New survey launched: Smells Like Ageism
Smells Like Ageism is a new survey by Age Bombs exploring whether and how age shapes belonging, visibility, and participation in club culture, live music, raves, and festivals, and which age-related assumptions often operate unspoken in music spaces.
Why we’re launching this survey
The music scene is open, many-voiced, and constantly moving. It lives through energy, sound, bodies, networks, and attitude.
At the same time, there is rarely an open conversation about the role age plays in all of this. Who gets seen, heard, booked, or invited? Who is treated as fitting in, as a given, as relevant? And how do age-related assumptions intersect with other labels and conditions that shape visibility, access, and belonging in the scene?
Smells Like Ageism asks what role age plays in music spaces, and how age-related assumptions may connect with gender, origin, body, health, networks, scene codes, or economic conditions.
What the survey looks at
With Smells Like Ageism, Age Bombs is launching a survey across club culture, live music, raves, and festivals. The focus is on events, booking, teams, audiences, and the many roles that make music spaces possible.
The survey is for people who attend clubs, concerts, raves, festivals, or other music events, or who are active in those spaces artistically, organizationally, technically, curatorially, or in any other role.
Age belongs in diversity
The survey gathers perspectives from different stages of life. It asks whether and where age plays a role, how it connects with other factors, and where other dynamics may be more influential.
What the survey aims to make visible
The survey gathers experiences and observations from music spaces. It is not about judging individual scenes, venues, or people involved. The goal is to create a more precise picture of how people of different ages experience music spaces: as audiences, on stages, in teams, at doors, in booking, in images, expectations, and belonging.
More than a quick read on the mood
The survey is intentionally a little more in-depth, so the responses can lead to more than a quick snapshot. It asks about experiences, observations, possible forms of exclusion, good examples, and impulses for change.
The survey is developed and conducted by Robert Eysoldt, founder of Age Bombs, and Dr. Tim Kuball, gerontopsychologist.
The results will be published in fall 2026 and then discussed at festivals, conferences, and on other stages.
Join in and pass it on
The survey is for people who attend clubs, concerts, raves, or festivals, or who are active in those spaces artistically, organizationally, technically, or in another role.
We’re also conducting short one-on-one interviews to add more personal experiences and perspectives to the study. If you’d be open to a conversation, you’ll find our email address at the end of the survey.
Take the survey in English.
Hier geht’s zur Umfrage auf Deutsch.
Feel free to share the survey with anyone whose perspective should be part of it. The more different voices we hear, the clearer the picture becomes.
Want to help spread the word, share the survey with your networks and communities, or support the project as a partner? Get in touch at smellslikeageism@agebombs.com
Participation is anonymous. All responses will be treated as strictly confidential and analyzed anonymously. Further information can be found in the survey’s privacy notice.
