And now for something completely different...

Decided to take a less scientific but fun approach to all the long responses I got to the survey, and threw them into a word frequency analysis word-cloud maker.  This is mostly for fun, but why not!

So, according to the world cloud:

What inspired people to go to their first festival?

 What do we remember most vividly about a festival experience? 

Do we feel different about life after a music festival?

Music festival survey anaylsis, continued!

1) Where were all these people from?

So, who are these over three hundred people (309 now!) who took my music festival experience survey?

I got responses from 40 states across the United States, and even from five countries abroad. (Hello to my fourteen respondents from Canada, and another handful from Germany, the UK, Australia and Thailand!).

Responses came from the following states:

2) How many music festivals have they attended in the last year? 

I've been looking through the open-ended, longer written responses people generously provided and identifying recurring themes, and coding certain common sentiments so I can measure how frequently certain subjects or ideas are mentioned in response to my prompts. Here's are some of the interesting things I've learned so far.

3) How old were they?

 
4) What usually brings people to their first music festival? 

Of the responses to this question, 55% of respondents mentioned music, 36% mentioned their close friends and family members convincing them to go (and the great festival stories they heard from them!), 28% mentioned the desire to have the experience, 13% mentioned the logistical concerns (having enough money for tickets and time to travel, etc.), and 8% mentioned the desire to travel.

5) Do people feel differently about life after attending music festivals, or feel that their outlook has changed in anyway?

70% of the responses mentioned a long-lasting positive change in their outlook or life after attending a music festival. 11% reported no change in outlook, and 9% reported a positive change, but not a lasting change.  4% of the responses mentioned being more inspired in general after a music festival (usually to make or play more music or art), and even fewer mentioned negative experiences (1%).

There seem to be two main ways that people's perceptions shift after a good music festival experience (and some even mentioned unpleasant or less-awesome music festival experiences that resulted in an overall good impact on their lives). People's perceptions of themselves change for the better, as does their perception of other people. A few people even mentioned overcoming intense personal issues, life crises or coming out of depression, quitting their jobs or changing their careers, just because of a positive music festival experience.

Common sentiments mentioned about self-perception after a music festival were the following:

• I know myself better after a music festival
• I am a happier / kinder person after a festival
• I am more confident / less fearful / less worried
• I am energized / inspired
• I want to be a better person
• I appreciate the little things in life more
• I am inspired to listen to / play more music 

Common feelings about other people, or external perceptions of the world were:

• I am more open / more social / more friendly after a music festival (Note: This was mentioned quite frequently.)
• I am less judgmental of other people
• I have more faith in humanity / other people
• I am more bonded with my partner / family / friends
• I take the positivity I feel after a festival and try to apply it in my daily life (!!)

Naturally, a few negative scenarios were mentioned, including frustration with reentry to daily life, questioning reality, and feeling down about society as a whole - but no major negative effects were mentioned.

6) Are we interested in stopping attending attending music festivals at some point in the future?

78% of those surveyed responded with a resounding "NO!". "Not until my body fails me" was a common sentiment. Only 5% assumed or asserted that yes, they would definitely stop attending music festivals at some point. Starting a family and age-related discomforts were the main reasons cited, but quite a few people mentioned having a desire to bring their current (or future) children to music festivals.

Initial survey review: "What inspired you to attend your first festival?"

Current survey total: 295 responses!

Interesting initial takeaways:

By and large, it's people's friends ('best friends'), families, and good stories that get people to go to music festivals for the first time. The most frequently mentioned specific band that influenced people to attend their first festival was *drumroll please*....Radiohead. Second highest response was of course, the Grateful Dead.

Apparently convenience (their being local) and affordability are also major reasons people went to their first festival. Given how expensive festivals are getting, hopefully this isn't a reason of the past!

Here's a snapshot of the themes emerging from the survey results on first festival experiences:

People (of course!), music & lineup, travel and location, experiential elements & social culture, logistics and finances, and of course, other miscellaneous influences.

Currently listening to: