Timing the Buzz: How Lineup Announcements Influence Engagement in Electronic Music Festivals

In the increasingly competitive economic landscape of the music and entertainment industry, electronic music festivals have evolved as powerful cultural and commercial platforms. As the market becomes more saturated and festival lineups exhibit growing homogeneity, organisers are faced with a pressing strategic dilemma: How does the digital buzz surrounding electronic music festivals translate into the event's perceived attractiveness and consequently impact ticket sales in the contemporary attention economy? Despite their cultural and economic relevance, electronic music festivals remain underexplored particularly regarding the role of lineup announcement strategies in shaping audience interest and influencing ticket purchase behaviour. This paper addresses a central puzzle: To what extent do lineup announcements generate significant changes in online audience engagement and shape the buzz for the electronic music festivals in the Benelux region and Germany? While anecdotal industry wisdom often suggests that much of a festival's hype is driven by star headliners, empirical research on this phenomenon remains limited. To test this, the study analyses a dataset encompassing 20 festivals in the Benelux region and Germany from 2022 to 2024. The research employs a quantitative approach, using panel data regression techniques to examine the relationship between festival promotion strategies and public attention measured via Google Trends. By offering a data-driven assessment of how lineup announcements influence online search behaviour, this study contributes to the fields of event marketing, digital consumer engagement and media analytics. The findings are particularly relevant for festival organisers seeking to optimize the timing, format and visibility of promotional campaigns in order to maximise audience attention and ultimately drive ticket demand.