Local Festivals Research Articles

Using self-determination theory to assess the tourism service product at local level: the case of North Cyprus

PurposeThis study draws on self-determination theory (SDT) and describes a study that elucidates how motivation can be fostered in the local management context. The study aims to provide state and local officials with a decision-making tool that allows evaluation of the quantity and quality of the public services by using SDT to interact with locals and students.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative approach and thematic analysis (TA) were used to find common themes and to develop an in-depth insight by gathering specific information from the point of view of local residents. In total, 19 interviews with locals were conducted using questions drawn from SDT.FindingsThe study found that the most significant obstacles were autonomy, competence and relatedness to intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as managing budgets, provision of basic services such as waste management, accessibility and support for local non-government organisations and local festivals and lack of knowledge about sustainable tourism product development among local residents.Originality/valueAlthough there is growing knowledge related to environmental and social concern, the municipality's engagement level in this area is low. Hence, the study provides state and local officials with a decision-making tool to evaluate public services' quantity and quality through the SDT on locals and students, and it is significant to explain the application of SDT to the tourism service at the local level and its potential to develop sustainable tourism.

지역축제 체험이 지역 이미지 및 지역 애호도에 미치는 영향 연구 : 영주한국선비문화축제를 중심으로

This study investigates the impact of local festival experiences on local image and local affinity for the Yeongju Seonbi Culture Festival held in Yeongju, the hometown of Seonbi. As a result of the study, it was found that the experience of local festivals had a significant effect on both local image and local loyalty. In particular, the influence relationship related to the local image appeared in the order of aesthetic, educational, escape, and entertainment experiences, and in terms of local loyalty, educational, aesthetic, entertainment, and escape experiences. Regional images were found to be significant in local loyalty. In the end, it can be seen that educational and aesthetic experiences must be emphasized in order to increase local image and local loyalty through the festival. It is interpreted that the regional axial experience will be important to plan and operate interactions that stimulate visitors

Branding Built Heritage through Cultural Urban Festivals: An Instagram Analysis Related to Sustainable Co-Creation, in Budapest

Global tourism is posing challenges on the environmental and social sustainability of host communities, while the industry itself has proven to be vulnerable to threats such as a global pandemic. Proximity tourism was demonstrated to be a more sustainable form in every aspect, especially when locals can co-create the experience and develop place attachment in urban environments through placemaking practices valuing previously underused urban heritage. An alternative urban festival in Budapest focusing on the built environment attracts locals annually to visit open houses providing visitors with genuine experiences. Residents are actively involved in the cultural placemaking practices of the event. As visitors documented the festival and the architectural heritage and uploaded hundreds of photos of their experience to social media platforms such as Instagram, they contributed to the branding process of the event and to the placemaking process involving less known heritage values. In this study, a dataset of more than ten thousand posts was retrieved by scraping Instagram posts based on hashtags related to the Budapest100 festival and analyzed from a temporal and spatial aspect. Returning visitors were identified, who contribute substantially to the sustainability of the event and to the branding of the built environment. Results suggest that community-based local urban festivals are a sustainable form of proximity tourism, resilient even to the COVID-19 pandemic. Place branding through urban festivals focusing on the local built heritage can also decrease the growing pressure on city centers in tourist-historic cities dealing with overtourism.

Franceschino Back Home

Francesco Demuro is a 43-year-old accomplished opera singer from Sardinia. In the present days his career as a tenor singer takes him to famous concert halls all over the world. He took his first steps in the world of singing, however, not as an opera singer, but as a folk singer in the Sardinian tradition of a chiterra song. He debuted as a mini-cantadore (‘little singer’) on the stages of the local festivals and TVs in Sardinia and, ever since, has come to be known amongst the enthusiasts of a chiterra song with the diminutive of Franceschino, ‘little Francesco’. After having reached the most prominent position in this Sardinian traditional style, Demuro started studying as an opera singer. Later he abandoned his career as a folk singer to pursue opera singing once and for all, while always proudly declaring his origins as a singer of Sardinian traditional music. In this paper, some aspects mastered by Demuro with regard to the different vocal styles – as a singer of Sardinian music and as an opera singer – will be examined through both a detailed analysis of his vocal style in the two genres over the years and by gathering Demuro’s personal memoirs and accounts of his evolution as a professional singer.

Urban Folklore and Folk Crafts Festivals in the Context of a Pandemic:The Case of Shumen

The study presents the results of an empirical research conducted in the summer and autumn of 2021 in the town of Shumen within the project “Local festivals: a resource of local communities for crisis management,” financed by the Bulgarian National Science Fund. The research focuses on a local folklore and folk crafts festival and, in particular, on the way its organizers and guests define the relationship between its economic rationality and symbolic importance at the level of local identity and as a mechanism of social solidarity of the local community. The role of the festival in local cultural policies is also analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the extent to which festivals may play the role of mobilizing community resources to address significant crises – in particular the effects of the global epidemiological crisis surrounding Covid-19.

Local Festivals - the Visible and Invisible Benefits for Local Communities: an Empirical View

The article presents the results of in-depth interviews and focus group discussions held in Sadovo, Elin Pelin, Gabrovo, Bolyartsi, Novi Han and Pozharevo within a project “Local festivals: A resource of local communities for coping with crises”, funded by National Science Fund – Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Bulgaria (KP-06-H45/5 from 30.11.2020). The aim of the text is, based on the main essential features and characteristics of local festivals, to prove and derive empirically the importance of “visible” and “invisible” benefits of these events for the preservation of local communities. The various points of view of representatives of local authorities, organizers of local festivals, and representatives of the Roma ethnic community will be presented without claiming to be exhaustive. Numerous studies are available in the literature, focusing on the benefits of holding these events and the various effects they produce on the cultural, social and economic life of local communities. Local festivals in the Bulgarian context, regardless of their thematic focus, in most cases combine the festivities of traditional society, combined with new forms of collective gatherings. In most cases, these events can also be seen as part of the process of building local identities, which draw their resources from what is imagined, reconstructed and argued as local heritage.

Narratives, Myths and Sense of Place in the Public Image of Three Festivals in Bulgaria

The object of this study is the public image of three local festivals in Bulgaria: the Festival of Rose in Kazanlak, July Morning in Kamen Bryag and the Festival of Peppers, Tomatoes, Traditional Foods and Crafts in Kurtovo Konare. The public image of the three festivals is decomposed to the following elements for the sake of the analysis: narrative (history, myth), human factor, sense of place and public communication. The methods included participant observations, in-depth interviews, desk research of scientific literature, online and social media. The study revealed that the Festival of Rose in Kazanlak is part of an integrated cultural and tourist product, identified with the good local governance. July Morning in Kamen bryag, once a celebration of an alternative sub-society, has been commercialized towards fragmented (dispersed) festive events which obscured the sense of community and the sense of place affiliated with the initial phenomenon. Local farmers with their inherent sense of identity, agrarian knowledge and willingness to associate at a local level, play a central role in the publicity of Kurtovo Konare Fest. Local festivals share a distinctive feature: striving for the well-being of the local community. The result is an increase in the reputation of the region, attracting of media attention, awakening of the real estate market, spatial rehabilitation, improvement of road infrastructure, expansion of tourism opportunities and strengthening of networks for civic participation. This abstract is based on results within the project “Local Festivals: A Resource of Local Communities for Coping with Crises”, funded by the National Scientific Fund of Bulgaria – Ministry of Education (KP-06-H45 / 5 of 30.11.2020).

Local festivals: Traditions, Innovations, Resources

Since the mid-1990s, the number of festivals has been growing globally, as has their role, place and significance in the postmodern world. Their “massification” is a typical manifestation of the lifestyle of postmodern societies, of their consumption patterns and leisure. “Festivalization” is perceived by central and local authorities, as well as by residents of local communities as an opportunity to stimulate economic development, social integration and solidarity, to form identity, to build and strengthen social capital, to preserve cultural historical heritage and its transformation into a symbolic capital of the community. This kind of “boom” of local holidays is observed in Bulgaria: along with established festivals over the years forgotten traditions are revived, new holidays are invented, which quickly become a “recognizable face” of cities, villages and neighborhoods. But at the same time, some of them are in the nature of “pseudo-events”, often ideologically and politically motivated, pursuing certain economic goals, often deprived of the authenticity and cultural tradition that they claim to be. The increase in popularity and number is undoubtedly related to the emergence and development of the phenomenon of “cultural consumption”. In the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, which spawned and deepened a series of crises, local festivals not only retain their life-affirming spirit and meaning, but something more: their significant social role as a resource for local communities to deal with crises becomes more visible.

Crises in Official and Popular Festivities: on the Cases of Gabrovo, Varshets and Kosti

The article analyzes the potential of local festivals to serve as an instrument to overcome crises in three particular case studies, namely Gavrovo's Festival of Humour and Satire, Varshets' Resort, Mineral Water and the Balkan Mountains Festival and Kosti's fire dancing. The analysis is based on the results of an empirical research conducted in the summer of 2021 within the project “Local festivals: a resource of local communities for crisis management,” supported by the Bulgarian National Science Fund. The main argument is that in all of these cases the festivals cannot be subsumed under the logic of coping with economic underdevelopment. Nevertheless, the festivals have a direct effect on coping with the coronavirus crises both in terms of the practical realization of its irreversibility, as well as in terms of using it as a medium to renegotiate local contradictions and conflicts. Lastly, the article demonstrates the efficacy (and limits) of Bakhtin's theory of the carnavalesque for the understanding of local festivals' role in coping with crises.

The New City Festivals: Activities, Organizers, Beneficiaries and Interests on The Occasion of Kapana Fest

The festivalization of cities and their transformation into „eventful” centers of the postmodern urban lifestyle has been a global trend since the mid-1990s. The aim of the text is to analyze the features of the new city festivals in Plovdiv by analyzing the Kapana Fest, examining their activities, audience, organizers and beneficiaries and reaching conclusions about their socio-economic and cultural significance. Festivals are a crossroads of a number of interests, whose bearers are different socio-group actors – local government, organizers, participants, visitors, business representatives and residents of the local community. The article presents the results of an empirical sociological research carried out using qualitative methods within the project “Local festivals: A resource of local communities for coping with crises”, funded by National Science Fund – Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Bulgaria (KP-06-H45/5 from 30.11.2020). The research approach used is in the thematic field of social stratification, focusing on the socio-group characteristics and interests of the various actors associated with the festivals. The new city festivals are understood as part of the postmodern lifestyle, with its characteristic consumption patterns and leisure patterns. The question whose answer is sought in the text is: who are the winning socio-group actors from the huge social, economic and cultural potential of the Kapana Fest in Plovdiv?

관광객의 축제체험과 지역브랜드인지도, 지역애호도와 농산물 구매의도의 구조적 관계: 함평 나비축제 및 국화축제 참여자를 중심으로

The purpose of this study was to analyze the structural influence of tourists" festival experience on local brand awareness and local loyalty, and purchase intention of agricultural products. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, an online survey was conducted with visitors to the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival and Chrysanthemum Festival in 2018 and 2019. Using structural equation modeling, study results show that individuals’ festival experience had an effect on their local brand awareness and local loyalty, the local loyalty influenced the purchase intention of agricultural products, and the local brand awareness affected the purchase intention of the local agricultural products through the local loyalty. Study implications are as follows. First, in order to increase local brand awareness and local loyalty, it is necessary to reinforce the distinctive elements of the festival experience. Second, festival programs recognized as a unique brand asset can help visitors forma positive image of the region. Third, the experiential marketing strategy of local agricultural products through local festivals can be effectively used to build trust with visitors for local agricultural products. It is meaningful in revealing that individuals’ participation in local festivals is beneficial to the purchase intentions of agricultural products.

The Meaning and Value of Local Festivals of Local Governments: Exploring the Current State and Improvement Methods

Purpose: While the classification of local festivals of Korea may be diverse, if they are classified according to the relevant subject, they may be classified into the traditional culture, local specialties, people representing the region, new regional contents, and the contents related to national policies, etc. Based on the analysis of local festivals designated by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, it is intended that the purpose of the tourism industry of the local government be further specified, and a plan for reorganizing the policies related to local fes-tivals of the local governments be explored. Methods: The criteria for the festivals announced by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism are the “culture, tourism and art festivals held by local residents, local organizations, and local governments for a certain period of time (2 days or longer) and attended by a large number of unspecified people. Specifically, they are cultural tourist festivals, special product festivals, cultural arts festivals, and general festivals. The current status of local festivals of Korea is analyzed by analyzing the number of festivals held by region. Furthermore, this study has analyzed the status of local festivals by period spanning from the period of central government: President Syngman Rhee to President Roh Tae-woo and from 1993 to the Park Geun-hye administration, which was the period of local autonomy. Results: Local festival of Korea demonstrates the economic functions of regional and national economic development, political functions of securing of the regional development and local government’s finance, and the so-cio-cultural functions in terms of enhancing the welfare of the people in whole, while demonstrating the fact that the tourism industry has developed at a very high level. The reason as to why such an excessive number of local festivals is held is considered to be related to the political issues of increasing the showcase administration and performance achievements of the heads of local governments and the members of local council. Conclusion: Currently, local festivals of Korea are faced with many needs of improvements including specializa-tion, economic feasibility, and evaluation. Considering the fact that the largest purpose of local festivals is to revitalize local economy and enhance image, it would be necessary to form a consultative body by and between local governments and seek a strategy for cooperation and coexistence rather than pursuing competition through the objective evaluation of the festivals which are held indiscriminately. Similar local festivals held by and between adjacent local governments ought to be integrated via co-hosting, etc., and in the case of the festivals with dis-tinct local characteristics, a way to create synergies ought to be explored through the consultation on the period of convening, etc. Furthermore, it will be necessary to develop and introduce a more scientific and objective method of evaluation criteria for the festivals, and based on which, explore a comprehensive plan of improvement to ensure that local festivals may be of practical assistance for the regional development by deriving accurate evaluation and improvement plans.

Contributions of Local Festivals in the Context of Sustainable Tourism

The study was prepared with document analysis technique, which is one of the qualitative research methods in order to evaluate the contribution of local festivals within the framework of sustainable tourism. This is intended, about the topic books, articles, magazines, statistics, reports, newspapers, news examined and evaluated. Local festivals, sustainability, and the effects of local festivals were discussed utilizing secondary data sources and a general assessment of the sustainability and contributions of local festivals was made using the obtained information. According to the information obtained, the festivals affect the region where they take place economic, social and cultural positive or negative. However, in festivals where commercial concerns are pursued, it is seen that positive economic effects are prioritized and negative effects are ignored. In this context, suggestions for sustainability and increasing positive contributions of local festivals have been made in the study

Continuation of Festivals and Community Resilience during COVID‐19: The Case of Nagahama Hikiyama Festival in Shiga Prefecture, Japan

The COVID‐19 pandemic has severely affected the way of life of communities in Japan. This study examines the pandemic's impact by focusing on a popular activity in Japanese townships: participation in traditional festivals with roots dating back to before the Edo period. These festivals display the social customs of each community and their prosperity from the past to the present. Residents participating in local festivals gain a deep understanding of their personal importance within the community. However, many communities were forced to cancel their festivals in 2020 because of the pandemic. In 2021, many communities attempted to reinstate their traditional festivals, and some of them resumed the festivities with infection control measures in place. This case study examines how people resumed festivals in their communities and the conditions needed for them to reengage with their traditions. Focusing on the Nagahama Hikiyama Festival in Shiga Prefecture, Japan, we demonstrate the resilience of traditional communities in Japan. This study analyzes the reasons for and process of reviving and subsequently implementing traditional festivals and clarifies the positive factors contributing to the resumption of festivals in local communities. It examines the sources of resilience that have been cultivated in these communities and explains how their social capital bridges the gaps between local governments, schools, and broadcasters.

Sustainability Learning in Education for Sustainable Development for 2030: An Observational Study Regarding Environmental Psychology and Responsible Behavior through Rural Community Travel

This study explores how rural community travel can be an eco-innovation approach to enhance education for sustainable development (ESD) for 2030. The goal of ESD is to enable all-age learners to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4); therefore, effective education related to sustainability with respect to the local cultural context has become an urgent issue. Sustainability is not a specific problem, but concerns all living stakeholders, what they think, and how they work for sustainable community development. However, the intrinsic mechanism regarding the psychological process of outside responsible behavior change is still ignored. Therefore, we conducted a case study, wherein we selected a local cocoa cultural industry festival in southern Taiwan to understand the role of sustainability learning to explain this mechanism. The findings revealed that, in general, sustainability learning is a complex and reflexive process interlinked with different learners (stakeholders); it combines individual psychology and behavior, e.g., in positive psychology, learners care about the low-carbon services provided to tourists, and in negative psychology, they care more about finances. Notably, positive psychology affects responsible behavior, thus, promoting the preservation of the living environment. Additionally, we deduced that ESD can be enhanced by involving human senses and positive psychology.

Persuasive agenda-setting: Rodrigo Duterte’s inauguration speech and drugs in the Philippines

Exploring the elusive agenda-setting hypothesis pertaining to democratically-elected leaders, we test whether Duterte’s 2016 inauguration speech systematically shifted Filipinos’ policy agenda towards prioritizing illegal drugs. To do this, we examine daily Google searches (in a country that tops internet usage worldwide) and identify a large increase in drug-related searches right after the speech, both in absolute terms and relative to other prominent policy topics. We find no similar increase in neighboring countries, for potentially confounding topics, or after other key events (like his declaration of candidacy). Complementing this analysis, individual-level surveys reveal an increase in the share of respondents considering crime reduction the top national priority. To better identify causality, we exploit the historical timing of local festivals, which left some provinces less exposed to the speech. Results show less-exposed provinces exhibit smaller increases in drug-related Google searches and survey-elicited crime prioritization.

Understanding the influence of place on festival making and artistic production in the local urban festival context

ABSTRACT Recent decades have seen a dramatic increase in research output on arts festivals and cultural events, and a growing focus on the role festivals play in negotiating and constructing meanings of place. However, little attention has been paid to how place shapes the process of festival making and artistic production. This paper attempts to address this shortcoming by examining the extent to which place matters to the production of festival activity and asks: how does place influence festival making and artistic production in a local arts festival context? The study is part of ongoing qualitative research into the Five Lamps Arts Festival, a local urban festival in Dublin’s North Inner-City and employs a mixed methods approach. Findings indicate that processes of festival making and artistic production are permeated by the social, cultural, and physical dimensions of place, thereby revealing the potent and mutually inter-dependent relationship between place and festivals.

The Shoemaker and the Gibson Girl

The Shoemaker and the Gibson Girl

A Study on the Promotion of Regional Festivals by Reinforcing Partnerships - Focusing on the Gangnam Fashion Festival Case -

지역축제는 지역 발전의 원동력으로서 문화와 결합하여 다양한 형태로 나타나고 있다. 지방자치단체들이 지역축제에 적지 않은 노력과 시간, 비용을 투자하고 있음에도 불구하고 성공적인 축제는 많지 않다. 이에 본 연구는 관주도 운영에 따른 지역축제의 한계를 극복하기 위한 방안으로 지역사회 인적 물적 인프라와의 다양한 파트너십강화에 주목하고, 강남구 대표 축제인 ‘강남패션페스티벌’ 운영 사례를 통하여 방문객들에게 높은 만족도로 평가된 축제의 활성화 요인이 지역사회와의 다양한 파트너십 강화에서 기인된 효과인지 확인하기 위하여 전문가 인터뷰를 진행하여 분석하였다. ‘강남패션페스티벌’은 패션 특구 강남의 인프라를 스토리로 적극 발굴하고 참여자들의 핵심 역량이 전략적으로 매칭되어 지역의 문화콘텐츠로 특성화되었다는 점과, 유기적인 파트너십에 따른 역할분담의기능적 결합으로 축제 전문성 및 조직력이 강화되었다는 점이 주요 활성화 요인으로 확인되었다. 이러한 파트너십이 강화될 수 있었던 이유는 이해관계가 다른 주최 간 균형을 유지하며, 가장 잘 할 수 있는 분야에 집중할 수있도록 상호작용의 유기적 관계가 형성되어 장점을 극대화하였기 때문으로 파악되었다. 이러한 점에서 ‘강남패션페스티벌’은 인적 물적 자원의 유기적인 파트너십 강화를 통해 강남구의 정책 목표가 잘 녹아든 지역축제 사례라는점이 중요한 가치임을 확인하였으며, 본 연구를 통하여 그 지역만의 강점과 특성을 살린 차별화된 축제 포맷팅(formating)에 유용한 정책적 시사점이 되기를 바란다.Regional festivals appear in various forms in combination with culture as a driving force for regional development. Although local governments are investing a lot of effort, time, and money in local festivals, there are not many successful festivals. This study focused on strengthening various partnerships with local human and material infrastructure as a way to overcome the limitations of government-led operations, and conducted expert interviews to confirm whether the activation factor of festivals evaluated with high satisfaction by visitors through Gangnam Fashion Festival. The main activation factors of the Gangnam Fashion Festival were that the infrastructure of Gangnam, a special fashion zone, was actively discovered as a story, the core competencies of participants were strategically matched and specialized as local cultural contents, and the functional combination of role-sharing through organic partnerships. The reason why this partnership could be strengthened was that organic relationships of interaction were formed to maximize advantages so that interests could be balanced between different organizers and focused on the areas that they could do best. In this regard, the Gangnam Fashion Festival confirmed that it is an important value that Gangnam-gu’s policy goals are well incorporated through strengthening the organic partnership of human and material resources, and through this study, it is hoped to be a useful policy implication for differentiated festival formatting.

Festival tourists’ loyalty: The role of involvement in local food festivals

The purpose of this study is to examine the direct, indirect and moderating role of involvement in the satisfaction, quality and loyalty relationship among local food festival tourists. Several different approaches exist concerning the role of involvement on the satisfaction-loyalty relationship but there is a lack of integration between approaches. This study therefore compared an Indirect effect model with Direct/Indirect effect model and Direct effect model, using 401 data collected at three local food festivals in Korea. Results of analyses found that the Direct/Indirect effect model suggesting involvement influences loyalty directly and indirectly via satisfaction and quality performed best. Another alternative model, with involvement moderating the effect of quality and satisfaction on loyalty, was also tested and supported. Marketing strategies should better convert involvement into effective local food festival tourists’ loyalty considering its direct/indirect and moderating effects.