Ana Viñals participa en Leisure Studies Association Conference 2014 (University of the West of Scotland)

Ana Viñals Blanco, investigadora predoctoral en Ocio y Desarrollo Humano, se encuentra en la Universidad del Oeste de Escocia (University of the West of Scotland. Paisley Campus. UK) participando en la Conferencia de Verano “Sport, Festivity and Digital Cultures” de la Asociación de Estudios de Ocio (Leisure Studies Association).
La doctoranda va a presentar la comunicación titulada: “The integration of social media in music festival experience: the case of Bilbao BBK Live 2013”. Una investigación desarrollada conjuntamente con la doctoranda June Calvo Soraluze y en la que se analiza el uso que la audiencia del festival Bilbao BBK Live 2013 hizo de la red social Facebook durante el festival y las estrategias que se adoptaron desde la organización para estimular las experiencias de ocio de la audiencia.
Se puede seguir el evento a través de Twitter #LSA2014
Más información: http://www.leisurestudies.org/ / http://www.uws.ac.uk/lsa2014/

Resumen de la Comunicación: The worldwide spread of information and communication technology (ICT), combined with the boost in the Internet infrastructure and democratization of social media, has led to the transformation of most areas of human activity. In fact, the net is already an essential part of daily routines and we are involved in a digital culture (Gere, 2002; Uzelac, 2010) where the main character is the person and their experiences.

One of the areas that has been most influenced by this digital era is leisure (Nimrod & Adoni, 2012). The characteristic features of the Internet like interactivity, synchronicity, anonymity, ubiquity and participation in virtual reality are changing our ways of socializing and as a consequence, the way of experiencing our free time activities. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and digital platforms like Spotify, Deezer or Youtube have transformed the way we listen to music or the way we go to live concerts. These changes along with the greater interest in experiences and creativity of users (Richards, 2007) have impacted many industries including music festivals (Goldblatt, 2005; Getz, 2007; Richards & Palmer 2010). Hence, these types of events are trying to sell memorable experiences (Pine & Gilmore, 1999) rather thaninformation or just services. However, in what way are music festival managers taking advantage of the potential of social media to enhance the experience? Is the social media really integrated in music festivals? And how does the audience use social media before, during and after the festivals?

In order to answer these questions, this paper is going to analyse the different uses the
audience makes of social media in the case of BBK Live music festival. Through online
questionnaires aimed at the BBK Live 2013 festival goers, the goal is to observe the level of integration of 2.0 web tools in the event. Thus, observe if the audience uses social media in an instrumental and occasional way or instead, as an integrated part of the festival so as to heighten their leisure experience. These findings can be useful for festival managers to know how to design the event and integrate social media in their festival philosophy in a more valuable way.