Crystal Lee

P5
Senior Project Research Section
The modern music festival is a site of interaction between the community of people,
artists, vendors, musicians and technologies. Audiences travel thousands of miles and invest
huge amounts of time, energy and money to attend them. There is an increasing commercial
demand for music festivals and the social aspect that festivals can appeal to a person. The
purpose of this project was to learn, plan and understand how a music festival works and how
an audience would perceive it. Based on that understanding, a festival should be designed in a
way that enhances meaningful, positive experiences for festival goers. By combining research in
music psychology, positive psychology and current neuroscience of happiness, coordinating a
music festival can and will impact the brains and minds of young people. If this is done correctly,
it can also become memorable and successful.
Music festival experiences often can be a memorable event in a persons life. An
actively engaged audience in a positive festival experience can lead to buying tickets in the
future. An active music festival goer is surveyed to be happier on average, feel more connected
and supported by a community of like-minded people, and is actively engaged with music and
his or her social network. Festival goers often have great stories to share and want to share
them as well as hearing other peoples music festival stories as is it was like seeing festivals
through other peoples eyes. Festivalgoers also actively seek and collect media (photos, videos,
etc.) after the events they attend people regularly review content from events theyve attended.
These experiences often help people better understand themselves as individuals because of
the lasting positive impacts on peoples self-perceptions, life outlook and acceptance of others.
Investing time and energy in an event, and ultimately self-promote, often leads to the
sponsorships and increase in ticket sales necessary to ensure the longevity of a festival.
(Zubeck)

The project can be beneficial to the community in ways such as economy and socially.
Music festivals can bring the community together as well as help let the community be more
exposed to each other in a way that can foster community pride and strengthening relationships.
Festivals promote community pride by allowing the town to be more social and evoke good
feelings. Most of the relationship-building occurs in the festival planning phase. This is where
the bonds among public and private organizations, government, and neighborhood groups are
forged and where connections among elected officials, staff, volunteers and interested residents
are made. A successful event can also help enhances a community's reputation in bigger ways
than one can think. Having such as large scale event in our city can gain recognition around the
area thus creating a view that creates more recognition to our city. A good festival management
means minimizing damage and maximizing opportunity.
The event management process depends on the organisational culture, information
sharing, and the learning organisation. But in general, very little research has been done on the
unique properties and challenges of event management. To the public, many events are in the
realm of recreation, entertainment, culture and celebration. Many governmental agencies and
non-profit organisations produce events or assist the events sector in order to help generate
community pride and cohesion, foster the arts, contribute to healthy people, or conserve the
natural environment. All these goals are very worthwhile and attract considerable expressions of
support. Many other events are held to raise money for charities and causes of all kinds. (Getz)
Significant differences existed between first-time and repeat visitors with respect to the
motivation dimensions of excitement and event novelty and their corresponding satisfaction
levels. (Li)

Works Cited

Getz, Donald. "Developing a research agenda for the event management field." Events beyond (2000):

Zubeck, Stella. "Not Fade Away: Enriching Music Festival Audience Experience." (2014).

Arcodia, Charles, and Alastair Robb. "A future for event management: a taxonomy of event management

Li, Xiang, and James F. Petrick. "A review of festival and event motivation studies." Event Management

Goldblatt, Joe. "A future for event management: the analysis of major trends impacting the emerging

Grames, Eliza, and Mary Vitceda. "Community Features." Community FestivalsBig Benefits, but
Risks, Too : : University of Minnesota Extension. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2016.