Laing, Frost. “How Green Was My Festival: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Staging Green Events.” International Journal of Hospitality Management, vol. 29, no. 2, 2010, pp. 261–267.
Summary
Climate change has contributed to the tourism patterns which has affected and is affecting the way that festivals are staged. People are now more interested in the preservation of the environment, therefore, green festivals are attended and supported more. many organizers of festivals tend to make their festivals green in order to get sponsored. Because these stakeholders invest in these festivals because of the benefits that they would reap, there tend to be conflict amongst the stakeholders. In order to avoid conflict between stakeholders, the organizers of the festivals need to keep in touch with them to know specifically what each and every one of the stakeholders require and make amendments to accommodate them. Festivals that aim to sustain the culture, believes and values of a society are more likely to be supported by these societies. This leads to the festival becoming a part of the society in the long run. Most of the event or festival planners advertise various waste management processes that makes their events green but fail to follow up and manage the waste products after the event or festival. Some stakeholders and sponsors invest in green events in order to get ne consumers for their products and do not really care for the environment. People who attend these festivals consider how green the festival is before buying their tickets. Many festival goers look at the food that is severed there before they consider going to the festival.
Critical Analysis
Many festival organizers around the world organize festivals to gain profit. Since people are becoming more concerned and protective when it comes to pollution and environmental degradation, these festival organizers have to make changes in order to get people to pay and attend their festivals. The demand for green platforms for these festivals have increased because of these concerns by people. Liang et al. (2010: 264) states that “Getz (1997) notes that some event organisers are actively seeking out these green venues, to be consistent with their underlying green platform, and this trend might require further research, to determine how widespread it is and explore the needs of the organisers in venue selection.” While getting a green platform for the festivals is very import ant for festivals that are advertised as green, it is essential for the location of the festival to be assessable to those who are attending the event.
Transportation then comes to play a key role in accommodating these green platforms. Festivals that are not located in areas that are accessible by public transport tend to be attended by people who own cars and other private transport modes like motorcycles. This in turn limits the number of people who will be attending the festival. Liang et al. (2010:263) studied that “Selecting a location or venue is an opportunity to consider issues such as access to transport, waste management and availability of green power. The availability and management of carbon offsets is another operational decision.” My collogues and I wanted to attend one Eid-UlFitrfestival but couldn’t due to transportation problems. It is always advisable to promote carpooling for event goers. This will help to limit the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere and also enhance the green concept of the festival. This shows that transportation to festivals are a major aspect when trying to get people to attend one’s festival. Organizers and sponsors tend to lose money when tickets are not sold, and their festivals are not attended as they expect. When this happens as a result of inaccessibility, sponsors are likely to withdraw their investments, and this leads to the festival being possibly brought to an end.
Another critical aspect of festival organization is the food that is to be served at the festival. Many festival goers look at the type of food that is served there before they even buy tickets to attend. Liang et al. (2010: 265) observed that “One might argue that not serving purely fair-trade coffee at a festival is at odds with a green theme and might suggest a lack of commitment to the green message on the part of the organisers.” Organisers of festivals who want people to return to their festivals need to take the food served seriously. This is because when people do not get appropriate food to eat, they tend to bad mouth the festival or event that they attended and even advise others out of going to those events or festival. This can hurt the festival as a whole and might even cause the organisers of festivals to lose sponsors which can lead to the closing down of the festival. This can also lead to the accumulation of debts for organizers of the festivals.
Review
Overall the authors did a great job in pointing out what constitutes a green festival. They also successfully indicated the things that can make a festival well attended or not attended at all. They also were successful at observing the methods that green festival organizers can use in advertising their festival. The authors pointed out some of the flaws in many green festivals that makes the green theme questioned by people. What I think was not successful in the paper was the title of the paper. The tittle is a little bit misleading in that when I read it at first, I thought the paper would be focusing on how green a particular festival was. Aside that, I think the authors were great at showing organizers who plan on organizing a green festival how to make the entire festival truly green.
References
Laing, Frost. “How Green Was My Festival: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Staging Green Events.” International Journal of Hospitality Management, vol. 29, no. 2, 2010, pp. 261–267