Festivals - Music Or The Culture?

The yearning of fans for Boardmasters was most wholehearted when they had bought tickets for the festival. The eagerness of gathering gear ready a few days before the gates open, people had ardently packed their old ten tors rucksack with new clothes, food and a ponchos  found on that rack in poundland. But it had come to the fans dismay an overwhelming sense of devastation when the festival decided to cancel due to severe weather conditions and for the festivals safety. My only response to this news at the time was “Fuck off”. 

Probably wondering why this is article is on the Let’s Talk about it series but I was going to use my time at Boardmasters to gather evidence for a discussion that needs to be enlightened in detail. However, Boardies being cancelled surprisingly gave me the answers that I needed: Do festival goers really go for the music or the culture surrounding it? Let's talk about it.

Let's go back to where festivals all began, 1952 saw the arrival of ‘Newport Jazz Festival’ which hosted the likes of Nina Simone, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. This festival was targeted at an upper class crowd as the festivals aim was to inspire young musicians but a sudden change in demographic saw the not so wealthy attend and camp in tents to enjoy the music. Glastonbury saw 1,500 people turn up for its first ever gig costing only £1 for the ticket with an added bonus of free milk from the farm. Fast forward to now, tickets now cost up to £300 for a standard ticket and provide an experience people will not forget. But as we decide whether to jump on the bandwagon, we need to understand why we want to go in the first place. For the music? Or to sit around the tent until the late afternoon, pre drink and then head into the stages? I guess it is up to personal choice but has festivals adapted to our social dominant cultures and the way we react to drinking and socialising? Yes, yes it has.

The exploration of “festival culture” needs to be taken into account as nowadays, much like digital culture, festivals have become this delphic realm of escapism from our monotonous realities however, festival goers do not need to hide behind a small lit screen to experience the same feeling of escapism, they can encounter these realms in person. Independent festivals such as Boomtown bank on experience culture for the selling of tickets, 53% go for the experience over 8% of the festival cohort going for the acts - The economist. Festivals such as Boomtown and Tomorrowland create such spectacles with staging and atmosphere that the artists then become a minor option to take into account when choosing to go to a festival. Even prodigious festivals such as Glastonbury have created such a superior otherworldly experience that the tickets sell out ahead of the artists are even announced, now giving us a reason to believe that festivals are not just about the love of music anymore. 

The response of Twitter towards the cancelation of Boardmasters seemed to have cemented this statement:

‘I've spent so much money on clothes for this’
‘HAHAHAHA imagine spending £250 on drugs for Boardmasters for it to be cancelled’ 

 ‘Tickets: £300
Food and Drink: £200
New clothes: £200
Finding out its cancelled at 11pm the night before: Priceless’

Many tweets were very funny memes I have to say however, none really touched upon the disappointment of not seeing artists. 

Festivals create experiences which guides groups towards an experimental change and then documenting them on social media platforms for conspicuous gain from a yearning audience. Because why wouldn't we want to show off the amazing time we had to others on social media? 
Influencers are such a prime example of experience/ consumerism culture on social media. Especially with the likes of festivals such as Coachella who swallow sponsorship. Major companies pay for the instagram stars to attend these festivals for them to then promote their products, having wider sponsorship from brand companies expands the networth of the festival itself. 2017 saw Coachella rake in 88.7 million dollars as they had focussed purely on influencing the influence and pinpointing their marketing around consumerism and instagram culture. The promotion of products at coachella not only benefits the company but the the festival who can reach a wider global demographic through popular influencers social media following. Consumerism benefits the festival massively but can also help the artist with fans being able to consume their music in a live setting and across social media platforms.

We need to note the importance of the digital music market and what impact is has created for artists and festivals themselves. As music has turned to the age of streaming, artists are not creating the money they need from this market whereas before the digital age you would only go on tour to promote the album or music you had created and have serious amounts of fun. The new digital age has now juxtaposed this touring era. Jimmy Hendrix in 1969 headlined Woodstock for $125,000, Ariana Grande headlined Coachella in 2019 for a whopping $8 Million dollars. However, we can also view festival touring opens up an extensive demographic than just their own fans coming to their own unique show. Touring allows us to see our favourite artists in a live environment which is completely different to the digital realm, artists can now show off their craft which parallels the one of streaming as the craft is being performed solemnly in the moment. This allows fans to have an immersive experience or encounter music they never thought they would listen to by going to these festivals. The fact that our local artists have the opportunity to play at Boardmasters is simply astounding as the talent we possess in Cornwall needs to be elevated in extreme amounts. Additionally, the social culture surrounding the one of festivals succours the one of music as fans have the mindset of ‘if my friends go, I go’ and to have any excuse to have a piss up but as the age of social media has come into light, the element of drinking and drug culture at festivals has been globalised to a normality and almost not doing it feels alien. We cannot say this did not happen in the pre digital era but being more connected digitally has definitely made has more of an awareness to it aiding people’s experience at festivals. Not to mention the extreme litter that gets left behind at festivals all because people are too hungover or not bothered to clean up after themselves.

Going full circle, the benefits of having the new digital era for festivals can undeniably push for the marketing of the festival to become globally accessible but can also be gloom-ridden with media coverage. We are so used to the glamorisation of digital marketing and only seeing the best of an object whereas the media can sometimes be destructive of this glamored facade. The media coverage of Boardmasters did this exact thing, articles with the titles ‘Boardmasters 2019 cancelled - every question we want answered by the organisers’ who exactly is we in this instance the media or the fans? Joining hand in hand with the majority who are upset seems like a great idea, old media platforms are failing in this current media climate so to gather more of an audience of interest of course the media will find a negative over the safety of the whole festival but not broadcast information to fans of current updates to help out the organisers.

We have to commend the organisers of Boardmasters for making the harrowing choice to cancel the event as it is most important that the priority of safety comes first in these instances. The fascination of festival culture and how it is changing to fit the dominant social structures can not go unnoticed. The power and the inevitability of ‘with music we come together’ will always be something we cherish throughout our lives, we just need to understand that this now comes with added elements that can create a positive or negative impact on our own experience. But until we are next stood in a muddy field, friends in tow with music sweetening our ears, let's talk about it. 

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