‘Tomorrowland’: identity construction and expression through flags and costumes in a music festival

Tomorrowland is a unique electronic music festival where most attendees are showing up with flags, accessories, and costumes. This research investigates consumers’ identity construction and expression through the experience of such a festival, focusing on the material possessions that are used there. Through a naturalistic interpretive approach, using interviews, observations and projective material and following a grounded theory analysis, we propose a typology of seven profiles of festivalgoers based on their external appearance and behaviours. We also describe seven functions fulfiled by the material possessions of festivalgoers. Finally, we discuss our findings along four interpretive dimensions related to the (re)creation and expression of private and collective selves and we provide some implications for festival and event managers.