Profiling volunteers at a regional folk festival in Australia: who are they and do they value the festival differently from visitors?

The case study revealed that, on average, volunteers not only spent less than visitors at the festival but they are also not willing to pay more to keep the festival going. However, this lower nonmarket valuation of the festival by the volunteers does not reflect the fact that they appeared to have gained more satisfaction than visitors from attending the festival. But in terms of the regional festival generating social capital, pride, and community benefits, both volunteers and visitors shared similar views. More than 50% of the volunteers were under 30 years, which is twice the proportion of visitors in that age group. However, females were the dominant gender among both volunteers and visitors, and overall, volunteers traveled a longer distance than visitors to attend the regional festival