futurefestivals

[futurefestivals]

At GEI 2020

Accessibility all Areas

24th April 2020

I feel a little ‘sheepish’ as I have been too distracted to post here for a while (sorry!). I was working on a range of projects including my Accessibility All Areas paper for the International Journal of Event and Festival Management, which I subsequently presented at Green Events & Innovations 2020. This explores the current state of accessibility at UK festivals for people who are Deaf or disabled and the potential implications of developments in ICT to improveinclusivity and accessibility.

My primary research focussed on a sample group of UK live music industry professionals, who reported increasingly ambitious usages of ICT at music festivals, which may support suggestions of a virtual experience trend (Robertson et al 2015). The respondents broadly welcomed the potential for positive impacts of ICT on increasingly accessible live experiences at music festivals which retained a sense of authenticity and ‘liveness’. However, challenges around ‘as live’ ICT derived experiences were identified including risks of creating second class experiences for Deaf and disabled attendees.

The research recommends that festival promoters should:

·       Consider further developing the co-creation of accessibility initiatives, utilising ICT to both deliver improvements and engage with potential audience members who are Deaf or disabled.

·       Seek to pro-actively recruit staff members who are Deaf or disabled and significantly increase their programming of performers who are Deaf or disabled.

·       Consider reviewing their ticketing processes for music festivals, to identify accessibility challenges for audience members and implement appropriate ICT based solutions.

·       Consider maximising accessibility benefits for audience members who are Deaf or disabled from existing ICT provision on site and explore additional bespoke ICT solutions at music festivals.

Whilst Covid-19 has subsequently led to the cancellation of festivals globally, many have shifted on-line to some extent and I really hope that this will help facilitate a step change in ICT provision to meaningfully increase inclusivity at music festivals worldwide.

Bibliography

Bossey, A (2020) Accessibility All Areas? UK live music industry perceptions of current practice and Information and Communication Technology improvements to accessibility for music festival attendees who are Deaf or disabled. International Journal of Event and Festival Management. Emerald Publishing

Robertson, M., Yeoman, I., Smith, K. & McMahon-Beattie, U. (2015). Technology, society, and visioning: The future of music festivals.Event Management, 19(1), 567–587.

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Yes we can!

4thAugust 2019

I am really excited, that we have just launched two new degrees for September 2020: BA(Hons) Sustainable Festival Managementand BA(Hons) Sustainable Tourism Management. Both courses will be delivered in partnership with the Eden Project, so that students will spend half of their accelerated two-year degree based there. We hope this will help embed sustainable practices across the festival and tourism sectors. However, the climate emergency demands we all alter our behaviours, and not just as educators or at festivals. This post will consider how festival organisers and attendees might do this (in addition to taking one of our new courses obviously!)

According to the Met Office (2019) ‘there is evidence of a human contribution to changes in temperature extremes (and) heavy rainfall events.’ Whilst enjoying the current British summer, including wonderful weather at the fabulous Tropical Pressure Festival; I am all too aware that extreme weather events are increasing: Last week the Ard Rock Enduromountain bike festival was cancelled following flash floodingin Yorkshire (Somewhat ironically as you might think this is the one festival format which could flourish in extreme weather!).

Many festival organisers are working to address the environmental impacts of their events by looking at for instance transport, waste management, water supplies and local procurement. Collins and Cooper (2017) stated that ‘Concentrating efforts to reduce the local environmental impacts of festivals is an important consideration, however this only partially addresses the impacts they can generate.’The authors go on to assert that festivals are also well placed to advocate sustainable practice and an ethical approach to their audiences.

Attendees bearing environmental factors in mind when planning for and attending festivals is therefore really important. Glastonbury reported a 99% reduction in tents left on site this year, according to Aurore Julien in the Independent and this is brilliant news. Little things can (quite literally) make a big difference, with, for instance; BBC Reality Check(2018) advocating for a reduction in the usage of micro plastics as ‘festival and fashion fans alike can purchase biodegradable glitter.’ Cumulatively simple choices like this are important, especially if learnings from the festival site influence behaviours back home after the festival.

Can we all make a difference in the Climate Emergency? Yes we can.

Bibliography

Collins, A & Cooper, C (2017) Measuring and managing the environmental impact of festivals: the contribution of the Ecological Footprint, Journal of Sustainable Tourism. Taylor & Francis, Abingdon

Julien, A (2019) ‘The real environmental cost of abandoning your cheap tent at a music festival’  https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/glastonbury-2019-cheap-tents-climate-change-plastic-emissions-emily-eavis-a9003721.html(accessed 4th August 2019)

The MetOffice (2019) https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/climate-and-climate-change/climate/what-affects-climate/extreme-weather(accessed 4th August 2019)

Tropical Pressure last month

[futurefestivals]

Get in the bus

4thJuly 2019

Having just returned inspired from the excellent AEME Forum 2019, my posts are now like busses; you wait for one for ages, then two come at once!

So, what happened at AEME: Rebecca Finkel discussed the role of gender, disability and even, transhumanismin experiential environments to consider participation in the festivalscape; highlighting the importance of considering ‘who is put in the centre and who is at the margins’. This theme was also partially present in a truly inspiring presentation from Adrian Devine about the role of cultural events in the peacebuilding process for Derry/Londonderry. And, to some extent, by Andrew Smith who proposed the idea of eventification; ‘the event led commodification of public space’and in particular the siting of commercial festivals in London Parks; reducing their accessibility for other users.

As an attendee/survivor of both The Damned’s free performance in 1983’s GLC Peace Festivalat Brockwell Park, and The Smiths at the GLC ‘Jobs for a Change’ free concert at County Hall; I was reminded of the gentrification of festivals since that time and the on-going process of excluding poorer members of the ‘counter culture’ through fencing and high prices. Running free or community elements around commercial events can only ever partially address this issue.

In considering Digital Media Communication back at AEME, Alyssa Brown and Paul Fallon discussed communitas and the question of whether a festival ‘effectively creates a community and/or more simply nurtures an existing one’. They described year-round digitalised communities linked to, yet in some senses separate from, commercial festivals in their geographic, time limited sense at least. Despite the power of festivals to both exclude and bring people together, further digital mechanisms may be required to democratise the latent power of the festival to heal in times of trouble.

So, to mis-quote Henry Rollins, maybe it’s time for more promoters to ‘get in the (digital) bus’?

Bibliography

Brown, E, Donne, K, Fallon, P and Sharpley, R (2019) From headliners to hangovers; Digital communication in the British Rock Music Festival experience.AEME Conference. University of Hertfordshire

Finkle, R (2019) Bridging the research-teaching divide in Events Critical perspectives on equality and diversity.AEME Conference. University of Hertfordshire

Smith, A (2019) Eventification: Events and the commodification of public space.AEME Conference. University of Hertfordshire

The AEME bus...

[futurefestivals]

Heritage artists performing for everyone or ‘ghost slavery’ for the famous few?

26thJune 2019

There have been a range of UK media stories about holograms and live performances recently, culminating (thus far) with an interesting piece in The Guardian by Owen Myers which considered the ethics of creating holographic content by living vs dead pop stars. It included a description of holographic performances as being both un-ethical and ‘un-live’ by Simon Reynolds, who likened them to ‘a form of ‘ghost slavery’’. This post will consider reasons to potentiallydisagree.

Myers states that ‘part of live music’s magic thrill is breathing the same air as your pop idol, hearing that night’s vocal tics and jaw-dropping high notes up close…’however this could be perceived as a somewhat elitist argument, when fans on low income or with some specific accessibility requirements are in effect excluded from attending their idol’s shows. This year, Glastonbury tickets sold out rapidly at £248 + £5 booking fee, while admission in 1981 (the first year I attended) only cost £8. To put this into context; according to the Bank of England‘goods and services costing £8 in 1981 would cost £30.21 in 2018’and it was easier to get in free in 1981 too (allegedly!). Ethically, is it possible that over time, holograms and other ‘un-live’ performances may actually democratise participation in live performances if they help counter spiralling ticket prices? Perhaps by both increasing supply of ‘known brand’ live content for consumers and facilitating more formats to engage with live content.

Whenconsidering event stakeholders, Getz & Van Niekerk (2019. 110) note that “innovations tend to spread, sometimes very quickly”and, judging by the growing number of ‘un-live’ performances on offer,the market is clearly moving forward at some pace. However,historically most music industry ‘grandees’ I have interviewed demonstrated only limited enthusiasm for holograms; with, for example, Steve Strange stating “I know it sells, I can’t argue with that, maybe for an older audience who are a bit more open minded about what they are going to see”(Bossey, A. 2018. 412). While industry gatekeepers arguably demonstratea fixed idea of what ‘live’ means and holographic performances from dead stars may sometimes be ethically questionable, it seems inevitable that as new generations and audiences engage with live music, their perception of what is live and what is ‘un-live’ will evolve.

I recently (and some might say hypocritically given my last post) enjoyed a fantastic Eden Sessions show by ‘living legend’ Nile Rodgers, displaying some rather wonderful photos of his younger self ‘snapped’ with other music innovators on a digital backscreen and supported by a digital jukebox of his hits. I sense some potential for a holographic element to future Chic shows … Good Times!

Bibliography

Bossey, A. (2018). Designing event experiences. The Routledge Handbook of Festivals, Routledge. Abingdon. 406-416.

Getz, D & Van Niekerk, M (2019) Event Stakeholders – Theory and methods for event management and tourism.Goodfellow Publishers Ltd. Oxford

Myers, O (2019) 'It's ghost slavery': the troubling world of pop holograms’https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/jun/01/pop-holograms-miley-cyrus-black-mirror-identity-crisis(accessed 25/06/19)

[futurefestivals]

Looking forward

Back in the ‘heady days’ of early March; I gave a presentation at the 11th annual AGF Green Events & Innovations Conference in London. With over 200 attendees, it was an inspiring and much needed event; when according to Powerful Thinking the UK festival industry alone creates 23, 500 tonnes of waste annually, of which 68% goes straight to landfill. Whilst we clearly need to increase reuse and recycling rates at festivals; this post will consider whether re-using entire festival brands, as exemplified by rival promoters competing over Woodstock this summer, is ‘taking things too far’!

The UK population is ageing; in 2018, the Office for National Statistics predicted that ‘more than a quarter of UK residents will be aged 65 years or over within the next 50 years.’Suggestions of ageing audiences at ‘popular’ music events are partially supported by findings of the 2017 UK Live Music Census that audience survey respondents aged over 35 years old spent the most per month on concert/festival tickets. The passion, attention to detail and ‘sheer hard work’ required to develop a festival brand is admirable and sometimes things can go very wrong leaving the founders little option other than to sell their cherished brand. However, the revival of older brands does not feel that inducive to the innovation required across the sector to either retain relevance in a rapidly changing leisure market, or particularly inspire it to address urgent issues around sustainability

Since the millennium‘heritage acts’ have been growing in popularity; though not everyone is re-forming; I was chatting to the wonderful Jerry Dammers recently who, whilst booked for a DJ set at One Love Festival, has steadfastly refused to re-join his former band the Specials playing other festivals this summer including Cornbury and Splendour. In a festival industry where bona-fide ‘new’ headline artists are now relatively scarce; promoting creative new artistes and reducing levels of ‘re-use’ are both vital to attract younger audiences. Bellatrix is a good example of an innovative performer who deserves a platform at more UK festivals; she’s not ‘brand new’ (we promoted one of her early shows at Falmouth in 2017) but Bellatrix is incredibly talented and is now building a deserved festival profile.

Whilst there is clearly a market for ‘classic’ festival formats and heritage actscan introduce younger audiences to great music (think 'Bo Rhap' biopic); ultimately constantly re-cycling the same brands and artists is self-limiting. The only sustainable future for the festival industry, in these terms, is to innovate to create new formats or brands and to proactively, inclusively, support exciting new artists.

Bibliography

Johnson, C (2016) http://www.powerful-thinking.org.uk/site/wp-content/uploads/TheShowMustGoOnReport18..3.16.pdf(accessed 25.01.19)

Office for National statistics (2011) https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/overviewoftheukpopulation/november2018(accessed 09.02.19) London

Webster, E, Brennan, M, Behr, A, Cloonan, M & Ansell, J. (2018) UK Live Music Census http://uklivemusiccensus.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/UK-Live-Music-Census-2017-full-report-LARGE-PRINT.pdf(accessed 10/02/19) London

GEI 2019 ... the view from the cheap seats

[futurefestivals]

Accessibility All Areas

28thFebruary 2019

Whilst everyone from Jack Whitehall at the Brits to Cosmo (?) have been riffing on the Fyre Festival, I have been focussing on accessibility at festivals (not something that appears to have been much in evidence at Fyre, what with all that sand and confusion!). In 2010; Aitchison identified that for many young disabled people, ‘the role of leisure in tackling social exclusion remains within the realms of policy rhetoric, rather than everyday reality.’Furthermore, Duffy, Mair and Waitt (2019. 13.) note that ‘the festival space may be simultaneously a site of social inclusion and exclusion’. So, I have been renewing my connection with Suzanne Bull MBE, from Attitude is Everything, who has inspired this blog post.

Attitude is Everything runs a programme of research and receives feedback from ‘hundreds of Deaf and disabled mystery shoppers who report back on their experiences accessing venues and events across the UK’(http://www.attitudeiseverything.org.uk 2019) and have also enlisted 160 UK venues and festivals to a Venue and Festival Charter of Best Practice. I saw Suzanne speak at the 2017 AEME Conference in Cardiff and realised that we had in fact met before. We spoke afterwards and it transpired that I promoted the debut Club Attitude night at Dingwalls in 2000, which was headlined by my clients at the time Drugstore. I really wanted to work with Suzanne again and this week it was brilliant that she was one of three excellent speakers at our Diversity in Entrepreneurship & Experience Design conference at Falmouth University.

Furthermore, on 29thApril we are going to launch an online course in partnership with Attitude is Everything. Disability Equality for the Live Events Industrybuilds on AiE’spartnership with audiences, artists and the industry to improve Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music & events. Thecourse will consider operational & legal aspects of inclusivity and unpacks good practice & innovation. Whilst I’m not expecting anyone from the Fyre Festival to sign-up, it is great to think that the course will help reduce the on-going social exclusion of disabled people at some Festivals and events.

Bibliography

Aitchison, C (2010) From leisure and disability to disability leisure: developing data, definitions and discourses. Disability and Society. 18:7, 955-969, DOI: 10.1080/0968759032000127353

Duffy, M, Mair, J and Waitt, G (2019) Addressing community diversity: the role of the festival encounter Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity in Critical Event Studies.Routledge. Abingdon

I like this shot of Suzanne and I at the Equality in Entrepreneurship & Experience Management Conference this week (by Jordan Pettitt) 

[futurefestivals]

My sustainable resolutions

27th January 2019

It has been claimed that the second Friday in January is 'quitters day' (Barr, 2018); the point when the highest number of people give up their new year’s resolutions, so perhaps the end of January is a good time to be make some new ones to keep? Festival managers for instance, could perhaps resolve to increase their knowledge of sustainable practice by taking theFalmouth University / A Greener Festival online training course which starts on 11th February 2019? Moreover, as stated in a previous post; ‘the behaviour of festival attendees themselves represents the ‘next frontier’ in the quest for sustainability’. This post will consider one action that I (or you dear reader) can take to reduce negative impacts of attending festivals and another to create some positive ones.

Pictures of ‘mountains’ of waste at festivals are a depressing feature of the British Summer and according to Powerful Thinking the UK festival industry creates 23,500 tonnes of waste annually, of which 68% goes straight to landfill. Whilst abandoned tents often grab the headlines, other, more mundane waste generated on site which cannot be reduced, re-used or re-cycled is also a significant issue. Expert waste contractor to festivals including Glastonbury and ‘bit of a legend’ Binrat recently, explained to me; ‘We did the waste, recycling and litter at a festival earlier this year (and) the cross contamination in the traders waste was unreal; broken glass in food waste, recyclables in general waste ... Its so depressing to sort through a bag so cross-contaminated that it unfortunately ends up going to landfill. We think everyone should think about what they are doing with their waste, instead of stuffing it into a black bag.’ Suitably inspired; I hereby resolve to think carefully about what I buy at festivals and where I dispose of any waste.

Managing social impact is an important element of sustainable practice and many festivals support a range of good causes in a variety of ways. Binrat told me that he has been running a taxi donation service at Port Eliot Festival raising money for both The World Land Trust and The White Ribbon Alliance. So that’s me then; using charitable donation services where possible when I’m on site this year!

Goldblatt (2014, 59) advised event managers that; ‘sustainability means looking at the big picture; what impact will your event have in 100 years’ time?’ Regardless of quitters day, I really hope that increasing numbers of festival goers will resolve to look at the big picture when they attend festivals in 2019!

Bibliography

Barr, S (20180 https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/quitters-day-new-years-resolutions-give-up-fail-today-a8155386.html(accessed 26/01/19)

Goldblatt, J (2014) Special Events – Creating and Sustaining a New World for CelebrationWiley New Jersey

Johnson, C (2016) http://www.powerful-thinking.org.uk/site/wp-content/uploads/TheShowMustGoOnReport18..3.16.pdf(accessed 25.01.19)

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The final countdown

21st December 2018

During a periodic review for our BA(Hons) Creative Events Management course, I was really pleased to (somewhat accidentally) discover that this year the course ranks 1st nationwide for all Event Management Under Graduate degrees based on overall NSS student satisfaction scores. The last time I had a UK number one was with Carter USM’s 1992 - The Love Album; which featured the EU flag as cover art and was launched by chartering a plane to take over 100 journalists to Brussels for an album launch in Mini Europe. It even had an image of a Brussel sprout on one of the labels and we duely posted hundreds of actual Brussel sprouts out to the media to promote the release (OK, perhaps we went a bit far there, especially as some got delayed ‘past their sell by date’ by a postal strike) though the idea of flying an enormous Brussel sprout balloon over Battersea Power Station in a homage to vegetarianism and Pink Floyd never quite got off the ground! With the benefit of 26 years of hindsight (some of) this early ‘remaining’ looks even more politicised than it did at the time and so this post will consider some potential impacts of leaving the EU on Festivals during the final countdown to a possible Brexit.

Carter built their career by touring and did this very successfully across Europe as well as within the UK. Until the 1992 Maastricht Treaty (enacted in 1993) a Carnet System was in place across Europe for UK artistes, leading to delays at borders and LOTS of paperwork. The requirement to complete carnets would presumably return post Brexit, adding to costs and travel time for UK artistes performing at festivals in Europe. Potentially this could reduce the numbers of shows that artistes can perform at peak festival periods (and hence their income) whilst also increasing their administrative costs. Within the UK, rules for European performers at festivals would also change to include a requirement for both carnets and visas; potentially limiting access for promoters to some exciting European artists.

Graduates from our BA Creative Events Management course are finding brilliant jobs across Europe and in doing so contributing to the global festival industry. For example; one of our UK 2016 graduates is currently working as an Assistant Agent at Ace Agencyin Amsterdam. Post Brexit, finding employment in Europe for UK graduates will become more complicated and it will also be much harder for UK festivals to employ Europeans graduates.“Government intends to end freedom of movement after Britain leaves the EU. We recognise that it is highly likely that it will happen, but cannot support this decision as it threatens our access to vital international talent and our success.”Creative Industries Federation (2018) 5

Rather like waiting for a bus, my long gap between ‘number ones’, has been an interesting process, but long waits are not recommended at borders for UK artists travelling between European festivals or for UK festivals looking to employ talented individuals or artistes from Europe!

Bibliography

Creative Industries Federation (2018) Global Talent Reporthttps://www.creativeindustriesfederation.com/publications/global-talent-report?utm_source=2+Federation+Newsletter&utm_campaign=c65fcfb2c7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_12_04_04_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_19cf5877d5-c65fcfb2c7-288392873(accessed 2018)

[futurefestivals]

It’s all about the network(ing)

27th November 2018

In 2014, I was Executive Producer of the AMATA Public Programme when we were involved in a networked performance from Sir Elton John, which changed my perception of what is possible. Picture the scene; Elton performed 5 songs on a Yamaha Disklavier Grand Pianoto a very large invited audience in Los Angeles, as part of Yamaha Music’s 125thanniversary. The audio and visual performance was networked live to 11 other pianos around the world, providing audiences at remote venues, including Falmouth University, a tantalising glimpse of one potential future of live music where global audiences are linked by a moment in time whilst sharing a physical group experience in disparate venues around the world! If Elton can play 12 pianos at once I thought, then why not 112 or 1112? Suitably inspired, I went on to programme more networked performances and then (sometime later!) to write this post …

Lazzaro & Wawrzynek (2001, p. 157) define a Network Musical Performance as occurring when ‘a group of musicians, located at different physical locations, interact over a network to perform as they would if located in the same room.’The idea of networked performances itself is relatively old, with Gabrielli & Squartini (2015, p. 10) reporting an event in 1985 where musicians played simultaneously from two venues in NYC.More recently, the concept has spread to other art forms, so for instance; in April 2015 the AMATA Programme included Ultraorbism; a networked interactive performance theatre work conceived and developed by Marcel Li Antunes Roca incorporating Cheap Date Dance Company, actors, live painting and animation. The event created a live performance, with elements (and audiences) in Santa Monica Arts, Barcelona and Falmouth University, and was awarded an Excellence Award at the 19th Japan Media Arts Festival.

Being involved in the Elton John performance made me consider the possibilities of adding live musicians and a hologram of the star to networked performances and how this could potentially change the meaning of a world tour as well as artiste and audience expectations of live music venues! So, could networked performances be programmed in festivals of the future? Whilst the music industry interviewees for my chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Festivals demonstrated limited awareness of networked performances, Ian Biscoe perceived that ‘It is possible to do this, it’s having enough people who understand artistically and dramaturgically how to connect people in these contexts’

Undeniably, technicalchallenges remain if festivals are to program networked performances, and indeed; the issues of achieving tolerable levels of latency / time lag, etc, feel inherent in Biscoe’sdefinition of the artform as; ‘trying to get the same type of quality and immersion in a performance that involves performers in multiple places, and normally audiences in multiple places, that you would do in a single live venue’. However, given that he has been in the news recently, the prospect of an artist of Elton'sstature simultaneously headlining a number of major live festivals around the world, without actually leaving home, feels tantalisingly close!

Bibliography

Gabrielli, L & Squartini, S (2015). Wireless Networked Music Performance. Singapore: Springer.

Lazzaro, J. & Wawrzynek, J. (2001). A case for network musical performance - NOSSDAV ’01: Proceedings of the 11th international workshop on Network and operating systems support for digital audio and video (157–166). New York. ACM Press

‘Rockin all over the World? Lily B.

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Ain’t nothing like the real thing

19th October 2018

I am really pleased that my research on‘Industry perceptions on potential digital futures for live performance in the staging and consumption of ‘music’ festivals’has now been published in The Routledge Handbook of Festivals. My chapter aims to provide an informed narrative around emerging digital formats for performative activities at Festivals, and their potential impact on audiences. I interviewed influential industry professionals: Melvin Benn; of Festival Republic, Ian Biscoe; of studiobiscoe.com, Paul Hutton; of Cross Town Concerts, Teresa Moore;of A Greener Festival and Steve Strange; of X-ray Touring.

Elsewhere; The World Economic Forum and Professor Klaus Schwab have identified that we are on the cusp of a Fourth Industrial Revolution, which according to Forbes will “even challenge our ideas about what it means to be human”. Suitably inspired; this blog will consider the concept of entirely virtual artists performing at festivals; an idea which was contentious amongst my interviewees!

Some commentators view the nature of festival audiences as being conducive to technological enhancements. According to Sadd (2014, p.213) “festivals will always be gatherings of people, yet these people are continually seeking ever more stimulating experiences and so technology is being used more and more to provide this”. Webster & McKay (2016) noted that festivals can be sites for musical experimentation, so could entirely virtual artists potentially play festival shows to ‘in person’ audiences? In Japan, Hatsune Miku (a humanoid persona / vocaloid, created and shared under creative commons to encourage fan led content creation), is popular and has performed to live audiences; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSyWtESoeOc.

The concept of programming or representing a virtual artiste proved provocative with Melvin Benn commenting that Digital is “absolutely not about, for me, providing a virtual performance in front of a live audience. I think people are trying to develop it for the sake of it, it’s just not happening, and it becomes very problematic.”From an agency perspective, Steve Strange said “that chemistry thing is very important for me and I wouldn’t personally want to represent something that wasn’t real.”However, Paul Hutton was more amenable, stating “I don’t think it’s impossible ... whether people want it or not, they will vote with their feet”.

So, can we expect virtual headliners at festivals any time soon? My interviewees exhibited a clear passion for a traditional live experience and I suspect that many in the industry were (like me) originally motivated to forge their careers by a visceral love of live music, so this is perhaps not surprising. Whilst enthusiasm for ‘in-person’ festival performances might act as a disincentive to programming humanoids, if Industry 4.0 is really upon us, then (almost) anything is possible!

Bibliography

McKay, G. (2015). The Pop Festival – history, music, media, culture.London: Bloomsbury.

Sadd, D (2014). The Future is VirtualIn Yeoman, I., Robertson., M., McMahon-Beattie, U., Smith, K. and Backer, E. (Eds) The Future of Events & Festivals(209-219). Oxford: Rutledge.

Will festivals shift to virtual, from a traditional ‘bricks & mortar’ business model?

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Does the live music industry need disrupting?

22ndSeptember 2018

Unfortunately, I have had to cancel my longstanding plan to attend the Looe Music Festival this weekend as it has gone into receivership (and the weather is dreadful). Reading about the plight of the festival and subsequent laudable community effort to stage a smaller replacement event, I was reminded of  Vince Power claiming (somewhat ironically with hindsight) in the early 90’s that; anyone can start a music festival, you just need to be willing to lose a million pounds!The community in Looe do not have that level of financial exposure for their new Looe Saves The Day Festival but, in a crowded market, festivals failing or ‘ending on a high’ is an increasingly familiar story. Cancelling a festival is bad for both audience members and promoters, usually impacting financially on all involved, so this post will consider whether investing in disruptive technology can help ‘save the day’ for other promoters.

Arguably, as competition increases so does the need to invest to gain market advantage; particularly when in many respects the costs of operating festivals at scale are also growing. One contributory factor is technology, which “has inevitably heightened the expectations of event attendees.”Martin & Cazarre (2016) 218.  With this ‘in mind’; the recent alt-J NYC show utilising L-ISA Immersive technology to deliver an enhanced surround sound experience feels really interesting. I asked the band’s manager, festival expert Stephen ‘Tav’ Taverner about this technology whichhe described as delivering a“fully immersive sound (which) can be used for any genre of music (with the requisite production budget). It makes you feel like you are onstage with the band.”

In Tav’s opinion, we have “suffered years ofshoddy sound in venues where it only sounds good in a narrow path from the mixing desk to the stage.I watch every show from the mixing desk because of this. I have driven poor sound engineers nuts with my constant moaning about sound, when there really wasn't a lot that they could do about it. I think that once an audience has experienced the sound of just the frontal L-Isa rig, they will notice the difference.  The live music industry needs disrupting. It hasn't changed in years. This is just the start of East City utilising new technology to change things in the industry”. Tav also indicated that hewould definitely like to do more 360 degree shows:“A lot of it depends on the shape of the room. Forest Hills Stadium worked for us because it is circular and we could easily fix speakers in a 360 configuration. Finding brackets to attach speakers in an old theatre becomes a lot more challenging (however)the next album tour will see us taking this concept to the next level.”

In a crowded market, festival organisers should consider whetherinvesting in disruptive technology to radically enhance audience experience could improve ticket sales at larger scale shows. Any subsequent ‘trickle down’would hopefully improve smaller events and whist this might not be cheap, if the market leads most festivals will need to follow (or stop). Back in the 90’s there was a fantastic sign on the wall of Roy Eldridge's office at Chrysalis Records in London which read; ‘It’s only rock & roll but it’s expensive!”

Bibliography

Martin, V & Cazarre, L (2016) Technology and Events – How to create engaging events.Goodfellow Publishers Ltd. Oxford

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Festivals in public spaces … the backlash has started!

26thAugust 2018

I have just returned from Bali, where our visit coincided with the annual Ubud Village Jazz Festival which takes place at the Agung Rai Museum of Art. Whilst small and entirely volunteer run, the festival boasts an impressive range of (corporate and public sector) sponsors and partner organisations. Jennie Jordan (2016) 78 stated that;“Festivals are often put forward as essential parts of a city’s brand and place marketing to attract tourists”and, whilst not a city, the levels of sponsorship might imply that this is the case in Ubud. The potential economic impact of festivals is well established and much studied, but in the UK, there has been a growth in opposition to festivals in public spaces, particularly public parks (no museums yet!). This is usually on the grounds of negative social impact, with The Friends Of Finsbury Park being one example of a growing local activism. This blog post will reflect upon the growing controversy around UK Festivals taking place in public spaces.

According to a recent article in The Guardian;“By the end of the summer, public parks will have hosted more than 100 events, many for the first time – a vast increase over the past decade.”Tapper, J (2018)The article goes on to describe the squeeze on other funding for parks, which has allegedly led to the increases in festival activity, and an associated growth inobjections. These often centre around noise and public order, a rationale which was supported by Paul Hutton last year, who told me that “noise is the one where we always get the flak”.  However, a new argument is emerging, with for example, The Open Spaces Society objecting to festivals on Clapham Common on the basis that “The succession of events taking place on this key part of the common—is resulting in the public being denied access on an almost permanent basis.”Any such denial of public amenity feels like a potentially existential challenge to festivals in public spaces and introduces a tricky moral conundrum for those, like the organisers in Ubud, who attempt to ‘give something back’ to their local community by running a festival.

There was a ruling about Finsbury Park at the court of appeal, which supported the council’s right to host festivals in the park and Haringey Council have also provide guidance about noise monitoring in the park. Some councils including for example Bristol, have established complaints procedures for festivals and licensing applications generally will take other issues of public concern/well-being into account as a matter of course. However, elected bodies need to be sensitive to public sentiment and my sense is that the issue of denial of amenity will continue to grow and could represent a significant threat to the practice of established (and new) festivals using public spaces in the UK.

Personally, I think that Bali is a long way to go for a Jazz Festival, so hope that all parties can adopt policies and positions which enable balanced solutions to mitigate both negative social impacts generally and the right of access to public parks for all, whilst allowing for the continuance of UK festivals in a broad range of public places.

Even paradise islands get (wet, windy) 'festival weather'!

Bibliography

Newbold, C & Jordan J (2016) Focus on World Festivals – Contemporary case studies and perspectivesGoodfellow Publishers Ltd. Oxford

Tapper, J (2018) https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/jul/08/parks-festivals-gigs-councils-local-authorities-open-spaces-spending-cuts-music-summer(ACCESSED 27/08/18)

Open Spaces Society (2018) https://www.oss.org.uk/protests-over-unacceptable-damage-to-clapham-common/(ACCESSED 27/08/18)

[futurefestivals]

When is a ‘Festival’ a Festival?

27thJuly 2018

I recently attended 100 Unearth a moving, fantastically choreographed promenade performance in the ‘outdoor landscape theatre event’ genre that Wildworks have made their own. The visually stunning performance took place around the Lost Gardens of Heligan, which also hosts the wonderful Knee-high Asylum this summer. Interestingly; 100 Unearth was described in some listings as a ‘festival’ and whilst Raj et al (2017) 7 have identified that there have been “considerable changes in the nature of festivals over the last decade”and the performance contained many festive elements, this feels like a ‘stretch’ to me. I regularly advise students to define their terms when engaging in academic writing, so it is with some trepidation that I will now use my 9thblog post to consider the core question ‘what is a festival?’.

Much has been written to define festival(s) and identify commonality. Goldblatt, J (2014) 16 noted that “Whether a religious festival in India or a music festival in the United States, each is a public community event symbolised by a kaleidoscope of experiences that finds meaning through the lives of participants.”Academics have also considered the (many) different types of festival.Cudny (2016) cites 11 criteria for typologies of festivals and concludes:“There are many different types of festival events. Some of them attract visitors from all over the world. Others are small street or estate festivals. There are one-off and regular events. Their themes vary, from art (opera, theatre) festivals to such strange events as, e.g. the festival of kites.” Despite this evident breadth, there is a persistent sense in some contemporary environments that the word festival has been co-opted by a range of third parties to refer to music events. These include ‘in-flight’ magazines EG GWR Escape Issue 30, listings sites likecornwall365.com specialist ticketing sites including www.skiddle.com and high street stores such as Superdrug.

Emma Hogg, Executive Director at Wildworks confirmed to me by e-mail that that she would describe the production as a “durational piece of promenade theatre” as opposed to a festival and speculated that; “people using the word festival were picking up on the scale of the production and the ambition for the work.” Perhaps the most pressing question now is not what a festival is, or is not, or even whether event organisers seek to associate their events with the term ‘festival’, but why the media and/or external commercial interests might want to align themselves with festivals and, therefore, how they define the term. The power of association with festivals for brands is hinted at by Raj et al (2017) 12 who noted that music festivals in particular “promote a sense of belonging to the crowd”and this could represent a useful starting point for further consideration.

Multiple stages, but was 100 Unearth a Festival?

Bibliography

Cudny, W (2016) Festivalisation of Urban Spaces – Factors, Processes and EffectsSpringer. Switzerland

Goldblatt, J (2014) Special Events – Creating and Sustaining a New World for Celebration.Wiley. New Jersey

Raj, R, Walters, P & Rashid, T (2017) Events Management – Principles & Practice.Sage. Los Angeles

[futurefestivals]

School of Rock – future topics for the academic study of Festivals

6thJuly 2018

If, in the UK, the academic study of events is generally considered to be 20 years old (Wilson et Al 2017) then scholarly activities around festivals might be thought of as it’s (slightly more rebellious?) younger sibling! I am currently in Leeds having just attended the Association of Event Management Educators Annual Forum at Leeds Beckett University. AEME is itself 15 years old and this post will consider my ‘top three’ (OK, I know, but I did work in the music industry) festival related presentations at the event:  

“Events Education, Research & Practice: A Journey from Industry to Academia, And Back”Dr Roxy Robinson. (Creative Director at From the Fields Ltd)

“Identities, bodies, hierarchies: The organising power of festivals” - Dr Marjana Johansson (University of Glasgow)

“Events, Leisure And Tourism: World Leisure, Uneven Globalisation And Patchwork Cosmopolitanism”– Professor Chris Rojek (City, University of London)

Whilst, there were a number of other great presentations considering a really wide range of topics; from co-creation, to terrorism, to music events in Leeds, AND an excellent research panel; these three keynotes ‘struck particular chords’ for me: Dr Robinson gave a deeply personal and engaging presentation, opening up a discussion around the relationship between academia & the events industry, and emphasising the challenges of over-supply facing traditional weekend music festivals. Dr Johansson described the concept of ‘encountering difference’ at festivals; whereby attendees are exposed to new ideas or ways of being, and whilst this made me consider other motivations for attendance, including perhaps affirming membership of a specific social group, it did also remind me of an interesting recent conversation with a dear friend and ‘Elder’ from the healing field at Glastonbury. She talked passionately about the dangers of gentrification at festivals – whereby new, potentially voyeuristic audiences attend seeking a close encounter of the festival kind. Meanwhile, back at AEME; Professor Rojak reinforced the need for criticality in the study of events and questioned the connectivity between societal challenges and the ‘frivolous’ world of mega events, potentially including very high-profile festivals like Glastonbury.

In a market place for festivals where competition is fierce and middle-class audiences can drive programming decisions, fuelling increased ticket prices; a gentrification of festivals, has observationally occurred over time, possibly influenced by other factors including the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Arguably, this potentially nullifies notions of ‘event consciousness’ and threatens the relevance of festivals to sections of society; whilst increasing the benefits to promoters of engaging with the academic study of festivals. All fascinating areas to explore during the next 15 years of AEME’s existence.

Bibliography

WILSON, Juliette, Norin ARSHED, Eleanor SHAW and Tobias PRET. 2017. ‘Expanding the Domain of Festival Research: A Review and Research Agenda’. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19, 195-213.

The AEME conference venue - Leeds has changed since I managed Chumbawumba!

[futurefestivals]

Co-creating a sustainable future

26thJune 2018

I recently attended a fantastic Massive Attack show at the Eden Sessions. The Eden Project is a truly iconic venue for a festival and both an inspirational advocate for, and an excellent exemplar of best practice in sustainability, which according to Smit & Melissem (2018) 234 “helps to raise awareness about environmental problems and possible solutions”. Despite this, Gary Barlow had to issue an apology for plastic pollution following criticism after his recent Eden Sessions show. This blog will consider sustainability at festivals by asking whether performers and indeed audience members can do more to minimise their own impacts; adding value to best practice emanating from the venues and promoters they work with.

Delivering excellent practice in event sustainably undoubtedly requires a demanding learning journey and at early stages it might still be relatively easy for artist’s Production Managers to overlook sustainable procurement when pulling together the production for a big show. Indeed, in the interests of full disclosure and to mitigate sounding ‘preachy’, I should confess that clients’ of mine faced very similar criticism from the media, after a major festival many years ago, for firing things at their audience (not a confetti cannon though - 20,000 yellow plastic balls via two very powerful fans!) Oops … we all learnt a valuable lesson there!

Famously, the Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."Teresa Moore, a Director of A Greener Festival acknowledged this during an interview I filmed last Summer and stated that whilst the standard approach to sustainability identifies the economic, environmental and social impacts of staging live events; some commentators are increasingly proposing that “we ought to be adding technology and the impact of technology into that definition”. Taking this approach would perhaps include acknowledging the effect of commentators on social and other media in ultimately changing Gary Barlow’s future tour production practices, so that the controversy surrounding his plastic confetti informed a positive learning journey for the artist and his fans.

The global popularity of festivals makes them ideal vehicles for advocacy and shared learning, with procurement by artists and attendees, alongside subsequent relationships to the waste hierarchy, representing a really important consideration. Transport has an even larger impact: In 2009 research commissioned by Julies Bicycle reported that audience travel to music events accounted for 43% of the UK music industry’s Greenhouse Gas emissions and“of this, music festivals contribute 24% of all music audience travel emissions – that is 68% of the festival sector's total emissions.” Despite subsequent (at times excellent) work by many in the sector, it remains true that transport solutions deployed by audience members(influenced in part by the geographic location of festivals) represent a major factor in addressing sustainability.

Whilst promoters and venues can (and should) develop their sustainability through, for instance, schemes like the A Greener Festival Award, the behaviour of festival attendees themselves represents the ‘next frontier’ in the quest for sustainability. Festivals of the future must continue to address their environmental impact; building on best practice from industry leaders like the Eden Project and inspiring, or perhaps even training, their audiences to act sustainably. As audience members we really can make a big difference to the greening of all our festival experiences.

Bibliography

Bottrill, C, Papageorgiou, S & Jones, M (2009) Jam Packed - Part 1: Audience Travel Emissions from FestivalsJulies’ Bicycle, London

Brundtland, G. H. (1987) Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common FutureThe United Nations, Oslo.

Smit, B & Melissen, F (2018) Sustainable Customer Experience Design – Co-creating Experiences in Events, Tourism and Hospitality Routledge Abingdon

mine’s a (re-usable) pint

[futurefestivals]

A Festival Expert’s response to ‘The importance of video in the festivalscape’

7th June 2018

I’m really pleased to announce that my first guest post is from Jim Bob from Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine, indie pop star, author and festival expert. I was Jim’s manager for 15 years (for my sins!) and wrote about Carter in my last blog; here’s what he had to say in response:

Huge screens at huge gigs have become so ubiquitous that until I considered whether they were a force for good or otherwise, I'd stopped noticing they were actually there. When Carter started using video screens in our live show, they were still something of a novelty – apart from maybe the two screens you saw on the main stage of a festival – one to the left of the stage and another to the right. We began using video screens, not to show people at the back what we were doing onstage but as part of the light show. I seem to remember we began with just a few secondhand television sets piled on top of one other, with the images on them, coming from domestic VHS tape recorders.

As technology advances and everything becomes more affordable, it's a lot easier to include such visuals as part of your show. Even if it's just a few swirly patterns and blocks of colour. And everyone can have a backdrop. There's no need for rigging and transporting a huge rolled up piece of thick material anymore. If I play a festival now I'll probably be asked if I have a backdrop and to attach it to my emailed reply.

There is a danger the screens at festivals could be distracting from the performer they're intended to enhance I suppose. If you’re at the back of a sports field with fifty thousand other people standing in between you and Ed Sheeran – who doesn’t even have a full-size guitar – it must be difficult to not watch the complex set of screens he has now. As they move about in three dimensions, changing shape like Transformers, it's surely going to distract your attention from one fairly stationery and unassuming man with a tiny guitar. When you reach the point when it takes three trucks to transport the video screens, while the performer could arrive on a pushbike, maybe things have gone too far.

When video screens are used imaginatively, it can add to the show. I saw Bright Eyes once and on his screens there was a digital clock counting down. The rest of his band came on and the countdown sped up. And then Conor Oberst came onstage and the clock reached 00:00:00:00 at the exact moment the first song kicked in. It was probably a simple thing to achieve but it was still exciting.

When Carter first used what was known then (maybe it still is) as a video wall, we tried to make the content on the screens essential and not just there so the people at the back and anyone who'd left their glasses at a home could see the band. We did have a couple of camera operators filming our every onstage move but we also showed promo videos and footage shot earlier in the day. Every night there'd be at least one moment when I'd hear a huge cheer from the audience and I wouldn't know why, until I realised pictures of a well-known local kebab shop or landmark, or the football ground or train station had just appeared on the screens behind us.

I watched a bit of the BBC's Biggest Weekendstuff on TV and the onstage risers during Beck's performance had the same images showing on them as the screens at the back of the stage. Presumably soon, the stages themselves will work as screens and if it's an indoor show, why not the walls, floors and ceilings of the venue? The audience will be 'inside' the show instead of merely watching it. And with holograms or dead singers and silent discos and virtual reality headsets, who's to say what actually makes the live experience now? Is the presence of the performer even that important? Maybe they don't need to be there at all. They could do their bit from home.

One from my archives (OK, attic!)

[futurefestivals]

Screen stars … The importance of video in the festivalscape

25th May 2018

In 1992, I was managing Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine when I believe they became the first main stage headliner at Glastonbury Festival to use video walls relaying a mix of live and recorded footage (here’s some footage including tiny clips of ‘my younger self’ looking stressed backstage!). Whilst we used to use banks of TV set’s lashed together; technologically sophisticated screens are now common at festivals and Tom Hall, writing in Access all Areas in April 2018, predicted that “Video at events, LED screens, etc are being pushed forwards, especially at EDM events.” This blog will consider the relative merits of using screens to enhance live performances as an aspect ofthe environment of the festival; which was referred to by Lee, cited in Wilson et al (2017: 201) as the “festivalscape”and askwhere the footage stops and the festival begins.

26 years ago; screens were an oddity in the festivalscape, so it was intriguing to interview Steve Strange of X-ray Touring last summer, who said that “every artist these days wants to programme their set into a video wall at the back, that video wall is now becoming a second nature, so … everything is digital now and they want a show.”This support’s Hall’s assertion that some artists want to use screens to increase their production values at festivals and that “organisers want a better look and feel and dance artists in particular are pushing the boundaries.”There is a practical aspect too; at Demon Dayz in 2017, restricted sightlines meant that my 12-year old daughter would have struggled to see much at all without the screens (and they were pretty great screens too!). However, it was also suggested to me by a well-known promoter that screens can become a distraction from the live performance, so that after a while you can’t stop yourself looking at the screen and that’s all you end up doing; and that furthermore; this may prompt some artistes to make a conscious decision not to use screens at all. Whilst removing screens in the search for ‘stripped-down’ authenticity (and of course, never to cut costs!) might well be an artistically pure decision with potential to enhance the ‘live’ experience, it may also impact negatively on audience experience - especially fanatical 12-year old fans and other vertically challenged audience members.

Whilst it feels unlikely that video walls will ever ‘kill’ the live music star, their presence can undoubtedly enhance performances and conversely; their absence will be noted by audiences above a certain capacity. Though some festival organisers may decide to save money by not installing them, this is likely to represent a ‘false economy’ in the festivalscape of the future!

Bibliography

Hall, T (2018) Access All Areas – April Issue “What’s on the event horizon?”Mash Media. Kingston upon Thames

WILSON, Juliette, Norin ARSHED, Eleanor SHAW and Tobias PRET. 2017. ‘Expanding the Domain of Festival Research: A Review and Research Agenda’. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19, 195-213.

Image of screens and set at Demon Dayz, with apologies for picture quality!