Impacts of rural festivals: Expectations among visitors and locals
The aim of the study is to show and the perception of rural festivals’ effects expressed by two groups of stakeholders: locals and vistors. Supplementary, and analysis of differences in perception among both groups is conducted. The study builds upon data from a music festival staged in Lærdal. Sogn and Fjordane Region, Norway, called Jordeplerock. The Jordeplerock festival is two days, place-bound music festival, that has been organized on an annual basis in Sogn and Fjordane, first time in 2013. Data were collected in 2017 among (a) 306 visitors to Jordeplerock festival and (b) 205 residents of the mentioned region who did not participate in the festival. The study delivers evidence that expectations towards festivals’ effects vary among the two abovementioned groups of stakeholders. The results clearly indicate that participants tend to perceive festivals effects much stronger than local inhabitants. The pattern holds true for all four main categories of items in the scale (community cohesiveness, economic benefits, social incentives, and social costs). By running a series of t-tests of the means between two independent samples showed that indicates that there is a significant difference in mean scores between the two groups at 5 % level. This indicates that participants have stronger expectations according the impact of rural festivals on the community than their local counterparts. In a broader sense, the results demonstrate that festivals might be utilized by local policy makers to empower local inhabitants, and to promote rural assets. This could in turn be used against a rural decline and out-migration of young people.
Publisert i 2019
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