The influence of COVID-19 on the Electronic Dance Music festival experience

The unexpected arrival of COVID-19 pandemic has strongly affected the creative industries causing loses not only at economic level, but also in terms of jobs, and cease of activity. In terms of music events, the massive cancellation of concerts and festivals also impacted audiences which used to attend these types of events. In this matter, this research aims to explore how has the COVID-19 affected festivalgoers, particularly the ones attending Electronic Dance Music (EDM) festivals. This genre has been chosen for two reasons. First, there is a lack of research on EDM event motivation and experiences in the scientific literature; and second, this genre is characterized by forming strong communities among its attendants, additional reason why the COVID-19 measures, such as isolation, could have impacted this public to a greater extent. Indeed, festival organizers and DJs have found alternatives to providing cultural content via streaming. Nevertheless, apart from a couple of studies, the effectiveness of streams for festivalgoers has remained unexplored. To conduct this research the following research question has been posed: How do EDM festivalgoers perceive live streamed festivals concerning their motives of attendance, lived experiences and festival satisfaction compared to the physical format of festivals? This question aims to explore the perceptions of live “physical” live festivals among festivalgoers and compare them to perceptions of live streamed festivals. These elements have been explored via in-depth interviews that allowed to explore interviewees’ stances on both types of festivals. Analysis has been done through a contextual thematic analysis which lets themes emerge from the interviews, but having in mind the context, which in this case is the COVID- 19 crisis, and its impacts. General findings show that live festivals and stream festivals are two very different experiences, and they should not be considered the same, or as a mutual replacement. Despite the essence of live festivals being lost due to digital features, live streams have helped festivalgoers to emotionally cope during the pandemic, especially during the first months of lock-down. Yet, as time passed by satisfaction with live streams has diminished given that people still prefer live festivals and the live festival experience. However, as general conclusion, festivalgoers do not discard the possibility of a EDM festival hybridization in the nearest future, combining digital features with live festivals.