🎸 Metal, Business and Impact: Discussing the Societal Role of Festivals 🤘

As Festivalprofessor, I had the pleasure of joining a panel discussion at the Beholders; Documentary Dialogues, an international Documentary Festival in Veghel (NL), where the impressive documentary “Hard Harder Ysselsteyn” was screened. The film explores what happens when a small rural town is transformed once a year by 48,000 metal and punk fans during the Jera On Air Festival.

Together with representatives from Jera On Air, the Metal Business Club and others, we discussed how festivals can create impact—locally, culturally, and economically.

From a research perspective, festivals can be understood as social resonance spaces: they foster collective identity, enable regional value creation, and act as drivers of cultural participation far beyond the event itself. The dialogue clearly showed how strongly entrepreneurship, community, and culture are interconnected within the metal scene. 🤘

It was an inspiring exchange between academia and practice—and a great example of how cross-border cooperation can strengthen the cultural ecosystem.

A German chapter of the Metal Business Club is already in preparation—an exciting opportunity to further connect the business and metal communities across Europe!