Abstract
Due to their special format, today’s music festivals are a unique observation space in which music listening is caught up in a play of complex sociabilities with which it constantly interacts. Based on a 2010 survey of attendees of the Eurockéennes de Belfort music festival, this article explores the place occupied by music listening in the festival experience and shows how it accommodates other essential features of the festival event, such as being together, meeting new people, and celebrating. The article studies music listening from two angles. First, by presenting the range of ordinary sociabilities associated with festivals, since audience members rarely attend alone. Next, by showing how different communities of taste mix together and how the banner of “rock” offers a gathering place for diverse musical genres, where the situation of collective listening encourages a more attentive relationship to otherness.