- Introduction
This report particularly complements outdoor art festivals based on conducted interviews and surveys. It focuses on two case study festivals: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event outdoor art festivals. This report yields adequate information and insight on how outdoor art festivals efficiently contribute to creating artistic development and vitality in America and vast parts of the world. National surveys conducted note art festivals regardless of their types to increase the United States’ access to artistic works (Allen et al. 2002, p. 54). Also, the case studies reveal the essence of customers, effective production, ticketing, marketing, and staffing in outdoor arts festivals. Also, it notes why health and safety phenomena should be rampant in outdoor art festivals and the nudge to address event management issues since they provide future scope for outdoor arts festivals. Additionally, it notes that outdoor arts festivals among them welcome central and familiar public spheres, allowing socialization, giving access to artworks, and thus generally contributing to the community understanding of the artwork.
- Methodology
The report studies and discusses adhesively data gathered as part and parcel of art festivals. It involves nationwide and online surveys on outdoor arts festivals. The essence of the study is gathering broad and contextualized details on festival audiences, specifical workers in the two event venues. Workers in live event venues have a systematic understanding of festivals (Tassiopoulos, 2000, p. 79). The data selection method also pays attention to various background researches on participant observations, focus groups, and interviews.
- Case Study Festival Selections
Festival selection was based on various criteria: setting and geography, organization features, and overall discipline. Extracts were also based on responsive organization workers, grantmakers, administrators, producers, and other efficient personnel with background knowledge of outdoor arts festivals. The responsive personnel focused on providing suggestions for festival selections, categorizing the festivals depending on regions, and analyze the festivals based on the norms of the governmental structures, organization mission, and princes. Besides providing a balancing norm for outdoor arts festivals, the workers also produced final lists on the right geography, organization features, and balancing strategy to ensure the set festivals align with America’s festival diversity. Besides that, for one to participate in set activities, festival personnel such as organizers committed to incorporating and coordinating vital strategies for volunteer and support labor.
- Field Research {Online Questionnaires & Data Analysis}
I managed to investigate incorporated festivals using particular approaches. They included background researches on sponsoring personnel and organization for the festivals. Online questionnaires were shared through emails and SMS who responded adhesively to understand the various workers’ positions in the two festivals. A direct interview was conducted about Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to get explicit information about the festival hosted. On the other hand, for New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event, failure to contact the event organizers directly, participant interviews were incorporated to the audiences attending the events.
After selecting the festivals mentioned above, in-depth ground research was completed before field research interviewing and planning. Data on Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event outdoor art festivals were collected from the archived library and online materials published by festival sponsors in addition to online questionnaires provided by the responders. Also, additional data were gathered from the festival sponsoring organizers. Other than providing information on the festival’s historical mission, they incorporated their financial positions.
Also, the telephone was used to interview festival administrators in the two venues. The Executive Director of outdoor arts festivals conducted the interviews. Also, the festival board members and personnel participated in the interview. The interviews, which took 1.5 hours, questions the festival history, audiences, mission, administration, health, and safety position of the venues and their crucial connection to the community and principal shareholders and stakeholders in the festivals. The guide for administrator interview festivals is provided in Appendix A.
Data analysis of the quantitative data collected was particularly descriptive. On the other hand, qualitative data analysis was interpretative. Gathered data from online and library materials and online questionnaires were incorporated in research templates based on the protocols aligned in interviews guidelines. The principal investigators then used the template to locate significant responses and themes cutting across the two venues.
- Profiles of the Two Case Study Festivals
Details | Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival | New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event |
Location | California, Indio based in Coachella Valley Inland Empire | Commonly known as a ball drop event, the event above is located on the One Times Square roof. |
Date | Consecutively three days weekends in April | Begins 6:00 P.M EST of December 31st to January 1st |
Genre | Pop, rock, hip hop, indie | Involves vocal and instrumental genres: dance, folk art, drama, allied and architecture fields, craft and graphic arts, photography, sculpture, and industrial design and motion pictures. |
Attendance | 250,000 | At least one year spectators annually. |
Art | Visual arts include sculpture and installation. | Visual; sculpture, painting and drawing, the plastic arts; modeling and sculpture and decorative arts; enamelwork. |
Organization | Indio, as Coachella’s host city, provides critical organization services for the festival. They include fire protection and police services, private security, city staff services, and outside enforcement laws (Appley, 2002, p. 25). The three festivals weekend cost a total of $ 2.77 million. | New York various department provides New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event organizers with multiple services to boost the festival’s success (Tum et al. 2006, p. 57). Other than offering city staff services, it also provides the festival with public and private security. |
- Client Base
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event outdoor art festivals major customers according to organize volunteers and the researches team were divided based on demographic features. Outlining clients in festivals based on demographic characteristics provides an explosive data gathering vital for future reference surveys. According to the online questionnaire respondents, the primary audience demographics in the two festivals above are unique compared to other artistic audiences. In art festivals, customers are very inclusive and represent their community (Armstrong, 2001, p. 75). Festival artists are also more knowledgeable and educated about the various artworks. The customers are benchmarkers for artistic works and are moderately higher incomes. Besides that, they have unique age, ethnicity, and race features. In the two festivals, the audiences are older, with an average attendance age of 37, and distinctive ethnic and racial diversity. According to various statistical reviews, the customers in the two festivals since time immemorial are of Hispanic and White ethnicity, African American races, or Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander.
- Production Aspects
The primary production aspects in Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event outdoor art festivals are necessitated by a live event producer. According to the online questionnaire responders, the live event producer manages and plans the production processes and elements. The live event producer at large and further incorporated in empirical findings is responsible for the event’s essential features, which as staging, lighting, sound, and crewing (Slack et al. 2004, p. 414). This also includes booking of the on-stage talents (Silvers, 2004, p. 26). The producers note the various production aspects of the live events. They incorporate creative and technological execution of the event, ranging from video, sound, lighting, and event design.
- Ticketing
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event outdoor art festivals survey responders among workers in the venue argue that accessing tickets for live event art festival was practical. To get Coachella tickets, the audience, regardless of their type, goes to the purchase link, which is sent as SMS or email on their respective electronic devices. One would note the advance sale placed on Coachella.com and then select the weekend(s) they would like to purchase based on the homepage. Once the attendees have chosen the weekend, they are set to buy the Festival Ticketing website. On the other hand, New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event ticketing for the event attendance is free. It is based on the notion of a first-come, first-serve basis.
Based on conducted interviews and online questionnaires from the various workers and other personnel in the two festival venues, it was noted that marketing criteria were practical. Following the tremendous COVID-19 pandemic, most 2021 outdoor art festivals incorporate virtual events (Shone and Parry, 2004, p. 35). However, the responders of the research have argued in the past years, outdoor festival events have had distinct processes necessitating the marketing of various artists, products, and services in the respective venues. Marketing in festivals, as further noted in other researches, requires a specific procedure. The first step is for the respective organization marketers to book their respective products and services in the live event premise (Bowdin et al. 2004, p. 459). Once they have booked their Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival locations, they make a down payment, ensuring their venues are secured afterward. On the other hand, New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event requires those interested in the festival to get their marketing spaces based on the notion of first come, first serve (Getz, 2008, p. 17). It ensures that the forefront markets get the most appealing spaces for their respective services and products.
The various empirical findings and evidence provided argue that live event art festivals have similar staffing in the venue (Goldblatt, 2002, p. 49). For instance, the information provided in the administrator interviews and responses noted that staffing in live events, more so for arts festivals, requires first knowing the client’s values, expectations, and tastes and further ensuring that the production personnel aligns with the set norms. During staff, the second step requires that the workers for the designated live events festivals have defined goals based on their responsibilities. Also, they should estimate the size of the audience and set expectations depending on the estimate provided they know the target audience (Schroeder, 2000, p. 36). Adequate staffing is heaving important in live events. Besides noting the right group for the festival host members to work with, they also introduce activities meeting the audience’s needs and expectations.
- Health and Safety in the Festivals
New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event and Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival have been held among the world’s safest cities in the world (Johnston and Clark, 2008, p. 45). The live event mentioned above pays critical attention to health and safety measures (Raj et al. 2009, p. 19). Information provided by various workers in Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival venue argues that before the events, the organization elected members to assess multiple security risks and try their best to keep the security measures visible. Besides that, they create security checkpoints (Parasuraman et al. 1991, 470). Also, the audience IDs and matched adhesively with their registration information before they attend the set event. Also, they have developed an emergency plan in case of any risk.
Risk and Security Assessment
Held in Indio’s Empire Polo Club, Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has a specific team for risk and security identification, procedure, and processes. In addition to New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event, based on answered online questionnaires by the workers in the festival venue, significant outlined risks that may affect festival events are vast. They include administrative risks dealing with the management system, human resources and procurement, financial risks, marketing risks, and other risks connected to mass management. To effectively assess the risks, the significant hazards in the venue are identified. The identified threats are temporary structure collapse, inefficient lit or poorly maintained pedestrian roads, and audiences working closely to the set event. Once persons who might be harmed are identified are provided with precaution measures to escape from ongoing hazards.
On the other hand, nine critical steps are often incorporated to assess security adhesively in the two festival venues according to empirical results provided by the event organizers and other works. The first step is system characterization containing inventory and identification of technological components linked to the event endpoint and operating systems devices in the information provided. The following steps are threat and vulnerability identification, and that a control analysis is further incorporated mitigating threats. The last five steps are assessing the probabilities of security threats, outlining their potential damages, establishing risk ratings on the event networking assets, introducing plans to implement security improvement, and later documenting security measures followed by management and operational team.
- Issues in Event Management
The board of directors from Coachella Valley, Music, and Arts Festival, argue that the significant issues they have experienced in the past in their event management are environmentally oriented. Despite creating room for music festival sustainability, as noted in the interview with the various board of directors, the festival impacts adhesively on the environment. Besides focusing excessively on its annual manifesto to address its economic needs, the festival management team struggles with incorporating the right management strategies to prevent environmental harm. A festival that harms the environment affects the overall ecosystem, which affects the nation’s economic gain (Corallo et al. 2019, p. 1024). Coachella festival indeed strives to increase environmental sustainability even with the set activities in its live event. It introduces sustainable energy frameworks to manage ecological management issues (Wise, 2013, 340). New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event has one critical management issue. Following the rampant matters associated with the Coronavirus pandemic, it becomes hard to manage the overall event performance (Damster, 2005, 69). According to the focus group discussion result provided by the workers, it was noted that it is challenging to manage the festival set objectives while aligning with the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic, as noted, has vastly affected the management’s effort to meet their set expectations. Other than affecting the workload, it also deters from their overall motivation.
- Future Scope for Events
Live events such as Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event held in Indio’s Empire Polo Club and One Times Square roof to strive in the future should address their respective management issues (Retschitzegger, 1998, p. 9). According to information provided in the Journal of Event Management, to effectively manage management issues impacting the environment, the Coachella festival should, for instance, set strategies limiting environmental cases. Besides providing its members with environmental education programs, as noted from insights Journal of Convention and Event Tourism, they would develop precise techniques necessitating ecological restoration and further boost research prompting policies to introduce management principles favoring environmental sustainability even during music festivals.
On the other hand, to manage live events even during pandemics, New York’s Times Square New Year Countdown Event personnel should designate time and space for new decision-making processes. Incorporating room for new ideas among art festivals workers based on International Journal of Event and Festival Management boost their morale and job satisfaction which in the long run result to higher performances and fulfilling set goals.
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- Academic Journals, Periodicals, and Key Websites
Event Management-ISSN 1525-9951
International Journal of Event and Festival Management-1758-2954
International Journal of Even Management Research-ISSN 1833-0681
Journal of Sport Management-ISSN 0888-4773
Journal of Convention and Event Tourism-ISSN 1547-0148
Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events-ISSN 1940-7963
Appendix A; Interview Guide for Festival Administrators
- Introduction
Brief research confidentiality explanation description
- Questions
- Why was your event festival created?
- Which needs or purposes does it address?
- What is the organization set art and attendees total?
- Has the reasons for incorporating the festival transformed over time?
- Who do you feel attends the set festival?
- Discuss why your designated organization set charges for this festival attendance.
- Are there management issues the festival organization group faces? If anyhow, do you manage or address them?
- What are the roles of the producers in the festival events?
- How is the marketing and staffing process prompted in the festival organization venues? Are there any procedures required?
- For the success of the festival, which governmental personnel or agencies do you work with?
- Is there anything else you would wish to add?
Appendix B; Audience Interview Questions
N/B: These short-form interview questions are designated to understand the respective information linked to outdoor art festivals. It will have an influential role in characterizing outdoor art festival audiences. Besides being shared with civic leaders and festival organizations, they will share with policymakers and the general public.
We adhesively appreciate your time and assistance with this important study. Thank You So Much!
Please highlight or write (some) of your answers. Thank You!
Components | Individual Answer/Response |
Gender | Female Male |
Age | 13 and below 14-17 18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 75 and older |
Ethnicity | Latina or Hispanic Not Hispanic or Latina |
Race | Alaska Native American Indian African American Native Hawaiian White |
| |
Which is your first or Native language | |
How many people recede in your homestead? How many of them are less than eighteen years? | |
State your home zip code(s) | |
What is the highest education level you have achieved? | Elementary School Technical school High School Graduate University or Four-year college Post-graduate |
Total household income | $15,000 $ 15,000-$29,000 $30,000-$45,000 $45,000-59,000 $60,000-$75,000 $75,000-$90,000 |
How did you know the festival details | TV, radio or newspaper advertisement TV, newspaper or TV listing Internet listing Spoken communication |