An examination of festival attendees' behavior using SEM

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and clarify the relationships between perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intention in a small festival setting and applying a structural equation model (SEM). Design/methodology/approach – This paper utilizes survey research and is designed to measure perceived value, satisfaction, and intention to revisit a small festival using SEM to test the hypotheses that: attendees' satisfaction can be predicted by perceived value; intention to revisit can be predicted by perceived value; and intention to revisit can be predicted by satisfaction. Findings – Based on the sample of 424 participants, SEM confirms that all three hypotheses have a statistically significant relationship. Originality/value – The results are consistent with previous studies, however, this paper is limited to a single small festival and the results may not be transferrable to festivals in other locations, of different sizes, and longer durations of time. The results are valuable to festival managers to increase the propensity of participants' intention to revisit the event by examining factors that lead to increased satisfaction and perceived value.