Scholarly Sources Notes: Grunwell and Li

Grunwell, Sandra; Inhyuck Ha, and Bonnie Martin. “A Comparative Analysis of Attendee Profiles at Two Urban Festivals.” Journal of Convention & Event Tourism. 2008. 9:1, 1-14.
(DOI: 10.1080/15470140802104516)

Grunwell et al. look at tourism as a means of economic development, focusing on festivals due to their immense growth in the past years. They look at two festivals held in Asheville, NC; including a summer street festival. This article was pertinent in terms of looking at festivals in general, but the events they decided to further research were free, and therefore not as relevant to my research as other articles.

Interesting Quotes:
“Festivals can create tourism demand that is less susceptible to economic downturns, enhance the image of tourism destinations, aid in the rejuvenation of cities, and create new economic activity.” (2)

“Martin, Bridges, & Grunwell (2006) conducted a comparative study of two different types of music festivals (jazz and country rock) in the introductory stage of their lifecycle, both held in a rural university setting in North Carolina. Findings revealed differences in attendance, age, income, spending, distance traveled, and overnight stays. These comparative studies suggest there are event-specific factors associated with different types of festivals.” (4)

“Although both groups reported high levels of satisfaction with the festivals, significantly more film festival attendees said they would return next year. Their intention to return may reflect the fact that the film festival is still in the introductory stage of its lifecycle, whereas the street festival is well in the mature stage and interest may be beginning to wane. Left unattended, the street festival might be headed for decline. As cited by Lade and Jackson (2004, p. 4) “From a long-term aspect, the interest generated in the festival may constantly change and, as a result of a failure by organizers to respond accordingly, attendance may drop.” (11)


Li, Xiang; and Hans Vogelsong. “An Examination of Satisfaction Variables and Indicators at a First-time Festival.” Proceedings of the 2003 Northeaster Recreation Research Symposium. Murdy, James, ed. USDA Forest Service. 2004. 440-446.

This paper looked at the satisfaction levels of those who attended a festival, and compared it to their expectations and other important variables. This focused on a first-time festival in North Carolina, and therefore the data was not as pertinent; however, it did note that residents’ satisfaction in the event was no different from non-residents, those with more festival experience had a similar time to those with festival experience, and the amount of money spent also did not correlate with satisfaction. All of these conclusions were against their initial hypotheses, and I looked at this data as a reason why I should not generalize without specific data. They also discovered that the weather can play one of the most important roles in the success or demise of an event.

Important Quotes:

“Getz (1991) defined a special event as “a onetime or infrequently occurring event outside the normal program or activities of the sponsoring or organizing body. To the customer, a special event is an opportunity for a leisure, social or cultural experience outside the normal range of choices or beyond everyday experience” (p. 44). Varying in their size and significance, events could be classified as special events, hallmark events, and mega events (Getz, 1997).” (1) (I have decided to look into Getz’s research after discovering this definition.)

“It may be concluded that some non-controllable factors may have more influence on satisfaction than event programming and planning.” (6)

“We may also conclude from this survey that indicators other than overall satisfaction and satisfaction attributes are needed to draw a whole picture of attendees’ attitude toward the festival. The respondents are content with the specific service attributes of their festival experience, such as “safety and security”, “cleanliness of facilities”, “condition of facilities”, and “behavior of other visitors”. But their overall satisfaction was worsened by the weather condition, which damaged a more enjoyable experience. In other words, respondents separated their comments on festival per se and non-controllable factors such as weather. That helps explain why at the same time people gave fairly low rating on satisfaction items, they still indicated a strong intention to return and recommending to others.” (6)