141 Event Management, Vol. 18, pp. 141–151 1525-9951/14 $60.00 + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3727/152599514X13947236947428 Copyright © 2014 Cognizant Comm. Corp. E-ISSN 1943-4308 www.cognizantcommunication.com Address correspondence to Kyle M. Woosnam, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, 2261 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-2261, USA. Tel: 979-845-9781; Fax: 979-845-0446; E-mail: woosnam@tamu.edu APPLYING AND EXPANDING THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF EMOTIONAL SOLIDARITY IN A FESTIVAL CONTEXT KYLE M. WOOSNAM,* KAYODE D. ALESHINLOYE,* CHRISTINE M. VAN WINKLE,† AND WEI QIAN* *Department of Recreation, Park & Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA †Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Festivals provide some of the best unscripted encounters between residents and visitors in a destina- tion. Within this article, the theoretical framework of emotional solidarity is applied and expanded in an effort to explain the complex relationship that exists between community residents of and festival visitors to Caldwell, Texas. Results confirm the factor structure of the emotional solidarity scale (ESS), exhibiting sound psychometric properties in the way of numerous reliability and validity mea- sures. Length of residence and number of years attending the festival were considered in explaining the variance in the three factors (i.e., welcoming nature, emotional closeness, and sympathetic under- standing) of the ESS. Three of the six regression models were significant. Implications, limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed. Key words: Emotional solidarity scale (ESS); Residents and festival visitors; Length of residence; Number of years attending festival festivals impacts the community on various levels. Arguably festival impacts research has been domi- nated by work focusing on the economic impacts of hosting events (Getz, 2005). Recently, prog- ress has been made in the realm of sociocultural impacts research (see Rollins & Delamere, 2007; Small, 2008). Festivals provide the platform on which resi- dents and tourists can interact with one another Introduction For many communities, hosting festivals is not only a means by which to stimulate the local econ- omy (Felsenstein & Fleischer, 2003), but also an opportunity to showcase and perpetuate culture (Crespi-Vallbona & Richards, 2007) and foster a sense of community among residents (Derrett, 2003a). However, having visitors in town during