Post on 06-Apr-2018
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1 Face à Fest
Face à Fest Exploring the Relationship Between Facebook Use and the
Festival Phenomenon.
February 2012
Eric R. Alberts (3485595)
Research Internship (MCMV10016)
MA New Media & Digital Culture
Ann-Sophie Lehmann
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3 Face à Fest
Introduction
This study explores the relationship between the festival phenomenon and the usage of
Facebook. On a long term the outcome of this study can help festivals to increase the
efficiency and revenue of their communication and marketing efforts for future editions. On
a short term this study can help to affirm and refute expectations concerning the potential
outcome of the implementation of Facebook by festival organisations. Expectations
concerning digital media in relation to festivals can be traced back to the words of former
director of Theater Instituut Nederland (TIN) Dragan Klaici who formulated the potential of
digital technology for festivals in his article “The Value of Festival Mapping”. Klaic
believes “festivals that are willing to experiment with digital technology [have the prospect
of securing] a significant secondary audience […] in addition to the primary audience
attending live events” (Klaic 2007, 202). Klaic continues by stating, “internet [sic] has
brought an opportunity to sustain audience loyalty and interest between the two yearly
editions” (ibid.). This study finds these words the starting point for further analysis and
narrows the terms ‘Internet’ and ‘digital technology’ down to Social Network Sites (SNSs).
The SNS is an online phenomenon that has well secured its place within the cultural
mainstream. From an academic perspective it is worth noting that there is “a flurry of
academic activity that has already started in the wake of the rise of these highly popular
online phenomenon [and] we are at the crucial moment in the development of this field of
study” (Beer 2008). Although there are many different perspectives from which to
approach SNSs this study stays close to the type of research that examines what people do
with it and who they do it with (Ellison et al. 2011). STRP Festival, one of the largest
indoor art and technology festivals in Europe, has commissioned this study in order to get a
better understanding of how its audience uses SNSs. Hence this study’s focus upon SNS
usage in relation to another proliferating (cultural) phenomenon: the festival. This study
draws on the words of Dragan Klaic when he claims “despite continuous growth of
festivals and evident display of their complexity and diversity, there is surprisingly little
research in the festival phenomena, especially […] comparative attempts are rare” (Klaic
2007, 203). This study does exactly that, comparing two key phenomena, which both have
become important features of urban life in the twenty-first century.
There are several reasons why this study focuses on Facebook instead of other popular
SNSs available today. STRP Festival, for one, has strategically chosen Facebook as their
main channel for online marketing and communication related practices in addition to their
i Dr. Dragan Klaic (1950) was director of TIN from 1992 until 2001. He studied dramaturgy in Belgrade
and received his doctoral from Yale in 1977. He was affiliated with multiple art and culture faculties of universities across Europe. His professional life evolved around Europe and international cooperation.Dragan Klaic passed away in August of 2011.
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own website. Facebook, furthermore, is by far the most popular SNS compared to
competitors such as LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace. Hampton et al., who conducted an
elaborate study into SNSs in relation to American citizen’s daily lives, found almost
everyone they interviewed (92%) uses Facebook. That is why Hampton et al. speak of
Facebook in terms of a “nearly universal social networking site” (Hampton et al. 2011, 13).
Another argument for choosing Facebook lies within its functionalities. Facebook allows
for reciprocal social interaction between users mutually and between users and a festival
within an online platform (i.e. a platform other than the one offered by a (offline) festival).
This reciprocal social interaction is the centre of attention in this study’s exploration of the
relationship between these two phenomena.
Before delving into this relationship, the first chapter, as a start, offers a global overview of
the most significant changes the interpretation of the festival formula has undergone over
the years. This chapter will dwell on the complex situation of the present-day festival and
how it has increasingly become separated from its core celebratory function. The concept
of social capital, which is embedded in all social networks, subsequently offers a way to
comprehend how and why people create and extend social relationships both on Facebook
and during the festival. The second chapter, then, will embed the findings from the
exploration of the relationship between both phenomena within the provided context
offered in the first chapter. The third chapter, finally, offers a case study in which the
theory from the preceding chapters is compared with the results from a survey held among
visitors of STRP Festival to see where differences and similarities between theory and
practice lie. This way all dots between the different chapters get connected, hopefully
offering an overview of the dynamics between the festival phenomenon and Facebook use.
According to Dragan Klaic “festivals could […] lead the engagement with the already
existing digital technology in order to recycle their cultural offers and extend the shelf life
of their products” (Klaic 2007, 203). For festivals to lead the engagement, however, some
theoretical foundation of the dynamics between festivals and Facebook should first be
established. In a time where festival organisations are confronted with large-scale budget
cuts and increasingly rely on public support, thought-through (communication) strategies
are becoming crucial in a festival’s struggle for survival. This study, hopefully, helps
festival organisations in their difficult tasks by offering a theoretical backdrop that can help
to surpass the gap with the new media. Provided they are critically assessed, new digital
media like Facebook can offer opportunities that could steer festival organisations in the
right direction and lighten the burden of their continuous fight for existence.
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consultancy rapport commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council, festivalisation is “linked to
the economic restructuring of cities, inter-city competitiveness, and the drive to develop
cities as large-scale platforms for the creation and consumption of ‘cultural experience’”
(AEA Consulting 2006).
Over the last four decades the cultural agenda of public authorities has become intertwined
with economic, political and social agendas. This has cleared the path for festivals to
evolve from merely being a way to display and celebrate the wealth of a city to a “device
that can bring economic as well as social and cultural benefits” (Johansson &
Kociatkiewicz 2011, 387). The present-day festival can act as means to connect cultures
and serve as a platform for intercultural engagement. It has the potential to acquire ahealing function for areas torn by violence or political conflict. It may even “reinforce the
self-confidence of an under-privileged community and celebrate its resourcefulness and
newly found sense of purpose” (Klaic 2002). Whether the present-day festival lives up to
these expectations is open for debate as academic attention to festivals is relatively recent.
Researchers agree, however, that there is an efflorescence of festival culture (Johansson &
Kociatkiewicz 2011; Klaic 2006; Frey 2000) consisting of “an industry that is capable of
generating experiences that are transferable and repeatable” (Küchler et al. 2011, 4).
Present-day festivals “depend on a complex logistic, much cross-marketing, well-
orchestrated fundraising and a synergy of public subsidy, sponsorship and own income”
(Klaic 2006). Festival organisations deal with politics and media looking over their
shoulders, pressuring them with high expectations concerning attendances, ticket sales, and
fundraising. Festivals that appear only once a year or biennially, moreover, struggle with
structural discontinuity in staff and audience loyalty. Public authorities continue to play a
crucial role, as their funding remains essential. They determine how to monitor festivals,
how to evaluate them and why to fund some and others not (ibid.). According to Dragan
Klaic “festivals risk to become battlefields of cross-purpose ambitions and needs, of
divergent if not contrasting interests, generated from politics, economy, media, and distinct
cultural realms” (Klaic 2002). Although festivalisation has the potential to be artistically
innovative, a good way to ensure business and to develop and encourage profit, researchers
do point to the potential risks (Frey 2000; Klaic 2006; Küchler et al. 2011; Kürti 2011) as
the main purpose of festivals has shifted from celebratory to productivity and long-term
profit (Richards & Wilson 2006).
1.3 Double lives in the network society
The changes to the festival phenomenon described above should be seen against the
backdrop of a technological revolution, centred around information, which transformed thepopular events to provide extensive investment in refurbishing the city fabric; expand, albeit temporarily,the market for city output; and leave a permanent stock of physical capital and future growth”.
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macro social and macro political contexts that shape social action and human experience
around the world (Castells 1996). We live in a world that is witnessing a revolution in
information technology, a converging set of technologies, which is penetrating all domains
of human activity (ibid.). Although this technological revolution is amplified through
digitisation, or what Nicholas Negroponte refers to as the transformation of atoms into
bytes (Negroponte 1995), the digital age is also becoming a unified environment “in which
computer hardware and software define possibilities for actions and conditions of
expression” (Rieder & Schäfer 2008, 2). The new human condition enables new forms of
participation and collaboration, which converge media production and consumption on a
global scale. Previously set borders between making media and using media continue to
blur (Jenkins 2006, 245).
These macro processes set the conditions for the festival’s future. The continuous flow of
activity, on-going and uninterrupted social processes, and overabundance of meaning in the
network society cause for festival professionals to become increasingly dependant on media
networks (Johansson & Kociatkiewicz 2011, 402; Klaic 2002). The digital age requires
festivals to invest in multi-layered communication strategies, orchestrated media exposure
and sophisticated marketing campaigns, which have superseded rudimentary forms of
publicity (Klaic 2002). In order for festivals to meet the new human condition they need to
acquire double lives. One life is concrete, physical, and contained in time and space. The
other one is virtual and takes place on the Internet and in other media outlets. Acquiring
double lives helps “to overcome the pitfalls of [a festival’s] concentrated, intensive but
inevitably short-lived duration in the never-ending typhoon of cultural production and
distribution” (ibid.).
The latter explains why festivals are becoming more and more active on the Internet,
including SNSs like Facebook. The next chapter will dive into the relationship between the
present-day festival industry and the characteristics of Facebook usage. Before doing so,
this chapter has tried to clarify that “[t]he organized festival of twenty-first century Europe
is in fact light-years away from the picture capture [sic] by Roger Caillois in the first half of
the twentieth century” (Küchler et al. 2011, 11). It should not be very surprising when
similarities between the festival and Facebook are found. People are taken to be an essential
part of festivals and SNSs alike and the memory of both phenomena is expressed through
the relationships they create and reinforce. The proliferation of festival culture known as
festivalisation, however, has led to a festival industry with an ever-decreasing time-span of
funding, a generic attitude to institutional forgetting and a decreasing emphasis on the
fostering of social networks across diverse communities (ibid.). Against this backdrop the
next chapter explores the relationship between the festival phenomenon and specific social
aspects of Facebook use.
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2 The relationship between festivals and Facebook
This chapter mostly draws on the influential academic research by Nicole Ellion et al. who
have published multiple articles on SNSs and have closely monitored the growth of
Facebook ever since its birth at Harvard in February of 2004. Drawing mainly on their
research can be considered a limitation to this study’s attempt to explore the relationship
between the festival and Facebook. David Beer, for instance, points to the neglected aspects
of SNSs in Ellison et al.’s research such as “a more political agenda that is more open to the
workings of capitalism” (Beer 2008, 528-529). Research by Ellison et al., however, proves
to be helpful when looking at how communication practices on SNSs impact social capital
outcomes. Their research underscores the importance of what individuals do with Facebook
and whom they do it with (Subrahmanyam et al. 2008; Ellison et al. 2011). The step this
chapter subsequently tries to make is how this usage of Facebook relates to the festival
phenomenon, their visitors and their incentives. As will become clear in this chapter, the
relationship between Facebook and the festival can substantially alter when the
proliferation of festival culture, known as festivalisation, is taken into the equation. Before
elaborating on the relationship between festivals and Facebook it will first be made clear
what SNSs are and give an overview of the specific characteristics of Facebook.
2.1 Defining SNSs and the characteristics of Facebook
SNSs such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and MySpace are “online spaces that
allow individuals to present themselves, articulate their social networks, and establish or
maintain connections with others” (Ellison et al. 2006, 3). More specifically, this study
draws on the following definition of SNS:
[S]ocial network sites [are] web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a
public or semi-public profile within an bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users
with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and
those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections
may vary from site to site. (boyd & Ellison 2008, 211)
Today there is a large amount of SNSs to be found online, all of which have implemented a
wide variety of technical featuresiii. Generally all SNSs make use of so-called profile pages:
unique pages, created by individuals, which display “an articulated list of [friends] who are
also users of the system” (ibid.). After creating a profile on a SNS you are encouraged to
invite others into your network. In Facebook this process is called ‘Friending’, whereby a
‘Friend’ is granted increased access to profile information and more communication
options (Ellison et al. 2011, 876).
iii For a further reading on SNS’s technical features see “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and
Scolarship” by danah m. boyd and Nicole B. Ellison published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13 (2008).
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By 2011 Facebook is the second largest site on the Internet. It has more than 800 million
active users of whom more than 50% log on any given day (Facebook.com). Facebook is
far from reaching growth saturation, as the number of unique visitors is still increasing. In
November of 2011 Facebook counted 160 million unique visits, growing 23% year over
year (Compete 2012). Besides Friending users of Facebook have the ability to update their
status, to comment on other users’ statuses and content, to indicate that they like someone’s
content, and to send private messagesiv. Hampton et al. also looked at how much of
Facebook users’ overall network is connected on Facebook and how this network looks
like. On average, an American adult on Facebook has 229 Facebook friends. Compared to
the number of active social ties in people’s overall social networks, the average user hasFriended 48% of his/her total network on Facebook. The largest single group of Facebook
Friends consists of people from high school; the second largest of people from
college/university. The average Facebook user has never met in-person with 7% of his or
her Facebook Friends and an additional 3% are people he or she has met in-person only
once. According to Hampton et al., SNSs are also increasingly used to maintain contact
with close social ties (Hampton et al. 2011).
The numbers and figures above correspond with other research revealing Facebook is used
predominantly for communication among acquaintances and offline contacts than for
connecting with strangers (Ellison et al. 2011; Ellison et al. 2007; Subrahmanyam et al.
2008). Despite Facebook’s technical features that allow for both maintenance of existing
social ties and formation of new connections, Facebook users are primarily communicating
with people who are already part of their existing social network (boyd & Ellison 2008,
211). SNSs are distinctive objects because they enable users to articulate and make visible
their existing social network. This distinguishes SNSs from the first online communities,
which were supposed to do the opposite: liberating individuals from their pre-existing
social group or location, bringing together people based on shared interests instead of
shared geography (Rheingold 2000; Wellman et al. 1996). Earlier virtual communities
therefore largely facilitated meetings between individuals with no previous offline
connection.
Regarding Facebook merely as a platform for transferring offline social relationships to an
online environment does not fully capture the overlapping nature of online and offline
interactions. Rather than conceptualising online and offline social networks as dichotomous
and mutually exclusive constructs, they should be considered as permeable, intertwined
networks. Social networks are diffuse with overlapping social and spatial boundaries. SNSs
iv For further reading on the demographics of SNSs and what people do on Facebook in the U.S. see
Social Networking Sites and Our Lives (2011) by Keith Hampton et al.
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are a part of people’s social network, rather than being a separate set of relationships
(Haythornewaite & Wellman 2002). With the help of SNSs people maintain and expand
social relationships that enhance their communication ability (Lee & Lee 2010, 720-721).
SNSs like Facebook do, however, contain many technical affordances that could be used to
create new social connections. In addition to the maintenance and expansion of social
relationships, Facebook and other present-day SNSs are structured to facilitate meetings
with new individuals as well (Ellison et al. 2006, 5).
Keith Hampton et al. discovered “11% of Facebook users report having more Facebook
Friends than their estimated overall network size” (Hampton et al. 2011, 25). This suggests
users do use Facebook to get in contact with people outside their existing social network.According to Hampton et al. an explanation for this trend is that some Facebook Friends
are ‘dormant ties’, social ties that were once important and active in someone’s network but
for various reasons have become dormant (ibid.). Much in line with this hypothesis is the
outcome of research conducted by Ellison et al. They found that Facebook users convert
‘latent ties’ (connections that are technically possible but not yet activated socially) into
‘weak ties’ (Ellison et al. 2007; 2011). Facebook users tap into dormant/latent/weak ties
because they might provide useful information or new perspectives, but typically not
emotional support (Ellison et al. 2006, 8). This distinction between weak and strong ties is
closely linked to the distinction between ‘bridging’ and ‘bonding’ social capital popularised
by Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone (2000). Bridging social capital refers to loose
connections (e.g. acquaintances) and bonding social capital refers to strong emotional ties
(e.g. family and close friends) (Ellison et al. 2006, 8-9).
2.2 Social capital, creating social networks, and consuming familiarity
The concept of social capital is used in multiple fields of research and is therefore difficult
to define. The general consensus, however, is that social capital refers to the benefits
individuals derive from their social relationships and interactions (Steinfield et al. 2008;
Ellison et al. 2006; Ellison et al. 2007; Ellison et al. 2011; Lee & Lee 2010). Social capital
can literally be understood as a form of capital (like financial capital) that is embedded in
the structure of all social networks (Ellison et al. 2011, 875). The social and technical
affordances provided by Facebook play an important role in helping users maintain,
expand, and create social relationships and the social capital that is embedded within them
(889). The concept of social capital, then, helps to explain why people tap into latent ties on
Facebook, as these ‘Friends’ might become “useful recourses for providing individuals
with a window into a diverse set of perspectives and information” (ibid.). These findings
indicate, moreover, that users differentiate between ‘actual’ friends and ‘Facebook
Friends’.
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Similarities with this use of Facebook can be found by looking at the festival phenomenon
from the concept of social capital. Robert Cantwell, for instance, suggests a festival also
“generate[s] its own community” (Cantwell 1991, 150). Latent ties between scholars,
workers, local people, volunteers and artists are activated during the organisation of the
festival and during the festival itself. The creation of this new community (i.e. social
network) can be seen as individuals tapping into potential useful resources for providing a
diverse set of perspectives and information. According to Cantwell the festival can be seen
as “a kind of morale-builder; it strengthens the self-esteem” (ibid.) suggesting individuals
derive benefits (social capital) from social relationships and interactions established during
the festival. Similarly, Ellison et al. found a link between intensive Facebook use and low
self-esteem indicating, “Facebook use may be helping to overcome barriers by studentswho have […] low self-esteem” (Ellison et al. 2007, 1163). Robert Cantwell continues by
stating that the festival holds open the possibility of emergent, non-predictable cultural
creation, something that coincides with Facebook’s technical affordances, which hold the
possibility of non-predictable creation of new social connections.
Facebook and festivals both offer opportunities to create new social ties or networks. This
similarity, however, does not necessarily set the festival’s relationship with Facebook apart
from the one it could have with other (early) virtual communities preceding SNSs. One
may assume that festivals rather bring people together based on shared interests than based
on shared geography. It is likely, then, that festivals (just like virtual communities did)
largely facilitate meetings (i.e. create social relationships) especially between individuals
with no previous connection. One could state that the festival shows more overlap with an
early online community than with Facebook since SNSs are largely used for
communication among existing social networks. The assumption that festivals largely
facilitate meeting between people with no previous connection, however, is refuted by
research on the way people ‘consume’ festivals.
Richard Prentice and Vivien Andersen found socialisation and gregariousness to be
prominent incentives for attending the Edinburgh festival. They found that the festival “is
frequently somewhere to be with friends, rather than somewhere to meet new people”
(Prentice & Andersen 2003, 24). The Edinburgh Festival appears to be a place for “the
consumption of familiarity rather than difference” (ibid.). This coincides with the
observation that Facebook is used predominantly for communication among acquaintances
and offline contacts than for connecting with strangers. Empirical research by Ellison et al.
found a robust connection between Facebook usage and indicators of social capital
suggesting how Facebook “help[s] maintain relations as people move from one offline
community to another” (Ellison et al. 2007, 1164). Juxtaposing visitation incentives of the
Edinburgh festival with Facebook usage reveals greater overlap is found in the fact that
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people ‘consume’ both phenomena for maintaining and extending social ties rather than for
creating social ties.
Research refutes the assumption that festivals and Facebook are visited more for meeting
new people than for catching up with friends. Although festivals and Facebook both tend to
be consumed more for familiarity than difference, individuals do tap into dormant and
weak ties for (future) social benefits. People with low self-esteem, for instance, may gain
substantial social benefits from new social connections. The festival and Facebook both
share bridging and bonding dimensions of social capital, although they are not equally
divided over both phenomena. Facebook is used primarily for bridging social capital
(keeping in touch with old friends) and less for bonding social capital (close friends andfamily), as the affordances of Facebook do not necessarily encourage the creation of close
kinds of relationships (Ellison et al. 2007). The festival, on the other hand, celebrates and
reinforces existing social and cultural relationships associated with bonding social capital
as festivals play an important role in creating trust and cohesiveness among community
members (Gursoy et al. 2004).
2.3 The modern festival, social discord, and differences with Facebook
In the comparison between the festival and Facebook above there is an important actor left
out of the equation: the proliferation of festival culture known as festivalisation (see chapter
1). As it has been made clear in the preceding paragraph, the festival and Facebook in their
essence share common ground. In order to get firmer grasp of the relationship between the
present-day festival and Facebook use, however, festivalisation needs to be taken into
consideration as well. A good example why this is important becomes clear when looking
at Susanne Küchler and Rosella Lo Conte’s comparison of festivals in two London
boroughs. Festivals in the East End, a neighbourhood where people always have both
worked and lived, appeared to be organised by outside charities, private bodies and
organisations, rather than by community-based organisations. Festivals in Wandsworth,
popular with young professionals, did have community-based involvement and lacked
public funding. What they found was that the massively funded festivals intended to bring
people together, hardly helped to overcome the history of segregation in the East End
(Küchler & Lo Conte 2011). Perhaps more salient is that Küchler and Lo Conte discovered
public funding of festivals to be one of the root causes of social fragmentation and
disintegration in an inner city neighbourhood (191).
Drawing on Küchler and Lo Conte’s findings, public funding of festival culture intended to
bring people together risks causing counterproductive effects, as it tends to “enhance the
social and economic fault-lines that divide the urban setting” (192). Adding the
proliferation of festival culture to the equation, thus, disrupts the picture outlined in the
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preceding paragraph. Rather than creating and reinforcing social relationships or creating
trust and cohesiveness among community members the festival industry produces social
discord and ghettoization (Küchler et al. 2011, 11-12). This image of the festival,
obviously, does not coincide with the image of Facebook use outlined above. It remains
uncertain whether the use of Facebook is able to replace the festival in creating trust and
cohesiveness among offline communities. Although Facebook’s technical affordances can
be beneficial (e.g. for those who have difficulties forming and maintaining relationships)
(Steinfield et al. 2008, 444), research lacks substantiation that these affordances are also
beneficial for offline social activities (Brandtzæg & Nov 2011, 457). A study of SNS
BlackPlanet, for instance, reveals how lively discussions about black community issues did
not move beyond an online discursive level of civic engagement (Byrne 2008, 336).
Festivals are events contained by time and space, separated from the continuous flow of
information provided by the digital environment of Facebook. The festival temporarily
provides “physical spaces for groups of people to enact their sense of belonging” (Beynon
2011, 214) and “a concentration, an experiential intensity in an otherwise fragmented and
diversified world” (ibid.). Festivals of today are not only contained by time and space, they
are even clearly separated from the everyday experience of the city and present a sanitized,
healthy picture of the city rather than city life in all its complexity and multiplicity
(Johansson & Kociatkiewicz 2011, 402). Festivals, furthermore, require active and full-
body participation and get people involved by forcing them to step outside their homes
(Küchler et al. 2011, 7) thereby providing “collective experiences of what otherwise may
only be experienced individually and fragmentarily” (Beynon 2011, 214). These aspects
cannot be adequately provided by electronic means.
Drawing on the latter aspects, the festival and Facebook appear to be separated phenomena.
The festival is a temporary event bound by time and space, which offers certain elements
(e.g. live performances) that require full-body participation. This suggests an unbridgeable
dichotomy between an online and offline phenomenon on a material level. This chapter has
made an effort to evade such a pitfall by mainly focussing on the relationship between the
two phenomena on a social level. This exploration has revealed how the festival and
Facebook both offer opportunities for creating, re-establishing, maintaining, and
reinforcing social connections that are sources for bridging and bonding social capital. As
the next chapter will show, the social aspects between the festival and Facebook are also
more entwined rather than clearly separated from each other. The overview of the
relationship between the festival and Facebook offered in this chapter is not fixed. The
relationship might easily become unstable when intensive public involvement and other
aspects of festivalisation are taken into consideration as well. Festivalisation may run the
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risk of creating social disintegration and fragmentation. Potential beneficial social aspects
contributed to the festival disappear, rendering the festival socially counterproductive.
3 Case study: STRP Festival and Facebook use
This chapter offers a case study of Facebook use by visitors of a particular festival to delve
deeper into the relationship between the festival and Facebook use and to see whether the
theoretic framework offered by the previous chapters can be supported. For the benefit of
this case study a survey was conducted among visitors of STRP Festival v . Several
volunteers were deployed asking people attending STRP Festival for their email address.
These people received an email containing a link to the online survey a few days later. In
total 382 people completed the survey, which could be filled out either in Dutch or in
English. The survey contained, among other things, a section asking people about their use
of Facebook in relation to the festival. This chapter draws on these and other survey
outcomes to make claims about the relationship between STRP Festival and Facebook use.
An important limitation to this case study is the fact that it looks at one particular festival
bearing many similarities with the characteristics of festivalisation (an elaboration follows
in the upcoming paragraphs). Future research, hopefully, will also explore the relationship
between a festival free from public investment and Facebook to see whether it offers
similar results.
3.1 The city of Eindhoven, festival policy, and STRP Festival
STRP Festival is one of the largest indoor music, art and technology festivals in Europe.
The name refers to the former industrial area Strijp-S in Eindhoven, which used to be the
home ground of electronics multinational Philips. In November of 2011 the festival
celebrated its fifth anniversary in one of Philips’ former factories the Klokgebouw. Spread
over ten days, the festival presented an interactive retrospective of fifty years Dutch media
and technological art and featured a music line-up of well-known international performers
and DJs in the weekends. STRP Festival is one of many events that annually take place in
the city of Eindhoven. Ever since Eindhoven was granted the unflattering title ‘most boring
city in the Netherlands’ several years ago, the cultural policy of the city dramatically
shifted to the organisation of large-scale urban events. As a consequence, the image of
Eindhoven significantly improved and in 2007 the city was awarded the title of 3 rd Event
City of the Netherlands by the National Event Awards. The municipality of Eindhoven,
remarkably, was not content with its festival policy and set up an extensive evaluation in
2009 involving festival directors and other stakeholders. The evaluation revealed festivals
v See Resultaten bezoekersonderzoek STRP Festival 2011: Een kwantitatieve meting onder STRP
Festival bezoekers for the complete outcome of the survey.
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in Eindhoven are only granted passage when a festival contains a part of Eindhoven’s
‘DNA’ (i.e. a festival must pay attention to either light, design or technology). Examples of
such festivals are outdoor light festival GLOW, and technology orientated STRP Festival
(Quilligan 2011, 66-67).
Investigation of Eindhoven’s cultural policy by Emma Quilligan reveals that festivals
belong to the mobility, environment, sports and events portfolio and do not fall under the
municipality’s cultural policy. This distinction between festivals and culture is an
indication that Eindhoven considers festivals to be a form of tourism rather than culture
(ibid.). Considering festivals to be a form of tourism or simply a tool for the promotion of a
city rather than a substantial aspect of cultural policy corresponds with Dragan Klaic’sdescription of present-day festival culture (see chapter 1 paragraph 2). Besides STRP
Festival’s dependence of municipal support for continuity, the festival has to meet a wide
variety of expectations. Eindhoven longs of an event, on a social level, to focus on
liveability, meetings, and fun between different population groups. On a cultural level it has
to create challenges for new initiatives, remember important events or sustain traditions. On
economical level it has to contribute to a vital urban supply level (ibid.). Emma Quilligan
concludes her analysis of Eindhoven’s festival policy by emphasising how much festivals
stand in service of the municipality rather than acting as independent art forms. The
municipal ‘themes’ (light, design and technology) are leading and are expected to
contribute to the marketing of the city thereby risking a stagnation of festival innovation.
These facets fit the characteristics of festivalisation described in the preceding chapters.
From the analysis of Eindhoven’s festival policy it can be substantiated that STRP Festival
can be characterised as a present-day festival, exposed to and affected by the proliferation
of festival culture. Whether STRP Festival therefore enhances social and economic fault
lines or even causes social discord and ghettoization can only be assumed in the framework
of this case study. What can be derived from the results of the survey held among visitors
of STRP Festival is that it is typically an event to visit with friends and family. Nearly 75%
of the people that were accompanied by others say their company consisted of friends and
family members. When looking at visitation motives, moreover, only 18% say it came to
the festival to network (i.e. meet new people). The three main incentives for visiting STRP
Festival were ‘experience’ (60%), ‘curiosity’ (50%), and ‘program / line-up’ (44%).
Visitors of STRP Festival, thus, are mainly curious for experiencing the festival’s cultural
offerings with close friends and family. Visitors of STRP Festival are much less interested
in creating new social relationships. These results, along with the contextual analysis,
suggest STRP Festival is a typical present-day festival displaying typical social behaviour
similar to a festival like the Edinburgh festival. As the previous chapter has shown, these
social aspects coincide with overall Facebook use.
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3.2 Facebook use by STRP Festival and its visitors
In preparation of the 2011 edition the STRP Festival organisation aimed high at the use of
SNSs, especially Facebook and Twitter. As a result the number of people that ‘liked’ the
Facebook Pagevi of the festival jumped from about 3000 to approximately 7500 at the time
the festival took place. 45% of the visitors indicate it saw STRP Festival’s social media
messages, which is an increase of 14% compared to the year before. Out of all eleven
communication channels used to promote the festival social media messages came in third,
right behind the website (78%) and the posters (67%). Out of 41% indicating one or more
means of communication encouraged him or her to visit the festival, furthermore, 10%
points to social media messages as primary motivator. This makes SNSs the third most
important motivator for festival attendance. Next to the festival’s website and its offlinepromotional activities, SNSs, then, offer an additional valuable way to generate attention
for STRP Festival. These findings corroborate the words of Dragan Klaic when he states
festivals have become increasingly dependant on media networks (Klaic 2002). In other
words, STRP Festival has done well in acquiring a virtual double life.
The marketing and communication department of STRP Festival put a lot of effort in
actively making use of Facebook’s technical affordances. Facebook Pages, for instance,
offers companies, institutions and festivals alike an easy and low-budget opportunity to get
in contact with audiences. In hindsight, STRP Festival was able to more than double its
Facebook audience in a relatively short period of timevii. An explanation for this success
can be found when looking at how and when STRP Festival uses Facebook. Visitors who
‘liked’ STRP Festival’s Facebook Page were asked to assess the festival’s Facebook use.
Although there is room for improvement, the vast majority finds the festival’s usage of
Facebook to be good on all six levelsviii. The majority (39%), furthermore, enjoys the fact
that everyone can post a message on STRP Festival’s ‘Wall’ix. Visitors appreciate the
festival’s overall use of Facebook and find their activities on the SNS to be a good
supplement to the festival’s official website (more than 60% agrees with this).
The timing of the festival’s Facebook activities matches the period wherein people tend to
visit the festival’s Facebook Page. More than 50% states their visits are the highest in the
vi
Facebook Pages are for organisations, businesses, celebrities and brands to broadcast information in
an official, public manner to people who choose to connect with them. For more information onFacebook Pages see http://www.facebook.com/help?page=262355163822084. The url to STRPFestival’s Facebook Page is http://www.facebook.com/strpfestival.vii The author observed STRP Festival’s Facebook activities on a daily basis from the first of September
to the end of November.viii People were asked to assess STRP Festival’s Facebook use on six levels: The frequency with which
messages are posted, the diversity of messages (e.g. photos, videos, polls etc.), the diversity in content(e.g. prize contests, announcements etc.), the use of @mentions (i.e. referrals to others on Facebook),the overall content of the messages, and the overall usage of Facebook.ix A ‘wall’ is the common name for the place where people can post messages, photos and/or links.
Many people or companies that own a Facebook page choose to disable this functionality as it is proneto unwanted messages (spam) and requires moderation and maintenance on a regular basis. STRPFestival chooses to keep this functionality active but does remove unwanted and inappropriate posts.
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Eric R. Alberts 18
week just before the festival. This suggests the number of visits to the festival’s Facebook
Page are directly linked to the frequency with which the festival posts new messages. This
suggestion can be substantiated when looking at the months in between festival editions.
From December through approximately August the festival seldom posts anything to
Facebook. Not surprisingly, none of the visitors indicates their visits to the Facebook Page
are the highest the months in between festival editions. Dragan Klaic states that festivals,
which appear on a yearly basis, could lead the engagement with digital technology by
“offering a continuous flow of information, news, and special experiences, real or virtual”
(Klaic 2002). This statement is substantiated by 40% of visitors indicating they will visit
the Facebook Page more often when STRP Festival chooses to post messages on a regular
basis in between festival editions. Here STRP Festival still has room to increase and tosustain audience loyalty and interest.
3.3 Discussing the relationship between STRP Festival and Facebook use
The survey held among its visitors reveals how STRP Festival has successfully embedded
Facebook within its marketing and communication efforts. The festival manages to mould
Facebook into an additional communication channel, which is used to the overall
satisfaction of the festival’s audience. There, however, still is room for improvement on
certain levels of usage and the festival has not yet chosen to utilise Facebook’s affordances
in between festival editions. STRP Festival has relatively late chosen to seriously bring
Facebook into its marketing mix, thereby not yet fully profiting from the potentially good
interaction between its festival and Facebook. The results from the survey lead to the
observation that STRP Festival and Facebook work well together. Delving deeper into the
relationship between STRP Festival and Facebook provides an explanation why this
combination works so well. The relationship becomes beneficial not because they
complement each other but because the way visitors behave at STRP Festival is mirrored in
the way people use Facebook in relation to the festival.
STRP Festival is highly dependent of unclear public policy and is pushed towards city
marketing and tourism instead of culture and art. From the theory on festivalisation, these
aspects tend to overshadow a festival’s celebratory function, supplant community-based
remembering, and could lead to a decreasing emphasis on the fostering of social networks
across communities. STRP Festival yields the question whether its memory is able to
outlasts its funding (Küchler et al. 2011). One might expect that a festival showing this
much characteristics of festivalisation hardly resembles any elements of typical Facebook
use. The survey held among STRP Festival visitors, however, rather reveals overlap
between the social aspects of the festival and the way people use Facebook in relation to
the festival. Visitors indicate they attend the festival with family and friends rather than to
meet new people. Similarly, when asked if visitors gained new Facebook Friends thanks to
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19 Face à Fest
the STRP Festival Facebook Page 87% says no. When askes if visitors learned about STRP
Festival through their Facebook Friends 82% says no.
Visitors of STRP Festival who are also Facebook users are quite reluctant in carrying out
the festival amongst their Facebook Friends: only 30% says they introduced STRP Festival
to his or her Facebook Friends. Merely 15%, furthermore, indicates they commonly ‘Share’
STRP Festival’s Facebook messages on their own ‘Wall’. Although STRP Festival
regularly links to other festivals and despite the given that more than half of STRP Festival
visitors follow a lot of other festivals on Facebook, only 6% states they learned about other
festivals through STRP Festival’s Facebook Page. These survey results show little
crosspollination taking place between social networks. Despite Facebook’s and a festival’spotential to create new social ties, people are reticent in extending their social networks and
prefer to stay within their existing social network. On a social level, individuals behave in
similar fashion online they way they behave during the festival. STRP Festival should see
their audience’s Facebook use entwined with social behaviour during their festival, not
separated from each other. As Haythornthwaite and Wellman indicate, SNSs are a part of
people’s everyday lives, rather than being a separate set of relationships. This case study
uncovers the overlapping nature of social interactions between both phenomena.
Conclusion
The case study of STRP Festival along with the theoretical framework provided in the first
two chapters hopefully offer some handles to comprehend the relationship between two key
phenomena, which both have become important features of urban life in the twenty-first
century. This study explores the relationship between the festival and Facebook usage in
order to establish a foundation for future implementation of Facebook by festival
organisations. In a network society that is increasingly relying on digital technology
festivals could play a leading role by aptly employing its affordances to secure a significant
secondary audience in addition to the primary audience attending their events. For festivals
like STRP Festival that appear once a year, SNSs like Facebook bring an opportunity to
sustain audience loyalty and interest in the period between editions. In order to increase the
yield of a festival’s investment in Facebook an overview of the relationship between
festivals and Facebook should be established. This study has tried to do this by
contextualising the festival phenomenon, setting festival and Facebook characteristics side
by side, and by offering a case study in which its theory is put to the test.
The interpretation of what a festival is and should be has changed significantly since the
phenomenon was officiously established in the nineteenth century. The organised festival
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Eric R. Alberts 20
of the twenty-first century, which has become firmly embedded in the policies of European
cities, has evolved from being a way to display and celebrate the wealth of a city to a
device expected to bring a wide variety of benefits. Ever increasing expectations have led
to an efflorescence of festival culture, known as festivalisation, typified by its transferable
and repeatable experiences. The festival has morphed into an adequate tool for meeting
tourism and city marketing ends but runs the risk of neglecting original creative, artistic and
celebratory purposes for the sake of productivity and long-term profit. Besides highly
depending on public institutions for financial support, festival organisations are
increasingly becoming reliant of media networks. This explains why festivals are becoming
more and more active on the Internet including SNSs like Facebook.
From multiple studies can be derived that Facebook is predominantly used for
communication among acquaintances, family members, and close friends rather than for
connecting with strangers. Facebook enables users to articulate and make visible their
existing social network. Although Facebook is primarily used to enhance and sustain
existing social relationships, users do wield its many technical features to create new social
ties. From the concept of social capital, which is embedded in all social networks, can be
explained that individual taps into latent ties because they might prove to be beneficial in
the future. On first sight Facebook and the festival may appear distinct phenomena as
festivals provide elements that Facebook cannot (e.g. live performances, experience, full
body participation etc.). The concept of social capital, however, helps to uncover that the
festival and Facebook both offer opportunities for creating and re-establishing social
connections that are sources for bridging and bonding social capital.
The STRP Festival case study reveals that people this festival predominantly with friends
and family members, pushing the desire to create or re-establish social connections into the
background. This corroborates with the way people predominantly use Facebook. Survey
results reveal visitors of STRP Festival indeed show the same overall social behaviour as
they do on Facebook. The festival is attended and Facebook is used primarily for
maintaining and reinforcing existing social connections. Theory suggests this relationship
may easily change when potential risks of festivalisation are taken into consideration.
Analysis of STRP Festival’s context shows how much of the festival’s existence relies on
municipal support. Research by Dragan Klaic and Küchler and Lo Conte warns us that such
public involvement can render a festival counterproductive, causing social disintegration,
fragmentation, and even ghettoization. This image of the festival, then, does not coincide
with typical Facebook use.
The STRP Festival case study is not intended to argue whether the festival causes negative
social effects or not. It is rather intended to emphasise that the festival organisation should
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see their audience’s Facebook use entwined with their behaviour at the festival, not as
dichotomous mutually exclusive constructs. Visitors of STRP Festival stay within their
own existing social network, hardly displaying any form of bridging social capital. Little
crosspollination takes place between social networks both online and offline, suggesting
social behaviour is reflected in the way festival visitors use Facebook in relation to the
festival and vice versa. The STRP Festival case study reveals people are reticent in
extending their social networks despite the potential of Facebook and the festival to create
new social ties. The outcome of the case study leads to the recommendation to first
contextualise a festival and flesh out visitor’s social behaviour before contemplating the
implementation of Facebook for any kind of purpose. If festival organisations want to lead
the engagement by sustaining audience loyalty with the help of SNSs, they should take theoverlapping nature of interactions between Facebook and the festival into account.
Facebook is a part of people’s everyday lives, not a separate set of relationships.
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