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The role and importance of arts festivals are well documented within the festival and events literature. Art and culture, as well as the subsequent enhancement thereof, are especially significant in multicultural societies. However, little is known regarding the role of culinary experiences within an arts festival setting. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The case study was a well-known and popular Afrikaans national arts festival held annually in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Visitors to three distinct tasting experiences (brandy, whisky and sparkling wine, including Méthode Cap Classique), offered as part of the festival programme, were surveyed.

In the analyses, 292 completed questionnaires were included, which revealed three managerial factors for a successful tasting experience, as well as six tasting experience dimensions. In all cases, the experiences exceeded the expectations. This research greatly contributes towards the body of knowledge regarding tasting experiences at national arts festivals, an aspect that has not been researched to date.

Based on the results, practical implications are provided to enhance the current tasting experiences as well as visitor loyalty. This research is a stepping stone towards understanding the needs and preferences of the visitors, as well as identifying how the festival can capitalise on delivering these experiences.

This research identified for the first time the factors that contribute to a memorable tasting experience, as well as evaluated the tasting experience dimensions.

This paper aims to identify and cluster visitors to a premier South African cheese festival based on their motivation for attending the festival.

A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from visitors over the three days of the festival, in which 519 usable questionnaires were included in the analysis. Three stages of the analysis were employed: a factor analysis examining the visitors’ motivation to attend the festival, a cluster analysis based on the motives identified by the factor analysis and an analysis of significant differences between the different market segments.

The general profile of respondents was similar to the profile of culinary tourists found in other studies. Furthermore, five key motives were identified, of which this combination has not been previously identified in the literature. The cluster analysis identified three distinct clusters, with heterogeneous behavioural and socio-demographic profile identifiers.

The value that this market segmentation technique holds regarding the marketing and branding of a(n) event/festival is that it could help managers/marketers to promote better culinary events/festivals in South Africa, by offering unique attributes that attract culinary visitors.

To the authors’ knowledge, this study is a first attempt to segment culinary visitors based on motivational factors, especially within the South African context. Clustering based on motives proved to be a useful market segmentation tool and proposes a 3-S typology of visitors to food-related events/festivals, namely, social, serious and selective epicureans.

The chapter focuses on rural-urban food links in the context of governance. We seek to understand a rural-urban innovator mechanism is emerging through the food system and the renewed question of proximity and relative autonomy in the alimentary supply of this type of space and local society. We present case studies from Paris and Budapest metropolitan rural areas exploring institutional and private actors of governance, their power networks, food and related cultural components of rural-urban relations, the function of food links and the way in which they are governed. We have found several differences in governance methods between the Paris and Budapest metropolitan ruralities. The areas surrounding Paris are characterised by multi-level governance methods. However, an isolated form of rural governance of the rural-urban local food link can be identified in Budapest’s rural areas. Understanding the complex and dynamic interaction of food links and related activities within metropolitan areas offers the possibility of a far greater understanding of the complex and multiple links between sustainability, renewal of social interaction and cohesion.