The role of literary festival attendance in generating attendees' health and well-being
International Journal of Event and Festival Management
ISSN: 1758-2954
Article publication date: 10 August 2021
Issue publication date: 27 August 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the under-investigated well-being outcomes of literary festival attendance. It is an exploratory study into how a festival contributes to attendees' overall well-being. Drawing from the literature on well-being and festival studies, this paper seeks to understand the well-being dimensions generated by festival attendance and the factors that promote attendees' health and well-being.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study adopts an inductive and interpretivist approach. Observations, 45 on-site interviews and 17 follow-up interviews were undertaken at one literary festival in Ireland. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data and identify key themes.
Findings
The findings reveal that attendees perceived a sense of well-being that included five interconnected dimensions: social, mental, emotional, spiritual and physical. Results also show that five factors generated attendees' overall well-being: festival programme, social environment, place, weather conditions and attendees' background.
Originality/value
This paper presents a new comprehensive model that shows that festival attendance has the potential to generate five interconnected dimensions of attendees' well-being. The model also captures the five main factors that can promote attendees' health and well-being. The model is proposed to guide further research on attendees' overall well-being is associated with festival attendance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper draws on Dr Rossetti’s PhD thesis (2020), which was was funded by the Technological University Dublin's Fiosraigh PhD Scholarship. Dr Rossetti would like to express her sincere gratitude to her supervisor Dr. Bernadette Quinn for the encouragement and support. Dr Rossetti also thanks Technological University Dublin that funded this research, and the editor and the reviewers for their comments.
Funding: This paper draws on Dr Rossetti’s PhD thesis (2020), which was was funded by the Technological University Dublin’s Fiosraigh PhD Scholarship.
This paper forms part of a special section of IJEFM on the contribution of festivals and events towards the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, guest edited by Drs Ubaldino Couto, Brendon Knott and Julie Whitfield.
Citation
Rossetti, G. (2021), "The role of literary festival attendance in generating attendees' health and well-being", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 12 No. 3, pp. 265-278. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEFM-12-2020-0083
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited