Trade Mark Registered: Sponsorship, Brand communities and Neo-tribalism within the Australian Indie Music Festival Scene | Joanne Cummings

Summary: Music, Culture and Society | Joanne Cummings <strong>Trade Mark Registered: Sponsorship, Brand communities and Neo-tribalism within the Australian Indie Music Festival Scene</strong> Joanne Cummings The paper investigates the relationship between corporate sponsors and Australian indie music festivalgoers at two festivals, Big Day Out and the Falls festival. It is argued that through their consumption of indie music festivals, the festivalgoers have become a ‘brand community’ or neo-tribe. I look at the impacts of branding and commercialisation on the festival scene through an examination of the use of corporate sponsors. It is argued that festivalgoers through their consumption of indie music festivals have become a ‘brand community’ or neo-tribe. Drawing a comparison to the American Vans Warped tour, it is further argued that the commercialisation of the festival scene ultimately impacts on the meanings created by the festivalgoers. I argue that this relationship can have advantages as well as disadvantages due to the blurring of the lines between the meanings created by festivalgoers and the ‘experience enhancement’ techniques used by sponsors and festival organisers. Joanne Cummings recently completed a PhD in the Department of Sociology at the University of Western Sydney. Her thesis involved an ethnographic study of Australian indie music fesivals. Her main areas of interest are youth culture, popular music festivals, the sociology of everyday life and the role of popular music in the construction of late modern identities.