Social Impacts of the Way Out West Festival on the Residents of the City of Göteborg

Abstract

Festivals are one of the fastest growing tourism attractions today. Among the reasons for this are approach changes to urban management and economic production, the use of culture to restructure wealth and job creation, civic re-positioning, and tourism development by cities and governments. Consequently, there is a parallel increase in researchers’ interest toward evaluating the impacts that festivals have on communities. However, until very recently, researchers have been concentrated predominantly on measuring the economic impacts, whereas less attention has been given to socio-cultural and environmental issues. The main purpose of this study is to examine the Way Out West festival’s social consequences experienced by the residents of Göteborg from the point of view of the Social Exchange Theory adapted by Ap (1992). The study identifies the underlying dimensions of the social impacts and how certain socio-demographic characteristics of the residents relate to their perceptions of these impacts. The findings of the study contribute to deeper understanding of resident attitudes toward the social impacts of community festivals and can be utilized by the organizers to increase the social benefits generated by the festival and reduce its negative social impacts.