Paper short abstract:

This presentation shows an analysis of the activities of an online Facebook-group, which serves as a connection point for participants of the Hungarian music festival, Fekete Zaj. The research question is whether an online platform can be an extension of an event-based, real-life "spiritual space".

Paper long abstract:

Many scholars have argued that event-based communities bear a lot of religious and spiritual characteristics through a collective, ritualistic experience (Olaveson 2004; St John and Gauthier 2015; Lucia 2020). Can an online platform be the extension of this “spiritual space” that a real-life event creates? (Pike 2022)

From a sociological perspective, it is interesting to see how whole communities are formed in the online world, especially when the personal encounters are temporary and ephemeral, such as a festival.

I followed the activities of a Facebook group of a music festival (Fekete Zaj, Hungary) I previously conducted empirical fieldwork on. My research question was how people stay connected and stay in the community after the temporary event ended. In contemporary times it is easier to stay updated and keep connection after such an event in the digital world.

The participants did not only use the online platform to share their programmes, concerts, and other similar events that were organised during the year, but also supported each other mentally after the 'post-event blues' that many have experienced. By sharing photos, posting stories they have lived through at the festival, and keeping contact, the participants created an online community and supported each other. A short online survey showed that most of the participants struggled of getting back to their daily lives after the event, and one of the coping mechanisms was to re-live some moments of the festival through this joint Facebook group. In this presentation, I will show the results of my analysis of the group activities, arguing that an online platform can be a space for keeping spiritual connection.