Head in the Cloud, Feet in the Mud: the Music Festival as a Virtual Reality

This paper considers the music festival as a special platform for the enactment of musical identities. Music fans generate a shared narrative of knowledge, taste, fashion and standards of conduct that make up a culture that has no geographical roots. I argue that the festival is an extension of a virtual – or intellectual – reality into the physical sphere. Through a case study of  the Groezrock Festival (Meerhout, Belgium), this paper researches the significance and meanings music fans ascribe to the festival, moving on from traditional notions of the festival and building on notions of fandom and new media theory.