Good Vibes Music Festival in the eyes of its multicultural festival goers: Malaysian music festivals

This research investigates the motivations of Malaysian youth when it comes to attending one of the biggest music festivals in Malaysia. The paper aims to link aspects of culture and religion with motivation based on a multi-racial perspective. Since Malaysia has three main ethnicities, it was fascinating to explore how culture can cause affect in motivation in regard to event attendance. Current music festival literature does not focus much on the Asian region; thus, this paper aims to add to the growing body of knowledge by focusing specifically on Malaysia, acknowledging that the country has an extremely unique culture. The Malaysian youth currently are slowly evolving due to globalization and the influx of Western media, this has caused a change in the way they identify with religion and culture, thus studying perspectives on music festivals was extremely interesting based on the fact that the overall nature of festivals does not fit self-evidently into Malaysia society based on the country’s dominant Muslim religion. Twelve interviews were performed with festival attendees of the Good Vibes festival where questions regarding religion and culture, motivation for festival attendance, music preference and aesthetic and settings. The main findings showcase that music and socialization were the two biggest motivating factors for attendees. In terms of music, findings show that motivation was highest when there were international artists attending the event, music genre was also important alongside the opportunity to discover new music. For socialization, attendees were most motivated when they had a close group of friends attending with them especially since this festival lasted for a couple of days. The importance of escapism was one of the most interesting findings in the analysis, as the music festival could be considered as an escape from the constraints of society, whereby everyone felt equal and ethnicity did not matter, whereas in society there were avid examples of racism and superiority amongst races. Escape was categorized into several forms, one of which was alcohol and substance use, despite this being illegal in Malaysia. Self-expression and creating mutual experience was another motivating factor, where individuals were able to create a memorable experience while expressing themselves. Lastly, the overall ambiance and aesthetic of the festival was considered as a motivating factor, as many felt as though they could express themselves in whichever way they pleased. Especially with fashion where the aesthetic was described as open in nature in comparison to what would be worn in Malaysia. Nevertheless, there were also Muslim attendees who wore the head scarf at the event, signalling they had an aesthetic of their own. The natural location of the festival was also a motivating factor since it was an hour away from town, with cool temperatures which made the festival life very pleasant to experience.