Table of Contents Table of Pictures ............................................................................................................ 2 Table of Figures ............................................................................................................. 3 Table ............................................................................................................................... 4 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 5 2 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 8 2.1 The Mixed Methods Research ....................................................................... 8 2.2 The Research Design ................................................................................... 10 2.2.1 Sampling ........................................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Qualitative Interview ........................................................................ 13 2.2.3 Quantitative Survey .......................................................................... 14 2.2.4 Participant Observation .................................................................... 18 2.3 Reliability and Validity ................................................................................ 18 3 Theory ..................................................................................................................... 21 3.1 The Festival and Event Experience ............................................................. 21 3.1.1 The Definition of an Experience ....................................................... 22 3.1.2 The Meanings of Experiences .......................................................... 27 3.1.3 Towards the Meaningful Experiences of Events and Festivals ........ 29 3.2 Experience Design for Events and Festivals .................................................. 34 3.2.1 Design – A Whole Event Process ....................................................... 34 3.2.2 The Experience Realm ........................................................................ 36 3.3 The Innovation Process of Experience Design .............................................. 40 3.3.1 Framing the Experience ...................................................................... 44 3.3.3 Shaping the Concept ........................................................................... 46 Analysis........................................................................................................................ 52 4 The Experience Design of CA ................................................................................ 52 4.1 Carnival Theme............................................................................................ 52 4.2 Framing the Experience ............................................................................... 54 4.3 Shaping the Concept .................................................................................... 56 4.3.1 The breadth of expression – Five components ................................. 57 4.3.2 Duration of Experience ..................................................................... 66 4.3.3 Intensity ............................................................................................ 74 5 Designed Experiences from CA ............................................................................. 77 5.1 The CA‟s Core Experience........................................................................... 77 5.2 Other Meaningful Experiences of CA ......................................................... 82 5.2.1 Possible Meaningful Experiences Created by CA ............................ 82 5.2.2 The CA‟s Dominant Experiences based on Visitors‟ Perspectives ... 93 5.3 The Experience Realm of CA ...................................................................... 94 6 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 100 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 104 Appendix 1: Bystrup (2010) .................................................................................... 108 Appendix 2: Survey via SurveyXact ....................................................................... 123 Appendix 3: Open Questions ................................................................................... 134 Appendix 4: Street Interviews ................................................................................. 158 Table of Pictures Picture 1: CA‟s image and official symbol. Picture is from CA‟s Facebook group profile pictures. .................................................................................. 56 Picture 2: The CA‟s Grand Parade‟s routes and their starting times (Karnevaliaalborg, j). ................................................................................... 58 Picture 3: From left to right: The international parade; participants‟ parade; music truck; participants dress up costumes. The pictures are taken by the author. ...................................................................................................................... 59 2 Picture 4: From left to right: Concert in Kildeparken; Big screen in Kildeparken. The photos are from CA‟s gallery “Karnevalsfest I Kildeparken 2010” at main website. ............................................................................................... 60 Picture 5: Branding CA on Facebook CA official group (Facebook, 2010). ....... 62 Picture 6: The ways visitors can buy Carnival tickets for entering Kildeparken (Karnevaliaalborg, h). .................................................................................. 63 Table of Figures Figure 1: The sampling size for the survey via SurveyXact. ............................... 11 Figure 2: The total experience product (Sundbo & Hagedorn-Rasmussen, 2008, p. 98) ................................................................................................................ 27 Figure 3: the meanings of experiences (Diller, Shedroff, & Rhea, 2008, pp. 32-36) ...................................................................................................................... 30 Figure 4: The Experience Realms (Pine & Gilmore, 1999, p. 30) .................... 37 Figure 5: Conceptual links between creative persons, processes, situations and products (Woodman et al., 1993 in Larsen 2009) ........................................ 41 Figure 6: The process for designing meaningful experiences proceeds through five phases, starting with a broad exploration of opportunity and progressing to the final detailed expression through products, services, brand and all other consumer touch points (Diller, Shedroff, & Rhea, 2008, p. 63) ............................................................................................................ 42 Figure 7: Five components of experience: product, service, brand, channel, promotion (Diller, Shedroff, & Rhea, 2008, pp. 93-97) .............................. 47 Figure 8: Duration of Experience, based on Diller et al (2008)........................... 48 Figure 9: The theme of CA from 1992 – 2010 (karnevaliaalborg, b). ................. 53 Figure 10: The result from SurveyXact about “how do you know about CA”. ... 65 Figure 11: Five components of breadth applied to CA (designed by the author, 3 inspired by Diller et al). ............................................................................... 66 Figure 12: The duration of experience from CA organization, designed by the author, inspired by Diller et al (2008). ......................................................... 70 Figure 13: The survey result from SurveyXact about the question “If possible, would you like to attend the Aalborg Carnival in the future?”. ................... 70 Figure 14: The statements from respondents about where CA should be improved. ...................................................................................................................... 72 Figure 15: The survey result about the costumes from SurveyXact. ................... 75 Figure 16: The survey result from SurveyXact with the question “Can you feel that you are being entirely yourself and do whatever you want in general during the Carnival?”.................................................................................. 79 Figure 17: The survey result from SurveyXact with the question “Do you feel that you can be different than normal life?”. ............................................... 81 Figure 18: The meaningful experiences created through designing and making costumes for the CA 2010. The number shows the percentage of all respondents via SurveyXact. ........................................................................ 85 Figure 19: The result from SurveyXact on the question “why do you participate in CA”. ......................................................................................................... 90 Figure 20: The possible meaningful experiences offered by CA on the basis of Diller et al (2008), survey and open questions carried out by the author. ... 92 Figure 21: The result from self-completing questionnaire on experience realms in relation to CA. .............................................................................................. 98 Table Table 1: The profile of respondents for open questions.