Festival time brings the opportunity for lots of fun for girls and boys of all ages. It also allows firms to launch a plethora of marketing onslaughts which, when you read the details of them, leave you feeling slightly less warm and fuzzy about the festival season. But would these events attract as many amazing acts without such heavy investment from companies?

O2 Wireless takes place this weekend in London and Leeds. The fact that I've been able to name the festival without using the word "festival", and through the use of just a brand name, seems indicative of the impact of corporate sponsorship on live music in the twenty-first century. And you can be assured the input from O2 will not end once you walk through the gate, either.

Some lucky O2 customers will have access to exclusive areas offering comfortable seating, free bars, exclusive performances and free CD giveaways. All of which, one imagines, is designed to make friends of O2 customers, unfortunate enough to use a different network, think: "Hmm, suddenly free cinema tickets don't seem to cut it."

Ray-Ban will be providing similarly seductive areas away from the discomfort of, um, Hyde Park or Harewood House. They're also offering the opportunity to swap your manky old shades for a spanking new pair of Ray-Bans. On top of this, there will be a photographer and stylist on hand to help you create your own "iconic rock picture". Reckon a pair of Ray-Bans may have to feature in there somewhere?

All of these tactics come under the umbrella of "experiential marketing". Here comes the science. Apparently while product-centric marketing appeals mainly to consumers' rational responses (i.e., "this product is better than that product because of X,Y,Z"), experiential marketing is designed to target emotional responses as well. The thinking goes that if you associate Ray-Bans with that day you had a laugh with your mates, saw your favourite band and got wasted on free booze, you're going to prefer them to other sunglasses manufacturers.

And there are a lot of firms hiring specialist experiential marketing companies to target these responses - especially if they're the responses of young folk with a fair amount of disposable income.

When it comes to booze, there is a lot at stake. Everyone wants to be associated with summer, whether it be manufacturers of cool refreshing lager, Pimms, cider, Gordons gin... The increasing popularity of cider, as Laura Barton's Guardian article mentions, has led to a burgeoning market for not just the apple variety but also pear cider (or plain old "perry").

The Brothers brand has benefited hugely from its association with Glastonbury, as this was where it was first made widely available to folk outside Somerset. Now it's branching out somewhat, popping up in pubs and bars in London while clinging to its strapline "First Brewed In A Field In Somerset". The pear cider revival is perhaps a factor in the £27m investment being put into marketing Strongbow this year. Already challenged heavily by Bulmers / Magners, Strongbow's festival Ciderhouse will be visiting Global Gathering, V and Creamfields, having already hit the Isle of Wight festival.

So you can add Strongbow to the list of companies looking to make a loyal customer out of you this summer. Fender, software company Ubisoft, Tuborg Lager, fake tanning folk Fake Bake and Tiscali will all be battling for your experiential bucks at O2 Wireless alone. The positive side of this is that you should be able to bag a fair amount of free swag and the odd interesting experience over the sumer. The downside? Well... Weren't you going to see some bands play? I may be old-fashioned, but there's surely a lot to be said for coming home with just some amazing memories and photos. Opening your bag to a bunch of branded stuff, however free it was, must surely feel a little like coming home from some kind of over-sponsored provincial roadshow.

That's without going into the fact that booking / transaction fees for O2 Wireless can reach £8 on top of a ticket's face value. Or what will doubtless be exorbitant prices for food and drink. Or the fact that should O2 decide against sponsoring the event in future it will perhaps be rebranded as "Orange In The Park" or similar, lending the festival the kind of credibility plunge associated with football's League / Milk / Rumbelows / Coca Cola / Carling Cup.

But that's the price for having such a huge number of festivals to choose from up and down the country. The chances are that without them these events would cost a hell of a lot more than they do already (if they existed at all), and people who don't get to go to gigs regularly would miss out on a lot of great live music. Maybe, like changing the channel during the ad break, the answer is to just enjoy the show and pretend the admen aren't really there.

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