Beyond the venue: the role of digital visual communications in sustaining and recreating the music festival experience

The current spread of music festivals in Spain - prominent players in the music industry - has increased competitiveness in this sector. To differentiate themselves from the wide range of musical events, the organisers design their festivals as an experience renewed every year but which, at the same time, lives on as a festival culture disseminated by way of digital audiovisuals. This exploratory paper builds on previous studies that define festivals as cyclical and experiential, multi-dimensional and communicational spaces. It aims to determine the role of video and digital images in constructing, maintaining and redefining this experience. A mixed methodology is employed through a documentary review, a multi-case analysis of three of the most important festivals in Spain and interviews with experts. The results show the relevant role of audiovisual narratives in defining and fixing these experiences, as well as in their memorability and the creation of expectations for the next edition. The main characteristics and elements that compose it are also detailed. Finally, it highlights the role of after-movies as markers of the graphic and narrative pattern of the storytelling of these events.