Researching the spirit of place. Mental mapping on Sziget Festival

Abstract

This paper deals with the atmosphere of Sziget Festival. My research goal was to interpret and to depict the festival as a socio-cultural environment, an experienced material and spiritual space; a special place that exists only for a week. Based on the results, the mental places of Sziget Festival – i.e. the places that exist in festivalgoers’ minds – and the most important values of the venue, the functions of the sites, the forces that create places, the most characteristic atmospheric elements of the place, and the channels of perception of the spirit of place can be described. The applied objective of the research was also to assist in festival development, from the perspective of the formation of the festival image and marketing communication to practical considerations. Thus, the research highlights the usability of both the social sciences and applied research (marketing and market research) of genius loci, and some appropriate methods.