MOTIVATIONAL FACTORS OF LOCAL RESIDENTS TO ATTEND THE AARDKLOP NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

The city of Potchefstroom in South Africa hosts the annual Aardklop National Arts Festival. The first festival in 1998 attracted 25,000 visitors, increasing to 60,000 in its second year and to over 100,000 by 2001. This festival is one of 79 festivals held in South Africa annually. As visitors can attend other national and international festivals, the goals of the study included determining the motivational factors that push and pull the local residents of Potchefstroom to attend and participate in the festival, the festival activities they enjoy most, and also the situational inhibitors discouraging them from attending the festival. A nonrandom sampling method—quota sampling—was used for selecting local residents, using a map of Potchefstroom to identify all of its residential areas. Households were randomly selected. The quota sample contained an equal number of respondents from the high and lower socioeconomic areas, and equal numbers of men and women in three age groups (screening questions excluded those who did not fit the criteria). As little research has been done so far on the pull factors motivating local residents, the findings may assist festival organizers with strategies for marketing and communication, and in considering the needs of the host community that plays such a pivotal role in the sustainability of a festival.