Two Paths to Post-Pandemic Sustainability: Comparing a Non-profit and a Commercial Music Festival — The Cases of Glastonbury (UK) and Strawberry (China)

Quanxin Zhang

doi:10.6918/IJOSSER.202611_9(11).0004

Authors

Quanxin Zhang Department of Social and Political Sciences, Brunel University of London, London, United Kingdom

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6918/IJOSSER.202611_9(11).0004

Keywords:

Music Festival; Sustainable Operation; Organisational Legitimacy; Platformisation; Comparative Case Study.

Abstract

The Glastonbury Festival (UK) and the Strawberry Music Festival (China) are taken as the two cases in this study to explore the paths to the sustainable development of music festivals after the pandemic. A qualitative comparative case design is used, and publicly available documents from organisers, industry reports and the media are analysed through qualitative document analysis and thematic cross-case comparison. Based on the above data, Glastonbury has raised funds through ticket rollover and a paid livestream for its charity partners, as well as long-term charitable alliances, but is still limited by the site's capacity. On the other hand, the Strawberry Music Festival used platform live-streaming for short-term revenue and, after reopening, went multi-city; it did not establish a stable online business and was still subject to market fluctuations. Given the differences in policy cycles and market scales of the two countries, the lag in recovery is not solely due to organizational structure. This paper believes that the foundation of sustainability is not to replace the live experience with online dissemination, but to integrate charitable partnerships, community trust and ticket design into daily operations and have the online media support the live event. The comparison is not ideal; the foundation for this study is uneven, and the data in the Strawberry case are based on organizer reports and lack the extensive environmental and social documentation available for Glastonbury, so the results should be interpreted cautiously.

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