Though it’s impossible to know what is going to happen in the future, everyone can take a guess. A writer for Noisey UK asked festival attendees at Houghton, a festival in the Norfolk Countryside, what they think music festivals would look like in 2050, and this is what they found out.
Though some answers were a bit out there, it did raise some questions. Will festivals even be a thing? Would you be able to rave at your house with the same excitement as when you are at your favorite festival? Are raves going in the right direction? Sometimes the way things evolve are not the best. Even though every festival is different, the general feeling is often similar, or at least have a number of similarities, including music, lights, crowds, DJs, etc. But could the future change what makes a festival, well a festival?
Though 2050 sounds far away, it really is not. That said, just think about how much has changed and evolved in the last 20 years.
One attendee named Max, thinks “we’ll all have implants in our ears that enable us to hear music only within us and not with other people, so we can have parties in places that don’t create noise disturbances. Then maybe we’ll have festivals all over the place. Like a silent disco in your head. Or there’s some kind of small mechanical device. Though maybe that’s quite optimistic because 2050’s not that far away.”
This sounds a lot like silent discos that are currently happening, just a lot more invasive. Silent discos have popped up in the Northwest and a number of festivals, but that extra step seems pretty unnecessary.
After some thought, another attendee opined that, “Actually, I think festivals of the future will just be recycled festivals of the past.” That probably has some truth to it. Many ideas come from others ideas. People just work on ideas that are already in form and enhance it, or adjust it to be what they want. Recycled ideas are probably not too far from reality.
Charlie thinks, “[Festivals are] becoming much more of lifestyle marketing rather than actual music marketing. It’s less and less about the music and more about creating a little micro-universe; its own little village. I think what will start happening is that festivals will start having a much higher focus on interactive activities and the visual activities. What people want is immersive experiences, and there’s also been a huge rise in immersive experiential events.”
This also seems like it is very possible. Everyone talks about escaping the reality that is the “real world” when we attend a festival. We go out and create our own little town, listen to music, and escape from our regular, mundane lives. As years go by, the town we create can become more elaborate. Hopefully we never lose track of why we are there, but more meaning can evolve from what a festival is.
Others think drugs will become decriminalized, that people will just stand on their phones the whole time, and we will not only feel like we are on a cloud, but actually be on one. Some things sound crazy, but who knew that festivals would be as big as they are now, and in a number of countries? Regardless, it will be interesting to see what happens to dance music festivals in the future.
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