ABSTRACT
As the number of festivals and the need to provide more satisfying customer experiences continue to grow, the challenges faced by festival managers have become more complicated than ever. This means that festival organisers are becoming progressively more reliant on their inter-organisational/delivery partners to sustain and improve their on-going operational activity. Supply Chain Management (SCM) provides a new dimension to a traditional perspective on the management of festivals, as collective co-operation can lead to the provision of superior value to customers. Through data collected from multiple semi-structured interviews with directors and employees at UK-based music events and festival suppliers, this chapter offers insights into how the effective and efficient management of SCM carries additional benefits to festival delivery. Firstly, it illustrates the complexity and multiplicity of supply chains in the festival industry and highlights the reliance on trust, customer visibility and communication within the overall supply chain. Secondly, the chapter applies two models from the mainstream SCM literature, namely the Bullwhip Effect and the Kraljic’s Purchasing Portfolio Model, to reveal the complex interactions between individual organisations in the supply chain.
