In celebration of the anniversary of the Hanze University and Academy Minerva in the year 2013, the research group Popular culture, Sustainability and Innovation (Centre of Applied Research and Innovation Art & Society) and Academy Minerva presented the first edition of the Energize Festival for sustainable art, design and lifestyle last November. I am happy to present this limited edition catalogue box with inspiring research posters and one minute movies by our students that formed the heart of the Energize Festival Exhibition. However, before informing you in more detail about the content of this box, I would first like to provide you with some background information on the festival’s theme…
The use of events as policy tools in cities has become widely recognized. However, most studies concerning this topic do not capture the complex interrelationships that underpin the development of an eventful city. This study applies a practice approach, in order to analyze the dynamics of the eventful city practice. It places the urban event practice centrally in the analysis and focuses on the actual "sayings and doings" of the practice. The event practice of the 2015 Incubate festival in Tilburg, the Netherlands, is analyzed by means of ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews. Incubate illustrates how both the city and the event are performed within the practice: the event shapes the city and the city shapes the event. However, the integration of the festival into alternative spaces in the city means that it does not increase the visibility of Tilburg, and therefore fails to deliver value to its eventful city policy.
MULTIFILE
De Festival Atlas 2015 geeft een overzicht en analyse van het landschap van muziekfestivals in Nederland in 2015. Dit is een druk en divers landschap. Maar hoe ziet dit festivallandschap er precies uit? Is de programmering van muziekfestivals vernieuwend of is er sprake van McFestivalisatie? Hoe zetten muziekfestivals social media in? En hoe verschilt het festivallandschap per provincie?
Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) involves uncontrollable drinking despite negative consequences, a challenge amplified in festivals. ARise is a project using Augmented Reality (AR) to prevent AUD by helping festival visitors refuse alcohol and other substances. Based on the first Augmented Reality Exposure Therapy (ARET) for clinical AUD treatment, ARise uses a smartphone app with AR glasses to project virtual humans that tempt visitors to drink alcohol. Users interact in a safe and personalized way with these virtual humans through phone, voice, and gesture interactions. The project gathers festival feedback on user experience, awareness, usability, and potential expansion to other substances.Societal issueHelping treatment of addiction and stimulate social inclusion.Benefit to societyMore people less patients: decrease health cost and increase in inclusion and social happiness.Collaborative partnersNovadic-Kentron, Thalamusa
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a pattern of alcohol use that involves having trouble controlling drinking behaviour, even when it causes health issues (addiction) or problems functioning in daily (social and professional) life. Moreover, festivals are a common place where large crowds of festival-goers experience challenges refusing or controlling alcohol and substance use. Studies have shown that interventions at festivals are still very problematic. ARise is the first project that wants to help prevent AUD at festivals using Augmented Reality (AR) as a tool to help people, particular festival visitors, to say no to alcohol (and other substances). ARise is based on the on the first Augmented Reality Exposure Therapy (ARET) in the world that we developed for clinical treatment of AUD. It is an AR smartphone driven application in which (potential) visitors are confronted with virtual humans that will try to seduce the user to accept an alcoholic beverage. These virtual humans are projected in the real physical context (of a festival), using innovative AR glasses. Using intuitive phone, voice and gesture interactions, it allows users to personalize the safe experience by choosing different drinks and virtual humans with different looks and levels of realism. ARET has been successfully developed and tested on (former) AUD patients within a clinical setting. Research with patients and healthcare specialists revealed the wish to further develop ARET as a prevention tool to reach people before being diagnosed with AUD and to extend the application for other substances (smoking and pills). In this project, festival visitors will experience ARise and provide feedback on the following topics: (a) experience, (b) awareness and confidence to refuse alcohol drinks, (c) intention to use ARise, (d) usability & efficiency (the level of realism needed), and (e) ideas on how to extend ARise with new substances.
In recent years, organizations across Europe, and the Netherlands in particular, have increasingly supported efforts to enhance the sustainability of festivals such as the European Climate Pact, launched by the European Commission as part of the European Green Deal, European Festivals Association and Green Deals Circular Festivals in the Netherlands (European Union [EU], 2025). As a result, festivals across Europe are growing their environmental stewardship and serving as prototypes for wider societal transitions towards sustainability (Calvano, 2024; Irimiás et; al., 2024). However, festival organizers and other stakeholders still face challenges in developing effective communication strategies that truly activate more sustainable behaviour among festival goers (Harms et. al., 2023). Generic, one-size-fits-all approaches are often applied, yet they tend to have limited impact. This is also due to the diverse nature of music festivals, ranging from indoor to outdoor settings, single-day events to multi-day experiences, and from urban to rural locations, all of which shape the audience, context, and communication needs in unique ways (Tölkes & Butzmann, 2018; Dodds et. al., 2020). Essentially, festivals are ideal for informing, experiencing and activating sustainable behavioural change through effective communication before, during and after festivals. It is therefore crucial that a more targeted approach is utilized where messages can be tailored to make communication more effective (Temmerman & Veeckman, 2024). To address pressing sustainable and social challenges within the festival sector, NHL Stenden (NHLS) will collaborate with ESNS and Thansk on a design research project. In partnership with a network of festival organizers, industry professionals, and experts, the project will explore effective communication strategies for sustainability. The goal is to develop an actionable, research-informed roadmap that supports music festivals in enhancing their sustainability communication tailored to the sector’s dynamic and diverse nature.
