Clout Culture - Youth Cultures in Changing Societes Conference

According to our estimates, the number of Hungarians participating in major
domestic music festivals may exceed 1 million people. About 300,000 people
attended the three festivals analyzed by the Youth Research Institute. Twentyfour
percent of 15 to 39-year-olds (700,000 people) said at the beginning of the
year that they would attend some sort of festival in the upcoming year. If we add
this number to the attendees belonging to older age groups, the total number of
participants -- calculated with overlapping attendances at multiple festivals –
could well exceed 1 million people. At the examined festivals, the majority of
respondents (64%) came from cities, had a secondary education (68%), and
belonged to the 18–23 age group of the surveyed 15–39 age group (55%). A key
consideration: compared to the national average, young people with a better
financial situation attended these festivals. Fifty percent stated that they have to
be careful with spending their money, but they can manage to afford the festival;
30 percent directly stated that they can easily afford these events. Today, going
to festivals is mostly a leisure opportunity for the middle class.
The strengthening of festival tourism has a positive effect on the festival market.
There are many individuals who are returning festivalgoers for the atmosphere
and many who attend more than one festival. About half of the surveyed 15-39
age group at these given festivals are not only returning attendees, but also plan
to participate in the event next year. Forty-three percent of the young people
surveyed visited more than one festival this year.
Pop turned out to be the most popular music trend among festivalgoers, followed
by electronic music, rap, and hip-hop. The openness of young festivalgoers to
public and political topics proved to be higher than the national average. More
than one in five in the examined sample showed an interest in such topics, which
indicates that, in addition to entertainment programs, discussions on social and
public topics are also relevant at these events. Despite the ongoing war, the
festivalgoers had a more positive outlook on the future: only 23 percent feared it,
the majority were neutral or optimistic. Over the next five years, the surveyed
youth mainly aim to advance in terms of finances and education. For the most
part, they want to have their own apartment and car, and want to study, acquiring
some kind of education or profession. After that, the goal is to create an
independent life and start a family.
The data collection of the festival research of the Youth Research Institute took
place across the entire area of the festivals and on each day, with the help of
interviewers conducting personal interviews with tablets. Responses were
voluntary, with samples of roughly 500 people per festival. In all cases, the
interviewees were guests, the employees of the festivals were excluded from the
sample during the pre-screening.
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PANEL DISCUSSION