ABSTRACT
According to Gilbert and Lizotte, ‘transience’ is the defining characteristic of a festival (1998: 3). This implies that the same sense of celebration, enthusiasm, and pleasure is not easy to maintain for a more frequent or regular event. It is a unique moment of time, a temporary occurrence that is recognized with ceremony and rituals (Goldplatt 1997). Main goals of festivals include sharing of common interests with each other, celebration of a popular art form, and celebration of local culture (Saayman and Saayman 2006). Festivals can thus bring multiple benefits to the host community, such as:
• Serving the role of image makers and being catalysts for further development; • Helping curtail negative impacts of mass visitation and facilitate better com-
munity-visitor relations; • Extending the tourist season or introducing a ‘new season sparkle’ into the
local environment; • Enhancing the community spirit and pride, facilitating cooperation and leader-
ship, enriching cultural traditions, helping control development, and improving social health and ecological quality;
• Enhancing destination images to mediate the decline process of a destination life-cycle stage and being more likely to provide destination image improvement benefits. Studies also indicate that places which host community events attract a higher visitor base (Mules and Faulkner 1996; Light 1996).
