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Impacts of a health crisis on music festivals: a qualitative approach

Alicia Orea-Giner (Business Economics Department, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain) (CETUR, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain) (EIREST, Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne, Paris, France)
Francesc González-Reverté (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain)
Laura Fuentes-Moraleda (Business Economics Department, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain) (CETUR, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, Spain)

International Journal of Event and Festival Management

ISSN: 1758-2954

Article publication date: 4 January 2022

Issue publication date: 22 March 2022

1262

Abstract

Purpose

This research explores the consequences of a health crisis provoked by a pandemic scenario on music festival impacts considered by the stakeholders involved. The purpose of this paper is to identify the perceptions from the stakeholders' point of view (host community, public and private sector) and to identify the impacts generated before and after a health crisis regarding the celebration of a festival.

Design/methodology/approach

The study offers a holistic insight into impact research by music festivals. The methodology implemented is based on qualitative techniques. By conducting 20 in-depth interviews with essential stakeholders, it is possible to determine their perceptions of the impact of the event and the effects of a health crisis.

Findings

The results allow detecting a gap between internal and external stakeholders due to poor communication and planning of the event. The results show that a health crisis provokes negative impacts on the economic benefits of events' organisation. However, the cultural city's identity suffers an important damage that it is difficult to overcome. The community and visitors are the stakeholders that suffer a detrimental impact on their experience when attending the festival, considering the security measures. Moreover, results allow us to identify practical implications for event management and planning in a health crisis scenario.

Originality/value

The most important contribution of this research is the theoretical model proposed to analyse stakeholders' perception of the event celebration in a context of a health crisis. The model also considers different moments of the social exchange. The theoretical approaches considered theory of social exchange (SET) and Visitor, Industry, Community and Environment (VICE) models allow analysing the stakeholder's perception of a case study of a music festival (Viña Rock Festival, Spain). The emerging and central role of the cooperation between stakeholders constitutes another notable contribution to the literature.

Keywords

Citation

Orea-Giner, A., González-Reverté, F. and Fuentes-Moraleda, L. (2022), "Impacts of a health crisis on music festivals: a qualitative approach", International Journal of Event and Festival Management, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 125-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEFM-12-2020-0081

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited

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