Monitoring Visitor Flow and Behavior During a Festival: Mysteryland Case Study

Abstract

More and more people visit mass events, while also the number of mass events is increasing. However, the choice behavior of visitors during these mass events is not yet well known. To get insight into this behavior, 109 visitors of Mysteryland (a Dutch dance festival with 60,000 visitors) have carried a GPS tracker during their stay at the event terrain and filled in a survey afterwards. Using the trajectories from the GPS trackers and the survey answers, we have identified the personal characteristics of the visitors and determined their route and activity choice behavior during the festival, including the effects of these choices on the use of the infrastructure and the facilities (such as the stages). A GPS tracker in combination with demographic information and information on visitor behavior through a survey has proven to be a valuable tool to get insight into visitor behavior during festivals. This research will be followed up in 2016 to get a larger sample and more detailed information on the choices for the performances and stages visitors attend.