Major Cultural Sporting Events and It's Benefits
Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks to the local community of staging a major cultural and/or sporting event.
This essay will evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of Glastonbury Festival to the local community. It will mainly focus on the economic impact on the local community of Glastonbury, Pilton and Mendip but will also examine the social impact of the festival. “Festivals may be recurrent events (at intervals of a year of more) such as Glastonbury or one-off affairs like the Armada celebrations of 1988. A festival may be over in a day, a weekend or last a fortnight or more. Most festivals include associated activities, even if they a predominately one art form in concept” (Waters, 1989, pp 57). Glastonbury Festival could be described as a multicultural festival, as defined by Wilson and Udall (1982, pp 4-6, cited in Hall, 1992, pp 26) who state that multicultural festivals are, “festivals representing the cultural materials of many cultures. With few exceptions, audiences tend to be people who are not of the cultures presented. Organisers tend to be academics or eclectic fans of the folk arts with the control of the events likely to be in the hands of a non-profit institution.” Glastonbury Festival donates the majority of their profits to charitable causes and attracts a diverse range of different people and cultures, from the folk fan to the raver.
Glastonbury Festival for Contemporary Performing Arts was started by the owner of Worthy Farm, Michael Eavis, in 1970 and has continued to grow each year since then, with the 2000 festival attracting in excess of 150,000 people (BBC, 2002). Glastonbury Festival is now one of the most well known festivals in the world “…this festival is now a multi-media, international event…” (Avon and Somerset Constabulary, 2002). Hall (1992) highlights some of the benefits to the local community of hosting a festival, he says “undoubtedly, festivals and programs of special events provide opportunities for
This essay will evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of Glastonbury Festival to the local community. It will mainly focus on the economic impact on the local community of Glastonbury, Pilton and Mendip but will also examine the social impact of the festival. “Festivals may be recurrent events (at intervals of a year of more) such as Glastonbury or one-off affairs like the Armada celebrations of 1988. A festival may be over in a day, a weekend or last a fortnight or more. Most festivals include associated activities, even if they a predominately one art form in concept” (Waters, 1989, pp 57). Glastonbury Festival could be described as a multicultural festival, as defined by Wilson and Udall (1982, pp 4-6, cited in Hall, 1992, pp 26) who state that multicultural festivals are, “festivals representing the cultural materials of many cultures. With few exceptions, audiences tend to be people who are not of the cultures presented. Organisers tend to be academics or eclectic fans of the folk arts with the control of the events likely to be in the hands of a non-profit institution.” Glastonbury Festival donates the majority of their profits to charitable causes and attracts a diverse range of different people and cultures, from the folk fan to the raver.
Glastonbury Festival for Contemporary Performing Arts was started by the owner of Worthy Farm, Michael Eavis, in 1970 and has continued to grow each year since then, with the 2000 festival attracting in excess of 150,000 people (BBC, 2002). Glastonbury Festival is now one of the most well known festivals in the world “…this festival is now a multi-media, international event…” (Avon and Somerset Constabulary, 2002). Hall (1992) highlights some of the benefits to the local community of hosting a festival, he says “undoubtedly, festivals and programs of special events provide opportunities for
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