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The main research questions addressed by this study focus on Subjective Well-Being (SWB) and to what extent the individual's SWB relates to the individual's need for personal growth. Specific interest is devoted to the effects of intentions (to have personal goals) and behavior (to achieve personal goals).

Can SWB and happiness research help to explain the tremendous growth in demanding amateur sport event participation? Most research on SWB and events has, so far been undertaken on cultural events leaving a gap related to sport events, especially obstacle running events. Bestial is an obstacle race event held in Arucas on Canary Islands, Spain. Apart from competitiveness, the race also contains elements of altruism as many competitors do help each other at various obstacles along the route, in groups (mainly) teams. A sample of 700 participants answered questions about behavior, attitudes and SWB.

The results show significant relations between SWB and both intentions and behavior but also that intentions and behavior are not correlated.

The “Bestial” is different from an average running event in some respects. It is a rather local event for Gran Canaria without international participation. For some participants it is more challenging and enduring but for others it is a team sport where one helps other team members to complete the race. In this study, these two types of participation have not been separated. The test of whether the SWB of participants is higher than the SWB of the average citizen is not satisfactory. Data for the average of SWB in Spain had to depend on a study from another year and where standard deviation was not available.

The results of this work are useful for event managers to improve their design and develop the most appropriate marketing messages.

The study aims for an explanation to why demanding physical activities, such as obstacle races, are so popular. In this study of obstacle race participation, hedonia is regarded as less relevant and focus is on eudaimonia and an assumption that participants in an obstacle race have a high SWB since they can feel that they make progress towards goals. One intended contribution of this study is to distinguish between “to have a goal” and “to progress towards a goal”. Thus, the model proposed is based on hypotheses that SWB is influenced by both. Two types of goals are studied: first a mainly individualistic goal of becoming physically fit and second a more altruistic goal of “becoming a better person”.

In the conclusions, the importance for a happy life of simply having goals for personal growth and the value of anticipation for happiness is discussed.

This study aims to advance both theory and praxis for event portfolio management in cities and destinations. An experiment has been conducted with professional event practitioners in a city to determine their opinions and strategies for balancing value and risk within their event portfolio. The first objective is to rank 14 of the city's recurring events in terms of both value and risk. Second, the events are plotted in a two-dimensional chart of value versus risk with the objective to differentiate between the 14 events. The third objective is to describe the event characteristics that event professionals associate with value and risk.

Results derive from an experiment involving the forced Q-sort procedure and professional event managers from a city renowned as an “event capital”. Empirical evidence is analysed by the constant comparative method of how events are being evaluated by ten professionals working for a DMO.

Economic impact and image effects are characteristics of high-value events as is an opportunity to create relations with event owners for future collaboration. Local community involvement is important for all events. The issue of portfolio fit was a common argument for weak-value events.

Results are based on the opinions of ten DMO employees in one large city. Conclusions help build event portfolio theory.

The results and methods are useful for event strategists and evaluators. In particular, the management of event portfolios and policies covering events in cities and destinations can benefit from the documented method for explicitly balancing risks with perceived value.

A portfolio perspective is also suggested as an approach to analyse the total tourist attractions portfolio of a destination.

Opinions regarding public value and risk by civil servants who work with events have not been studied before. The constant comparative method produces results that can be applied to policies governing events. In terms of theory development, concepts from financial portfolio management, product portfolio management and risk management are used to develop event portfolio design and management, and insights are gained on trade-offs in the process. The plot of the events in a two-dimensional chart of value versus risk clearly differentiated the 14 events and is an original contribution.

The paper focusses on festivals taking place in coastal regions whose central element is seafood. The purpose is to analyse the role of seafood festivals as potential tourist attractions for local development. The decision to focus on coastal areas is based on a perceived knowledge gap regarding the interactions between different sectors of the sea economy.

Qualitative exploratory case studies of seafood festivals in Italy and Sweden have been performed using an analytical model. The participatory observation methodology contributed to a better understanding of the phenomenon.

The analysis shows the close relationship between seafood and tourism, and although it takes variable forms, food is a fundamental lever for maritime and coastal tourism and local development. Findings suggest that local food events can help strengthening gastronomic identities, despite there is a different articulation between tradition and marketing in the two countries.

Since this paper represents an exploratory study of five seafood festivals, research needs to be extended and replicated before any findings can be generalized. However, the model is flexible enough to be tested in different food events.

Food events represent a key instrument for the integration of territorial policies in which tourism and food products might be used as strategic instruments for the development of coastal areas.

This paper is a first attempt to analyse and compare seafood events, contributing to filling the gap in event literature referring to coastal areas. The model introduced can be used to determine the articulation of tradition-marketing in different food events.

This analysis relates to the strategic orientation of public, private and not‐for‐profit festivals and the adoption of stakeholder, financial, marketing and management strategies that enable them to achieve their organisational objectives. The paper aims to address these issues.

In order to test the effectiveness of this new strategic SWOT approach, data from the four‐country study of festivals were employed to investigate how a strategic approach can be adopted by festival managers in the public, private and not‐for‐profit sector. The strategic issues that confront all festivals, including, financial management and related issues of costs, revenue, sponsorship and support are the subject of analysis.

The findings indicate that among festival managers there are some interesting and significant differences between the three ownership types in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Private and non‐profit festivals are comparatively more strategic in responding to financial opportunities, threats and weaknesses and public festivals are more dependent on a single stakeholder and source of revenue. Other significant differences exist in terms of stakeholder management and sponsorship strategies, which can be explained with reference to resource dependency theory.

Strategic SWOT analysis can provide a more rigorous and structured approach to researching the multiple challenges that festival managers face and the strategies they adopt. This paper demonstrates that it has some utility in identifying strategies in response to financial, stakeholder and sponsorship imperatives.

Strategic SWOT analysis provides event and festival managers with a new tool for understanding the range of challenges and opportunities that they can address through adopting a more strategic response.

The field of festival and event management studies is largely devoid of any literature with reference to analysis of strategies that different festivals adopt in response to identified weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This paper provides new insights into the strategic management of public, private and not‐for‐profit festival organisations using an original approach and an extensive four‐country dataset.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a model explaining the value of event experiences.

Three versions of the explanatory model are tested by regression analysis of data from a survey of 650 visitors to a sports event.

The three model versions are significant and explain the value of event experiences with satisfactory R2 values (0.29, 0.46 and 0.68) using the concepts “Extent of visit”, “Experience intensity” and “Expenditure”. The measures of event experiences (Use-Value, Direct Use-Value as well as Indirect Use-Value) meet requirements for reliability and validity.

The paper reveals that explanatory models are basic but novel in a sports event context and provide a basis for further research. Furthermore, the definition of Indirect Use-Value has been clarified and adapted for higher relevance to destination managers focusing on event tourism.

The purpose of this study is first to describe and discuss an innovative strategy, pursued by a music festival, to reduce the environmental impact by allowing only vegetarian food in the festival area. A second aim is to discuss the effects of the vegetarian strategy for the festival in terms of branding and communication impacts. A third aim is to assess the effect on the ecological footprint of the festival from the vegetarian food strategy.

Festival visitors’ food consumption was surveyed in 2010 (719 responses) and again in 2012 when only vegetarian food was served on festival premises (663 responses). The EPA event calculator, developed in Australia, was used to calculate the ecological footprint of the festival. The implementation and the impacts were studied from the festival organisers’ perspective through two (one hour long) interviews with one of the festival managers.

For the festival brand, the vegetarian strategy proved to be extremely successful in terms of media attention and an enhanced “green” image of the festival. An analysis of the environmental impact of the vegetarian strategy indicates a remarkable drop of 40 per cent in the size of the ecological footprint.

Based on the results of this study, a vegetarian strategy can be recommended as an innovation for festivals that have core values and a brand image grounded both in sustainability and the reduction of environmental impacts and that are truly concerned about the environment.

Festival Footprint Analysis.

The paper seeks to examine the concepts, types and implications of festival innovation and failure.

A review of extant literature is undertaken and examples of innovation and failure in three festivals are used to demonstrate the simultaneity and co‐dependency of innovation and failure in the process of festival management.

It is apparent that many forms of program, market, service, organisational and financial innovation are available to festival managers. Many involve risk of failure due to the resource dependency theory postulated in the literature, as well as more pragmatic reasons including bad weather and managerial incompetence.

Festival managers responses to the dual challenges of embracing innovation and avoiding failure will determine the future of festivals, so it is vital that knowledge is developed.

There is limited literature on festival management innovation and failure and limited information available to festival managers regarding the nature of festivals that facilitate innovation or failure. This paper makes an original contribution to these important issues in festival management.

The interest for hosting the Olympic Games is now at its historical peak. Heads of states, culture elites, top athletes and professional marketers are engaged in selling their cities to the deciding International Olympic Committee. This host selection process has recently been in the focus of public interest due to the bribery allegations against the winner of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Salt Lake City.