To What Extent Festivals and Special Events Impact upon the Social Fabric of a Community - Term Paper Example

 Topic: Event management- to what extent festivals and special events impact upon the social fabric of a community? Event management is now an exciting and prosperous industry with unique career opportunities for anyone with a passion of planning and organising events. They carry out various kinds of special events and festivals like leisure, cultural, personal and organisational events. Festivals itself have become a growing and vibrant sector of the tourism industry all over the world. These events generate a potential amount of tourism to the host community. Festivals are now considered to contribute extensively to the cultural and economic growth of a country. They have major economic, socio-cultural, and political impacts on the tourism industry of the destination area of the host group. Whilst scholars worldwide are working on developing suitable models to decide the various economic effects of festivals on host communities, there are also a few studies reported which centre on the cultural, social, and political impacts of festivals and special events. The studies are to determine the extent to which festival attendance eases the growth of social capital/fabric by depending upon the literature from a variety of disciplines so as to commemorate the connection between festivals and social capital. In this discussion we will examine how festivals and special event differ from ordinary events and investigate the existing uses of the concept of social capital within the academic arguments in a variety of punitive contexts. Besides the advantages it brings to the host community in the form of a good source of foreign exchange and a lot others, there are also various negative impacts such as increase in crime rate with the increase in the number of people present. There are many important festivals that occur in the world annually or seasonally. Every culture or religion has its own specific festivals which are attended by a large number of local or foreign people. Hindu Festivals are very famous and are celebrated with their gods and goddesses (idols) in whom they commemorate their birth, lives and incidents. Some famous festivals are Ganesh Chathurthi, Holi, Deepavali and Krishna Janmashtami. Similarly Muslim Festivals Muslim festivals are famous for their feasts and religious fasts. At the time of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha the local markets are filled with glittering jewellery and clothes, sweets and delicacies for everyone. Muslims believe that the family gets together for such festivals. Sikh Festivals are usually associated with the life of their Guru. Likewise, Buddhism Festivals are commemorated throughout the world on remembering the birth of Mahavira Buddha, the founder of Buddha. Here we will discuss specifically about Christian Festivals. Important Christian festivals are Christmas and Easter. The celebrations are mainly related to the birth and life of Jesus Christ. When a unique moment in time is celebrated with either a ceremony or ritual to gratify particular needs can be called a festival or a special event. Held by an organiser and attended by guests, this special event is a one-time or occurs less frequently than normal routine activities. It gives the local and foreign people an occasion for leisure activities, social and cultural familiarity and experiences. These special events are categorized into major and minor events, hall-mark and mega events and festivals depending on their significance. There are several reasons how an ordinary event is differentiated from a special event. A special event must be of limited and fixed time duration, must be unique and must be planned and controlled properly under responsible organisers. It definitely should have a live audience present. These events have a great impact on the social capital of a community. Social capital is referred to the connection between social networks and their sets of norms, systems of mutual relations, or trust levels that individuals or groups may have among them. It is considered as a sociological concept used in variety of fields like business, economic and social sciences. For scholars, this term is with multiple definitions due to the broad range of outcomes it brings. It is used to describe superior managerial performance and improved performance of functionally varied groups. Today, event managers use innovative themes related to history and culture to organise festivals. This attracts people from all communities and helps become a part of the festivals. This enhances and encourages the culture and traditional image of the host community which provides long-term benefits to the country and its people as well by developing their local pride and identity. Events are managed because of the economic opportunities and social and cultural benefits. Special events have the potential to produce a vast amount of tourism activity especially when catering to out-of-region visitors, sponsorships and grants. The local government is also very keen on supporting these events as a strategy for economic development, cultural tourism and nation building. Fields like travel, hotel accommodation, restaurants, and shopping malls are the major benefit gainers. Cultural tourism is where travel is focussed in the direction of understanding the arts, heritage and special nature of a place. Any country’s culture is its identity or personality. One of the most stimulating and fastest budding forms of leisure, business, and tourism-related incidents are constituted by events. Festivals are very appealing to host communities, as they link tourism to commerce. They provide a chance for the local people to develop and share their traditional values and exchange information and travel experiences. Visitors interact with local public and they enjoy and meet their leisure, travel, communication needs. This helps in cultural and community development by building museums for relics and archaeological findings will regularly maintain and look after ancient sites and buildings. Tourist interest often rejuvenates the local residents. Occurrence of festivals provides a good source of foreign exchange as tourists will have to change their currency to that of local tender. Goods bought and facilities used will add to the growth of the economy. It will exploit and make use of the natural and inbuilt resources that already exist in the country for example, mountainous areas, and rainforests or sea shores. It will create a labour intensive industry for construction of facilities like hotels, resorts, museums, adding to the employment sector and enhancing domestic growth. Tourism will help develop backward and remote areas and bring modern amenities with power and communication facilities to villages and small towns. People of that place will help improve their standard of living. It will help stem mass rural to urban migration, improving the distribution of population of the country. It will give rise to related industries like construction works and material, event organisers, public relation, culinary arts, interior design and horticulture. It will add to the emergence of new subjects at educational institutions to improve their hospitality, sales, and marketing and design industries. These events also create a demand for local handicrafts and help traditional craftsmen who may lose out to machine made wares. Infrastructure also improves through building of airports, train stations and roads which brings affluence and modernity to the area, making it more accessible to both local and foreign visitors. Incomes and jobs are created in the local economy. We will now in particular examine the Edinburgh Festival conducted annually in the city of Edinburgh. This major festival has invigorated cultural tourism and cultural image of the English community. The city is world-renowned for its affluent history, culture and heritage and for hosting principal international events giving it outstanding tourism infrastructure. The Edinburgh Festival started in the late 1940s and since then has become a major destination for artistic and multi-cultural events in the month of August. A number of exciting activities are organised each year for six weeks including the largest Art’s festival, the Edinburgh International festival, jazz festival, film festival and Fringe festival. Festival Director Brian McMaster is reported to have said that the response is delightful, because of the excellent feedback they have been getting. It generates wealth and employment. 93% of local businesses see a boost in sales and 45% feel that it is not a good source of new business. It ofcourse enhances the local image and identity and there are almost 70% return visits. Edinburgh Festival is a successful event and remains competitive in the global market and maintains and improves its position. According to the Edinburgh Convention Bureau (ECB), it has been estimated that tourism gives £1.1 billion per year to Edinburgh and chains over 27,000 jobs. The festival attracts a large number of visitors every year from various countries like Scotland, UK and overseas. The Edinburgh Festival catches the attention of tourist from all over the world. Over the last few years, the cultural tourism there has increased in large numbers. Though there are certain drawbacks like insufficient number of direct flights. Weather is also not always an asset too. Event managers do not consider the social and environmental impact on the social fabric of a community. It is argued that harmony must be achieved between the needs of the visitor, destination and host community. A problem that might be faced is that the host community is the sudden influx of people that becomes difficult to cope with, for example, traffic congestion, crime rate and vandalism. As these events are seasonal people are only flocking at only particular times. Event organisers are not thoroughly busy throughout the year. The law and order and political situations affect tourists’ traffic. Local people may resent alien attitudes and influences, something that will not suit their culture and tradition. Nightclubs, casinos and bars may be encouraged with more people in the host community and local people may tend to be attracted towards it, which will not fare well with the local norms. Degradation of environment will also result from over and misuse of the natural resources of the area, for example spoiling beaches with litter. The scenic beauty is also spoiled as the area loses its specific identity. Once areas are open to outsiders, it will encourage many undesirable elements, for example poachers in wildlife, sanctuaries and drug addicts coming. Local values and practices will undergo unwelcome changes and create social problems within older and younger generations of families. Despite of all the drawbacks one can think of, I still believe that advantages are far more in developing the social fabric of the community where festivals and special events are organised by event managers. Undoubtedly, tourism festivals have key effects on the local economy directly and also indirectly. We have seen that the spending by visitors on local materials directly impacts the economy. Environmental degradation is of course quite limited depending on the country’s government and policies, though greater consideration should be given to the social impacts the festivals can have on a community. Nevertheless, only comprehensive study can help us to understand and decide the extent of special events and festivals on the social capital of a country and its local businesses and community in wider sense. References 1. British Tourist Authority (BTA) 2001 [Internet] Available from Accessed on [20/11/03] 2. Dwyer, L. et al (2000) A Framework for Assessing “Tangible” and “Intangible” Impacts of Events and Conventions Event Management Vol. 6 pp.175-189 3. English Heritage (2000) Tourism Facts 2001 Swindon: English Heritage. 4. English Tourism Board (1991) Tourism and the Environment: Maintaining the Balance English Tourist Board. 5. English Tourism Council (2001) Time for action: a strategy for sustainable tourism in England London: English Tourist Board [Internet] Available from Accessed on [02/12/03] 6. Edinburgh Convention Bureau (ECB) [Internet] Available from Accessed on [18/11/03] 7. Getz, D. (1991) Festivals, Special Events and Tourism New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold 8. Getz, D. (1997). Event Management and Event Tourism. New York, Cognizant Communications Corporation. 9. Glasson,J et al (1995) Towards Visitor Impact Management : Visitor Impacts, Carrying Capacity and Management Responses in Europe’s Historic Towns and Cities, Aldershot, Avebury. 10. Goldblatt, J. (2002) Special Events Best Practices in Modern Event Management 3rd Edition. New York: International Thompson Publishing Company 11. Garrison Keillor (1995) [Internet] Available from http://www.nasaaarts.org/artworks/ct_contents.shtml> Accessed on [02/12/03] 12. Hall, C. (1992) Hallmark Tourist Events: Impacts, Management and Planning Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd. 13. Hall, C. (1994) Tourism and Politics: Policy, Power and Place Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd 14. International Festival Audience Research (2002) ) [Internet] Available from http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/festivals.cfm?id=International > Accessed on [18/11/03] Read More