Ode to the Bouncer: Music Festivals as Dynamic Gatekeepers of Radical Innovation

Why do some radical new ideas make it onto the main stage and others never get past the door? This talk introduces an event-centered perspective on radical innovation in the creative industries, arguing that music festivals are not merely stages for creative output but active selection systems that shape which innovations emerge, diffuse, and endure. Drawing on longitudinal data from over 480,000 electronic music events in the Netherlands, this study explores how atypical genre combinations navigate and survive festival ecosystems while others do not.