Event Management, Vol. 20, pp. 11–25 1525-9951/16 $60.00 + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3727/152599516X14538326024919 Copyright © 2016 Cognizant, LLC. E-ISSN 1943-4308 www.cognizantcommunication.com 11 Address correspondence to Kyle M. Woosnam, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Natural Resources, Recreation, and Tourism, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, 180 East Green Street, Athens, GA 30602-2152, USA. Tel: (864)-653-0167; E-mail: woosnam@gmail.com community at large will be impacted—for better or worse. Such impacts are experienced in the context of large festivals such as Spoleta (Italy) just as they are in small festival contexts such as the Momence Gladiola Festival (Illinois, USA). Festivals offer a Introduction As long as festivals are in existence, hosting com- munities, local economies, cultures, festival attend- ees (whether area visitors or residents), and the EXPLAINING FESTIVAL IMPACTS ON A HOSTING COMMUNITY THROUGH MOTIVATIONS TO ATTEND KYLE M. WOOSNAM,* JINGXIAN JIANG,† CHRISTINE M. VAN WINKLE,‡ HYUN KIM,§ AND NAHO MARUYAMA¶ *Natural Resources, Recreation, and Tourism, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA †Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA ‡Kinesiology and Recreation Management, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada §Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA ¶Department of Regional Policy and Tourism Policy, Takasaki City University of Economics, Takasaki, Gunma, Japan Extant literature on social–cultural impacts of festivals traditionally takes into consideration perspec- tives of the host community while neglecting those of visitors, who often times comprise a high percent of total number of attendees at such expositions. Additionally, motivations of these visitors to attend festivals have rarely been considered in explaining perceived impacts among festival attendees. This study examined the underlying structures of motivations to attend the annual Morden Corn and Apple Festival, Manitoba, Canada among area residents and visitors as well as their perceived socio- cultural impacts of the festival on community through a newly developed festival-attending motiva- tion scale and modified Festival Social Impact Attitude Scale (FSIAS). Exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression results suggested that at least one motivation factor (i.e., social interaction and/or knowledge gain) significantly predicted three of the four modified FSIAS factors. Key words: Festival Social Impact Attitude Scale (FSIAS); Multiple regression; Exploratory factor analysis (EFA); Social–cultural impacts; Morden Corn and Apple Festival; Manitoba, Canada