The purpose of this article was to explore the music festival as a music educational project by means of results drawn from a case study investigating one particular festival's impact on identity development, both for the individual member of the audience (musical identity) and for the local society (local identity). The theoretical framework was taken from theories of modernity, dealing with identity as a reflexive project, created and maintained by self-narratives. The study combined a survey among the festival audience with observations of festival events. The results showed that the festival mediated stories, myths, beliefs and values connected to music and that there was a contrast between the festival staff encouraging the development and the audience preferring the maintenance of musical identities. The festival also created different social rooms for musical activity. These features are discussed in a music educational perspective. Implications are also drawn for music educational practice and research.