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Legitimacy is a classic theme, quite present in organisational studies in general, but in the field of tourism it still has room to advance. For that reason, this research seeks to delimit the concept of legitimacy and adapt it to the context of tourism events; and seeks to validate a measurement instrument that allows to evaluate of its recognition in the imagination of residents, and to evaluate the impacts of this construct on residents’ trust in the organisers of Brazilian Oktoberfest, on the negative externalities of those events and, ultimately, on the achievement of residents’ loyalty.

The locus of the research are the cities of Blumenau, Santa Catarina and Santa Cruz do Sul, Santa Catarina, both located in southern Brazil, whose residents answered an online questionnaire about the legitimacy of the Oktoberfest held there. A total of 365 valid questionnaires were collected, tabulated in statistical software and interpreted using exploratory-confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

The results show that festival legitimacy is a theoretical construct that can be measured as either a first-order or second-order factor, consisting of three factors, called moral legitimacy, pragmatic legitimacy and cognitive legitimacy.

This research provides a valid and reliable tool for assessing local residents' acceptance of ethno-cultural festivals. It also shows variations in the perception of legitimacy, demonstrating that this can influence other aspects of residents' perception of ethnocultural events.