The formation of attendee loyalty at cultural festivals. What role for knowledge and authenticity?

Scholars have only recently been focusing on the study of knowledge in the formation of loyalty in cultural festivals and much remains to be understood regarding this. The present study adopts a managerial standpoint and develops a knowledge-based model of attendee loyalty in cultural festivals in which the role of authenticity is also evaluated. It considers two knowledge-based constructs, prior knowledge and acquired knowledge, referring to the cultures and the traditions evoked during the festival, and intercepts their role with respect to loyalty also in conjunction with authenticity. Based on data collected from 306 attendees at a cultural festival organized annually in South Italy, a co-variance-based SEM was performed. Results highlight that prior and acquired knowledge positively influence loyalty. Perceived authenticity acts as a mediator in these relationships. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications for researchers and festival organizers.