Enjoyable events, excited audiences? Event experience during the Special Weekends of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016

ABSTRACT

Growing interest with different aspects of event experience measurement and meaning has resulted in establishing an Event Experience Scale (EES) which has been used for quantitative comparative research on events. The aim of this work is to compare event experiences of participants in multiple cultural events during Special Weekends offered as part of ECOC Wrocław 2016. EES is applied to capture variations across the social categories of participants and across different types of events. This study is based on quantitative data collected from January till December 2016, using self-completion online surveys. The size of the sample was N = 3402. The study fills a gap in event experience studies by comparing cultural event experiences happening over a longer period and grasping the changing contexts of events attended by varied audiences. Results support the importance of affective and cognitive dimensions and boost the importance of novelty dimension, at the same time, the study refutes previous studies on more positive event experiences of people with higher economic and social status.

KEYWORDS:

• Event experience
• Event experience scale
• Socio-economic patterns of event experience‌
• European Capital of Culture
• ECOC Wrocław 2016

Acknowledgements

This work was supported under the following Contract: Evaluation of participation in the events of the European Capital of Culture Wrocław 2016 was conducted by the University of Wrocław on commission and in cooperation with Wrocław Municipality. Results are presented in separate studies and report available in the public domain at the Repository of the University of Wrocław: https://www.repozytorium.uni.wroc.pl/dlibra?language=en

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data available on request from the author. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by City Council of Wrocław [grant number 34/K/16].