Music For Sale? : Umeå Open & Umeå International Jazz Festival - A Study in Event Marketing

Sammanfattning: Umeå is a city that is known for its music scene. Credible bands and artists have consequently sprung out and put the city on the map for as long the authors of this paper can remember. The city has a specific image and this study seeks to shine a light on how this came to be. Has there been a conscious marketing strategy in order to gain the reputation that Umeå has, or is the city’s music scene so prominent that it speaks for itself? Data for the study were collected through conducting qualitative interviews with the producers of the two music festivals Umeå Open and Umeå International Jazz Festival. The results show that cultural visions and marketing are constantly interacting, but to the authors’ knowledge, no conscious decisions have previously been taken to market Umeå as a city of music. Still, with current acts like Deportees, David Sandström and Frida Hyvönen just to mention a few, the image of Umeå is more justified than ever.