Festival Literature Research Articles

Quality, expenditure, and loyalty in a cultural event: a longitudinal study

ObjetivoEl impacto de la calidad del evento en el gasto y la lealtad de los visitantes ha sido un tema pocas veces analizado por la literatura de los festivales. Estas mismas relaciones incidentales no fueron valoradas desde una perspectiva temporal en el caso de eventos culturales recurrentes. El artículo explora estas relaciones causales e informa sobre el efecto moderador de la investigación longitudinal de las ediciones del festival.Diseño/metodología/enfoqueSe examinaron nueve hipótesis a través de técnicas de cuadrados MES, y la validación se llevó a cabo mediante la evaluación del modelo estructural y de medición. Además, se realizó un análisis multigrupo para probar el efecto de moderación longitudinal. Los datos analizados provienen de encuestas aplicadas durante tres ediciones sucesivas (2013 = 164 casos, 2014 = 154 casos, 2015 = 128 casos).RecomendacionesEl carácter local y efímero del evento favorece el consumo inmediato, y el aumento de la participación en el gasto entre categorías pasa por la diversificación que permite estimular la compra. En este contexto particular, la moderación inducida por la secuencia de ediciones incidió contundentemente en las relaciones analizadas, generando la necesidad de prestar atención a los cambios temporales para comprender y operar los eventos recurrentes.Originalidad/valorEl fortalecimiento del festival pasó por una etapa donde se abrió a otros segmentos de visitantes a pesar de la opinión dominante de preservar el carácter local del evento. Además, este estudio aclara que un análisis retrospectivo de ediciones anteriores, en comparación con la perspectiva de la estacionariedad del evento, permite gestionar la actualización necesaria que permite preservar la lealtad del visitante.

On the Politics of Performing Wagner Outdoors: Open-Air Opera,Gesamtkunstwerkand the Third Reich’s ‘Forest Opera’, 1933–45

AbstractThis article explores the politics of performing Wagner outdoors, focusing on theWaldoperin Sopot, Poland, and its operations under the Third Reich. Festival literature suggests that the Reich combined climatic deterministic logic with established open-air theatrical practice to implicate experiencing Wagnerian sounds outdoors as inculcatingvölkischcharacter in Poles, positioning the festival within the Reich’s imperial mission. However, this vision from ‘on high’ was undermined by bureaucratic disorganization and inefficiency, much like other Nazi artistic projects. The article concludes with a discussion of the post-war afterlives of theWaldoperand its attendant mythologies.

Does Gender Moderate the Relationship among Festival Attendees’ Motivation, Perceived Value, Visitor Satisfaction, and Electronic Word-of-Mouth?

Festivals are experiential products heavily depending on the recommendations of previous visitors. With the power of social media growing, understanding the antecedents of positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions of festival attendees is immensely beneficial for festival organizers to better promote their festivals and control negative publicity. However, there is still limited research regarding eWOM intentions in the festival context. Thus, this study aims to fill such a gap by investigating the relationships among festival attendees’ enjoyment seeking motivation, perceived value, visitor satisfaction, and eWOM intention in a local festival setting. Additionally, the moderating role of gender was tested as it is one of the most important demographic variables to show individual differences in behavioral intentions. The results of structural equation modeling showed a positive effect of enjoyment seeking motivation on perceived value, visitor satisfaction, and eWOM intention. Moreover, gender differences in eWOM intention and a full mediating effect of visitor satisfaction between perceived value and eWOM intention for female respondents were revealed. The findings of this study extend the existing festival literature and provide insights for strategically organizing and promoting festivals to generate more positive eWOM which can be utilized as an effective marketing tool and a feedback channel.

지역축제의 브랜드 이미지가 가치, 태도, 행동의도에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구: 금산 인삼축제를 중심으로

Many local festivals are held every year in South Korea, but not all of them are successful. So this study analyzes the success factors of the local festival based on brand images. This study proposes and tests value-attitude-behavior theory and brand images as the primary determinants of visitor’s decision formation using an PLS-SEM approach. A total of 286 valid questionnaires are collected from visitors who joined the Geumsan ginseng festival. The results of this study reveal that both differentiation and environmental friendliness are significant determinants of value toward local festival, whereas familiarity is not. Also, our results show that value had significant impacts on attitude and behavioral intention. Specially relationship between value and behavior intention are significantly mediated by attitude. This study contributes to local festival literature by exploring the role of brand image on value-attitude-behavior theory. It provides insights into appropriate strategies for the local festival and tourism industry and offers practical suggestions to government organizations for using local festival as a destination marketing tool.

Festivals’ social impacts and emotional solidarity

PurposeInteractions between local people and guests/visitors are the main elements of tourism experience. And local festivals, considered as a significant part of festival tourism, are quite important in this context. Though many studies have been conducted about interaction between local residents and guests tourists, emotional solidarity remains as a concept which has not yet been studied much in tourism literature on local festivals. The aim of this study is to examine emotional solidarity in tourism festival literature and to determine the relationships between perceptions of local people related to social impacts of festivals and emotional solidarity they feel for guests/visitors.Design/methodology/approachIn line with this purpose, a quantitative approach was adopted, and 19th weaving, culture and handicrafts festival held in Buldan was chosen to be studied as it is an important festival for local people dwelling in Buldan, Denizli province located in Aegean Region in Turkey. The study data were obtained through questionnaire method conducted with Buldan residents during the 19th festival (June, 28th–30th, 2019). The sample was determined with random sampling method.FindingsThe data were analyzed via factor and regression analyses. As a result of factor analysis, social impacts of the festivals were grouped under 6 factors (under 3 subfactors of social benefits: communal benefits, cultural–educational benefits, social unity benefits; under 3 subfactors of social costs: concerns related to social resources, concerns related to life quality and concerns related to social order).Practical implicationsLocal people's perceptions of social impacts of festivals must be determined in order to find their impacts on emotional solidarity, and deficiencies must be remedied. Local governments who organize festivals to invigorate local economies usually try to attract more visitors with the purpose of maximizing economic impacts of festivals, and this is done without placing much importance on the social problems and social change that may arise in the future (Crandall, 1994).Originality/valueRelationships were determined between emotional solidarity and residents' perceptions towards social and cultural–educational benefits as well as their concerns related to social resources and life quality.

Do music festival communities address environmental sustainability and how? A Scottish case study

AbstractThis article discusses the findings of an Arts and Humanities Research Council project researching how music festival communities in Scotland can address issues of environmental sustainability and climate change. It investigates how music festival communities are constructed with a focus on what role, if any, they might play in responding to the global challenge of environmental sustainability. Using music festivals in Scotland as a case study, we employed a variety of research methods to interrogate different constituents in music festival communities about their views and behaviours regarding climate change and environmental sustainability. These included festival audiences via onsite questionnaires; festival organisers and promoters via interviews and focus groups; and musicians via creative practice-led research. We conclude that rather than necessarily being a site for progressive or utopian socio-cultural experimentation (as they are occasionally portrayed in festival literature), music festival communities engage in complex and often contradictory behaviours when it comes to responding to – and making sense of – their own complicity in social challenges such as climate change.

From Having Fun to Applause: The Study of Relationships among Festival Benefits, Festival Identity and Festival Support by Viewpoints of the Hosts and Guests

The sustainable development of the festival depends on the support and participation of residents and tourists. There are a number of practical and theoretical gaps regarding the hosts and guests in festival literature. This study attempts to fill the host–guest gap based on the theory of reasoned action to construct and exam a relationship model. Taking the 2016 Summer Festival during busy season as an example in Hualien, 1165 questionnaires were valid, and data were analyzed by SEM (structural equation modeling). Results showed that the hosts had higher perception than the guests in terms of the festival benefits, identity, and support. This study has two concept models: the guest model and the host model. In the host model, the local-development benefits have more positive relationships to affect the festival support and festival identity than the recreation-experience benefits. On the other hand, the recreation-experience benefits could affect the festival support, but the festival identity could not in the guest model. The results of this study indicate that the festival organizers or the public sectors must be pay attention to the viewpoints of the guests and hosts in order to achieve the sustainable development objectives.

EDM and Ecstasy: the lived experiences of electronic dance music festival attendees

Attendance at large-scale music festivals has captivated a global interest in these spectacular experiences, yet little is known about the lasting benefits and personal changes individuals incur following this event. This study aims to provide a comprehensive exploration of the lived experiences of individuals who attended a multi-day electronic dance music festival. The present study was primarily interested in the perceived beneficial changes within the individual, following their festival experience. We investigated if first-time festival attendees perceived changes differed to those of returning individuals. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were used to collect data from 12 individuals who attended the 2015 Electronic Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. Six participants were first-time attendees while the remaining six were individuals returning to the festival. The data was analysed using Thematic Analysis. Within the data emerged the following central themes: (1) escape, (2) communitas, and (3) self-reported changes; there were 10 subthemes. These findings add to the existing body of music festival literature, further contextualizing how music festivals are both experienced, and reflected upon by individuals. Further, this study highlights the potential lasting changes individuals’ experience from attending electronic dance music festivals.

Festival attributes and perceptions: A meta-analysis of relationships with satisfaction and loyalty

Festivals provide economic, social and cultural benefits to the communities in which they occur, and contribute to event tourism and destination marketing. This research reports a meta-analysis of the festival literature to evaluate the factors that contribute to festival satisfaction and loyalty. Attributes were classified into six categories: activities, authenticity/uniqueness, concessions, environment, escape and socialization. The analysis revealed that festival activities (program, entertainment, thematic activities) and environment (atmosphere, convenience, facilities) are the most important determinants of satisfaction and loyalty. Two perceptions were evaluated: cost/value and service quality. The analysis revealed that cost/value is important for both satisfaction and loyalty, whereas service quality is relatively unimportant. Satisfaction with the festival is strongly related to loyalty. The findings suggest that festival planners should focus on providing an enjoyable program in a comfortable environment at a reasonable price. This strategy will cultivate repeat attendance and stimulate future visits to the festival destination.

Eine Triumphpforte österreichischer Kunst: Hugo von Hofmannsthals Gründung der Salzburger Festspiele by Norbert Christian Wolf

Reviewed by: Eine Triumphpforte österreichischer Kunst: Hugo von Hofmannsthals Gründung der Salzburger Festspiele by Norbert Christian Wolf Caroline A. Kita Norbert Christian Wolf, Eine Triumphpforte österreichischer Kunst: Hugo von Hofmannsthals Gründung der Salzburger Festspiele. Salzburg and Vienna: Jung und Jung, 2014. 319 pp. Since its establishment in 1920, the Salzburg Festival has emerged as one of Europe’s premiere cultural events and today has come to solidify Austria’s reputation as center of artistic, musical, and dramatic innovation. As Michael Steinberg’s 1990 study demonstrated, the history of the festival’s founding ideology remains deeply intertwined with the dynamics of interwar politics. Drawing upon an “invented tradition” that linked Austria’s theatrical heritage to the Catholic Baroque, the Salzburg Festival came to play a defining role in the development of a distinct Austrian national identity in the volatile early years of the First Republic. Norbert Christian Wolf’s most recent contribution to festival literature, Eine Triumphpforte österreichischer Kunst: Hugo von Hofmannsthals Gründung der Salzburger Festspiele, sets out with a familiar premise: to question the validity of the festival’s popular “European-pacificist-cosmopolitan” image. Whereas Steinberg’s study focused primarily on placing the festival in the larger context of Austrian cultural history, Wolf stays close to the source texts. In the first two sections of his work, Wolf at empts a comprehensive documentary history of the development of the festival’s founding ideology. In addition to the programmatic texts by Hofmannsthal, Wolf also focuses on the writings of other lesser-known architects of the festival vision, such as Viennese salonnière Berta Zuckerkandl. In the third and fourth chapters, Wolf reflects on the genesis and performance history of Hofmannsthal’s Jedermann and Das Salzburger große Welttheater, examining these works in the context of festival ideology as well as the poet’s broader political and artistic Weltanschauung. Through this rich and detailed examination of the festival’s founding documents, Wolf convincingly challenges contemporary myths of the festival’s ideology as a static and fixed concept, revealing a variety of conflicting visions and pragmatic choices that made the festival the cultural landmark that it is today. Wolf’s close reading draws attention to the variety of discourses that came to shape Hofmannsthal’s program for the festival. For example, the elision of the historical influence of the Josephenian Enlightenment on Mozart’s operas in Hofmannsthal’s essay Deutsche Festspiele zu Salzburg, bills Don Juan and Die Zauberflöte, along with the plays of Raimund and Grillparzer, as part of an Austrian theatrical tradition directly descended from the world theater [End Page 106] of Pedro Calderón de la Barca and Shakespeare. Yet at the same time, Hofmannsthal conjures up a vision of the festival as the artistic realization of an imagined Bavarian-Austrian folk community. Despite the fact that the poet employs a rhetorical style reminiscent of the writings of the literary historian Josef Nadler, Wolf appears determined to distance the poet from nationalist politics. Instead, he identifies Hofmannsthal’s appeal to a German spirit as a defensive tactic against the critical reactions of the anti-Semitic press to his Jewish heritage. By highlighting Hofmannsthal’s engagement with international aesthetic discourses, Wolf further calls into question connections between Hofmannsthal’s program for the festival and völkisch ideology. In the litle-known Wiener Brief, writ en in 1923 for a planned performance of Das Salzburger große Welt heater in the United States, Hofmannsthal eschews such nationalist language, describing the festival vision instead through references to the poetry of Walt Whitman, the trends of modern art, and the philosophy of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. Wolf’s in-depth analyses of Jedermann and Das Salzburger große Welt heater sheds light on a variety of surprising contradictions between Hofmannsthal’s artistic vision for these works in their original contexts and in their defining roles in the development of Salzburg’s ideology. Wolf’s discussion of Jedermann is particularly insightful, illuminating the text as a reflection of the modern “crisis of conscience” under capitalism, drawn from Hofmannsthal’s study of the philosophy of Georg Simmel. The transformation of Jedermann into a defining work of the festival’s Catholic ideology appears...

Sense of community and perceptions of festival social impacts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relation between psychological sense of community (SOC) and perceived social impacts of festival events. Design/methodology/approach – SOC was measured using the four-dimensional Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) and the Festival Social Impact Attitudes Scale (FSIAS) was used to measure perceived impacts. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires provided to residents of Caldwell, Texas following the annual Kolache Festival. Findings – Results revealed a relation between two dimensions of the BSCS, needs fulfillment and influence, and the way in which impacts are perceived. Specifically, needs fulfillment was positively related to social benefits and individual benefits. Needs fulfillment was negatively related to social costs. Influence related to impacts in the same manner. Research limitations/implications – This research provides support for a four-dimensional conceptualization of SOC and highlights the importance of examining the relation between psycho-social variables and perceptions of impact. Further research in additional settings is recommended. Practical implications – Results suggest that individuals with greater SOC are better able to perceive festival impacts and could be mobilized by festival administrators to address festival issues. Further research in additional settings is recommended. Originality/value – Empirical explorations of psychological SOC have been common in a range of community settings but have not received much attention with in the festival literature. Exploring how SOC is related to festival experiences can enhance theory development within this field of study as well as provide needed insight for festival administrators.

The social and spatial construction of two South African arts festivals as liminal events

The claim that ‘festivals suspend the everyday’ is challenged in this article, which deals with how two South African arts festivals – the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in Oudtshoorn and Aardklop in Potchefstroom – are constructed. This article examines how the ‘setting apart’ of festivals, which is assumed as self-evident in the festival literature, occurs. The notion of liminality (the process by which the ordinary is rendered extra-ordinary during festivals) is therefore central to the analysis. Six conditions of liminality are distinguished: extensive planning and preparation, different senses of time, the alteration of everyday routines, re-discovery and re-appropriation of private and public spaces, the activation of festival spaces; and the reworking of rules. These six factors considered collectively are the most important conditions of liminality within the context of the arts festivals; in other words, they make these festivals into constructed liminal events.

Music, the Emblematic, and "The Mystery of Holy Matrimony"

Johann Oettinger's Warhaffte historische Beschreibung der firstlichen Hochzeit is a fascinating amalgam of narrative detail and moral-political commentary.1 Printed in 1610,2 it commemorates the wedding of Duke Johann Friedrich of Wiirttemberg to Barbara Sophia of Brandenburg, which had been celebrated at Stuttgart during November of the preceding year. In its detailed delineation of guests, pageants, religious ceremonies, tournaments, and banquets, Oettinger's account is typical of contemporary festival literature. But by providing expansive commentaries that combine classical, historical, and scriptural citations,3 Oettinger invites the reader simultaneously to admire the splendor and sophistication of the festivities and to reflect on their deeper political and religious significance. A musical pageant of Phoebus, Lucina, and the Muses on the eve of the wedding afforded Oettinger an opportunity to shape his account to moral and political ends. While the music for this performance is no longer extant, his account includes the texts that were sung, a detailed prose account and engraving of the performance,4 and a commentary on its meaning. For Oettinger, who was also involved in its planning,5 the pageant is an embodiment of orthodox Lutheran teaching through which audience and reader arrive at a proper understanding of marriage. In the context of the festivities, which presented this particular marriage as a seal of the recently formed Protestant Union and a triumph of true religion,6 the teaching of the pageant gains wider currency as a manifestation of Protestant ideology.7 In his description of the pageant, Oettinger reveals a deep concern with the role of musical and theatrical performance in the projection of moral and political ideology. This concern conditions both his statements regarding sensory experience and his method of presentation, which draws on the layout and interpretive procedures of contemporary emblem books. By the invocation of commonplaces about the symbolic potential, emotional effect, and proper function of music, he seeks throughout to integrate aural experience with intellectual and spiritual edification.