Mainstreaming the music festival experience: From long-haired capitalism to private equity

In this presentation I will discuss the business and the culture of outdoor rock and pop music festivals with a focus on the British experience. Tracing a history from their countercultural origins in the late 1960s to the mainstream events of the present-day, I demonstrate the changing nature of music festivals and the consistencies and connections they retain with the past. I also note the importance of the rock heritage market to the development of the sector, and to the growing importance of private equity companies. A number of key market trends are then identified before concluding with a revisited version of Pine and Gilmore’s classic notion of the experience economy as adapted to the contemporary festival market.