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1 – 10 of over 1000Thea Vinnicombe and Pek U. Joey Sou
Academic studies have sought to understand the motivations of festival and event attendees usually through single-event case studies. This approach has failed to generate a…
Abstract
Purpose
Academic studies have sought to understand the motivations of festival and event attendees usually through single-event case studies. This approach has failed to generate a generalizable set of motivation items. In addition, there is increasing criticism in the literature of the common methodological framework used in festival motivation studies, due to a perceived over-reliance on motivations derived from the broader tourism and travel research, with too little attention to event-specific factors. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues by analyzing a sub-category of motivation studies, music festivals, in order to see if this approach can elicit a consistent set of motivation dimensions for the sub-category, which can in turn be compared and contrasted with the broader literature. A new case study of motivations to attend the 28th Macau International Music Festival (MIMF) is included to complement the existing music festival sub-category by adding a classical music and music festivals in Asia.
Design/methodology/approach
Motivation dimensions important to music festivals are compared to dimensions across the broader festival motivation literature to find similarities and differences. Factor analysis is used to identify the motivation dimensions of attendees at the MIMF and the results are compared to those of existing music festival studies.
Findings
Music festival goers are shown to be primarily motivated by the core festival offering, the music, in contrast to festival attendees in general, where socialization has emerged as the primary motivating element. The results of the additional case study support these findings.
Originality/value
In contrast to previous research, this study examines the possibility of identifying common motivations among festival attendees through studying festivals by sub-categories.
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Christina Muhs, Adesola Osinaike and Lorna Thomas
This paper explores the factors motivating people to attend the Dutch hardstyle festival, Defqon.1. This paper delivers new insights to festival attendance by including social and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the factors motivating people to attend the Dutch hardstyle festival, Defqon.1. This paper delivers new insights to festival attendance by including social and cultural factors in the motivational dimensions and considering a niche electronic music festival.
Design/methodology/approach
This research utilised qualitative methods to identify and gain detailed information about attendee's visitor motives. Eleven semi-structured in-depth interviews which focus on the influence of intangible features of visitor motivations were conducted.
Findings
The research result revealed an increased influence of social factors and decreased the effect of all other visitor motives. The subcultural ties amongst members of the hardstyle scene were identified as stronger than the ones of different electronic music scenes. The study concluded that social factors, such as friendships gain significant importance for stimulating return visits.
Originality/value
Contemporary music festivals, especially electronic events have not comprehensively been researched. Also, the effects of social and cultural factors on festival attendance have previously been neglected in research. Studies on popular electronic music genres, such as rave and hardcore, are from a sociological viewpoint. These studies revealed motivations of members of the subculture to be a part of the scene and to attend events.
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Yunxi Chen and Weng Si (Clara) Lei
With the increasing importance of social media in promoting events, understanding the relationship between event followers' motivations and their behaviors on an event's social…
Abstract
Purpose
With the increasing importance of social media in promoting events, understanding the relationship between event followers' motivations and their behaviors on an event's social media platform becomes a key success factor to attract event-goers. Previous studies on exploring the relationship between social media and event attendees have concentrated mostly on a Western context social media, for example, Facebook, and Western festivals; studies concerning the East or China are scant. This study uses the Strawberry Music Festival in China as a case study and researches its two official social media platforms: WeChat and Weibo.
Design/methodology/approach
The research explores the hedonic and utilitarian motivation of social media followers and investigates followers' browsing and participation behaviors as well as the influence of their usage behaviors on intentions to attend an event. A total of 190 valid responses were collected through an online questionnaire from social media followers of the music festival.
Findings
The findings reveal that both utilitarian and hedonic motivation have significant effects on browsing and participation behaviors. More importantly, browsing and participation behaviors also affect the intentions to attend an event and the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) effect.
Practical implications
The research results provide practical insights for event organizers regarding potential event-goers' usage patterns on social media platforms and their intention to visit events.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the authors’ understanding of the relationship between event attendance and social media behavior, in particular of the East.
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Thea Vinnicombe and Yu Chen Wu
To date, researchers examining the motivations of volunteers at festivals and events have used a range of measurement indexes, most of which appear to have common antecedents in…
Abstract
Purpose
To date, researchers examining the motivations of volunteers at festivals and events have used a range of measurement indexes, most of which appear to have common antecedents in the psychology literature. It is not clear if different events actually require different scales, or if individual scales are more generalizable than is currently recognized so that the proliferation of scales is largely an academic exercise. The current study takes a preliminary step in exploring this issue by using an existing scale developed to measure the motivations of volunteers at western sporting events to examine the motivations of volunteers at a music festival in China.
Design/methodology/approach
The Volunteer Motivation Scale for International Sporting Events (VMS-ISE) is administered to volunteers at the Midi Music Festival in China. The 467 respondents are divided into two subgroups. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is applied to the first subsample to explore the factor structure of the index. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is then applied to the second subsample to test the factor structure of the resolved scale.
Findings
The results of the EFA are promising, yielding a resolved factor structure, which is very close to the hypothesized index. The resolved scale is reasonably well supported by the subsequent CFA.
Originality/value
The findings suggest it may be possible for researchers to use a smaller number of scales on a larger range of festivals leading to a better understanding of similarities and differences in motivations across event volunteers. The results should also be helpful to festival organizers in their continuing efforts to recruit volunteers.
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Harriman Samuel Saragih and Novi Amelia
With the growing interest in eudaimonia in the past years and the need to better understand festival visitors' motivation in the context of music festivals, this study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
With the growing interest in eudaimonia in the past years and the need to better understand festival visitors' motivation in the context of music festivals, this study aims to propose visitor segmentation based on the values of hedonia, life satisfaction and eudaimonia.
Design/methodology/approach
The analysis in this study employs a case research method that follows the abductive paradigm. The authors begin their conceptual foundation with a review of the literature on hedonia, life satisfaction and eudaimonia. The authors then use the preliminary conceptual foundation as the basis of rival analysis through a focus group and interviews with senior executives, government officials, communities and other related stakeholders. The authors also carry out an exploratory factor analysis to determine the building blocks of eudaimonic festival experiences. Last, using cluster analysis, the authors support their conceptual proposition from the initial qualitative inquiries.
Findings
From the three studies that the authors performed, their findings suggest that, based on hedonia and eudaimonia, festival attendees can be divided into three distinct segments: (1) pleasure seekers (i.e. visitors who look for personal pleasure, enjoyment and affection), (2) playful learners (i.e. visitors who not only seek pleasure, but also consider the urgency to think about the need to grow as a person) and (3) transcendentalists (i.e. visitors who seek a balance of pleasure, escapism, self-reflection, personal meaning and impact through attending festival activities).
Research limitations/implications
This study argues that the ideas of hedonia and eudaimonia are present in the context of the music festival. Theoretically, this paper suggests that festival-goers can be divided into three clusters based on the values of hedonia and eudaimonia: pleasure seekers, playful learners and transcendentalists. Practically, this study suggests that festival organisers should consider developing music concert events by taking into account the eudaimonic and hedonistic desires, intrinsically possessed by the festival-goers, which is expected to add value to the produced musical event.
Originality/value
This study is the first to present visitor segmentation in a music festival setting based on the values of eudaimonia, life satisfaction and hedonia.
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Emma Hoksbergen and Andrea Insch
The purpose of this paper is to address the need to understand how younger music festival-goers use and engage with a music festival’s Facebook page, and how they perceive this…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to address the need to understand how younger music festival-goers use and engage with a music festival’s Facebook page, and how they perceive this social networking service (SNS) as a potential on-line platform for value co-creation.
Design/methodology/approach
Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 young adults who attended an annual New Year’s Eve music festival, Rhythm and Vines, in Gisborne, New Zealand.
Findings
Analysis of the interview data revealed that the majority of participants did not actively engage with this platform and could be categorised as passive viewers or information-seekers. In addition, participants perceived five types of value from using this SNS: functional, social, emotional, interactive and aesthetic value. Even though participants were not segmented due to the small sample size, patterns in their levels of engagement with Facebook, attendance status, reasons for attending the festival and the combinations of forms of value that they perceived were identified.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should use a large-scale survey method to obtain a representative sample that is generalisable to a specific population of music festival-goers.
Practical implications
Dominance of features on Facebook providing festival-goers with functional value suggests they prefer a passive or co-optation approach to value co-creation in this context. Due to the limited extent of participants actively co-creating value on this platform, alternative means of encouraging interaction to co-create value with festival-goers should be investigated.
Originality/value
This study demonstrates that this SNS provides this group of young adults with a means to connect their real-time festival experience, with their on-line Facebook social network during the year.
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Rachel Wang, Rosa Codina, Yan Sun and Xiaoyu Ding
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the fast growth of online music festivals. This paper explores how festivalgoers' experience affects their satisfaction and drives their loyalty…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the fast growth of online music festivals. This paper explores how festivalgoers' experience affects their satisfaction and drives their loyalty to re-attend online music festivals in China.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on an understanding of the music festival experience and the characteristics of live-streamed performances, this paper investigates five factors that affect festivalgoers' satisfaction and loyalty, namely the music experience, ambience experience, separation experience, social experience and novelty experience. The relationships between festivalgoers' experience, satisfaction and loyalty are also explored using structural equation modelling techniques.
Findings
The empirical results suggest that four of the above-mentioned five factors of the online music festival experience directly affect festivalgoers' satisfaction and loyalty. The online mode is a rapid adaptation of and preferred alternative to offline music festivals, whilst the creation of the experience, along with satisfaction with and loyalty to the online music festival, are determined by different factors compared to offline modes. Overall festival satisfaction positively enhances the relationship between festivalgoers' experience and loyalty to online music festivals.
Practical implications
This study offers a range of practical and managerial implications for organisers of online music festival, similar activities such as live-streaming concerts and stage performances and hybrid events.
Originality/value
This study explores a phenomenon that has evolved quickly since COVID-19 and will, potentially, have an ongoing and enduring impact on the music festival sector. It differentiates the understanding of festivalgoers' experience in online and offline modes, which is a new addition to the literature. It also enriches the theoretical understanding of the experience of, satisfaction with and loyalty to online music festivals.
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This investigation aims to critically assess accessibility for persons with disabilities (PWDs) at music festivals in the UK.
Abstract
Purpose
This investigation aims to critically assess accessibility for persons with disabilities (PWDs) at music festivals in the UK.
Design/methodology/approach
A 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.
Findings
Based 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 implications
By 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/value
This 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.
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This paper aims to explore how and why volunteers share knowledge and engage in other related knowledge activities. The paper offers an interpretation of participants’ multiple…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how and why volunteers share knowledge and engage in other related knowledge activities. The paper offers an interpretation of participants’ multiple realities to enable a better understanding of managing volunteer knowledge, which ultimately underpins organisational performance and effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative, hermeneutic phenomenological study of volunteers (n = 28) at UK music festivals was conducted through in-depth interviews (n = 9), diaries (n = 11) or both (n = 8). This interpretivist approach adopted purposive sampling to recruit participants through (social) media.
Findings
The findings illustrate how and why volunteers share knowledge that is attributed to a successful process of volunteering, which enables effective knowledge management and knowledge reproduction. Where volunteers’ motivations are satisfied, this leads to repeat volunteering. Knowledge enablers and the removal of barriers create conditions that are conducive for knowledge sharing, which have similar characteristics to conditions for continuance commitment. Where volunteers do not return, the organisation leaks knowledge.
Research limitations/implications
Although high-quality research standards were maintained, participant self-selection may result in overly positive experiences. Future research might explore the impact on knowledge sharing of negative volunteering experiences.
Practical/implications
Practical recommendations include factors that contribute to effective volunteer co-ordination and volunteering experiences, which are enablers for knowledge sharing. These fall within two categories, namely, areas for continuance (i.e. those aspects that should be maintained because they contribute to effective volunteer co- ordination and experiences) and areas for improvement (i.e. those aspects of volunteer co-ordination that are either currently lacking or require development or enhancement).
Originality/value
This paper’s original contribution is demonstrated through the use of hermeneutic phenomenological methods in the exploration of individuals’ perspectives of knowledge sharing in the context of temporary organisations. This paper provides value to academics studying knowledge management and volunteer management, and practitioners managing volunteers.
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Dominique Hazel and Courtney Mason
The purpose of this paper is to increase understandings of the complexity of stakeholder relationships and their impact on environmental practices in music festivals in Western…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to increase understandings of the complexity of stakeholder relationships and their impact on environmental practices in music festivals in Western Canada, but also to highlight how managers can leverage their festival platform for stakeholders to create new partnerships that foster and support primary values around sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
We use a community-based participatory framework to guide this study, and qualitative research methods in the form of in-depth interviews and surveys at three separate music festivals within the interior of British Columbia, Canada.
Findings
The majority of patrons are aware of the environmental impacts of music festivals and are more likely to attend a festival with effective practices. By making environmental sustainability a core value of the festival and communicating environmental objectives with both stakeholders and patrons, managers can begin to alleviate the operational barriers to environmentalism.
Originality/value
One of the primary contributions of this study is that it provides management with deeper understandings of a wide range of barriers to effective environmental practices in Western Canada. We consult directly with both festival management and attendees about environmental practices. This paper presents a fuller perspective of how to move beyond simple measures and craft a more sophisticated and flexible environmental strategy that reduces risk, anticipates obstacles and greatly improves the odds of successful implementation.
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