Social Impacts of Light Festivals and Events

Light events and festivals can have an impact on their communities both through opportunities they provide for participation and skills development, through volunteering or temporary work opportunities, as well as environmental and political impacts.

Light events can mobilise a large number of people and create meaningful impacts on their lives in a number of ways. At the most basic level, they create an enjoyable and pleasurable experience for visitors and local residents. At an advanced level, such events can develop opportunities that positively change participants’ and others’ attitudes and long-term behaviour.

The LUCI research came across only a very limited number of studies or evaluations that captured such impacts through a structured approach to impact measurements, although several event organisers stated they had anecdotally observed such impacts. This guide attempts to build practical steps to facilitate the assessment of social impacts in a more systematic way.

The reason for measuring social impacts can often be linked directly to the aims and objectives of event organisers and sponsors. Thus, the starting point in delivering specific social impacts is for a light festival to have clearly stated aims and objectives that describe the delivery mechanisms by which the planned impacts will occur.

The toolkit will cover different elements of social impacts such as the effects on local skills and volunteering, as well as community particpation.

 

 

 

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