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The purpose of this paper is to examine the utilisation and application of reflexive ethnography as an interpretative methodology for researching knowledge practices within festival organisations.

The ethnographic approach incorporates two methods of data collection in the research design; participant observation and in‐depth interviews.

The research identified that knowledge management practices and processes are often invisible to festival staff when they are embedded within a cohesive organisational culture. Ethnography enables the researcher to make explicit the tacit and normalised ways of working that contribute to the success (and failure) of festival organisations to manage knowledge. The immersion of the researcher in the ethnographic process provided a rich understanding of the relational dimension of knowledge management that would be difficult to elicit from in‐depth interviews alone.

New fields of study require a range of research methodologies to inform theoretical and practice‐based knowledge related to event participation and management. This article contributes to the growing event management literature through a unique focus on ethnography as a research method that offers a deeper understanding of knowledge practices within festival organisations.

Limited research has applied an ethnographic approach to festival and event management. This article builds upon early adopters and provides critical insight into the benefits and constraints of ethnographic research.

This analysis relates to the strategic orientation of public, private and not‐for‐profit festivals and the adoption of stakeholder, financial, marketing and management strategies that enable them to achieve their organisational objectives. The paper aims to address these issues.

In order to test the effectiveness of this new strategic SWOT approach, data from the four‐country study of festivals were employed to investigate how a strategic approach can be adopted by festival managers in the public, private and not‐for‐profit sector. The strategic issues that confront all festivals, including, financial management and related issues of costs, revenue, sponsorship and support are the subject of analysis.

The findings indicate that among festival managers there are some interesting and significant differences between the three ownership types in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Private and non‐profit festivals are comparatively more strategic in responding to financial opportunities, threats and weaknesses and public festivals are more dependent on a single stakeholder and source of revenue. Other significant differences exist in terms of stakeholder management and sponsorship strategies, which can be explained with reference to resource dependency theory.

Strategic SWOT analysis can provide a more rigorous and structured approach to researching the multiple challenges that festival managers face and the strategies they adopt. This paper demonstrates that it has some utility in identifying strategies in response to financial, stakeholder and sponsorship imperatives.

Strategic SWOT analysis provides event and festival managers with a new tool for understanding the range of challenges and opportunities that they can address through adopting a more strategic response.

The field of festival and event management studies is largely devoid of any literature with reference to analysis of strategies that different festivals adopt in response to identified weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This paper provides new insights into the strategic management of public, private and not‐for‐profit festival organisations using an original approach and an extensive four‐country dataset.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the management strategy changes of a government-hosted festival from the government’s perspective based on Ansell and Gash’s (2008) definitive criteria of collaborative governance.

This is a longitudinal case study of Hi Seoul Festival (HSF) in South Korea from 2003 to 2013. First, a detailed description of HSF management strategy change over time is presented through an analysis of internal government documents. Then, factors influencing management strategy changes are investigated through interviews with governmental and professional stakeholders.

The content analysis of the internal government documents reveals that HSF’s management strategy changed between collaborative governance and contracting out multiple times. The follow-up interviews then found that the prehistory experiences in managing festivals, the change of festival goals, and political leverages influenced the management strategy changes.

The government is one of the key stakeholders of festivals, which sometimes hosts and manages its own festivals. However, how a government manages its own festival is rarely studied. This study would add new insights into the studies of government-hosted festivals.

The music festival industry is challenged by intense competition and financial exigency. As a result, many festivals have either folded or are currently struggling. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to show that motivator-hygiene-professional (MHP) strategic capabilities (SCs) are positively associated with quality music festival management thereby providing a playbook for potentially mitigating these challenges.

The mixed methods research design comprised a case study of a leading event management company as well as nation-wide in-depth interviews and questionnaire survey. The authors initially confirmed the nature of the challenges to the industry from the case study and the in-depth interviews. The authors then developed an MHP Model of 15 SCs that were identified from the literature and the qualitative research. The relationship of the MHP SCs model to quality music festival management was tested in the questionnaire survey.

The respondents suggested that all the SCs were related to quality music festival management. However, Professional SCs were considered comparatively less important than motivator and hygiene SCs. Across all three groups, interviewees highlighted the significance of artists, site and operational planning, financial and stakeholder management and ticket pricing. In addition, careful planning, delegation and quality focus, problem solving, resolve and flexibility, leadership and vision, communication and innovation were considered conducive to the quality management of music festival organisations.

The MHP SCs model and dimensions of quality management offer music festival event managers a detailed practical playbook for moderating challenges to music festival management. In essence the authors provide the specific drivers that festival managers should best focus their attention upon. Visionary leadership, artist differentiation, innovation, customer service and flexible management have priority.

The findings add to the festival management literature by demonstrating the importance of motivator, hygiene and additional professional SCs for moderating challenges to the music festival industry. To the best of authors’ knowledge, no previous studies have directly investigated specific SCs critical for quality event and festival management. In particular, the academic significance of this paper is that the authors have combined Herzberg’s motivator and hygiene factors with SCs, which are in essence success drivers, to create a novel holistic MHP SCs model for quality music festival management. Further explanatory insight is gained by the addition of a third factor of professional SCs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop both a systematic framework and priorities for comparative and cross‐cultural festival management studies, based on literature review and results of a four‐country study.

This research is based on four samples of festivals in Sweden, Norway, UK, and Australia that are systematically compared. The survey is designed to profile the festivals in terms of vision/mandate, ownership, age, size, assets, venues used, decision‐making structure, and programs. Costs and revenues are examined in some detail, including trends in each category. Festivals' use of volunteers and sponsors are specifically addressed. Levels of dependence on a number of types of stakeholders and other strategic management issues are also explored. Respondents are also asked to respond to statements regarding challenges and threats to their festival and organization.

The empirical research identifies important similarities and differences that exist within the UK, Sweden, Norway, and Australia, by three ownership types, in how festivals are organized, their operations and strategies, stakeholder influences and dependencies, threats, and strategies.

In the recommended framework are five components: antecedents; planning and management; planned event experiences and meanings; outcomes and the impacted and dynamic patterns; and processes. Specific points of comparison are enumerated within each component, foundation theories and concepts are identified, and some research priorities suggested for each.

The framework developed in this paper can help advance both the process and applications of comparative festival studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the budget, when split into a network of projects, can act as a management tool to balance control with creativity.

A case study is used to discuss the budget in a large Norwegian festival. Simons’ (1995) concept of interactive use of budgets is applied for the analysis of empirical findings. Especially, the authors focus on the design and use of the budget and how it is aligned with the specific characteristics of festivals as economic organizations.

The findings support earlier research which focusses on the need to balance between control and dynamic changes to successfully manage festivals. This study gives a detailed knowledge on how managers use budgets to combine management control with creativity and dynamic adaptions.

This study contributes to a detailed understanding of how managers can use budgets as tools to stabilize between uncertainty, creativity and control.

The purpose of this paper is to increase understandings of the complexity of stakeholder relationships and their impact on environmental practices in music festivals in Western Canada, but also to highlight how managers can leverage their festival platform for stakeholders to create new partnerships that foster and support primary values around sustainability.

We use a community-based participatory framework to guide this study, and qualitative research methods in the form of in-depth interviews and surveys at three separate music festivals within the interior of British Columbia, Canada.

The majority of patrons are aware of the environmental impacts of music festivals and are more likely to attend a festival with effective practices. By making environmental sustainability a core value of the festival and communicating environmental objectives with both stakeholders and patrons, managers can begin to alleviate the operational barriers to environmentalism.

One of the primary contributions of this study is that it provides management with deeper understandings of a wide range of barriers to effective environmental practices in Western Canada. We consult directly with both festival management and attendees about environmental practices. This paper presents a fuller perspective of how to move beyond simple measures and craft a more sophisticated and flexible environmental strategy that reduces risk, anticipates obstacles and greatly improves the odds of successful implementation.

The purpose of this paper is to propose the mechanism of festival attachment and examine how it serves as a significant predictor of place attachment and place loyalty.

Through on-site survey with convenience sampling, 465 visitors were surveyed at the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival, which is one of the most famous Taiwanese festivals. Structural equation modeling is used to examine the proposed research model.

Empirical results of this study reveal that “hedonism” is the most important antecedent for improving festival attachment, followed by novelty seeking, attractions and cultural exploration. Festival attachment exerts positive effects on place attachment, which then increases place loyalty. Moreover, place attachment partially mediates the relationship between festival attachment and place loyalty.

By hosting festivals, festival managers can induce festival attachment in visitors and then transfer the attachment with festivals into the host place. The findings of this study demonstrate the major role of festivals in promoting local tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to describe management control systems (MCS) as a package within a festival, as it examines managerial use of management controls over time. Moreover, this study discusses the relation of controls to flexibility and decentralization of organizations which have to deal with constraints such as short development periods, individualization of services/products and resource scarcity. The research thus introduces the elements of time and intensity of use of controls in a time-dependent scenario.

This descriptive case study utilizes interviews, observations, document analysis and other tools of qualitative research.

This paper reveals that single management controls used by managers configure MCS as a package. These controls are utilized with different intensity throughout the year based on activities that are planned or expected to happen. Such use of controls provides needed flexibility for the organization in which the structure is changing over a short period (one year).

The single unit subjective analysis that was employed does not allow for generalized results and comparison.

This rich empirical study informs practitioners on how to tackle daily festival challenges. Moreover, it brings theoretical understanding of management controls as a package in real-life context.

Community-run festivals are an emerging giant in the tourism industry. Nowadays many local festivals have emerged with the specific objectives of celebrating local culinary traditions, establishing business and trade of local products and developing sustainable destinations. Local events can influence the destination image, enabling the growth of tourist flows and stimulate destination marketing organizations to differentiate their own destination products from those of competitors. Two main aspects are analyzed: the main characteristics of local events and the influence of local festival on destination image. Moreover, the economic impact of festivals on the community and the main tourism management strategies adopted by managers are investigated. Finally, theoretical and managerial implications deriving from the chapter are discussed.