Music festivals as promoters for socioeconomic development

: the case of Bons Sons Festival

Abstract

Originally, music festivals appeared with the purpose of celebrating regional culture by bringing communities together (Duffy, 2000). There was a shift, decades later, and commercial motives started prevailing over community orientation. Hence, bigger music festivals started to be hosted in bigger metropolis, due to their more adequate infrastructures. A growing stagnation of rural areas can also be seen since they are unable to stem the exodus from the interior to the coast. The rise of nostalgic tourism has brought, however, some hope to these regions. Music festivals started being considered as a possible strategy for rural revitalisation, not just for generating economic benefits but to regenerate communities. As such, in this context, several questions emerge: “Can music festivals revitalize and develop rural communities? If yes, how does it happen?” To give a thorough answer to these questions, this research focused on the case of BONS SONS music festival. Interviews with two locals and the artistic director of the festival were conducted, as a survey to local businesses of Tomar was applied, to identify which were the cultural, social, and economic benefits and costs. Two OLS regressions were also estimated to understand if an impact was seen on the business’s organisations, from staging this music festival. Hence, this research resorts to a strategy of data triangulation, since three different research methods were combined. Results seem to indicate that BONS SONS festival contributes positively to the local economy. Besides leveraging local businesses, especially in the accommodation and food service activities sector, it contributes to the implementation of other social projects throughout the year.

Date of Award	11 Oct 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Sandra Lima Coelho (Supervisor) & Carlos Eduardo Soares de Seixas (Co-Supervisor)