Residents' perceptions of the social impacts of community festivals: a cluster analysis

This paper reports on the findings from a wider PhD study which examines residents' perceptions of the social impacts of community festivals. A survey of residents was undertaken in two communities, which each host a small community festival. Residents were clustered based on their demographic and behavioural characteristics, to identify distinct subgroups of the community who feel differently about a festival. This research examines the usefulness of demographic and behavioural segmentation of the host community rather than segmentation based on perceptions of impacts, where much previous research in the field has been conducted to date (Davis, Allen & Cosenza, 1988; Ryan & Montgomery, 1994; Madrigal, 1995; Fredline & Faulkner, 2000; Weaver & Lawton, 2001; Williams & Lawson, 2001)