Exploring festival visit influencing factors focusing on the role of the brand

Abstract

AIM OF THE PAPER

Music festivals became a popular form of entertaining, especially among youngsters. A reason for the examination is the fast growth of the festivals’ market, and festivals have economic, social, touristic and cultural positive effects. One of the most important questions for festival management is the reason for festival (re) attending choice. The question in this study what the influencing factors are in festival choice. Studies relating the topic show several factors from the self-expression through the social incentives to the environment of festivals. The brand of festivals is highlighted among the factors in several studies; therefore this paper focuses - next to the influencing factors - the role of branding in festival choice.

METHODOLOGY

Finding answers to these questions, three focus group interviews were conducted.

MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS

It has revealed that branding can be interpreted in the case of Hungarian music festivals as well. Satisfaction has a key importance among music festival re-attending factors, which is influenced by the congruence of self- and festival styles as well. The aim of branding is identifying the given festival and differentiating it from the rival ones. A further important factor is the participation in a festival’s community, where the brand is a linking element.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Increasing the sense of participation of the community can increase satisfaction and re-attending intention as well. It is worth exploring the strength of a brand in a case of a music festival and communicating them for enforcing the community of the brand. The connections explored this study can also offer a framework for a further primary research.