Residents’ perceptions of the impacts of a major arts festival in South Africa

Arts festivals are a growing phenomenon in South Africa and there are various festivals to choose from. The aim of these festivals is to provide unique experiences to both tourists and visitors and they should therefore focus on the development and improvement of the festivals. The major arts festivals in South Africa are annual events and therefore the opinions and roles of residents in the festival are important. The community acts as the host and to sustain their support for the festival it is important to determine their perceptions of the impacts of these festivals. Ultimately, negative attitudes towards the event and the visitors can create problems and endanger the sustainability of the festival. The ideal situation is to maximise the positive impacts and minimise the negative impacts. Quantitative research was conducted by means of a survey, in September 2010 during the Aardklop National Arts Festival (Potchefstroom). A factor analysis was done to determine the underlying impacts of the Festival on the residents, and t-tests and ANOVAs were used to determine differences between various demographic variables and the impact statements. The factor analysis revealed five factors that were labelled Factor 1: Positive economic impacts; Factor 2: Negative community impacts; Factor 3: Positive community impacts; Factor 4: Community opportunities; and Factor 5: Tourism impacts. This research found very few significant differences between gender, qualification and occupation regarding the factors. However, significant differences were found between the factors and number of times attended and level of interest