Determining attendees' green attitude and behaviour at arts festivals

Abstract

The main goal of this study was to determine attendees’ green attitude and behaviour at arts festivals, namely Aardklop National Arts Festival and Innibos Lowveld National Arts Festival. Four objectives were formulated to achieve this goal. The first objective for this study was to conduct an in-depth literature study on the greening of events. The literature study investigated concepts and themes relating to the greening of events and green practices that can be implemented at events. The difference and link between the concepts of sustainability and greening were explored. Awareness of the environmental impacts of events as well as the associated benefits of limiting these impacts by means of green practices at these events were discussed. Specific green practices that can be implemented at events/festivals were identified and categorised into five broader categories, namely water management, waste management, energy management, greener transport options and green commitment practices. Possible green practices that can be implemented at home were also investigated and categorised with the intention to determine possible correlations between green behaviour at home and the willingness to support green practices at festivals. These four categories included water management, waste management, energy management and green commitment practices. The second objective was achieved by conducting surveys at Aardklop in Potchefstroom, North West and at Innibos in Mbombela, Mpumalanga. The purpose of the surveys was to determine if attendees would be inclined to support the implementation of green practices at arts festivals. A confirmatory factor analysis that was employed on two separate data sets (Aardklop = 443 and Innibos = 400) revealed five factors, namely Greener transport options, Water management, Waste management, Energy management and Green commitment. The analyses revealed that attendees at both festivals were inclined to support the implementation of only four of the five green practice factors. They were less inclined to support the use of greener transport options at these festivals. An independent sample t-test was conducted to determine possible significant differences between Aardklop and Innibos attendees. A statistically significant difference was revealed between the two festivals regarding the inclination to support the waste management factor. The third objective was achieved by determining the correlation between attendees’ actual green behaviour at home and their inclination to support green practices at arts festivals (on a combined data set of Aardklop and Innibos). Two confirmatory factor analyses were conducted – one on the combined data set of green behaviour at home, and the other on the combined data set of the inclinations to support green practices (green attitude) at the arts festivals. The four green factors for green behaviour at home and green attitude at the festivals were labelled as Water management, Waste management, Energy management and Green commitment practices. The independent sample t-test analysis revealed a difference between the implementation of green practices at home and the inclination to support the implementation of green practices at festivals. It was found that attendees were more inclined to support the implementation of green practices at festivals than the extent to which they were actually implementing green practices at their respective homes. Thus, words seemed to speak louder than actions. The fourth and final objective for this study was to draw conclusions regarding the greening of South African arts festivals and, on the basis of festival attendees’ green attitude and behaviour, make recommendations to arts festival organisers regarding the implementation of green practices that would be likely to be supported. This study made significant contributions to events and arts festival literature, and recommendations for the industry were made to better manage the greening of arts festivals. It was recommended that arts festival organisers make green practices more appealing, compensatory/rewarding and less time consuming to gain more support from attendees and encourage attendees to be green at home. In addition, it was recommended that further research should be conducted at other arts festivals or events focusing on greening aspects. Investigating attendees’ attitude and behaviour regarding the greening of arts festivals by means of green practices has set a platform for other festivals and events organisers to join the movement of hosting green festivals/events in order to make South African events more sustainable in future