ABSTRACT
There is growing interest among researchers in investigating the impacts of festivals on host communities. So far, most empirical and theoretical studies have analyzed the impacts of festivals, describing how such impacts are perceived among different socio-demographic groups, whereas sustainable approach to manage these impacts has been taken into consideration only to a limited extent. The aim of this chapter is to review festivals’ impacts. Furthermore, it constitutes novel research in that it adopts a more sustainable approach with long-term perspectives to manage these impacts, which is vital for the destination practitioners and festival managers. This chapter is divided into five sections. The first section includes a review of the relevant literature regarding festivals and their impacts which are grouped into economic, environmental, and socio-cultural categories. The chapter then undertakes a review of the existing literature on sustainable events and event management. This is followed by a discussion on how a sustainable festival can be organized. The fourth section explains how impacts of a festival can be managed according to eight criteria mentioned in the Sustainable Event Guide 2012. Lastly, some conclusions are drawn.
