Technology, Society, and Visioning The Future of Music Festivals

What is it about?

Many music festivals fail because the experiences offered do not ensure relevance and meaning to the attendee. Engagement with new and virtual landscapes and with the enhanced sensory feelings and imaginations that technologies can offer may alleviate this. Utilizing a futures frame, this conceptual article contributes to the pursuit of successful future event design by applying a normative visionary methodology—employing trend analysis, scenarios, and science fiction to create prototypes that may assist in the formation of appropriate experience options and opportunities for music festivals of the future. It is proposed that this technique may aid positive social outcomes.

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Why is it important?

The contribution of this article lies, firstly, in presenting how consumers behave in a digital world in which play and technology enhance the liminal state. Secondly, the article offers an explanation of how technology could enhance the festival experience through social capital without diluting authenticity. Finally, this work may act as a guide to the future of music festival consumption and be of benefit to those organizations involved in the practice and business of music festival (experience) management. As Mair and Whitford (2013) conclude in their extensive review of current research in the event management area, “There will always be interesting, innovative and diverse studies contributing to the growing body of literature pertaining to events” (p. 16). In attempting to look at what experience may mean to goers of music festivals in the future, we add to this.

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