The Impact of Australia's Festival Industry on Regional Growth

The Australian festival industry significantly influences regional development by promoting economic growth, enhancing socio-cultural connections, and supporting environmental sustainability. Economic impacts are evident in increased government involvement and international tourism attraction due to positive perceptions of cultural attractions. Festivals like the Woodford Folk Festival and Peats Ridge Sustainable Arts and Music Festival lead in adopting sustainable practices such as waste reduction and renewable energy use. Socio-culturally, events foster community engagement, social networks, and cultural pride, particularly within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. These multifaceted contributions underscore the festival sector's proactive role in Australia's regional development.

Running head: EVENT AND DEVELOPMENT
EVENT AND DEVELOPMENT
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1EVENT AND DEVELOPMENT
The essay discusses the range of events that take palce in Australia annually and their
impact on Australian economy, culture as well as environment. The events are motivators of
tourism which contributes in the country’s inclusive development. The event industry in
Australia is affluent as well as dynamic and has gown suggestively in the last decades. The
government has also supported this industry as it is demonstrating capabilities of inclusive
growth. The main purpose of this assessment is to identify the events and critically analyse
the relationship between event industry and regional growth.
Australia is a land of festivals and events because it offers space for different culture
and ethnicity. It is a land of different aboriginal tribes who have different cultural and
community events. Some of these events are-
Big Day Out: it is an event that is arranged to welcome the new year. It is an annual
music festival that is held in the main five cities of Australia in summer of January and
February. The cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Gold Coast.
Sculpture by the Sea: it is an annual sculpture exhibition where hundreds of
international, regional and interstate artists participate annually. Billions of people across the
globe visit Australia during spring.
Melbourne Cup: it is Australia’s most prominent annual Thoroughbred horse race.
This event has a long tradition since 1861therefore, it is a popular spectator event attended by
110,000 national and international visitors.
Australian Day: it is a national festival of Australia. This celebration reflects diverse
society, as well as landscape of Australia that usually marked by community events.
Woodford Folk Festival: this festival is a cultural and music festival arranged in a
semi-rural town of Australia, Woodford. The festival features a broad range of nationalities,

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musical genres and performance style. It is an initiative underpinned by environmentalism
and dedicated to the arts and humanities of folklore.
Significant growth of event industry:
Over the last decade, events in Australian society has gained growing significant
attribute. The reasons are chiefly the government’s participation as well as needed support to
the events and rapid development and contribution to the tourism industry. These events have
proved to be beneficial to the economic development of the country.
The increasing awareness of optimistic economic effect of event industry has
contributed engagement and active participation of the Australian government. There has
been a strong relationship between the festivals and government in order to confirm best
opportunitto support the industry and economic growth (Morey et al. 2016). The government
has been thinking about the best available alternatives for proving appropriate situation as
well as priorities. Government policy priority is important to provide a transparent structure
to the governmental activities regarding investment for events.
Local and regional government policies and the events are actively interrelated with
each other. There are widespread and collaborative stakeholders’ entry (Glassett 2014).
Positive economic affect has always been the government’s priority. Before participation as
well as supporting the events the government judge the community and economic benefits.
Therefore, it provides all global and domestic services to sustain this event industry.
Tourism has always been a driving force to events and its rapid growth. Numerous
special festivals in Australia boosts the event industry as well as tourism value. The influence
and significance of event tourism grab a lot of international attraction (Atç, Unur and Gürsoy
2016). In regard to sports various sports events overlap with tourism and increase sport
involvement and it is widely expanding. The growth of tourism programs as well as policies,

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have also affected the regional development. Therefore, it is needed to design a supremely
targeted festival tourism on the basis of significant knowledge and market research. The
event industry is closely related to the radical growth in Australia.
Economic development:
The events celebrated in Australia has a great and far reaching improvement on its
economy. Economic impact is one of the chief reasons of organising events. These are
strategically planned to bring money in the economy, boost financial growth and displays
destinations to the underlying visitor (Mahadevan 2017). These events encompass a series of
associated industry and improve a strong brand. The events spread seasonality for the tourism
in Australian region as well as distribute the money into the respective region. It also creates
opportunity for full time employment.
Events industry has proved to be a resource financial development. For example, the
Food and Wine Festival in Melbourne has proved to be an economic success due to its great
impact on the regional economy. The rate of attendance of the tourists and general
employments at these events is increasing annually (Pappas 2016). Community, cultural and
business events are strong economic driving force in Australia. It has been encouraging
workers for increasing productivity as well as preferable outcomes. These permit for the
city’s enhanced economy as well as advanced benefit.
The Events industry has proved to increase tax receipts as well as creating jobs. The
revenue produced through sport events industry has been growing consistently (Phipps 2016).
chief sport events like AFL grand final and Sydney Yacht Race influence a lot on the regional
economy through direct expenditure of visitors associated to these events and Australia takes
complete advantage of such positive commercial effects of travel arising from chief sport
events.

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Social and cultural development:
The events are symbol of cooperation, synergy and teamwork. Planning and execution
of events especially those are cultural, social and religious need direct involvement of the
community. It yields a lot of cultural and social benefits (Papavasileiou et al. 2017).
According to cross sectional studies, involvement in social events offers optimistic
psychological influence like better sense of belonging and purpose of existence. The people
coming to attend different cultural events in Australia, boosts the region’s social engagement,
cultural pride, community knowledge (Wise 2013). On the other hand, they also get
influenced by the different cultural and artistic perspectives of Australian citizens.
Events and festivals that are organised in the Aboriginal and Torris Islanders tribal
communities provide the community members opportunities engagement in socialization and
establishing social networks. This involvement contributes to the encouragement of
community bonding and sodality as well as the social structure of the community.
Environmental development:
The Australian event organizers both in the private as well as public sector, are aware
of the environmental such as infrastructure, revitalisation and sustainable impact of the
events. The Woodford folk festival in Queensland and Peats Ridge Sustainable Arts and
Music Festival in new South Wales, record sustainability to the festival sector (Maussier
2017). They take initiatives like treating the sewerage and grey water, reduction of wastes to
landfills through processes like recycling, composting finally eliminating usage of non-
biodegradable products, usage of renewable fuels (Yolal et al. 2016). The festivals also
encourage use of public transports that proved to have positive effect on the culture,
environment and society.

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Therefore, it can be concluded that the event industry of Australia has close
connection with development. By appreciating the cultural attractions of the coutry they
contribute largely to the regional growth. The festival sector of Asutralia has developed to be
proactive in the areas of environmental sustainability, economic growth and socio-cultural
progession of the country. There are positive impact on the economy that has increased
government involbvement as well as attracted international tourists.

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Resident's Perceptions of the Mediterranean Games 2013 in Mersin. International Review of
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Mahadevan, R., 2017. Going beyond the economic impact of a regional folk festival for
tourism: A case study of Australia’s woodford festival. Tourism Economics, 23(4), pp.744-
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Maussier, B., 2017. The new ethical dimension of sports events: A reflection on the evolution
from the ancient Greek Olympic sports festival to postmodern sports events. Cultura, Ciencia
y Deporte, 12(34).
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present and future. Annals of Tourism Research, 64, pp.150-162.
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Phipps, P., 2016. Indigenous Festivals in Australia: Performing the
Postcolonial. Ethnos, 81(4), pp.683-696.

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Wise, N., 2013. Event tourism: concepts, international case studies, and research.
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and events on residents’ well-being. Annals of Tourism Research, 61, pp.1-18.