Active vs Passive Social Media Use, Attendee Engagement, and Festival Loyalty Abstract Higher intensity social media (SM) use by consumers can boost organizational reputation and engagement (Dijkmans et al., 2015). As a result, festivals are increasingly using SM as a customer relationship platform to interact with attendees to enhance engagement and build a loyal audience. Attendees’ SM use can range in degree of active versus passive utilization - from writing posts and posting pictures and comments to just following, reading, or viewing. This paper begins to explore the nature of SM interaction (active or passive) with a festival and its potential relationship(s) to attendees’ affective, cognitive, and normative engagement and loyalty. Survey respondents (N=354) at three music festivals provided the field settings for this study. Preliminary findings highlight patterns of similarity and difference in active and passive SM use before, during, and after the festival experience and suggest consistent passive SM use over time is important to fostering engagement and loyalty.