The role of place attachment and festival attachment in influencing attendees’ environmentally responsible behaviours at music festivals

ABSTRACT

This study investigates attendees’ attachment to the place where a festival is held and their attachment to the festival itself as predictors of environmentally responsible behaviours (ERBs) at the festival. Pre- and post-visit surveys were conducted with 405 participants. The pre-visit survey, completed before attendance at a music festival, measured visitors’ place attachment and festival attachment, while the post-visit survey, measured on-site ERB. Group interviews were conducted on-site to investigate the concepts in greater depth. Findings suggest that place attachment is strongly related to on-site ERBs, with the place identity component of place attachment making the strongest contribution; while festival attachment related moderately to on-site ERBs, with the festival identity component of festival attachment making the strongest contribution. Further research on place identity as a separate construct from place attachment and festival identity as separate construct from festival attachment is recommended.

KEYWORDS:

• Music festivals
• place attachment
• place identity
• festival attachment
• environmentally responsible behaviour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Marisol Alonso-Vazquez holds a PhD from the University of Queensland, Business School, Australia. Her research focuses on behavioural change in individuals and organisations within the music festival contexts. She has previous industry experience in assisting micro-, small and medium size ventures to improve their competitiveness via the adoption of new technologies. She has particular interest in social marketing, entrepreneurship and adoption of new technologies within the entertainment industry.

Jan Packer is a Research Fellow in the University of Queensland Business School, Australia. Jan’s research focuses on applying principles from educational, environmental and positive psychology to understand and improve visitor experiences at natural and cultural tourism attractions such as museums, zoos and aquariums, botanic gardens, national parks, ecotourism and wildlife tourism attractions. She has a special interest in the quality of life outcomes of museum visits, and tourism and leisure more broadly.

Sheranne Fairley is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland Business School. Her research interests include sport and event tourism, event leveraging, and volunteerism. She is an Associate Editor of Sport Management Review and Leisure Sciences.

Karen Hughes has been teaching and researching in tourism for approximately 25 years and is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Business School at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her research and teaching focus on interpretation, visitor management, wildlife tourism, and tourist behaviour. She is currently working on several research projects investigating the impact of ecotourism experiences and interpretation on visitors’ long-term environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour. Dr Hughes is also exploring how interpretation can be used to ‘connect’ the emerging Chinese tourist market with Australia’s natural landscapes.