An investigation into the Edinburgh International Festival and the effects social impacts can have on residents.

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to identify the social impacts caused by the Edinburgh International Festival whilst exploring the effects these social impacts have on the residents as individuals and as a community. Social impacts caused by events is an area with substantial research however, there appears to be a lack of research on the Edinburgh International Festival and the social impacts on the residents. This research created an aim to fully understand and address social impacts through key objectives. This research took a quantitative approach to collect data, this was completed through online questionnaires, gaining eighty respondents through convenience sampling. Previous researchers often used a quantitative approach and questionnaires to collect data, thus this project followed and adapted the methods of previous authors to conduct this research. Four key themes were addressed, and a questionnaire was created on the basis of these themes, the themes were chosen through current literature and recurring social impacts of different event backgrounds. The key findings of this research showed residents agreed to an extent with findings from previous authors regarding community involvement, economic benefits and environmental factors however, it quickly became apparent respondents were unable to agree or disagree with the statements regarding the rise in crime levels, resulting in this social impact being inconclusive. This study demonstrated positive and negative social impacts effecting the residents of Edinburgh during the International Festival and whether they were impacted. The level of importance residents felt towards social impacts was clearly outlined with the majority referring to social impacts stated throughout the questionnaire to be of the most and least importance to them as individuals. The research findings enabled the gap in social impacts of the Edinburgh International Festival and the effect on residents to be investigated and addressed.