Festival lovers! Opinions needed...

[leeshaw15]

Hello,

I'm a postgraduate student at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. For my masters dissertation, I'm investigating a new trend of festivals which have been called a number of things such as "un-plugged" "digital detox" and "tech-free". These are festivals where technology is either restricted or banned as part of the experience.

I'm looking to understand more about why people may be interested in attending these types of festivals and what they feel would be important for them during the experience.

The survey should only take around 5 mins. If you have any questions my email is on the first page of the link and would be happy to answer them. All submissions are anonymous and all data will be securely stored.

https://hwsml.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6hykQVTpbXBgOKV

Thanks,

Lee

[Gnomicide]

Done. An interesting subject, I spend a lot of time on social media but it doesn't bother me to the extent that having it taken away from me for a weekend would be of any benefit. Not being contactable from home in an emergency would put a lot of people off I'd think but maybe that's my age.

[babyblade41]

All done... but as @Gnomicide said , not being able to contact home or vic versa would make it a no no from me 

[HalfAnIdiot]

Done. The emergency home contact is all I'd really miss. Is also see personal benefit in seeing other attendees enjoy the festival 'in the moment' rather than watching the screen on their phone while trying to record an act.

Edited July 27, 2019 by HalfAnIdiot

[Quark]

Done. Probably the most interesting one I've seen on here. Fair play

 

[baggienick68]

Done. 

[Avalon_Fields]

Yes, makes me think. I was online a lot more than ever this year (partly as I had no challenges with battery charging), it didn’t give me any problems in a stressful or negative way (Even when I’m keeping up my habit of reading plenty of online news and sports stories early morning for example)....however it was still a distraction from the whole experience I guess, so maybe I should change. 

[hfuhruhurr]

Gigs/festivals would be way better if they (who are they?):

Banned filming

Told everyone that a gig recordings were part of the ticket and were downloadable afterwards

Reminded people they never look at the shit they record anyway

[Gnomicide]

40 minutes ago, hfuhruhurr said:

Reminded people they never look at the shit they record anyway

I've seen comments like this quite often, is there any basis to it? I only record short clips but I look at them quite often. 

[H.M.V]

Just curious why you're all so keen to complete these surveys? On any other fora/forums? I've ever frequented they are banned. 

Also when has anyone ever come back with feedback? 

So it's a no from me. 

[MrZigster]

Done. Interesting.

I don't own a smartphone so pretty much everytime I go out is a (relatively) unplugged experience for me.

Hope that doesn't skew the data.

@H.M.Vis correct that hardly anyone returns here with feedback (or even thanks). I think I have only seen it once in the decade that I have been a member of this parish.

[Gnomicide]

40 minutes ago, H.M.V said:

Just curious why you're all so keen to complete these surveys? On any other fora/forums? I've ever frequented they are banned. 

Also when has anyone ever come back with feedback? 

So it's a no from me. 

I'm just a lovely, helpful bloke

I dunno, curiosity I gues, the odd one is interesting, this one wasn't bad. One or two have come back but I know most don't. 

[mashedonmud]

Done 

[hfuhruhurr]

9 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

I've seen comments like this quite often, is there any basis to it? I only record short clips but I look at them quite often. 

I've done a massive survey by asking 2 mates and they agreed with me. We'd also had a few, so we were totally right.

[leeshaw15]

Hi all,

Just checking back in and I must say I was very happy to see that some people found this an engaging topic. I was also pleased to see that it has sparked some good discussion. 

Once again, I'm extremely thankful to those who have taken the time to fill it out.

I'm 24 and a frequent festival goer myself. Due to my age I've never been able to experience a festival without technology. I think this is what has sparked my interest in researching the possibilities of "unplugged" experience, and especially within the festival context. I wonder what Woodstock would have been like with social media and selfie sticks!? I suppose we might find out if Woodstock 50 goes ahead!

Personally, I find it a bit off putting being in a crowd and as soon as the act comes out 10s of thousands of camera flashlights illuminate around you. In my view, it can detract from the experience. Some recent research in psychology has also discovered that taking pictures during an event can actually decrease memory recall and enjoyment of it (link at the bottom if anyone is interested).

I'm not sure how to directly reply to people, however @H.M.V I do apologise if you would rather not see this type of thing on here. I can confirm that I would be very happy to share any findings once the dissertation has been marked and returned to me. I will take a note to do this, it should be back to me in September time.

If anyone has any other questions please do feel free to email (ls108@hw.ac.uk) its a very interesting topic for me.

Thanks again,

Lee

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330288346_How_and_when_taking_pictures_undermines_the_enjoyment_of_experiences_Nardini_et_al) 

[Gnomicide]

3 hours ago, hfuhruhurr said:

I've done a massive survey by asking 2 mates and they agreed with me. We'd also had a few, so we were totally right.

Well in that case...

Good to see you respond @leeshaw15, we see loads of these on here, many are awful and we rarely see any results so it would be good if you do come back with your findings. 

I've been thinking on it a bit further this morning, the festivals I went to in my youth were obviously all like this as mobiles weren't invented. Did it make for a better experience? I'm not sure. It would have been better to not have a phone held up in front of you throughout but I find that is more of a gig than a festival thing. People at festivals need to preserve battery life so filming tends to be in shorter spurts. 

I can think of 2 experiences were having phones would have helped. At the Queen gig at Knebworth me and my mates unexpectedly got split up and couldn't find each other. We didn't see each other again until we were back on the coach.

The extreme one I suppose was Donington 88 when a couple of people died. The vast majority of people there had no idea this had happened until it was announced after the headliner. I wonder what the difference social media would've made to the day if everyone had known. I suspect many would have left but the big difference would have been many frantic parents, friends, spouses etc. would have been calmed down if they could have contacted people there to make sure they were ok.

[chuckles07]

Done. As people say,  very interesting. I am not aware of any digital-free festivals, or general events come to that. Is this a function of my general digital naivety or is this the situation in the UK at present?

Edited July 28, 2019 by chuckles07
Spelling

[vintagelaureate]

I did it. 

@chuckles07 One digital free event I went to was Jack White were you had to lock your phone in a sealed bag. It could only be unlocked by staff. That was on Jack White's insistence apparently. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nme.com/news/music/jack-white-bans-phones-gigs-2227093/amp 

 

Edited July 28, 2019 by vintagelaureate

[gherkin8r]

1 minute ago, vintagelaureate said:

I did it. 

One digital free event I went to was Jack White were you had to lock your phone in a sealed bag. 

 

Think the raconteurs did it on their tour? 

[HalfAnIdiot]

35 minutes ago, vintagelaureate said:

I did it. 

@chuckles07 One digital free event I went to was Jack White were you had to lock your phone in a sealed bag. It could only be unlocked by staff. That was on Jack White's insistence apparently. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nme.com/news/music/jack-white-bans-phones-gigs-2227093/amp 

 

Just remembered, Skepta did a phone-free rave as part of Manchester International Festival recently too.

https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/secret-locations-no-phones-skepta-presents-sci-fi-vision-dystopia987-manchester-international-festival

 

[chuckles07]

39 minutes ago, vintagelaureate said:

I did it. 

@chuckles07 One digital free event I went to was Jack White were you had to lock your phone in a sealed bag. It could only be unlocked by staff. That was on Jack White's insistence apparently. 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nme.com/news/music/jack-white-bans-phones-gigs-2227093/amp 

 

 

37 minutes ago, gherkin8r said:

Think the raconteurs did it on their tour? 

 

3 minutes ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Just remembered, Skepta did a phone-free rave as part of Manchester International Festival recently too.

https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/secret-locations-no-phones-skepta-presents-sci-fi-vision-dystopia987-manchester-international-festival

 

Interesting - frankly I think it’s a great idea. Especially gigs at arenas and theatres where people videoing and spending their time sending instachat pictures and stuff. Really distracting. I hope that more and more artists demand this. Not sure how it would work at a multi day festival mind where people do need to be contacted for an emergency or wish to check in on the real world on a daily basis, which is not that unreasonable.