Framing Research Questions If there were no local bias, no “home field advantage” in the content of festivals, then local artists would not benefit disproportionately from having festivals in their backyards. However, if there is a local bias, then mega‐festivals can be seen as important externalities in the regions they operate. The costs of festivals are largely external to musicians, but the potential benefits of visibility and differentiation are immense. There is some empirical evidence on the tendency of music festivals to feature local content. The focus will be on Coachella, which is the largest festival in California and one of the most significant festivals in the country. But three other festivals will be considered. Two related research questions can be asked: Question 1: Do Los Angeles acts receive more exposure at Coachella than they do at other music festivals? Question 2: Is there a general tendency for large music festivals to feature local content more than content from other areas?
Study Design: Comparative Research Framework The research questions demand a comparative study framework. Because Los Angeles is one of only three significant music clusters in the country, we might expect for LA artists to be well represented at every festival. To determine whether Coachella’s location confers additional exposure, it is necessary to appreciate it within context. For a more general understanding of the music‐local development, the home field advantage must also be considered. Thus, the evidence below analyzes not only the local content of Coachella 2013, but also of similar festivals. Ideally, it would be useful to compare local content across the thousands of music festivals that are held every year in the United States. But this preliminary research is limited to four large music festivals. Figure 5 summarizes the cases.
Figure 5: Sample of Music Festivals Festival Largest Metro Within 200 Miles Coachella Los Angeles SXSW Austin Bonnaroo Nashville Sasquatch Seattle * Attendance number is for a single weekend.
179
Number of Acts 176 ~1717 101 66
'12 Attendance 85,000* 12,000 85,000 22,000