The Significance of Commercial Music Festivals Gretchen Larsen, King’s College London Stephanie Hussels, Cranfield University School of Management Introduction During the summer months of 2007, an estimated 485 music festivals, covering every genre of music, were held in the United Kingdom. This figure, which does not include any of the multitudes of free festivals that also occur, represents a staggering 38% growth in the number of festivals in just 7 years (Mintel 2008). This phenomenal growth shows little sign of slowing down, as many of the major festivals continue to sell out, some within a matter of hours of tickets being made available. This is attracting much attention from the media and other social commentators who are asking, what is so special about music festivals that attracts such an insatiable interest from all involved – audiences, artists and organizers? Clearly, these festivals are economically valuable (see, for example, Gibson and Connell 2003, O’Sullivan and Jackson 2002), but there is some recognition that festivals are also important socially and culturally. Thus, it is only by taking a multi-disciplinary approach that we can understand the significance of commercial music festivals in contemporary society. Before exploring the significance of commercial music festivals, we must first define the very thing we are aiming to understand. In a very general sense, festivals are special occasions for celebration involving a range of artistic performances, which usually occur over a number of days. The roots of festivals can be traced back to the time 1 of the first Olympic games in Greece, several hundred years BC (Sadie 2001). Beyond this, there are a multitude of different interpretations of exactly what festivals are. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives some indication of this diversity in its entry for ‘festivals’. A generic term, derived from the Latin ‘festivitas’, for a social gathering convened for the purpose of celebration or thanksgiving. Such occasions were originally part of a ritual nature and were associated with mythological, religious and ethnic traditions. From the earliest times festivals have been distinguished by their use of music, often in association with some kind of drama. In modern times the music festival, frequently embracing other kinds of art, has flourished as an independent cultural enterprise, but it is still often possible to discover some vestige of ancient ritual in its celebration of town or nation, political or religious philosophy, living or historical person. The competitive music festival has also retained combative features reminiscent of festival events of former times (Sadie 2001) This description points to the multitude of complex and related social, cultural, economic, spiritual and political functions of festivals, which contribute to their significance. For example, we can understand festivals as a form of cultural activity in which culture is created, maintained, transformed and transmitted to others. Although on this basis, festivals would appear to be similar to other forms of cultural and artistic activity, they do differ in that artistic production and consumption are concentrated in time and space (Waterman 1998). The festival is at once a social, cultural, economic, spiritual and political phenomenon, which spreads across a wide range of cultural sectors. 2 A music festival is an important variant (Shuker 1998). Perhaps because of their diverse nature, the academic study of music festivals is thinly spread across a range of disciplines (e.g. human geography, sociology and business). However, three characteristics of music festivals emerge from the literature which helps us define their form and function. The first characteristic is the spatial and temporal form of music festivals, which facilitates the transformation of places from everyday settings into temporary, unique, and spectacular environments created for and by specific groups of people (Connell and Gibson 2003, Waterman 1998). An important facet of festivals is that they are to do with space, and although they are not necessarily bounded by place “all festivals have at least one thing in common in that they are ephemeral” (Waterman 1998 p.58). The second characteristic of festivals is that they create and maintain cultural meaning and social structure. Festivals can reinforce popular music personas, and create icons and myths in the process (Shuker 1998). In this vein, King (2004) contends that they can also honour musicians who have made great contributions, preserve a musical [blues] culture and even facilitate racial integration. The final characteristic is the formation of community. Although generally considered to be temporary, some communities of audiences, performers and/or organisers last beyond the spatial and temporal boundaries of the festival itself (Connell and Gibson 2003). There are potentially many reasons why these communities are drawn together, for example to pay homage to artists (Shuker 1998) or to “practice divergent social logics” (Kozinets 2002, p.20). These characteristics are apparent in both commercial and non-commercial festivals. Most contemporary music festivals are explicitly commercial, with various ‘stakeholders’ such as tour promoters, local government and artists, seeking to benefit 3 financially from them. Perhaps the easiest way to define what makes a festival commercial is to consider what it is not: a free festival. A free festival was initially one where the organisers were not seeking, and did not make, a profit, which was usually organised in protest against capitalism and corporatisation. In addition, they also became utopian visions and models of alternative societies. Thus the economy of a free festival is characterised by mutual aid and exchange, rather than on the circulation money (Partridge 2006). A commercial festival on the other hand, utilises an economy based on money and does seek to make a profit. This profit could be for used for a range of purposes, from increasing stakeholder wealth, to charity, and even simply to grow and develop the festival itself. However, as discussed later, some festivals such as Glastonbury, which are considered commercial by these criteria, can and do offer utopian visions to those who attend and look upon them (Larsen and O’Reilly 2008). The aim of the chapter is to develop an understanding of the significance of commercial music festivals from both an economic, and a wider, consumption perspective. To this end, the success of commercial music festivals is analyzed from an economic perspective. Although this analysis clearly demonstrates the economic significance of music festivals, it does not provide any insight into the cultural, social and/or political significance of commercial music festivals, and therefore is unable to address such questions as: why are music festivals so popular, why do they sell out so quickly, and why are people willing to pay such high prices (and take personal risks) to attend? A consumption perspective facilitates an understanding of such questions, as it draws on social, cultural and political explanations of various participants’ involvement in, and experience of music festivals. Thus, following the economic analysis, this chapter 4 will develop a discussion organised around the following benefits of commercial music festivals: social impact; culture and symbolic meaning; community and scenes; and carnival and utopia. Economic Analysis of the Commercial Festival Market Nowadays most cities or regions host music festivals of one sort or another. Thus, while music festivals are not a novelty as such, it is the considerable increase in their number over the years that is astonishing. Festivals encompass a vast number and large variety of events ranging from high profile national events to amateur music events for which attendees are charged very little. In the UK, music festivals have developed into a massive summer industry with the majority of events taking place between May and September each year. The online social media platform for festival-goers ‘Virtual Festivals’ estimated 450 music festivals alone in 2010, which represents an increase of 34% from 2000. Rock/pop festivals are most popular in terms of attendances followed by classical, jazz, and opera festivals (Mintel, 2008). Many of the large commercial music festivals are well known and have been held for many years. These include, for example, Glastonbury, which ran 1970 for the first time and since then has grown into the UK largest and one of the world’s best known music and arts festival, or the Reading Music Festival, which started 1961 and since then has seen an expansion with the introduction of the partnering Leeds Music Festival. Music festivals have, however, not only grown in number, but also in terms of scale as measured by attendance and repertoire, see Table 1 below. From 2000 onwards, all of the festivals showed a substantial increase in terms of tickets sold. In line with the 5 increase in number of festivals and level of attendance, an increase in ticket prices across the festivals can be observed as well. So for example, between 2000 to 2010 tickets prices for Glastonbury, V Festival, and Reading Festival increased by 213%, 234% and 225% respectively, which means, on average, more than 20% per year. Despite the increase in prices the sell-out rates for the large commercial festivals have been very high with, for example, the 2010 ‘T in the Park’ festival officially selling-out within 90 minutes (NME.com, 2010). [Insert Table 1 here: table at end of chapter] Box office income continues to be the largest single income for festivals, indicating the importance of attendance development to the festival sector. A survey of 3000 UK festival fans in 2009 estimated average ticket spend at £140 per head, plus a further £130 on drinks, £60 for food and £100 for travel (Canizal Villarino, Whitehall and Mecke 2009). The Association of Independent Festivals (2010) surveyed nearly 5,000 festival attendees at 13 of its member festivals about spending habits regarding festivals in the UK. According to the figures, 350,000 people attending independent festivals will spend an average of £346 on festivals in 2010, including ticket prices and contributing to the local economy of festivals. When measuring the economic impact of any cultural activity, in most instances, the greatest part of the impact is made by festival attendees spending money on hospitality, accommodation, retail and travel into the economy of a specific geographic location. As an example, in 2004, Brighton Festival generated £22 within the city’s economy for every £1 spent on tickets and thereby accounted for over 6 £20m within the local economy alone. Although Brighton represents the larger end of the festival spectrum, it gives an idea of the secondary impact or ‘knock-on’ effects that festivals have on local economies and, ultimately, on the UK economy as a whole. According to Reading Council, the Reading festival brings more than £7 million to Reading and its inhabitants each year as a result of 80,000 music fans invading reading at the end of August (Reading Museum, 2010). The Association of Independent Festivals (2010) estimates that the music festival business is booming and is contributing more than £1bn each year to the UK economy. Festivals can hence be seen to make great contribution both locally and nationally. Moreover, the commercial festivals indirectly create additional employment. A lot of big UK festivals outsource food and drink provision. Central Catering Services Ltd, for example, generates £16 million annual income from bar and foodservice management at a dozen or so music festivals in England and Scotland and hire 2,500 temporary employees every summer (Canizal et al, 2009). Commercial festivals are also seen as a good place to make connections to customers with brands increasingly teaming up with festivals. Despite the recent economic downturn the popularity of festivals continues to grow with most of the major UK festivals in 2009 having sold out immediately. The UK Performing Rights Society (PRS for Music) (2009) explains that most festivals are expected to be fairly recession-proof, benefitting from four factors: (1) The UK’s weak pound has made staying at home more attractive; (2) the weak pound will attract more foreign revellers; (3) festivals tend to attract a younger audience including students – many of whom have yet to be affected by the recession; and (4) 10% of festival goers expect to spend more than in previous years. 7 Despite the commonly recognised economic benefit of commercial music festivals, Gibson and Connell (2005) note that surprisingly little academic work has quantified the economic dimensions of commercial music festivals. Previous economic research on festivals tended to look particularly at publicly funded, non-commercial festivals and has focused mostly on economic impact analysis. There is a notable lack of rigorous sector-wide research within the UK commercial festival sector. The sector is, to a large extent, an entity about which there is only regionally specific, art form-specific or anecdotal data. As the sector is constantly changing, developing and growing, it is very difficult to ‘benchmark’ the data and analyse it within the broader, sector-wide ecology. The data presented hence aims to give general indication on the overall economic importance of commercial music festivals and highlights a growth in number, magnitude and variety of commercial music festivals. A Consumption Perspective on Festivals A consumption perspective facilitates a wider understanding of the significance of commercial music festivals. Festivals, like live music generally, are a form of experiential co-production and consumption which is comprised of cultural, symbolic, social and emotional dimensions (Botti 2000) in addition to the political and economic. Thus by drawing on a consumption perspective, we can develop an enriched view of the consumer-fan-audience, (O’Reilly, Kerrigan and Larsen 2010) and therefore we begin to understand the complex benefits that underpin the ‘demand’ for commercial music festivals. 8 In order to take a consumption perspective on commercial music festivals, we must not restrict ourselves to literature published under the consumer behaviour umbrella, but consider literature in the various disciplines that provide a rich and multi-disciplinary understanding of arts audiences e.g. business and marketing, human geography, sociology, cultural and media studies, musicology etc. Across these disciplines four key areas emerge that provide some insight into the wider significance of music festivals: social impact, culture and symbolic meaning, community and scenes, and carnival and utopia. Although these four areas are discussed separately, they are intimately related to one another. All refer to some aspect of social/cultural creative human experience, and therefore could all be considered under the umbrella of the social impact of music festivals. The following section, ‘Social Impact’ discusses the ways in which commercial music festivals are personally and socially beneficial. The remaining sections focus on particular, important aspects of the social impact of commercial music festivals, which highlights their cultural significance. Social impact Arts activities, including commercial music festivals, have beneficial social impacts at both the individual and collective level. This has long been acknowledged in the case of festivals, as early festivals were often as much about establishing and strengthening social bonds as they were about celebration and thanksgiving (e.g. Sadie 2001). However, it has only been relatively recently, during the 1990’s, that in reaction to the dominance of economic impact reports, researchers, arts organisations and policy makers became interested in defining and measuring social impact (Drummond, Kearsley and Lawson 2008). One of the first reports on the social impact of the arts, undertaken by 9 Comedia (Matarasso 1997), outlines that arts activities have individual personal benefits such as personal growth, confidence, the development of skills and education, which can lead to improved social contacts and even employability. The resulting social networks and the mutual understanding that underpins them provide the platform for building local capacity for organisation and self-determination, which in turn produces social change. Thus the arts can have a powerful, significant and potentially transformative impact on individuals and communities. Social change was in fact, the raison d’être of the counter-cultural music festivals of the 1960’s, which have provided the model for contemporary commercial festivals. These music festivals emerged at a time of social and political upheaval and a related challenge to orthodoxy (e.g. Partridge 2006). Music festivals acted as fuel to the countercultural desire for social change by providing spaces where “one could get away with more risqué behaviour [...] than in other spheres in life – drug consumption, public nudity, protest and performance – an expressiveness not permitted in domestic and public spaces” (Gibson and Connell, 2005, p.212). Echoes of these early sentiments can still be heard in contemporary commercial music festivals. Many festivals align themselves with a social or political issue with a specific aim to raise public awareness of that issue e.g. Glastonbury’s early anti-nuclear link with the CND and Live 8’s role in the “Make Poverty History” campaign. There are however, a wide variety of social impacts of the arts, of which social change is only one. Jermyn (2001) identified social impacts of community level participation in the arts claimed in existing research reports. These are outline in Table 2. 10 [Insert Table 2 here: table at end of chapter] The impacts listed in Table 2 refer to community level arts, rather than commercial music festivals specifically. However, as a form of art, commercial music festivals will deliver many of the same social impacts. “Festivals also increasingly take on a wider range of roles as their significance increases, extending from mechanisms to sustain cultural groups, to mechanisms for assuring the acceptance of a particular cultural discourse, to a means of generating local pride, identity and income” (Crespi-Vallbona and Richards 2007, p.103). Only some impacts have been explicitly discussed in the literature, and these are discussed below. One of the objectives of many music festivals, particularly smaller festivals, is to enhance the cultural awareness and experience of the local population (Gibson and Connell 2005), thus contributing to an increased appreciation of the arts. This impact can also be genre specific, as in the case of blues festivals in the Mississippi Delta which through celebration, have revived and preserved the blues (King 2004). However, as King notes, these benefits are not always without cost, as communities in the Mississippi Delta have been ‘repackaged’ into an attractive offering for tourists visiting from outside the local community. It is widely acknowledged that commercial music festivals create and strengthen communities (e.g. Shuker 1998, Gibson and Connell 2005, Waterman 1998), and that in doing so they improve understanding of different cultures (e.g. Simoni 2004) and enhance social cohesion (e.g. Rao 2001). These ideas are discussed in depth in the following section, ‘Community/Scenes’. 11 A final social impact to highlight here is that of urban regeneration and the alleviation of poverty. Much of the academic research conducted on music festivals has been done within the fields of tourism and geography, and it relates closely to these impacts. Gibson and Connell’s (2005) chapter ‘Festivals: Community and Capital’ provides a thorough analysis of the role music festivals play in tourism, and the economic strategies that seek to achieve local and regional development through festival tourism. Culture and Symbolic Meaning Contemporary music festivals, along with other types of creative output, are significant as a form of cultural activity. Cultural activity “can be regarded as an expression of, or a contribution to, the culture of a community – its beliefs and understandings about the world. Cultural products have no clear meaning outside their cultural context” (Drummond, Kearsley and Lawson 2009, p.19). This quote identifies that an important relationship exists between art, symbolic meaning and culture. Creative ‘products’ can have material or economic value, but the value attached to them by those for whom the art is significant, is also symbolic in nature. This particular kind of value is known as symbolic meaning, which is meaning that is representative of various elements of culture. It is important to note that these meanings are not fixed, rather they are multiple, fluid, dynamic and socially constructed. Thus cultural activities or ‘texts’ (Hesmondhalgh 2002) are carriers of culture, and are important vehicles by which humans construct and interpret their reality (e.g. Bowman 1998). Symbolic meaning is therefore fundamentally important in linking art and culture. Music festivals as a form of cultural activity, contribute to the production and consumption of culture. A festival “can be regarded as a form of cultural consumption in 12 which culture is created, maintained, transformed and transmitted to others. In this sense, festivals differ little from other forms of consumption in similar genres […] But they are, of course, quite different, in that they usually involve production and consumption, concentrated in time and place [italics in original]” (Waterman 1998, p.65). Temporal and spatial concentration creates an intensity that encourages attendees to immerse themselves in the festival culture (Dowd, Liddle and Nelson 2004). In turn, immersed participation creates, shapes and even contests the symbolic meaning of the festival. In fact Gibson and Connell (2005) suggest that the meaning gained through participation in a festival that might actually be the most significant factor for participants. The symbolic meaning created and received through music festivals can challenge and change both individuals and communities understanding of the world we live in. The contesting of culture highlights the political and ideological nature of music festivals. Yazicioglu and Fuat Firat’s (2007) study of commercial rock festivals showed how choices to attend and consumption practices at the festival are ideologically informed and driven due to the contested nature of the meaning of rock music itself. One valuable contribution of music festivals is then in raising cultural political questions about the relationship between aesthetics, style, taste and power, inequality, oppression, for those who attend, observe and study them. For example, Waterman (1998) explains how elites establish social distance through their support for certain kinds of music festivals. This notwithstanding, music festivals also play a significant role in the preservation of culture. King’s (2004) thorough analysis of blues festivals in the Mississippi Delta illustrates that one of the functions of these festivals is to preserve the culture of blues music and that which it represents. Cultures naturally develop and 13 change, however as they do, certain cultural activities, such as music, dance, language, folk art and even history, can be lost. Performance and celebration is one way of keeping cultural activities and traditions alive, as it encourages local community members and tourists to develop an appreciation for them. Finally, festival participants are also able to use the symbolic meanings associated with a festival to create, maintain and communicate both individual and community identities, locating them culturally. Community identity is a fairly widely acknowledged dimension of music festivals (e.g. Waterman 1998, Gibson and Connell 2005, Quinn 2003) and is discussed in the following section. Individual identity practices are less well understood in the context of festivals, although Larsen, Lawson and Todd (2009 and forthcoming) detail the symbolic consumption of recorded music. Given the rich symbolic meanings associated with music festivals, individual identity practices are likely to be as ubiquitous. Community and Scenes Festival audiences, performers and organisers can be conceptualised as temporary communities. They come together for a few days, and produce and consume the festival, and once the festival is over, all that is usually left are memories. Sometimes these communities do last beyond the spatial/temporal boundaries of the festival itself, such as the networks of performers that develop during a single festival or on the festival circuit (Connell and Gibson 2003). Shuker (1998) suggests that festival audience communities have “joined together in homage to the performers and/or the genre” (p.122) although there might be a range of other reasons why festival audiences are drawn together. For example, although referring to an anti-market as opposed to a commercial festival, 14 research exploring consumer emancipation at the Burning Man Festival in the USA, concluded that participants “successfully construct a temporary hyper community from which to practice divergent social logics” (Kozinets 2002, p.20) through which temporary emancipation may be achieved. Thus the formation of community, even if only temporary, facilitates significant experiences that go far beyond appreciation of the music on offer. One of the most widely acknowledged community related benefits of music festivals is the creation, maintenance and expression of group/community identity (e.g. Shuker 1998, Connell and Gibson 2003, Waterman 1998). Through sharing the production and consumption of the aesthetic and symbolic aspects of a festival, groups and communities can celebrate the shared mythologies, values and meanings that are integral to their identity. Thus the music festival is a “’cultural framework’ reflecting the world view of a distinct socio-economic section of modern society” (Waterman 1998, p.59). Festivals enable communities to reify their group identity (Rao 2001) and this is one of the key reasons why music festivals play an important role in tourism strategies. By focusing on the identity of groups or communities, we are essentially focusing on processes of distinction. Intimately related to identity, and of equal interest, is the role that festivals play in facilitating social integration and community cohesion. “The need to create a cohesive community around such identities implies a lessening of social and cultural difference within the local community” (Crespi-Vallbona and Richards 2007, p. 113). King (2004) shows that even in a highly segregated and fragmented society such as the Mississippi Delta, blues festivals have the power to unite people and create a sense of 15 community, as people from all ethnic groups can develop important connections with one another. The concept of ‘scene’ is important in understanding commercial music festival communities, as it refers specifically to communities that occur in relation to music. A scene is a ‘cultural space’ or a social milieu within which groups of producers, musicians and fans “collectively share their common musical tastes and collectively distinguish themselves from others” (Bennett and Peterson 2004, p.1). Scenes differ from subcultures, because subcultures imply the existence of a commonly shared culture from which it is different and that all behaviours of those belonging to a subculture will adhere to its standards. Scenes present a more fluid and interchangeable sense of belongingness. Bennett and Peterson (2004) liken their notion of scenes to Bourdieu’s (1984) ‘field’ and Becker’s (1982) ‘art worlds’. Music festivals are a type of scene. Dowd, Liddle and Nelson (2004) show that music festival scenes have three specific characteristics – intensity, boundary work and impact, and that the combination of these characteristics leads to the pilgrimage-like nature of festivals which has the potential to transform participants. Such a study provides valuable insight into the real and potential significance of music festivals. Carnival and Utopia Community offers spaces in which people can imagine ideal worlds and societies. As noted in the previous section, the hypercommunity that is created at the Burning Man festival facilitates emancipation and divergent social logics (Kozinets 2002). The intense experiences that facilitate such communities were arguably at their height in the rock and pop festivals of the 1960’s. “It was about music and freedom. Music was the medium; 16 freedom was the message. For me the Festival was about free choice...values that had been obscured by the rush of the industrial and technological revolutions. 1969 was the cusp of all the freedom movements of the last part of this millennium. And Woodstock lives on as the call for self-realization on every level for everyone” (Tiber 1994, p.267). Festivals involve the questioning of the status quo, and the imagining and temporary enactment of a better future. The same purpose and process is characteristic of ‘ideal societies’ literature. There are five distinct types of ideal societies presented in literature: the Land of Cokaygne, Arcadia, the Perfect Moral Commonwealth, Millennium and Utopia (Davis 1984). At its core, ideal societies literature is concerned with how we organise and manage the production and consumption of natural and social resources. The different approaches are distinguished on how they approach this issue. Although music festivals can demonstrate characteristics of all of the different kinds of ideal societies (Larsen and O’Reilly 2008), most of the music festivals literature has focused on Cokaygne, through the notion of carnival. Bakhtin’s (1965/1984) ‘carnival’ refers to a specific space and time in a society in which all normal barriers are broken down, hierarchical structures are challenged and the rules that underpin those structures are suspended. The normal order is turned upside down through satire, role reversals, mimicry, derision and excessiveness. In this way, festivals are oppositional. At Glastonbury alone, many examples of the inversion of the normal order and of the grotesque are provided (Larsen and O’Reilly 2008). The ‘kissing coppers’ routine performed by actors is a good example “A couple dressed in absolutely authentic police uniforms who then start holding hands and kissing. It seemed to fit perfectly at Glastonbury when the police were trying to say they had a new soft image 17 and were there to support the thing. I think the first time they weren’t just kissing, they were giving away dope” (Aubrey and Shearlaw 2004, p.212-213). But, as noted by Gibson and Connell (2005, p.250) “in every case, the fact that such inversions and challenges to the established order are usually brief, present in marginal spaces and increasingly festive rather than overtly political, emphasises that they rarely substantially threaten that order”. However, the carnivalesque elements demonstrate how music festivals can provide a critique of the societies we live in. The role of music festivals in imagining an ideal society is apparent in the utopian elements of the experience and image of music festivals. First conceived by Thomas More (1516), ‘utopia’ is a place where the beauty of society reigns while the evils of society are removed, therefore being a perfect social, legal and political system that is (maybe) unrealistic and impossible. Utopian societies are extremely detailed because they are generally man-made. Unlike the perfect moral commonwealth, utopia sees man as intrinsically corrupt and therefore he cannot be perfected in any way. Society must instead be designed to curb the worst of his excesses. Therefore utopia is essentially about space. The classic utopias are distinctly closed societies in which spatial controls establish societies that were unchanging and unchangeable. Utopian works idealise space as a means of regulating and controlling attitudes towards consumption. This necessitates the detail of utopian society: every possible measure must be taken to nullify man’s sinful nature. Larsen and O’Reilly (2008) demonstrate how accounts of music festivals, in this case “Glastonbury Festival Tales” (Aubrey and Shearlaw 2004), are characteristic of utopian literature. Therefore “Glastonbury Festival Tales” can be read as an example of contemporary utopian literature which is rhetorically constructed so as to build and 18 maintain the cultural meaning of this iconic festival. The telling of such a story is only successful because it resonates with the experiences of those who have attended Glastonbury throughout its long history. This is telling of a significance of commercial music festivals, that in addition to the economic, experiential and aesthetic, is critical and ideological. Conclusions Commercial music festivals are complex practices with many layers of meanings. A consumption perspective has provided insight into how the cultural, social and/or political significance of commercial music festivals underpins their economic success. Acknowledging and understanding the wider significance of commercial music festivals guards against the risks associated with only taking an economic perspective, which is that it could lead to an economic bias and the limited treatment of festivals as commodities. Although commercial music festivals clearly are commodities, they retain and deliver important and meaningful social and aesthetic value beyond their economic value and therefore have not been, and should never be subjected to total commodification. There are many economic, social, cultural, spiritual and political aspects of commercial music festivals that remain uninvestigated, but which could potentially yield fascinating insights. A comprehensive economic analysis would illuminate the full economic impact of festivals on those who are directly invested in their success (e.g. artists, service providers, management) and also on the communities that host them. It would also more clearly illustrate the market dynamics which are clearly in play within 19 the festivals themselves, perhaps even providing insights into alternative forms of exchange. At a social-cultural level, further research could illuminate the full significance and contemporary manifestations of a practice which has been central to human celebration, community and the expression of hope for many centuries. We conclude with a quote from Michael Eavis which captures some of the essence of Glastonbury, the festival he has brought to life for 40 years: Glastonbury was becoming more than just a name. It was an idea of how life could be for an idyllic midsummer weekend in the Somerset pasturelands, with music, theatre, dance and poetry as well as 'way out' stalls and eccentricity beyond what you could expect probably anywhere else in the world. Green politics and youth fashion all have a huge part to play in what we call our youth culture of today. 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