship.Originality/valueThe results indicate that experience quality directly affects subjective life satisfaction, while the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on event experiences and outcomes has begun to disappear.

Reminiscence and wellbeing – reflecting on past festival experiences during Covid lockdowns

PurposeTo explore the value in reminiscing about past festivals as a potential way of improving wellbeing in socially isolated times.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses previous research on reminiscence, nostalgia and wellbeing to underpin the analysis of self-recorded memory narratives. These were gathered from 13 pairs of festivalgoers during Covid-19 restrictions and included gathering their individual memories and their reminiscences together. The participant pairs were a mix of friends, family and couples who had visited festivals in the UK, Finland and Denmark.FindingsFour key areas that emerged through the analysis were the emotions of nostalgia and anticipation, and the processes of reliving emotions and bonding through memories.Research limitations/implicationsFuture studies could take a longitudinal approach to see how memory sharing evolves and the impact of this on wellbeing. The authors also recommend undertaking similar studies in other cultural settings.Practical implicationsThis study findings have implications for both post-festival marketing and for the further development of reminiscence therapy interventions.Originality/valueThe method provides a window into memory sharing that has been little used in previous studies. The narratives confirm the value in sharing memories and the positive impact this has on wellbeing. They also illustrate that this happens through positive forms of nostalgia that centre on gratitude and lead to hope and optimism. Anticipation, not emphasised in other studies, was also found to be important in wellbeing and was triggered through looking back at happier times.

Multidimensional Analysis of Predictors of Behavioral Intentions in Music Festivals Using Environmental Psychology

Although scholars agree that the festival experience is multidimensional, there is still no consensus in terms of the dimensions of quality and perceived value, being the analysis of the utilitarian and sociopsychological perspectives of value in the musical context insufficient. This study uses a multidimensional analysis to investigate the predictors of attendees' behavioral intentions at an International Festival which is held annually since the year 2008. To this end, the article begins with festival quality, using perceived value and satisfaction as intermediate constructs, which are antecedents of behavioral intentions. The results show a positive impact of festival quality on the perceived value and a direct relationship between satisfaction and loyalty. The relationship between value and satisfaction was significant for only two of the dimensions (functional and emotional value). This knowledge is necessary to implement effective strategies to improve festival experiences and satisfy attendees' musical, artistic, psychological, and social needs.

An emotional perspective of music festival experience evaluation: a new model of emotional analysis

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to test a new proposal of a model to analyze emotional outcomes in relation to the key factors constituting the experience of a music festival.Design/methodology/approachThis article first examines how emotions and intangible impacts are conceptualized and analyzed by different disciplines; secondly, this article exposes the relevance of musical emotions and the contextual elements in the generation of the music festival experience; the article then proposes a new model to assess the emotional impacts of music festivals, named the Emotional Impact of Music Festivals (EIMF). Finally, this article shows the test of the model through quantitative and qualitative analysis.FindingsThe findings reveal that perceived emotions in the music festival context should be based on the definition of musical emotions. At the same time, the model combines the different sources of emotions taken from validated tools in multiple academic disciplines. The new proposal enables the emotional outcome of the music festival experience to be identified and helps to understand the weight of the experience's main elements.Practical implicationsThe new proposed model facilitates the research on music festivals and illuminates the key role of music when organizing festivals to enhance attendee experience. Finally, this model reveals the main elements required to obtain an intense emotional outcome in these types of events.Originality/valueThe study expands the different scales and model proposals in live events and combines existent musical emotion models from the psychological perspective with theoretical models from the intangible impact evaluation. This study shows a genuine test for a theoretical model that can be further developed. Finally, this study shows how the new tool EIMF can help music festival organizers to understand the weight of the constituting factors of festival experience and the results in applied studies.

Cocreation and Engagement: What Festivalgoers Want in the Uk Rock Festival Experience

This article seeks to better understand the festivalgoers' experience by determining what festivalgoers want at UK rock music festivals. Examining the experience journey, important attributes were identified in pre-, peri-, and postfestival phases. Qualitative data were collected from 124 festivalgoers through semistructured group interviews that were conducted on site at three different UK rock festivals. Thematic analysis revealed the importance of cocreation and engagement through each phase of the festivalgoer experience. The practical implications of this study provide festival organizers with the opportunity to direct their management efforts on the strategic optimization of experiences that may promote preferred consumer behavior through positive word of mouth and future reattendance. Moreover, this article offers a conceptual model of the festivalgoer experience.

Spatial Authenticity and Extraordinary Experiences: Music Festivals and the Everyday Nature of Tourism Destinations

Research taking into account the everyday nature of tourism destinations and its impact upon authenticity and attendees’ resulting extraordinary experiences is limited. Drawing upon a 3-year ethnography (including fieldnotes, photos/videos, artifact material) and interviews with festival attendees, we explore the interrelationships between authenticity and extraordinary experiences in the context of Primavera Sound music festival. Our emergent thematic categories—the festival’s indie music character, its urban and quotidian configuration, and the instrumental orientation of the festival experience—suggest the festival is firmly positioned within the structures of the indie music industry, while also being located within the confines of day-to-day urban life. Attendees seek to achieve a sense of spatial authenticity by engaging with the features of tourism destinations. We contribute to discussions about authenticity and extraordinary experiences by unpacking the everyday nature of tourism destinations, demonstrating that not all music festivals need to be “extraordinary” muddy camping events.

Festival Participation, Inclusion and Poverty: An Exploratory Study

Music festivals (in the UK) have the potential to enhance the quality of life of attendees and participants, and therefore it might be argued they should be accessible to all. However, the barriers to participation that some may face when seeking to access and engage with festival experiences can often be attributed to the issue of marginalisation due to poverty. Utilising the three discourses of social inclusion put forward by Levitas as a framework, the study explores what UK music festival organisations are doing and could do to make their events more accessible to people living in poverty. Through an analysis of a series of festival websites and semi-structured interviews with festival organisers, some of the financial considerations that can influence participation and act as a barrier to making festivals an inclusive aspect of our cultural life were identified, and solutions were explored. The paper found that despite the social benefits of attending, those living in poverty have become an increasingly marginalised group of festival goers as a result of the disproportional rise in costs associated with attendance, which often goes beyond only the ticket price to include hidden extras. Whilst several festivals undertake outreach work and donate to charitable organisations, only a handful have specific initiatives that improve access for those living in poverty beyond spreading out the price of the ticket via instalments and volunteering opportunities. Findings suggest whilst many music festivals are starting to recognise the importance of the issue, few have specific initiatives but are willing to consider what they can do moving forward.

The Role of Immersive Festival Experiences, Identity, And Memory in Cultural Heritage Tourism

This article provides insights for attracting short-haul visitors to cultural heritage festivals. We show how a set of experience dimensions work as value drivers to enhance a cultural heritage experience. Drawing on the experience literature we use structural equation modeling to test the relationships between attitude, memory, and revisit intentions. Empirical data were collected from short-haul visitors (from Scandinavia, Europe, and UK) at five Norwegian Viking festivals. Through an integrative framework we examine how appraisals of the experience are impacted by (1) identification with a festival theme, (2) entertainment value, (3) storytelling, and (4) personal interest. Key findings: attendee perceptions of experience dimensions have a positive influence upon their attitudes, memories, and revisit intentions; the formation of good and abundant memories strengthens the attitude–loyalty relationship; self-identification with heritage theme strengthens revisit intentions. The findings are timely as global emergencies increase the appeal of short-haul tourism.

Splendour XR: Place, Experience and Liveness at a Virtual Music Festival

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.

MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF WINE FESTIVAL VISITOR EXPERIENCE

MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF WINE FESTIVAL VISITOR EXPERIENCE

Exploring the Festival Attendees’ Experiences on Social Media: A Study on the Guangzhou International Light Festival

This article explores festival attendees’ experiences on social media. Data on festival attendees’ posts on the Guangzhou International Light Festival were collected from TikTok. The Jieba Chinese word segmentation tool was applied to tokenize the texts and then classify the high-frequency words and phrases into five dimensions of festival experiences. The five dimensions of festival attendees’ experiences are cognitive, novel, affective, physical participation, and social interaction. A combination of the modularity algorithm and Gephi was used to cluster and visualize the festival attendees’ overall experiences and the different experiences in terms of gender and age. The results indicate that, in festival attendees’ overall experience, cognitive experience accounted for the largest proportion, followed by physical participation, and the proportion of social interaction, emotional experience, and novel experience was less. Moreover, the demographic characteristics of gender and age differ in the festival experience.

Italian cinema online: A conversation with Gianluca Guzzo of MYmovies.it

In this exclusive conversation, MYmovies.it founder and CEO Gianluca Guzzo sits down with Antonio Falduto, Glen Bonnici, Jim Carter and Flavia Laviosa to discuss his business, which is part online cinema magazine and part streaming platform. Guzzo gives an historical overview of the development of MYmovies.it before turning to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, during which the website pioneered a digital service for replicating the in-person film festival experience. This history serves as a jumping-off point for a series of reflections on the future of film festivals, the distribution of Italian cinema domestically and internationally and the need to promote quality, independent productions. In contrast to most commentators published in this journal, Guzzo speaks as a businessperson who is concerned with marketing Italian cinema in the world, including the use of data for commercial purposes.

THE INFLUENCE OF MEMORABLE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCES ON ARAB VISITORS’ REVISIT INTENTION TO THE JERASH FESTIVAL OF CULTURE AND ARTS (JFCA) IN JORDAN

The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of memorable festival experiences (MFEs) on revisit intention from the perspective of Arab visitors in the context of the Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts (JFCA) in Jordan. The quantitative research method was used in the research. Questionnaires were used to collect the data. Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was used in the data analysis to test the research hypothesis. The study found that MFEs influence Arab visitors’ revisit intention. It also confirmed the validity of Event Experience Scale (EES) that constitutes four dimensions: affective engagement, cognitive engagement, physical engagement, and experiencing novelty, in the context of Arab visitors. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. Theoretically, the study provides insight into the influence of MFEs on Arab visitors’ revisit intentions. It also evaluates the reliability and validity of EES for the first time in the context of Arab cultural festivals. Practically, the study paved the way for JFCA organisers, planners, managers, and marketers to plan, develop, and market useful festival tourism strategies. It is also envisaged that the information obtained in this study will help promote the enhancement of visitors’ experiences at JFCA to attract and retain more visitors in the globally competitive event industry.

Two Simones at Montreux

This article weaves Nina Simone’s 1976 concert and Lisa Simone’s 2016 concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival with the author’s life experiences. Despite multiple shifts between historical period and person, attention to the dangers of racism and the hope for liberation persist throughout the festival experience.

Hybrid festivals: Challenges facing Cracow’s festival scene in times of pandemic

The main goal of this paper is to show the strategies of dealing with the pandemic circumstances chosen by three of the city’s festivals: EtnoKraków/Crossroads, Sacrum Profanum, and Unsound. Emerging from their diverse approaches is a new hybrid festival formula, which brings with it brand new challenges. These include: new models of interaction between organisers, artists, and audiences; reorganisation of festival space; new patterns of audience accessibility and new forms of exclusion/openness; opportunities and barriers for (virtual) cultural exchange; and finally, a recalibration and blurring of the public and private dimensions brought about by the new types of festival experience. Indeed, it could even be argued that the live event sector is facing significant change in the very concept of “liveness”. The analysis is based both on existing data concerning processes of music festival production and consumption (press articles, reviews, and reports) and semi-structured interviews with artistic directors, managers and producers of the selected festivals, held in 2020/2021.

Festival Experience, Vivid Memories and Electronic Word of Mouth: Official Regulatory Mechanism for App Participation 節慶體驗、生動記憶與電子口碑:官方 App參與的調節機制

Festival Experience, Vivid Memories and Electronic Word of Mouth: Official Regulatory Mechanism for App Participation 節慶體驗、生動記憶與電子口碑:官方 App參與的調節機制

Measuring Tourist Festival Experience: Development and Validation of the PHF-TX Model

Despite the economic and academic importance of periodic hallmark festivals (PHFs) and customer experience, knowledge about the tourist experience (TX) in a PHF consumption context remains limited. In response, this research conceptualizes a novel “periodic hallmark festival tourist experience” (PHF-TX) construct and develops a measurement instrument. Findings from three empirical studies of PHF tourists confirmed six constituent perceived value dimensions of PHF-TX. Empirically, PHF-TX was positively associated with behavioral intentions and subjective wellbeing, with festival attachment playing a mediating role. Important theoretical and practical implications include heterogeneity with prior experience and an attenuated impact of PHF-TX in the proposed relationships, indicating that the relationship between PHF-TX and behavioral intention may differ between first-time and repeat PHF tourists. This finding suggests there may be a point on the perceived value spectrum where the benefits of PHF-TX increase at a decreasing rate. Consequently, PHF organizers are recommended to nurture festival attachment opportunities for first-time tourists.

Unobserved heterogeneity in music festivalgoers' experience processing

Special events, including festivals, play an essential role in increasing destination attractiveness. Therefore, destination managers who understand festivalgoers' unique needs and priorities can increase the competitive advantages of their destinations in the contemporary experience economy. Accordingly, this study establishes a theoretical model explaining the relationships among festival-experiencescape elements and memorable festival experiences. Additionally, it adopts advanced segmentation approaches to delineate different types of music festivalgoers, to facilitate the development of more precise marketing and management strategies. Specifically, a finite mixture partial least squares technique, multi-group analysis, and importance-performance map analysis were performed with a representative sample of 384 Taiwanese festivalgoers. Combining the findings obtained from three above-mentioned types of analyses yielded two unique types of festivalgoers: ‘experiencescape-oriented’ and ‘seriously involved’. Each type has a distinctive way of assessing festival experiencescapes and creating memorable experiences within them. Managerial implications tailored to these two segments are also provided.