Metal Meets Green: A Multifaceted Exploration of Sustainability Perceptions at Heavy Metal Music Festivals

Abstract

The enduring presence of heavy metal music spanning multiple decades has generated a large global audience of devoted fans. Within Europe, renowned metal music festivals such as Wacken Open Air and Rock am Ring in Germany have solidified the genre's influence. Although scholarly research has explored metal music festivals and their attendees, there has been a noticeable gap in the examination of sustainability aspects within this domain. Consequently, this work undertakes a quantitative investigation into the social, environmental, and economic impacts within the context of metal music festivals, focusing on four key stakeholder groups: festival organizers, attendees, musicians, and volunteer workers (n = 742). To gain insights, an online survey was conducted to respondents, presenting them with questions pertaining to various aspects of environmental, social, and economic sustainability. These stakeholders were asked to assess these issues based on their individual perspectives. Subsequently, the collected data underwent explorative factor analysis utilizing maximum likelihood estimation, leading to the identification of eight distinct factors: perceptions of social behavior at metal music festivals, environmental responsibility, financial responsibility, environmental and social responsibility, sense of community, environmental and economic impacts, perceptions of volunteer work, and economic impacts. This study's findings revealed noteworthy disparities across all sectors, offering a comprehensive perspective on current sustainability practices and challenges within metal music festivals. By highlighting inconsistencies, this research underscores the need for festival organizers to critically evaluate their events and consider avenues for improvement in sustainability practices.