Festivals are emerging worldwide as a growing and vibrant
sector of the tourism and leisure industries and are seen to have significant
economic, socio-cultural, and political impacts on the
destination area and host groups. While there are a number of scholars
working on developing valid models to determine the economic impact
of festivals on host communities, there are few studies published which
focus on the social, cultural, and/or political impacts of festivals and
events. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to determine the degree to
which festival attendance facilitates the augmentation of social capital
by drawing upon the literature from various disciplines in order to conceptualize
the synergy between festivals and social capital. To achieve
this, the paper will (1) examine the relevant literature on the key characteristics
of “festivals” as distinct from other events and (2) investigate
the current uses of the notion of “social capital” within the academic
debates in a variety of disciplinary contexts