Glastonbury: managing the mystification of festivity

Should there be more showers at the summer music festival? Studying the contextual dependence of resource consuming conventions and lessons for sustainable tourism

“…As such, Browne (2009) discusses how a women-only festival in the US can be exciting, but is also something for which respondents must feel they 'are ready ' and Jaimangal-Jones et al (2010) describe how the appeal of the music festival derives from the 'liminal' space of unexpected and unusual experiences that it offers. O' Rourke et al (2011) similarly talk of the festival as a place that is explicitly apart from the pressures of everyday existence as rural locations help attendees to shake off the normalising constraints of demonstrable urban civility (see also Flinn and Frew, 2014). In this way, festival going can be linked to a broader nostalgia for 'simpler' living that may particularly influence how the middle classes make use of their leisure time (McKay, 1994).…”

Technology, Society, and Visioning The Future of Music Festivals

“…It is also important to recognize that cocreation has the potential to affect the perceived quality of production, as well as its market value, in a negative and positive frame (Robertson & Brown, 2014). Indeed cocreation has potential for producing collaborations that may also be contested and negative (Flinn & Frew, 2014;Walmsley, 2013). From either viewpoint there is recognition that cocreation outcomes have far-ranging social implications.…”

“…In their media-centered analysis of Glastonbury in 2010, Flinn andFrew (2014) describe the event as commanding a focal position within the culture of music festivals. As with other researchers (Gelder & Robinson, 2009), they report that with an ageing demographic profile, it also has appeal to new markets and offer new opportunities for socialization, necessitating some change.…”

“…In their analytical snapshot of the present, Flinn and Frew (2014) view recent changes to the Glastonbury Festival as examples of modern festivity, and as systematic of a commodification of experience, which they see as happening in many music festivals. In addition to changes to the physical environment of these festivals, they highlight the significance of attempts by management to manage the macro and social media.…”

The carnivalesque and event evolution: a study of the Beltane Fire Festival

“…This led to the development of a professionally managed event. Likewise, the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts has evolved from grassroots origins to a professionalised event because of audience size and increasing legislation (Flinn & Frew, 2013). For BFF, risk management challenges identified in Stages 1 and 2 have largely been addressed with compliance to legal and regulatory requirements.…”