Recent research has illuminated the significant impact festivals and mass gatherings can have on empowering and inspiring individuals to make lifestyle changes towards a sustainable future. The study, conducted at a vegan festival, suggests that these collective experiences may play a crucial role in driving positive changes in societal norms.
Dr Annayah Prosser, from the University of Bath’s School of Management, led the research which involved in-depth interviews with attendees of a vegan festival. The findings revealed that such events serve as a retreat for individuals living in a meat-eating society, providing an opportunity to recharge their beliefs, seek social connection, and be inspired by a collective identity-focused experience.
The festival experience was particularly meaningful for vegans who often feel isolated in their daily lives due to the small percentage of vegans in the UK. Many participants spoke about being mocked and feeling depression or dread as a result of the stigma attached to their dietary choices. The festival, on the other hand, offered them a sense of community and reinvigorated their motivation for social change.
In addition to providing a sense of community, the festival environment also encouraged vegans to feel braver about engaging in conversations regarding their veganism and to maintain their ‘everyday activism’. Even simple activities such as queuing for food and drink became opportunities to strike up friendly conversations and create positive social connections.
The research, which took place at the Vegan Camp Out in 2021, involved in-depth qualitative field interviews with 20 event attendees. Dr Prosser highlighted the social difficulties faced by vegans and the toll it takes on their mental health, leading to ‘activist burnout’. This not only impacts the individual but also hampers societal transitions towards plant-based eating, a crucial mechanism for supporting a sustainable future.
However, the study also emphasized the subtle yet crucial influence of minority groups in driving social change processes in the long term. It was found that vegans play a significant role in encouraging societal meat reduction and sustainable food choices in their social networks and the wider market. The research suggested that bringing together minority groups in festival environments is a vital method for supporting social change towards more sustainable futures, particularly in the case of promoting a plant-based or vegan diet.
The study also drew parallels with previous research on secular mass gatherings, indicating that the festival experience can be transformative for attendees, encouraging social connection and pro-social ‘helping’ behaviours which lasted for many months after the event. Dr Prosser stressed the importance of festival environments in resulting in significant transformations to personal and social identities.
The research, titled ‘Overcoming (vegan) burnout: Mass-gatherings can provide respite and rekindle shared identity and social action efforts in moralised minority groups’, has been published in Political Psychology, with contributions from the Universities of Exeter, Groningen, Western Australia, and Amsterdam Business School.
The findings of this study offer a fresh perspective on the profound impact of festivals and mass gatherings in driving sustainable lifestyle changes. It highlights the importance of collective experiences in empowering individuals and fostering social connections, ultimately playing a crucial role in supporting social change towards a more sustainable future.