Improving the visitor's end-of-festival experience

Abstract

Visitors who return from a festival experience an empty feeling combined with fatigue. In this thesis, this experience is called the void. An established psychological phenomenon called the Peak-End rule describes how events are judged by both their peaks, be they positive or negative, and their ends. The end of festivals is now often perceived by visitors as "necessary evil". It is assumed that the end and its experience are part of the festival and last from the moment of leaving the terrain up to three days after. Therefore, the judgement of the festival depends on this experience. MOJO Concerts has not designed anything for this period of time, while the number of competing festival organisers is rising, which makes delivering a better festival experience even more important. To improve this end-of-festival experience, a product was designed to 'embrace' the visitor. Embracement is an experience that solves the void. A greater amount of embracement results in a better experience. In this thesis the product uses the auditory sense to embrace the visitor. A binaural, head-shaped microphone is designed that will record the sound of the festival, and record the visitors' reactions to the request to say something nice. After the festival, the records are collected by the organiser and distributed to the visitors over a popular music streaming medium. The head-shaped microphone was shaped as such for a more binaural experience. A more binaural experience will result in a more embracing experience. The face that was put on the head was chosen from sixteen faces in a test (n=32). During this test, participants were also asked to describe what they would say to see how the question should be changed for better results. Indicative tests on the reaction to the head and its recordings were performed. The head was tested in front of Amsterdam central station. The installation consisted of the head, a steel structure with padding and clothing, and a sign asking passengers to say something nice. The test was filmed from ten meters away to avoid interference with the passengers. During this 53 minute test, 39 reactions were recorded. This is a lower number of reaction than expected from a festival, because then it is common to step out of one's comfort-zone. It is assumed that this amount of reactions is an indicator for a positive result. The record was edited to cross-fade from reaction to reaction. This sound was tested (n=85, v=45 + m=40) and on average valued a 3.0 (1 to 5 Likert scale, v=3.1, m=3.0). This assessment is expected to be higher when the record is from a festival and the listener is just back from that festival. Proposals for further research and how to asses the value of a test at a festival are added. The installation is expanded to a gathering spot in which the head is positioned in the midst of the visitors to further improve the embrasiveness of the binaural records.