Local festivals and their community building capacity

Abstract

Many small towns in the state of Indianan hold yearly festivals. This thesis asks the question, "Do small town festivals have the capacity to build community?" The answer to this question was sought by first looking at prior research and then devising an Index to determine the primary components to community. The index identified Networks, Communion, Collaboration, and Behavior as the four primary components of community. Field study and data collection were conducted by the means of surveying festival visitors at seven small town festivals in Indiana and also by observing the visitors, events, and booths of each festival. Through statistical analysis of the data, it was determined that small town festivals do have the capacity to build community in that they possess and encourage the four main components of community.