Understanding festival-goers and their experience at UK Music Festivals

Abstract

This paper explores the influence of socio-demographic characteristics in determining the perceived importance of attributes of the UK music festival experience to festival-goers. Quantitative data was collected through an online survey using a cluster, snowball sampling technique. 586 respondents completed the survey. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to identify factors of the festival experience, whilst linear regression and structural equation modelling (SEM) revealed the relationship between the socio-demographic characteristics of festival-goers and the resulting experience constructs against the overall evaluated experience. From eight major factors, seven hypotheses were identified. The results revealed the most important factors to the overall experience to be entertainment, added value and music, whilst the remaining factors did not have a direct impact. Conversely, the socio-demographic characteristics contributing to the dependent constructs were primarily age and gender, followed by education and marital status. The location where festival-goers grew up and their employment status had minimal impact. The practical implications of this study provide the opportunity for festival organisers to direct their strategic management efforts towards the elements of the festival experience that are most important to their targeted or typical festival-goers. This paper also addresses a notable a gap in literature by evaluating the importance of specific experience attributes in the context of popular UK music festivals. Moreover, it examines the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics of festival-goers and the importance of experience attributes to the overall UK music festival experience.