Motives of visitors attending festival events

The escape-seeking dichotomy and the push-pull factors conceptual frameworks were used to identify motives which stimulated visitors to go to events at a festival. These two frameworks were used to guide development of an instrument to measure motives. The sample participated in events that were classified into one of five categories. The extent to which the perceived relevance of motives changed across different types of events was assessed. Six motive domains emerged: cultural exploration, novelty/regression, recover equilibrium, known group socialization, external interaction/socialization, and gregariousness. These were broadly consistent with the guiding push factors framework and confirmed the utility of the escape-seeking dichotomy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.