Festival Processes, Innovation, and Locality Response: Evidence From South Africa's Rage Youth Festival

Abstract

One underrepresented theme in the burgeoning literature on festivals relates to the hosting of dedicated youth tourism festivals. Applying a qualitative research methodology, this article investigates festival development processes using the example of the annual Rage youth festival in South Africa. It is argued that despite their large economic impacts for destinations, youth tourism festivals often are controversial events that are associated with problematic social behavior by revelers. In this case study, several innovations were enacted by festival organizers for the purposes of control and containment, which potentially allows the local economic benefits to be realized at a minimal social cost. The example of the Rage Festival is instructive in the international context for demonstrating the need to understand innovative festival development processes at the microscale through a qualitative research approach, which offers fresh insight to complement traditional quantitative analysis of festival expenditure impacts.