This inquiry was positioned as an opportunity to explore the future of the fandom experience of live music festivals. It is grounded in utilizing the framework of Ken Wilber’s integral theory to classify insights as validity claims that are subjective, inter-subjective, objective, and inter-subjective (Wilber, 1997). These quadrants were used to analyze data into personal, group-oriented, transactional, and transformational respectively. Firstly, I conducted a thorough literature review of the nature of fandom, the ecosystems of concerts and live performances, the impacts of live music performances, music psychology and human physiological responses, and the benefits of music education. Secondly, subject matter expert interviews were conducted of Canadian live music festival artistic and executive directors to explore how the organizational and production side of live music festivals impacted fans. Thirdly, design workshops were conducted to explore possible futures of live music festivals through the generation of creative ideations that represent how new objective constructs and inter-objective systems applied to live music festivals can influence future subjective and inter-subjective fandom experiences. Fourthly, I utilized the STEEP-V framework to organize all data according to social, technological, environmental, economic, political, and values-based insights and then organized. Finally, through the analysis and synthesis of the collective insights under the validity claims framework (Wilber, 1997), this inquiry pointed towards both the robustness of the viability and sustainability of the organization of live music festivals and the ongoing desire of the live music fandom to continue to broaden the scope and reach of the modern live music festival in a world that is full of panic and possibility.

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