The impact a cultural or musical event has on the city's image

Abstract

Cultural and musical events have been increasing in the last two decades, in an attempt to either celebrate the spirit of a city or as a tool to promote the city's image itself. While there has been extensive research made on the economic impacts festivals had on the city, there is a need to further research how the hosting community perceives the socio-cultural impacts generated by a cultural or musical event and how this impacts the city's image. This is what this study will focus on.

For this research paper I decided to make a study case comparing two particular music festivals, namely the festival "Les Ardentes" in the city of Liège and the festival "Les Francofolies de Spa" in the city of Spa. With the intent of assessing the perception of positive and negative socio-cultural impacts, I conducted a survey among locals from both host communities (attendees and non-attendees). Also included in this research study are two in-depth semi-structured interviews, one with one of the co-founders of the festival Les Francofolies de Spa (Charles Gardier) and one with one of the co-founders of the festival Les Ardentes (Fabrice Lamproye).

This paper also includes recommendations for future festival organisers as well as recommendations for future academical researches that will be done in the same field of research.