Dear Colleagues,

The number of festivals and events organized around the world is increasing. Festivals and events have long played a significant role in the lives of local communities. Residents and outside visitors attend them to celebrate or commemorate important moments, important people, or local characteristics that mark their existence.  Festivals and events are also good opportunities for families and friends to get together, have fun, and keep traditions alive. Some festivals and events have also attracted numerous tourists and outside visitors. This attracts more publicity and contributes to tourism development. In time, the success of these festivals and events as tourism destinations translates into more jobs and overall economic development for the community. Eager to replicate this success, many local governments tend to encourage the organization of such festivals and events, which explains their growing number and scale. However, the organization of festivals and events can bring not only benefits but also negative impacts to the local communities. These effects can vary from event to event and from place to place according to the political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental contexts in which they take place. A festival or event that results in more negative than positive impacts will quickly lose the support of the local community and will become untenable. Thus, it is important that festival and event organizers adhere to the principles of sustainable development when planning and running a festival or event. A sustainable festival or event should minimize problems related, among others, to the sharing of available resources between residents and outside visitors, or to increased waste and pollution, and should maximize benefits to all key stakeholders. We would like to invite scholars and practitioners to contribute one or more articles to a Special Issue on the “Sustainability of Festivals and Events”.

Potential topics include but are not limited to:

Reviews of studies on sustainable festivals and events;

Theoretical and methodological issues concerning festivals and events;

The history and ongoing evolution of festivals and events;

New forms of events tourism in the context of sustainable development concepts;

Trends in the development of events tourism against the background of global trends in tourism;

The role of festivals and events in city promotion/city branding;

Motivations for participating in festivals and events—benefits, activities, and experiences sought;

Planning and delivering a sustainable festival/event;

The challenges of legacy planning;

Environmental impact of festivals and events;

Social and cultural impacts of festivals and events;

Economics of festivals and events;

Impact of festivals and events on residents’ quality of life;

The impact of politics on the sustainability of festivals and events;

Festival and event strategy making, implementation, and project methods;

Public policy and sustainable festivals and events;

Sustainable festivals and events and urban regeneration;

Community perception of festivals and events;

Employment and volunteering at festivals and events;

Risks and crisis management for sustainable festivals and events;

Issues of community identity at festivals and events;

Issues of authenticity at festivals and events;

The role of festivals and events in nurturing resilience in local communities;

Audience and participant experience at festivals and events;

Small festivals and events;

Mega events and landmark events;

Festivals and events as a response to tourism seasonality;

Tourists’ loyalty at recurring festivals and events;

Visitor segmentation at festivals and events.

Prof. Dr. Stefan Dezsi
Dr. Istvan-Oliver Egresi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• authenticity of festivals and events
• community and identity
• management of sustainable festivals and events
• impacts of festivals and events
• promotion of festivals and events
• small events and mega events