A Review of Festival and Event Motivation Studies

As the festival and event industry continues to grow I chose this article to reflect upon hoping that it would be useful in my future.

The article started off by saying, “It has been agreed that understanding motivations, or the ‘internal factor that arouses, directs, and integrates a person’s behavior’, leads to better planning and marketing of festivals and events, and better segmentation of participants” (pg. 239). I agree with this, especially when it comes to understanding your audience. The better you know your audience and why they are attending your event, the more successful the event will be. The authors believed that, “…studying festival and event motivation is key to designing offerings for event attendees, a way to monitor satisfaction, and a tool for understanding attendees’ decision-making processes” (pg. 239). I think that these are very valid points and are essential when trying to cater to your audience and make them the happiest.

The article then went on to talk about the research they conducted compared to other research in the field. Their research concluded that, “Consistent with previous studies, no systematic differences emerged when comparing motivational factors to demographic variables’ (pg. 240). I thought that this was a strange finding that did not really advance the article at all. The article was building up momentum and then stated that their findings did not show connections, which was a little disappointing. I think that this means that when you plan and market an event it is very important that you get to know your target audience well. In my marketing class we are working on creating buyer personas and I think that it could be a useful tool when marketing festivals and events.

Lastly, the article talked about how you cannot only ask what questions, you have to ask why questions too. When speaking or surveying event participants it is beneficial to ask what motivated them to come to the event but it is even more beneficial to ask why as well. I thought that this was a helpful and useful tip for the future when it comes to thoroughly understanding the audience and their motivations.

Read the article:

Li, Xiang, and James F. Petrick. "A Review of Festival and Event Motivation Studies." Event Management 9.4 (2005): 239-45. Web. 2 Oct. 2016.