The Exploration of Place Attachment and Future Behavioral Intention Through Festival Satisfaction of the Frontier Days Festival

Abstract

Each spring in North America, festival organizers plan and host festivals to showcase the communities. Festivals and events tend to be themed to display the unique quality of that community. Rural communities host festivals to display the culture of the community, hoping that people will visit. Since its opening day in 1962, the Frontier Days Festival is held in Lynchburg, Tennessee, which is home to Jack Daniel Distillery, the oldest registered distillery in the world, and is also known as a small quant town with southern charm and a love for family and community, however, the festival has been declining for the last 25 years. The decline has been in attendance, community enthusiasm, community support, and event activities. The purpose of this study is to explore how attending the Frontier Days Festival can influence the attendee’s feeling of place attachment of Lynchburg, Tennessee and festival satisfaction and their intention to return to the festival. This study investigates place attachment and festival satisfaction based on the attendees’ attachment to Lynchburg and the perception of the satisfaction of the festival and the overall influence of their intention of returning to the festival. The Place Attachment Satisfaction Intention (PASI) model tested data collected from the 55th Annual Frontier Days Festival in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Results show that place attachment and festival satisfaction were significantly are not correlated. Through the use of linear regression, festival satisfaction was found to be the better predictor for future behavioral intention, however, festival satisfaction or place attachment were not strongly related enough to affect future behavioral intention to attend the Frontier Days Festival.