Festivals are one of the most diffused examples of living production in all the field of cultural and creative industries (CCIs), (Frey, 1994; Caves, 2000; Luonila, Johansson, 2016). Nonetheless, till the 90s “The study of temporary events such as festivals, markets, fairs and other ephemeral events is finally relatively limited”1 (Benghozi, Nénert, 1995: 66). In recent years, festivals attracted an increased attention also because of their remarkable increase in number (del Barrio et al., 2012; Vecco, Srakar, 2017; Baez-Montenegro, Devesa-Fernandez, 2017). Several studies are investigating various aspects related to the organization, management and success of these events (cf. among others, del Barrio et al., 2012; Snowball, 2013; Vestrum, 2014; Wong et al., 2015; Dantas, Colbert, 2016; Baez-Montenegro, Devesa-Fernandez, 2017).
Several reasons may explain the economic revival and local/regional interest about Festivals. According to Luonila and Johansson (2016: 53), festivals “promote celebration and a sense of community and produce experiences for a wide range of audiences”. The presence of a multitude of festivals around the world and with various cultural and creative focuses is well known: yet in 1994 Frey highlighted the rapid growth in number of classical music and opera festivals over the last decades. Frey (1986, 1994) was one of the first authors to deeply investigate the festivals phenomenon. He focused on music festivals through analyzing in particular the economics and main characteristics of the Salzburg festival.