| The growth and increased popularity of festivals and events has led to a need for examination of many aspects of festival production. One area that is vital to festival success is an efficiently run volunteer program that can contribute to the financial, social, and cultural impacts of a festival or event. One of the fastest growing niches in the event marketplace is large-scale music festivals. As the majority of income in the music industry has shifted from recorded to live music, a steep increase in the quantity and size of music festivals has occurred in the United States. As a result, event managers rely heavily on hundreds of volunteers assisting in the operation of these large-scale music festivals that draw attendance in the tens of thousands. Understanding how to market to and run volunteer programs in general is an underserved area in academic literature. In order to further understand music festival volunteers, research grounded in self-concept theory, or the relationship between how one sees them self and how they see a product or experience, was examined at the 2013 Austin City Limits Music Festival. The study found that self-image congruency, the operationalized measure of self-concept, has a positive and significant impact on motivation, satisfaction, and intent to return. Additional analysis revealed that some of these relationships are moderated by variables such as volunteer experience, education, age, and years living in the Austin area. These findings, along with segmentation analysis uncovered significant practical recommendations for festival management in terms of what type of person to market to and accept for volunteer work. As a whole, this research provided theoretical support for self-concept theory's inclusion in tourism and volunteer research as well as methodological and practical guidance for music festival organizers. |
