December 2017 - Parks & Recreation - 60

M U S I C F E S T I VA L S

Music festivals are a significant urban
phenomenon unto themselves. They
represent a confluence of popular music industry and urban dynamics trends.
Music festivals in our public and private landscapes, urban and rural, have
largely escaped systematic consideration
perhaps because they are temporary
and sometimes inconsistent in location.
They are easily overlooked due to their
reputation as a voluntary indulgence by
those privileged to be able to travel and
to spend time and money for the concentrated pleasure of hearing music in
a crowd, sometimes referred to as " peak
experience. " Yet, they are worthy of our
attention. Researchers, including Dr.
John Crompton of Texas A&M, festival promotion analysts and associated
interests have examined the motivations
of festivalgoers, both from the academic point of view of the leisure tourism
impulse and as a commercial market research subject.
Factors in the Growth
of Music Festivals
Several factors have contributed to the
growth of music festivals, including the expansion of audiences, their sheer pleasure
of attending and the profitability of the

venture. At the core of this growth, however, is a sea change in the music industry,
with the decline of the traditional recording industry, the evolution of digital media, sharing, outright piracy and dozens of
streaming services from major outlets, such
as YouTube and Spotify, and smaller ones.
With the decline of once more-lucrative recording contracts, touring is now accepted
as a major and reasonably sustaining way
for musicians of all profiles to make ends
meet. In 2002, David Bowie proclaimed:
" You better be prepared for doing a lot
of touring because that's the only unique
situation that's going to be left. " Because
of these trends, 32 million people attended
festivals in 2015.
The numbers are worthy of note. A report by IBISWorld places the value of the
live music industry (which includes live
venues other than festivals) at $28 billion.
Although some believe that the trend may
have peaked, it remains a major phenomenon. The popularity of music festivals has
clearly not escaped the notice of sponsors,
who invested $1.34 billion in sponsorships
in 2014 and who help make the financial
equation work for promoters, bands and
festivalgoers. Festivals have grown, diversified, stratified and responded to feedback,
such as the need to be more sustainable.

From the point of view of public parks
management, if planned well, festivals can
bring in money, improve the park in which
the festival is located or other parks as well,
and please year-round park users.
Some Drawbacks and Benefits
While festivalgoers come and go, festivals have a pronounced, albeit largely
temporary, impact on our public parks, in
social, economic, environmental and, of
course, cultural terms. Negative impacts
include direct physical wear and tear or
outright damage, temporary exclusion
of nonpaying members of the public, the
general aura of mass consumption and
the generation of waste, carbon footprint
and other environmental factors.
Some are critical that parks do not
gain, or gain enough, from these events;
they simply get put back together. This,
sometimes, takes weeks or months, and
even in the best of circumstances does
not necessarily materially improve the
host park commensurate with the sacrifice of its temporary public closure. For
instance, the site of Voodoo Fest in New
Orleans' City Park was closed to access
for months following the 2015 festival,
due to the damage sustained by foot and
vehicle traffic during a major rainstorm.
Most festivals result in satisfactory restoration, though, with Nevada's Burning
Man being perhaps the most fastidiously
restored site (per agreement with the Bureau of Land Management).
Music festivals have long had a general
connection with the well-being associated
with nature. As the industry has matured,
signature issues, such as waste generation
and disposal, energy, healthy lifestyles
and other trends, have been the subject of
claims and actions by festival promoters,
most of whom profess some adherence
to a green policy. At the far end of the
activist environmental spectrum are festiThe Lollapalooza music festival, held in
historic Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, is an
annual music festival, featuring popular
rock, hip-hop and electronic music.

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December 2017 - Parks & Recreation

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