Page 103 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report 2016

What is more, the model of a passive audience who comes along to enjoy whatever is scheduled is obsolete. Audiences are now groups of people keen to become involved in some way, or to have some kind of control over or role in cultural production. This involvement may range from simply having greater variety to choose fromand more information to active participation as producers, promotors or even co-creators. We will examine this point in greater depth later on in connection with crowdsourcing, together with the role of new technologies and how to make the most of them.As for the use of social media, we nd di erent strategic approaches and di erent audience pro les. These sites can be employed as a means of informing audiences in real time before and during the festival. They can also be used to explore and extend the mission of the event (disseminate, promote and encourage...) by curating its own and/or other content in order to cause a greater impact; or to strengthen a community and boost audience loyalty (on the understanding that the most active followers are usually our most loyal audience, though the relationship can also be improved through close, constant and active communication), combining di erent approaches and purposes3...For example, the Almagro Classical Theatre Festival considers these tools to be essential for engaging with its audience, but also for furthering the aims and mission of this festival throughout the year – namely to disseminate the heritage of the Baroque period, including its plays (through Facebook and Twitter, which are two of the platforms most widely used by audiences aged over 20).Although the organisers admit that it can be laborious to achieve the coveted engagement or involvement of followers through these social media, they would not do without these sites because of their huge possibilities. It should be realised that these tools also make it possible to segment communications and advertisementsaimed at speci c audiences (for example, Facebook allows them to target people by interests, based on what they ‘Like’), and to rebroadcast users’ and third-party content posted on these media.In this respect, a few festivals and other cultural elds now view the social media as a meansof broadening the event’s mission in a similar way to the Almagro Classical Theatre Festival. In other words, these digital spaces can be regarded as tools for curating content, even content targeted at speci c audiences, and ideally with followers’ collaboration.The organisers of the rock and heavy metal music festival Resurrection Fest tell us thatthe social media are one of the most important digital tools they use, if not the most important one. They expect to achieve a very active presence throughout the year on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Spotify. They have dozens of thousands of followers from all over the world (but especially Spain) on all these sites, each of which is used for a speci c purpose and kept up regularly.For example, they use Instagram to share informative and promotional images of the festival, but also photos related to the festival that are posted by followers, even showing them in their home environment, with merchandise and plenty of humour. It is interesting to note how they incorporate fans’ spontaneous customs and practices into the festival storyline, such asAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2016103Focus: Use of New Digital Technologies at Cultural Festivals