The perceived contribution of South African Arts festivals to the performing arts: standardisation of the measurement scale

Abstract

The standardisation of a measurement scale to measure an arts festival‟s contribution to the performing arts is described. The measurement scale, namely the questionnaire, is based on literature, where the contributing factors, namely economic, emotional, educational, marketing, quality and growth and development contribution of an arts festival to the performing arts are determined based on the perception of the festival visitor. The scale proved to be a valid measure, as the exploratory factor analysis on the combined data of Innibos and Vryfees (n = 982) supported construct validity and criterion validity. Further validity was proven by a confirmatory factor analysis on the data of KKNK (n = 602). CFA fit indices also indicate that the model has a satisfactory fit with the data. The scale can also be regarded as a reliable measure based on the high Cronbach‟s alpha coefficients and inter-item correlation values of the factors. Details of the methodology are described and the subsequent use of the scale is advocated.