Sense of Community and Festival Attendance

Abstract

Examining how festival involvement contributes to sense of community (SOC) is important to our understanding of how festivals impact the communities in which they exist; therefore, this study examines the relation between festival attendance and sense of community to provide insight, based on community psychology theory, into how festivals contribute to community development. Sense of community was measured using the Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS), and the relation between the BSCS and festival attendance was examined. Although no relation between overall SOC and festival attendance was found, the relation between festival attendance and the emotional connection factor of the BSCS suggests that festivals do contribute to SOC. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.