There has been a remarkable rise in the number of urban arts festivals in recent decades. The outcomes of cities' engagement with arts festivals, however, remain little understood, particularly in social and cultural terms. This article reviews existing literature on urban festivals and argues that city authorities tend to disregard the social value of festivals and to construe them simply as vehicles of economic generation or as 'quick fix' solutions to city image problems. While such an approach renders certain benefits, it is ultimately quite limiting. If arts festivals are to achieve their undoubted potential in animating communities, celebrating diversity and improving quality of life, then they must be conceived of in a more holistic way by urban managers. Currently, the tasks of conceptualising the problems at issue and devising appropriate policies are hampered by the scarcity of empirical research conducted in the area.

This paper problematises the term ‘festival tourism’. It conceptualises festivals as socially sustaining devices and argues that while they frequently function as tourist attractions, their social significance extends far beyond tourism. Using empirical material gathered in two case study arts festivals in Ireland, the paper demonstrates how festivals can contribute to arts development by inter alia creating demand for the arts, enhancing venue infrastructures, encouraging local creativity and animating local involvement. The paper contends that arts festivals, irrespective of their initial objectives almost inevitably develop tourist profiles over time and it proceeds to examine how changing tourism priorities in the two festivals studied impact upon sustainable festival practices. The findings suggest that tourism emerged as a key force promoting festival growth and expansion. It was found to be associated with increased revenue flows but also with increased arts activity on a year-round basis and with an improved venue infrastructure in both places. However, problems were identified with respect to the quality of the relationship forged between the festivals and local populations in the respective places. The paper concludes by arguing that festivals’ engagement with tourism needs to be carefully managed in the interests of promoting the socially sustaining function of festivals and of encouraging sustainable approaches to tourism development.

Arts festivals, framed within an array of neo‐liberal, culture‐led urban regeneration strategies, are now a mainstay of urban tourism and urban policy‐making. As such, they face growing competitive pressures and competing agendas, and the need for a set of coherent goals and policy frameworks is vital. While a review of the literature clearly shows that arts festivals can deliver a series of benefits that separately meet cultural policy and urban tourism policy objectives, there is little to suggest that cities normatively engage in comprehensive, integrated policy‐making for urban arts festivals. With a particular focus on recent developments in Ireland, this paper critically reviews a range of literature to investigate how arts festivals further cultural policy and tourism policy objectives in urban contexts. It argues that current conceptualisations of arts festivals within urban policy frameworks are imbalanced. While the proliferation of arts festivals signals expansion for the sector, the ready transferability of arts festivals into tourist attractions and city image‐makers raises the prospect of a new dichotomy within a city’s supply of artistic offerings, with the visible and instantly appealing, being more likely to prosper through a variety of public funding, public–private ventures and private sponsorship arrangements, than other cultural organisations with less potential for spectacle. The paper concludes, by arguing, that common bases for collaboration need to be identified between the arts festivals and tourism sectors, and that these need to be conceptualised within the broader cultural and urban policy arenas in which arts festivals are now firmly implicated.

This paper investigates if and how cities conceive of festivals staged in outdoor public space as a means of achieving cultural inclusion policy objectives. The inclusion of culture in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) creates an imperative for cities to scrutinize their approaches to making their cities inclusive. Festivals offer potential in this regard and this study examines the ways that Barcelona, Dublin, Glasgow, Gothenburg and London incorporate festivals into cultural inclusion policies. It relies on secondary research to critically analyse a range of current policy documents, informed by Ball’s ideas about policy contexts: (a) of influence, (b) of policy text production, and (c) of practice. Findings confirm existing assessments of the festival landscape as being complex. They show that while the cities studied have a long history of strategizing about festivals, this has not yet led to dedicated policy attention. Overall, in line with work by Whitford, Phi and Dredge, a market-led approach to festivals dominates, although evidence of a policy rhetoric linking festivals to cultural inclusion is present. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that policy thinking about how festivals can achieve cultural inclusion is neither sufficiently comprehensible nor “joined up” across relevant policy domains.

In recent decades geographers have paid increasing attention to festivals. They have construed festivals as important practices through which people connect with their place and as authored landscapes designed to promote particular sets of values and attach specific meanings to place. Tourism influences the processes and dynamics ongoing in festival settings and this paper seeks to unravel some of the complex ways in which it influences the reproduction of cultural meanings there. It draws on research conducted on the Wexford Festival Opera in the Republic of Ireland and analyses the symbolism, practices and meanings found to be ­associated with the festival. It discusses how 'official' festival meanings sought to balance ­élitism with inclusivity, and international appeal with local support but identifies a contrasting set of 'unofficial' meanings being communicated through the attitudes and practices evident in the local population. Tourism's role was found to be critical in reproducing 'official' meanings and in sustaining myths encasing the festival.