Exploring the jazz festival experience amongst local and non-local residents: The case of the Jazzaldia Festival in Spain
International Journal of Event and Festival Management
ISSN: 1758-2954
Article publication date: 16 September 2021
Issue publication date: 8 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the jazz festival experience at the Heineken Jazzaldia Festival in San Sebastian, Spain. It focuses especially on the relationship between participants’ area of residence and their experience of the festival, concert expectations, preference for different festival settings and perception of the best aspects of the festival.
Design/methodology/approach
This study modifies and applies the Audience Experience Survey (Radbourne et al., 2009) to the Heineken Jazzaldia Festival in San Sebastian, Spain. A total of 406 valid questionnaires were obtained. A quantitative analysis technique was used for the area of residence, on the one hand, and for concert expectations, audience experience and venue setting, on the other. A qualitative approach was applied for identifying the best aspects of the festival.
Findings
The results suggest that the audiences’ festival preferences differed according to their area of residence. Audience members who lived in Spain outside of the Basque Country were more motivated to attend the festival, had higher concert expectations and greater indoor venue concert attendance, and considered music diversity to be one of the most important aspects of the festival. Local participants were more likely not to have expectations prior to concerts, had higher outdoor venue concert attendance rates and preferred ambience compared with residents from outside of the Basque Country.
Practical implications
Findings could be relevant to festivals’ organisers for management and marketing purposes in terms of their audiences’ needs and preferences. One of the main results obtained is that local residents were more likely not to have expectations prior to concerts. They also equalised music diversity, artists, stages and atmosphere as the best Festival’s aspects while participants from outside of the Basque Country prioritised music diversity aspect.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature regarding residents’ behaviour in the Spanish music festival context. Our findings add to the body of knowledge around local audiences’ and non-local audience’s experience in jazz festivals.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to the authors of the Audience Experience Survey. Professor Jennifer Radbourne reviewed the final version of the survey before its administration at the Heineken Jazzaldia Festival. Professor Stephanie Pitts, from the University of Sheffield, made additional suggestions for the adapted version of the survey, and the authors are very grateful to her as well. The authors would also like to thank researchers María Pilar Rodriguez and June Calvo-Solaruze, from the University of Deusto, who reviewed the translation and cultural adaptation of the questionnaire. The authors are sincerely grateful to the PhD candidates who helped distribute the surveys at the Heineken Jazzaldia Festival, to the Festival’s director Miguel Martín, and to all the participants in this study.
Funding: This paper has been supported by the European Commission through Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions under the Deusto International Research School (DIRS-COFUND) project (Grant Agreement number 665959-DIRS-H2020-MSCA-COFUND-2014).
Citation
Bakić, S., Cuenca-Amigo, M. and Cuenca, J. (2021), "Exploring the jazz festival experience amongst local and non-local residents: The case of the Jazzaldia Festival in Spain", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 418-436. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEFM-05-2021-0037
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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