Total festival experience :a mixed methods research approach to consumer experiences in Finnish cultural festivals
Kinnunen, Maarit (2018)
Lapin yliopisto
2018
ISBN:978-952-337-112-5
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-112-5
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-337-112-5
Tiivistelmä
The festival experience is one of the main motivations for festival participation. Furthermore, studies reveal that festival experiences contain elements that can be used in building the festival brand; that in turn, increases loyalty, positive media coverage, ticket sales and sponsors’ interest.
The rationale of the study lies in the need to explore the consumption of the festival experience to find ways of facilitating the experience of the audience. The overall aim is to construct a model of the total festival experience consisting of elements present in festivalgoers’ experiences. Furthermore, the objective is to find out possible reasons for the existence of the experience elements. Thus, the study sees if there are differences between these elements regarding positive and negative experiences and if festival genre has any influence on their importance.
Th e main research question is: What are the elements that comprise the total experience for attendees of a cultural festival? A cultural festival is a regularly and professionally organised event at the same place or region, it has several performers and is open for the public. It represents a certain cultural genre offering a programme that consists of performing or visual arts. Th e total festival experience is an experience
that is constructed from the available experience elements by a member of the festival communitas inside the liminoid zone. The experience elements are both tangible (food, drink, and so on) and intangible (programme, atmosphere, rules and restrictions, other persons’ behaviour, and so on).
Event and festival research are the most important framework for the study since the focus of the study is the core phenomenon of festivals, that is attendees’ experiences. The second most important framework is experience research and the study concentrates on identifying the experience elements that festivalgoers describe.
This study is a mixed methods research (MMR), meaning that the data and analyses of the study employ qualitative and quantitative methods and, most importantly, the results are integrated in meta-inference. The intention is to develop a total festival experience model using an abductive mixed methods approach that is missing from the development methods of festival experience models so far. Th is methodological approach, employing the attendees’ own words, enables the construction of a model that reveals new insights. Additionally, the model is applicable to various types of cultural festivals. Th e study relies on a pragmatic stance since any suitable means are used in answering the research question, looking for the characteristics of the festival experience from the attendees’ viewpoint. The principal reason for the use of MMR is to get a deeper understanding about the total festival experience, with sub-questions shedding light on different angles. Mixed methods are also used for the weakness minimisation point of view since the different methods complement one other.
The study contains data from 17 cultural festivals all around Finland representing five genres. The research is an instrumental multiple-case study, with five cases comprising cultural festival genres of rock music, classical music, dance, film and visual arts. The research data includes both primary and secondary data collected in the years 2012 and 2013. The data comprises answers to surveys, interviews and empathy-based stories written by attendees. The use of diff erent text types enabled collection of descriptions of actual and imagined festival experiences, including those both successful and failed. Positive experience elements were illustrated by the actual state, actual differentiators
and possible utopia; while the negative experience elements were divided into actual needs for improvement, the possible ruiners of the festival experience and imagined dystopia. Altogether, 1,995 festivalgoers contributed to the research data.
Th e aim of this work is to build a total festival experience model. Th is is accomplished by the meta-inference of three published articles and the research data. Th e total festival experience comprises organiser- and attendee-induced experience elements, as well as external experience elements and atmosphere. Th e organiser-induced experience elements include the programme, services, arrangements, crowds, commercialism and/or non-commercialism and other values, while attendee-induced elements comprise participants, socialising and code of conduct. External experience elements are the place and the weather and/or summer. Atmosphere is constructed from all the previous elements.
A further aim was to find out reasons for the existence of the experience elements in the model. Within the positive experience elements, the programme and atmosphere are the main success factors; while the study noted that place, participants, services and arrangements could be differentiators creating a competitive edge for festivals. On the other hand, failed arrangements, programme, crowding and services are the biggest threats likely to cause negative experiences.
To summarise the genre-specific findings, the programme and atmosphere are essential positive experience elements in most of the festival genres. Furthermore, atmosphere is critical in film festivals, essential in music festivals, but less important for dance festivals, and meaningless in visual arts events. On the other hand, services play a major role in negative experiences.
Th e validity of the study, or legitimation as preferred in the MMR, was scrutinised from aspects of sampling, inside-outside legitimation, weakness minimisation, paradigmatic mixing, conventional validities of qualitative and quantitative methods, and research ethics. Th e limitations of the study include the issues concerning the transferability of the results and the biases towards rock festivals, female respondents
and regular festival attendees. Th e need for future research ranges from studying the additional cultural genres, longitudinal studies and confi rmatory research of the experience elements discovered, to the need for comparative research preferably in the Scandinavian context.
The methodological contributions of the study include the use of MMR, the Method of Empathy-Based Stories (MEBS) and multiple-case study in event and festival studies. From the theoretical point of view, the work adds to the festival experience knowledge, emphasising the importance of participants, their socialising and code of conduct for the co-creation of a festival atmosphere. The construction of the place identity for locals and non-locals is also stressed. Furthermore, the study scrutinised both positive and negative experience elements, which is a major research
gap in (festival) experience research. Th e weight of different experience elements is studied from the aspect of festival genre, whereas most of the experience studies imply incorrectly that the importance of different elements does not vary. Furthermore, there has been a paucity of research on audiences of Finnish festival attendees and this study contributes to the area. Lastly, the theoretical contribution in the research of co-creation is essential. Although the very idea of co-creation was introduced quite early, there are only a few studies in the context of festivals. Finally, the practical contributions reside in the festival management perspectives of differentiation, branding and co-creation.
The rationale of the study lies in the need to explore the consumption of the festival experience to find ways of facilitating the experience of the audience. The overall aim is to construct a model of the total festival experience consisting of elements present in festivalgoers’ experiences. Furthermore, the objective is to find out possible reasons for the existence of the experience elements. Thus, the study sees if there are differences between these elements regarding positive and negative experiences and if festival genre has any influence on their importance.
Th e main research question is: What are the elements that comprise the total experience for attendees of a cultural festival? A cultural festival is a regularly and professionally organised event at the same place or region, it has several performers and is open for the public. It represents a certain cultural genre offering a programme that consists of performing or visual arts. Th e total festival experience is an experience
that is constructed from the available experience elements by a member of the festival communitas inside the liminoid zone. The experience elements are both tangible (food, drink, and so on) and intangible (programme, atmosphere, rules and restrictions, other persons’ behaviour, and so on).
Event and festival research are the most important framework for the study since the focus of the study is the core phenomenon of festivals, that is attendees’ experiences. The second most important framework is experience research and the study concentrates on identifying the experience elements that festivalgoers describe.
This study is a mixed methods research (MMR), meaning that the data and analyses of the study employ qualitative and quantitative methods and, most importantly, the results are integrated in meta-inference. The intention is to develop a total festival experience model using an abductive mixed methods approach that is missing from the development methods of festival experience models so far. Th is methodological approach, employing the attendees’ own words, enables the construction of a model that reveals new insights. Additionally, the model is applicable to various types of cultural festivals. Th e study relies on a pragmatic stance since any suitable means are used in answering the research question, looking for the characteristics of the festival experience from the attendees’ viewpoint. The principal reason for the use of MMR is to get a deeper understanding about the total festival experience, with sub-questions shedding light on different angles. Mixed methods are also used for the weakness minimisation point of view since the different methods complement one other.
The study contains data from 17 cultural festivals all around Finland representing five genres. The research is an instrumental multiple-case study, with five cases comprising cultural festival genres of rock music, classical music, dance, film and visual arts. The research data includes both primary and secondary data collected in the years 2012 and 2013. The data comprises answers to surveys, interviews and empathy-based stories written by attendees. The use of diff erent text types enabled collection of descriptions of actual and imagined festival experiences, including those both successful and failed. Positive experience elements were illustrated by the actual state, actual differentiators
and possible utopia; while the negative experience elements were divided into actual needs for improvement, the possible ruiners of the festival experience and imagined dystopia. Altogether, 1,995 festivalgoers contributed to the research data.
Th e aim of this work is to build a total festival experience model. Th is is accomplished by the meta-inference of three published articles and the research data. Th e total festival experience comprises organiser- and attendee-induced experience elements, as well as external experience elements and atmosphere. Th e organiser-induced experience elements include the programme, services, arrangements, crowds, commercialism and/or non-commercialism and other values, while attendee-induced elements comprise participants, socialising and code of conduct. External experience elements are the place and the weather and/or summer. Atmosphere is constructed from all the previous elements.
A further aim was to find out reasons for the existence of the experience elements in the model. Within the positive experience elements, the programme and atmosphere are the main success factors; while the study noted that place, participants, services and arrangements could be differentiators creating a competitive edge for festivals. On the other hand, failed arrangements, programme, crowding and services are the biggest threats likely to cause negative experiences.
To summarise the genre-specific findings, the programme and atmosphere are essential positive experience elements in most of the festival genres. Furthermore, atmosphere is critical in film festivals, essential in music festivals, but less important for dance festivals, and meaningless in visual arts events. On the other hand, services play a major role in negative experiences.
Th e validity of the study, or legitimation as preferred in the MMR, was scrutinised from aspects of sampling, inside-outside legitimation, weakness minimisation, paradigmatic mixing, conventional validities of qualitative and quantitative methods, and research ethics. Th e limitations of the study include the issues concerning the transferability of the results and the biases towards rock festivals, female respondents
and regular festival attendees. Th e need for future research ranges from studying the additional cultural genres, longitudinal studies and confi rmatory research of the experience elements discovered, to the need for comparative research preferably in the Scandinavian context.
The methodological contributions of the study include the use of MMR, the Method of Empathy-Based Stories (MEBS) and multiple-case study in event and festival studies. From the theoretical point of view, the work adds to the festival experience knowledge, emphasising the importance of participants, their socialising and code of conduct for the co-creation of a festival atmosphere. The construction of the place identity for locals and non-locals is also stressed. Furthermore, the study scrutinised both positive and negative experience elements, which is a major research
gap in (festival) experience research. Th e weight of different experience elements is studied from the aspect of festival genre, whereas most of the experience studies imply incorrectly that the importance of different elements does not vary. Furthermore, there has been a paucity of research on audiences of Finnish festival attendees and this study contributes to the area. Lastly, the theoretical contribution in the research of co-creation is essential. Although the very idea of co-creation was introduced quite early, there are only a few studies in the context of festivals. Finally, the practical contributions reside in the festival management perspectives of differentiation, branding and co-creation.
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