Why do people love going to music festivals?
Why do people love going to music festivals?
APRIL 21, 2020
Photo: Ryan Everton for Unsplash
If you’ve ever been to a music festival, then you know all too well the feeling of excitement you get as you arrive on the first day, rucksack, tent and enough glitter to knock out Tinkerbell in tow. It’s hard to describe - but what is it about music festivals which captures that giddy, carefree happiness? Well, we put our heads together to find out and here’s what we came up with.
Music
Duh, right? While it seems obvious, there’s actually more to this than you would think. Aside from the statistic that 64.2% of festival-goers in the UK went for the music (Statista), there’s a reason that we feel such a rush when we hear our favourite bands live - a study found that when we listen to the music we love, our brain releases more dopamine - a ‘feel good’ chemical. Science.
Escapism
“Music festivals allow attendees to escape from the day-to-day grind. Surrounding yourself with new people and enjoying the revelry is entertaining, and relaxing. For hours at a stretch or even days, you’re able to pretend you’re someone else – someone without a care in the world.” Positive Psychology
The freedom of being surrounded by people you don’t know, all united to enjoy a shared experience - lends itself to expressing your true personality, experimenting with your identity - covering yourself in glitter, paint, dressing in costumes - anything goes - music festivals provide an opportunity for escapism.
Experience
“The results of this study suggest that music festival planners can use different marketing tactics to broaden a festival's appeal and that it is risky for event managers to rely on the music itself or a specific artist to draw large festival crowds.
Equally important is creating a fun and festive atmosphere that offers ample opportunity to socialise and have new and nonmusical experiences.” ResearchGate
As the above research indicates, music festivals are about more than just the music - it’s the ‘nonmusical experiences’, which contribute to the fun and festival atmosphere. This includes everything from the food and drink stalls, to the lighting and entertainment. Immersive entertainment
In research conducted by Eventbrite, it was found that millennials are funding the experience economy and MVPaudience states that ‘Millennials are driving attendees are driving attendance at music festivals’ - with that in mind, we deduced that it’s the entertainment and immersive experiences at music festivals which are greatly responsible for their soaring popularity.
FOMO and Culture
“FOMO drives millennials’ experiential appetite.” Eventbrite
Nearly seven in 10 (69%) of millennials experience FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), Eventbrite’s research found. Attending music festivals has become a status symbol and a rite of passage - Carlos Chirinos, a professor of clinical music and global health at New York University put it best: “Here, it’s, ‘Have you been to Coachella?’ In the United Kingdom, it’s, ‘Have you been to Glastonbury? It becomes a part of the culture—not just another event.”
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